VideoSift and Lawrence Anthony Earth Organization: Difference between pages

Revision as of 11:52, 9 December 2006

Revision as of 04:45, 18 July 2007

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[[Image:videosift.gif|right|thumb|The VideoSift logo]]

[[Image:TEO1.jpg|right|]]

'''Videosift''' is a "video voting community" founded by Brian Houston in February 2006, who was quickly joined by James Roe as a co-founder. Members submit embedded videos from other websites, such as [[YouTube]] and [[Google Video]], which are then ranked according to a social-voting system similar to and inspired by [[Digg]]. Also called the Sift for short, Videosift aims to provide it's users with the best available online video content.

'''The Earth Organization''' is an independent, international [[non-profit]], [[non-partisan]], conservation and environmental organization, with new solutions, committed to the creative, responsible rehabilitation of planet Earth and the plant and animal kingdoms.

The Earth Organization was founded in 2003 by veteran [[South African]] conservationist [[Lawrence Anthony]].

== Concept ==

The Earth Organization works in association with corporations and other environmental groups around the world in projects of mutual interest.

Members submit videos from a limited selection of approved hosts, these videos are then entered into a queue where other members may vote them up or down. If a video receives the requisite number of votes it is published to the front page and remains available in the site's archives, if it fails to achieve this it is discarded. In the queue the following conditions apply for each submitted video:

==Purpose==

*The video must fall within VideoSift Posting Guidelines.

The stated purpose of The Earth Organization is:

*If the video receives enough votes from members it gets published to the frontage.

*If the video receives more then 3 down votes, it is automatically discarded.

*If the video does not receive more then 3 votes in 24 hours, it is automatically discarded.

*If the video does not receive enough votes from members in a 4 day period, it is discarded.

#''To create a fundamental change in mankind’s awareness of, and relationship to, his environment and the plant and animal kingdoms, by example and education, thereby reversing the downward spiral of life on Earth.''

While in its infancy the site was loosely organized, the site founders allowed any user to submit videos, subject to an ever-changing limit, depending on the volume of traffic. With the exponential growth of the site's popularity over the course of 2006, upgrades were introduced leading to Videosift 2.0 and later iterations which forced new users to graduate through a "probationary period". This was meant to mitigate [[sockpuppet]] and [[astroturfing]] abuses that became more tempting for outsiders to engage in considering the site's increasing popularity.

#''To bridge the gap between mankind, industry, commerce and the environment through applicable environmentalism, workable tools, accurate data and a business and scientific approach to the field of the environment.''

#''To raise ethical standards within the conservation movement.''

The Earth Organization has a strong scientific orientation and a reputation for bold conservation initiatives, including the rescue of the [[Baghdad zoo]] during the coalition [[invasion of Iraq]] in April 2003, negotiations with the infamous Ugandan [[Lords Resistance Army]], to protect game rangers and raise awareness of endangered species, including the [[Northern White Rhinoceros]], and work with remote rural African communities to rebuild cultural and traditional ties to nature.

== Technology ==

Through the activities of its scientific advisory board, The Earth Organization forwards and supports environmental education, targeting different age and culture groups, with the intention of firmly entrenching environmental education as a part of the syllabus of educational institutions.

VideoSift is based on an open source content management system called [[Pligg]], which is in turn a port of software written by Ricardo Galli. His software received much of its inspiration from the popular technology site, [[Digg]].

The Earth Organization is registered as an independent non-profit organization in South Africa, with branches in the USA, France, Canada, Hungary and Slovakia.

== Curatorship through seniority ==

One of the unique aspects of the Videosift community is the fact that the volunteer members receive de facto administrator powers with long term commitment to the website. Some of these invocations or commands are listed below:

* *discard - Throw a video out because it's a duplicate or in violation of guidelines

* *promote - Republish an older video back to the front page. (Limit one per week, not your own submission)

* *blog - Send a video to the blog because there may be a problem with it (technical or guideline violation)

* *return - Return a video to the front or queue after it's been reviewed in the blog

* *siftoff - Send a self-link to the SiftOff

* *save - Push an expiring/expired video up to the top of the queue for one more chance to escape. (Limit one per week, not your own submission)

* *nsfw - Flag a video as being not suitable for work

* *nochannel - Remove a video from all channels (not your own submission)

* *[channel name] - Add a video to the specified channel (not your own submission)

* *dead - Flag a video as being dead

* *undead - Remove the dead flag from a video (also for non-gold stars)

* *ban - Nominate and second a member banination (only for non-starred member posts)

This system works through recording how many videos a user has had published to the frontpage:

*0 Published Videos - Member is in Probationary Status, only one video can be submitted.

*1 Published Videos - Member is off Probationary period, 4 videos can be submitted.

*5 Published Videos - Bronze Level Member.

*10 Published Videos - Silver Level Member.

*50 Published Videos - Gold Level Member. All administrative invocations can be made.

*100 Published Videos - Gold 100 Level Member.

*250 Published Videos - Diamond 250 Level Member.

== Accepted Video Embeds ==

Videosift currently accepts Flash videos embeds from the following websites:

[[Youtube]][http://www.youtube.com/]

[[Break.com]][http://www.break.com/]

[[Revver]][http://www.revver.com/]

[[Vimeo]][http://www..com/]

[[MetaCafe]][http://www.vimeo.com/]

[[Google Video]][http://video.metacafe.com/]

[[iFilm]][http://www.ifilm.com/]

== International Sifts ==

In response to user interest and the availability of volunteers, [http://www.videosift.pl VideoSift Poland] and [http://www.videosiftlatina.com/ VideoSift Latina] were also set-up in 2006. The sites cross-link to each other, sharing videos that have cross-cultural appeal while maintaining separate identities and user groups in relation to each other.

== Video Organization ==

Videos are published to the front page as soon as they receive the required amount of votes. Going chronologically from the first video that was published. Videos can be further filtered out by the user according to most votes in a year, month, week, 24 hours and all time.

With the launch of VideoSift 2.2 five 'channels' were added to filter out the videos by their respective categories. Currently these are: [http://comedy.videosift.com/ Comedy], [http://cute.videosift.com/ Cute], [http://geek.videosift.com/ Geek], [http://music.videosift.com/ Music] and [http://politics.videosift.com/ Politics].

==External links==

*[http://www.earthorganization.org Official Website]

*[http://www.earthorganization.org/WhoWeAre.aspx?CatID=1 The Earth Organization Scientific Advisory Board]

*[http://www.lawrenceanthony.co.za Founder of The Earth Organization]

[[category:animal charities]]

*[http://www.videosift.com/ VideoSift website]

[[category:Environmental organizations based in South Africa]]

*[http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=14127 Sifttalk post on VideoSift 2.2]

*[http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB115638504717344132.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj The Wall Street Journal article about VideoSift]

*[http://stream.onet.pl/media.wsx?/onetlink/200607/ed13b6ee87.wmv Polish TV News on VidoSift]

*[http://www.videosift.com/people.php VideoSift Contributors]

[[Category:Entertainment websites]]

[[Category:Video on demand services]]

[[Category:Web 2.0]]