Paper presented at CIDOC 2007

Accessibility over Security?
Or Security over Accessibility?
-Experimenting with VOD-casting in Museums and Classroom Situation-
Junko IWABUCHI/Professor
Research Institute for Digital Media and Content, Keio University
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An Example (1968) from "Momoya TVCM Collection" on Line in a collaborative project with Kawasaki City Museum
*Video web-cast platform "VOLUMEONE" was developed by DMC Institute, Keio University, Tokyo
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Abstract

A flash based video content distribution platform, the VOLUMEONE, was developed by a team led by Prof. Junko IWABUCHI of the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, in May, 2006. This was the first version now called VOLUMEZERO using an open source software, FFMPEG, as a core program and it has a visual presentation of multi channels that are assigned to different contributors. Later in the same year in October, the revised version featuring sorting by categories and search tags, one click pod-casting and ratings by audience was released as the new VOLUMEONE. This is the team's current system also using FFMPEG and they have been testing it in collaboration with various not-for-profit organizations including museums in last 8 months or so.

The VOLUMEONE is not so different from “YouTube” technically, but it is not open to the mass audience for uploading their own materials. Since the platform was basically designed to distribute in-house-produced educational materials by not-for-profit organizations, the content is always monitored and uploaded by the staff at DMC Institute. It provides more security, controlled and clean looking environment and currently operated like a membership club of not-for-profit organizations and individuals working for public cause who are approved by DMC Institute/Keio University as research partners.

In this paper, the author intends to share the information on the team's unique experience after 1 year of operation of VOLUMEONE and offer a discussion among museum professionals to think where this kind of experiment leads us to.

After the Release, the Story began

When the first version VOLUMEONE, the current VOLUMEZERO, was released in May 2006, it was widely written up by Japanese media as it was practically the first of its kind of a major scale in Japan at that time. Everybody compared VOLUMEONE to YouTube and asked the team what they thought about the future of YouTube and how they intend to protect copyright of the content once it's on the VOLUMEONE. They had to repeat themselves many times that even though VOLUMEONE might look similar to YouTube by what it does, it is not a user generated video distribution scheme like YouTube. On the contrary, VOLUMEONE is administered more or less on a broadcast model and each content is provided by an expert and screened by the system administrator at DMC Institute, Keio University. All of the video materials are given directly to the administrative team from the author and each content is proven to be original including music. With this kind of strict code of operation, the team soon discovered that it takes a very long time to accumulate video content on the platform. It may become discouraging for your collaborators to observe your strict rules at all times, but it was their decision and they chose to work only with people who agreed to these terms. They spent hours talking to the content holders before actually receiving the video materials. This process was especially important as the DMC Institute is not a museum and it could act only as an intermediary when obtaining the video content.

The First Challenge: Tokyo FILMeX

During the summer of 2006, the team was busy making new additions to the existing system and by the beginning of September, the new VOLUMEONE with Pod-casting capability was almost ready to go. It was then, Tokyo FILMeX, a highly regarded international festival of independent films run by not-for-profit organization with focus on Asia, was looking for means to deliver promotional trailers of films and some short clips of director's interviews from previous year on line. After a couple of weeks of discussion, DMC Institute agreed to become an official video hosting sponsor for Tokyo FILMeX 2006 and set the date for release of the new version VOLUMEONE on October 23, coinciding with the press release of the final screening schedule for FILMeX in November. The VOLUMEONE hosted about 50 video clips during the film festival and this collaboration caught a lot of attention both from the media and cinema fans. These clips are still on view under "Promotional" category, or can be searched by entering "Tokyo FILMeX" on VOLUMEONE. Two parties agreed to collaborate once again this year.

Comments from the past jurors and guests of the Tokyo FILMeX
*When you click on to "Go to VOLUMEONE" link on the upper right corner of the frame, it will jump to
the original location of video where you can read the descriptions on this particular content.

This experience turned out to be quite successful since Art of Film was natural as a content for VOLUMEONE and the members of staff at Tokyo FILMeX filming director's interviews were quasi-professional (graduate students studying film making...) The only concern for the VOLUMEONE team was the strain on their server by a surge of access when a popular actor, or actress comes up in a certain video, but luckily, no such accidents occurred during the whole event.

Then, the Time for Real Challenge Began

After the film festival, Prof.Iwabuchi and her team invited Ms.Kanako Hayashi, the director, and Mr.Shozo Ichiyama, the program director of Tokyo FILMeX in a small professional meeting to discuss the merits, demerits and future possibility in the use of VOLUMEONE. Their opinion, including the analysis on the response from the audience, over all was a positive one. So the team decided to extend a call for participation to other art organizations to experiment with VOLUMEONE. They had wished to work with small museums in the vicinity in a hope to create audio guide and educational programs using VOLUMEONE.

