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Big four unite for greater good
- 10 Oct 07, 02:27 PM
In a remarkable demonstration of unity, Google, Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft have set aside their competitive instincts to advance the cause of video captioning on the web.
All four companies have been trying to work out the best way of captioning – or subtitling to you and me – video for delivery on the web for hearing impaired users. AOL is the latest to have launched a trial.
Now the companies have decided it is better to work together, along with (NCAM), research specialists in the field of media technology for people with disabilities, in order to set up the Internet Captioning Forum (ICF).
The major issues that currently limit subtitled material on the web include the various different formats that films can be delivered in, editing subtitles on programs originally broadcast on TV and perhaps most fundamentally, a lack of clear guidelines for producing subtitled video for the web. The ICF will work to providing answers to all these problems.
Creating standards, producing best practice guidelines and even creating tools that might make it easier to produce subtitled video can only be a good thing, and should lead to a massive increase in accessible content on the web.
If all of that sounds a bit dry and technical, then one of the more tangible outcomes of the project should be anything but that. The ICF plan to create a database of previously subtitled programs, so that there will be one central place to go for subtitled content.
In an unusual step, I’m setting aside my natural cynicism and embracing this as the good news that it is. When you have a situation where Google, Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft are all working together, then the possibilities could be almost endless. Could it be that ultimately subtitling video will become so easy, that almost all videos on YouTube will have them? This could be an opportunity to radically transform the online video landscape for the better.
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