HTML5 & Ogg video

Last year Ms. Kate mentioned we'd have to display our practical coursework on a custom website, and that the deisgn of the website could form part of the coursework. As before I'm still enthusiastic about open standards and I've tried a few experiments in implementing them. If the IT department doesn't allow us hosting it might be quite difficult, that's something we can come to later.
Put simply HTML5 video replaces flash video, except there's no plugin. It works much the same way as an img tag, you link to the file, then the browser renders it.

Now if you want to go one step further you cold encode your video in the Theora codec and put it in an ogg or matroska video container. There are various practical advantages to this which rest on ideological reasons.

Firstly H.264 video compression (which is used by most video codecs, except for Theora & some others) is owned by MPEG Los Angeles, they have a patent for it. H.264 is proprietary software and not under collective ownership (-1 for digital communism!). Normally this wouldn't bother anyone, but one day the MPEG group might actually start enforcing their patent and charging people to use it, it's valid up to 2028 so we never know what might happen.
On the opposite side Theora is an open format and not encumbered by patents.

Flash video relies on a plugin, which like H.264 leaves you at the mercy of an outside company (Adobe). Furthermore flash doesn't work well on handheld devices such as mobile phones, if internet video wants to join the portable trend it'll have to leave Flash behind.

/ideology

incidentally yesterday I saw someone from IndyMedia at an anti-cuts meeting, I got his card and might cover events for IndyMedia in future.