Converge
How to publish your video with V2V
by Adnan Hadzi
By registering to the [http://www.v2v.cc V2V site] one can contribute multimedia content. All the video content is encoded with the [http://www.theora.org/ oggtheora] codec. For encoding own material which is not saved in the oggtheora codec you can use an encoder like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEncoder mencoder] or [http://www.v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/ ffmpeg2theora]. Encoding is the process by which your content (the object) is converted into data, which can then be sent to a receiver (observer) such as a data processing system, and decoded again when it is played back.
V2V distributes multimedia content over the a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_Torrent BitTorrent] peer-to-peer network. As soon as a new film is available the exact address for downloading is being published.
Background to the V2V initiative
In 1997, during the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documenta Documenta X] exhibition in Kassel, Germany, the "Kein Mensch ist illegal" ("Nobody is illegal") campaign had an infodesk at the Hybrid WorkSpace. Basically it came out of a network of local groups who were dedicated to help immigrants and asylum seekers, much like the earlier "Sans Papiers" campaign in France. The idea for a German and Polish border festival - an autonomous zone where artists and activists could show their concerns towards the treatment of immigrants - was born. The camp was realized in 1998. The webpage http://www.kein.org was initiated, followed by http://www.kein.tv as video outlet establishing http://www.V2V.cc as video hosting.
In 2000 several camps had been organized along the borders that separate the European Union with the former Soviet bloc and "Kein Mensch ist illegal" took place for the first time at the borders of the United States of America in the city of Tijuana, Mexico, under the title "Borderhack!".
"On one side the Malls are filled with happiness, and on the other, the wrong side, we are forever condemned to produce goods that we will never enjoy ourselves. That is, unless we are lucky enough to come by a green card. This is the border. Our border. A place where we earn pesos and consume in dollars. Where we almost live in the US. Where we can smell the future coming from the freeways, from Silicon Valley, from Hollywood, but yet we are trapped in a muddy hill with unpaved streets. To reach the freeway we need a car, something that we could never afford. The only way for us to cross the border is on foot, without a penny in our pockets. We resign ourselves to earn a minimum wage throughout our lifetimes, to looking through store windows as if they were postcards from Europe (it could be Jupiter or earth, for us it is the same), knowing that we could only reach the other side in our dreams. We are the good neighbors of the US, always here, always smiling, ready to serve the next margarita" (Borderhack 2000).
Excerpts from the V2V manifesto 2003
To whom it may belong
Therefore we pose the question of intellectual property: To whom belongs an image? To the one who is mapped, to the one who produced it? Or to the one who makes copies from it? Or does it belong to everybody? We know that there is no final solution to these questions. But we have learned: New films are based on new freedoms.
Re-placing the images
We believe in images with open sources: Reassessing the cinematic heritage of other generations, broadcasting the general intellect, empowering collective story-telling, changing the views, fast sharing of content, skills and resources, enabling multiple connections between creative nodes and networks. Virtual images that everyone can edit, change, forward, rewind and PLAY.