In fact, prior to Tokyo FILMeX, Kawasaki City Museum and DMC Institute came to an agreement for conducting a collaborative research as this museum is well known to have the 2nd largest collection of films and video in the country. Both parties started looking for appropriate materials for digitization and the subject they chose is the TVCM series of a leading food company, Momoya Co.,Ltd. The collection of 218 TVCMs since 1958 has been donated to the museum directly from the company at the time of inauguration and the museum was given the right to use them for education and research in any forms. With the support of Momoya Co., Ltd., Kawasaki City Museum and DMC Institute digitized all 218 TVCMs in appropriate data format so that these video clips can be uploaded to VOLUMEONE and approximately 150 pieces that had no conflict in copyright were chosen to be shown on line. This process took them nearly 6 months, but finally, 2 parties are discussing to figure out the ways to utilize these valuable data together with art critic, sociologist and historians. One definite merit about video sharing is that you can invite scholars and artists who live far away to join the discussion on line. They will eventually have an on line exhibition of Momoya TVCMs in historical context and also plan to have a conference and school programs on site next year as a result of this collaboration.

The Launch of Museum Communication Channel Project

While the team was working with Kawasaki City Museum, they were seeking more participants among museums so that they can fulfill their original intention of creating audio guide and educational programs to be delivered on VOLUMEONE. The team felt an urgent necessity for making effort in outreach activities. So they launched a new sub-project titled "Museum Communication Channel Project" in April this year. In this framework, the team makes visits to small museums and schools to let them know about VOLUMEONE and give workshops to demonstrate what they can do with it when it is combined with widely available technologies such as Blog. The team has also created several explanatory and demonstration web sites. They also made an audio guide in a "presentation in person" style as an example with a support from Oriental art expert, Mr.Uragami.

The audio was substituted in English for this presentation

Through this kind of effort and activities, VOLUMEONE now has a new partner, Tokyo Wonder Site, which is an art space for young contemporary artists subsidized by Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Their archives of past exhibitions and artists' interviews in video will be available for viewing online pretty soon.

Few other Projects involving VOLUMEONE

Prof.Iwabuchi's team has been also approached by a group of people in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, who actively support local festivals of ethnic origin. This is probably a fine example of using video to preserve intangible cultural heritage to be shown and shared on the Web.

An example of capturing intangible local heritage

Another experiment that the team anticipates in this fall is to deliver museum content to kids in a hospital. This is also Prof.Iwabuchi's original intention in the use of VOLUMEONE, but not until now, they were able to find a proper hospital that is willing to collaborate on this type of experiment. With a full support of an understanding psychiatrist and physiologist, Prof.Ikuo Homma and his staff at Showa University Hospital and its Medical School, the team is finally planning to conduct experiments using museum content for K to 12 students in a classroom in the hospital. Children will participate in the experiments by permission of physicians and in accordance with their parents. They will be closely monitored by physicians, nurses and psychoanalysts as well throughout the experiments that will last for about 1 week.

Conclusion for Now and Few Tips

It's been about 10 months since the introduction of the current version VOLUMEONE. It has been a slow moving process of accumulating good content on the platform. After 10 months of experience, the team learned that this whole thing is more about having appropriate equipments for filming and editing than having a perfect platform for sharing video files.

Regarding the security of VOLUMEONE, there isn't very much to worry about vandalism on the platform itself, but if one chooses to allow the users to download the content to PC and iPod, one has to trust these people that they would also observe the copyright and the idea of fair use. It is easy to disable the pod-casting and "embed this video" function, but since the original intention of developing VOLUMEONE was to help small art organizations to make a maximum use of their video content on the web by making the platform as accessible as it's possible, the team keeps the setting of VOLUMEONE as is and hopes both museums and the audience would use it wisely.

The team has been suggesting small art organizations to create their web sites based on free blog services such as Blogger in order to incorporate video files. With a service offered by Blogger, for example, the subscriber could choose the site to be shared only by registered members. This may be a convenient feature when discussing the ideas for forthcoming exhibition, or event only among staff members. Video files can be kept on view at the VOLUMEONE with minimum information for general public in this setting, separate from the members-only blog site.

DMC Institute/Keio University continues to welcome any inquiries and interest regarding VOLUMEONE for possible collaboration. Please feel free to contact any time during the conference, or by E-mail later on.

Acknowledgments

For the development of VOLUMEZERO and VOLUMEONE, many people have contributed their talents and valuable time. I would like to express my special thanks to my colleagues Kim Junghoon, Hideki Ogino, Kentaro Hirano, Sasaki Nagi, Keiko Kinuta, Masaru Ando, Miho Ishii, Andreas Bovens, Junko Sawada, Yutaka Ohga, Maki Yamamura, and artists who willingly provided their materials for experimentation.

Development of the VOLUMEZERO (introduced as VOLUMEONE at the time of its release on May 10, 2006) was made possible by the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology. The Research Institute for Digital Media and Content, Keio University, has been established as a part of the Encouraging Development of Strategic Research Centers Program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

References

Iwabuchi, J., Taking a Museum Experience to Your Real World: Exploring a New Usage of Museum audio/visual Guides in Children's Hospital, Retirement Homes and More, CIDOC 2006 paper at http://museum.dmc.keio.ac.jp/en/CIDOC2006/

Iwabuchi, J., Taking a Museum Experience to Your Real World with VOLUMEONE: Introducing a Museum and User Friendly Video Distribution Platform on the Web. In J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web 2007: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 31, 2007 at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/iwabuchi/iwabuchi.html

Iwabuchi, J., Challenge and Possibilities: Introducing a Museum and User Friendly Video Distribution Platform "VOLUMEONE." Proceedings published in May for CITOT 2007

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