Tag Archives: popcorn

Introducing Popcorn Maker

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(Cross-posted from the Mozilla blog)

Brett Gaylor launching Popcorn Maker at the Mozilla Festival this morning

Today at the Mozilla Festival, we’re extremely proud to launch the 1.0 version of Popcorn Maker, a free web app that makes video pop with interactivity, context and the magic of the web.

Popcorn Maker makes it easy to enhance, remix and share web video. Using Popcorn Maker’s simple drag and drop interface, you can add live content to any video — photos, maps, links, social media feeds and more. All right from your browser.

The result is a new way to tell stories on the web, with videos that are rich with context, full of links, and unique each time you watch them.

The Popcorn Maker story

“Until now, video on the web has been stuck inside a little black box,” says Mozilla’s Director of Popcorn, Brett Gaylor. “Popcorn Maker changes that, making video work like the rest of the web: hackable, linkable, remixable, and connected to the world around it.”

Last year Mozilla launched Popcorn.js, a Javascript library for developers that resulted in ground-breaking productions like the NFB’s One Millionth Tower, PBS and NPR’s 2012 election coverage, and more.

“But until now, the power of Popcorn has been available mostly just to developers,” Brett says. “Popcorn Maker puts that power in everyone’s hands, through an intuitive interface anyone can use. We’re really excited to see what the world will make with it.”

Developed as part of Mozilla’s Webmaker program, Popcorn Maker is a unique collaboration with filmmakers, developers, young media makers, and the Centre for Development of Open Technology at Seneca College, all working to design and build together.

Popcorn Maker is built entirely using open web elements, written in HTML, CSS and Javascript. “It’s essentially a web page that makes other web pages. We think it’s a great example of Mozilla’s larger vision for what web apps can be,” Brett says.

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TED Talk: Ryan Merkley demos Popcorn

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Cross-posted from the Mozilla blog
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Today, a powerful new Popcorn Maker demo makes its debut on TED.com, showcasing Popcorn’s potential to change the way the world tells stories on the web.

Mozilla Chief Operating Officer, Ryan Merkley, presented Popcorn Maker with a live demo at TED Global in Edinburgh on June 29. The online tool, developed as part of Mozilla’s Webmaker program, makes it easy for anyone to add live content to any video — photos, maps, social media feeds and more.

Video beyond the box

“Video arrived on the web in a small box, separated from the incredible data and content all around it,” says Merkley. “Popcorn changes all of that.”

“Videos created with Popcorn behave like the rest of the web — dynamic, full of links, completely remixable, and finally able to break beyond the box.”

Popcorn + TED Talks in action

Mozilla is also experimenting with TED Talks in other ways. Today the Popcorn team released this remix of a TED Talk from Dr. Beau Lotto, adding a clickable layer of information that anyone can add to, edit or remix.

“Working with content from TED was a great way to test the new Popcorn Maker app we’ve been working on over the past year,” says Brett Gaylor, Director of the Popcorn Project at Mozilla. “We used it to add add links, Wikipedia articles, images and maps directly to the video, weaving opportunities to learn more and go deeper right into the talk.”

“At TED, we’re excited by the potential of Popcorn Maker to create an ecosystem of deeper, richer information around TED Talks — from our editorial team, from speakers, and from you, our audience.” –TED.com

Launching Popcorn Maker 1.0 at the Mozilla Festival

In November, Mozilla will launch Popcorn Maker 1.0 at the Mozilla Festival in London, UK. In the mean time, we’re making this new beta version available for testing to coincide with today’s TED talk launch. While the team is still polishing the final release, this beta is fully functional and ready for anyone eager for a first look.

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About TED

TED is a nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading” from the technology, entertainment and design worlds. On TED.com, they make the best talks and performances available to the world, for free.

Open source in action

Popcorn Maker has been built by many Mozillians, including the contributor community for the Popcorn.js framework that powers the tool, talented team-members like Bobby Richter, Jon Buckley, Kate Hudson, Scott Downe and Ben Moskowitz, and Mozilla’s unique partnership with Toronto’s Seneca College. Popcorn Maker would be impossible without students Christopher de Cairos, Matthew Schranz and David Seifreid, led by instructor David Humphrey.

Make your own political campaign ad

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(cross-posted from the Mozilla blog)

Mozilla and PBS Newshour launch innovative new election video tool — starring YOU

[updated Oct 12 to include PBS Newshour video]

Today, Mozilla and PBS Newshour are proud to launch AdLibs, a unique new media mash-up tool centered on the 2012 U.S. election — featuring you in the starring role.

Make your own satirical “attack ad”

AdLibs makes it easy for anyone to make their own political campaign ads about themselves — from tongue-in-cheek attack ads to folksy biographical narratives.

The app is able to pull photos and quotes directly from your Facebook profile, then package them into the ad template of your choice. You can then share the finished commercial with friends, family and voting public. Try it out now.

Media literacy through making

“AdLibs helps you learn how political ads work by making one of your own,” said Mozilla’s Ben Moskowitz, who worked with PBS Newshour to produce the app. “It’s a great example of the power of remix and the web, and of Mozilla’s overall approach to learning and digital literacy.”

Learning web and media skills through making is at the heart of Mozilla’s new Webmaker program, a suite of tools that empower youth and everyday web users to make something amazing on the web — whether it’s their first interactive video, web page or mobile app.

From NPR’s “Pop-Up Politics”

Open sourcing election coverage

AdLibs was developed by Mozilla and Ocupop using Mozilla’s Popcorn.js as part of a broader partnership between Mozilla and public media. The goal: leverage open web technologies in the 2012 presidential election. Some recent highlights:

  • Using the Amara open source captioning and subtitling tool, PBS Newshour has built a volunteer community to translate over 200 election campaign videos into multiple languages.
  • NPR’s “Pop-Up Politics” annotates videos of candidates’ speeches with fact-checking, annotations and context
  • Al Jazeera’s interactive linked transcripts, built in partnership with Knight-Mozilla OpenNews, lets users traverse, analyze and share candidates’ position on the issues.

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Introducing the 2012 Mozilla Festival: making, freedom and the web

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Cross-posted from the Mozilla blog.

Join us for three days of inspired making, learning and celebration in London. Today we’re extremely proud to launch the new 2012 Mozilla Festival web site — and invite you to join us November 9-11 in London, UK.

“We want everyone to tap the full creative power of the web. The Mozilla Festival is a magnet for people interested in learning about — and playing with — the web’s future.” –Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla

Gathering educators, youth, coders, gamers, media-makers and you

This year’s Mozilla Festival will gather more than 800 passionate people with diverse backgrounds and skill-sets. The goal: push the frontiers of the open web, learn together, and make things that can change the world.

Coders, designers, journalists and educators will join with filmmakers, gamers, makers and youth from more than 40 different countries. Together they’ll participate in a series of design challenges, learning labs and fireside chats spread across four floors of the Ravensbourne design and media campus in East London.

Unlike traditional conferences, the emphasis at the Mozilla Festival is on hands-on making and collaboration — rather than passive consumption or listening to other people talk. It’s “more hack, less yack.” And a big tent for everyone — including partners, local communities and you — who shares Mozilla’s vision for a more open, web literate world.

“Technology is at the point where learners don’t just use the tools, but make the tools. This happens at places like the Mozilla Festival, where geeks and practitioners get together.” – Joi Ito, Mozilla Foundation Board Member, Director of MIT Media Lab

This year’s key themes:

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