LDS Open Media Project

So you have the BIG idea that the Church or community needs to develop. Discuss that idea here. Maybe you just want to make a suggestion on a new forum topic. Let us know.
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srweight
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LDS Open Media Project

#1

Post by srweight »

While wondering what to do with the 13 year olds between the end of “Presidents of the Church” and starting “The Book of Mormon” in Jan of ’08 - which left me 4 lessons short - I decided that I could do some PowerPoint presentations on the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, The Three Witnesses, The Twelve Witnesses, The Title Page, “From Cumorah’s Hill”. I have a laptop and some small speakers which seems to be very common - many buildings in the stake have projectors. I’m all set except having enough of the images to go with the text. So I thought that it would be really nice to have a site that I could go to and get images and sound.

LDS Open Media Project

Concept & Purpose: establish a site for uploading and downloading media (like PowerPoint presentation, wav, MP3, jpeg, DV) related to Church History, lesson manuals, and Family Home evening ideas that will support home and church non-commercial users in creating slide presentations, DVDs, audio CDs and other productions.

Some concerns related to the site would include:
  • Copyright, permissions to use, ownership
  • submission guidelines, i.e., no living persons in photos or movies, appropriate content, size restrictions
  • Submit Form - designed to include things like; ownership waver, name of location, date of picture or audio file, indexing subject(s), Google Earth link, lesson manual and lesson number
  • Format - PowerPoint, presentation, Audio, DV etc.
  • Review process before posting uploads to download site
  • Attachment of “permission to use” guidelines and limitations
  • General statements about the type and number of images on the site example; on ten images for each topic under church history will be saved to site.

Download Pages linked to Downloadable Images Index much like http://scriptures.lds.org/chphotos/contents but with 10 or 20 images of the best images per item not just one. This would help when doing a slide presentation or DVD with a sound file that needs more than 10 images or more to complete the sound file rather than having 1 image or several shots of the same exact image just zoomed in on.

I am sure that there are historical photos and audio files that could be included.

It would be very nice to have a “Related Sites” link on it that would include all church sites with images and audio files, church related sites like BYU, organizations supportive of the Church.

It would also be nice to request images and receive email notification when, where, if they became available.
PhillipsCJ
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LDS Open Resources

#2

Post by PhillipsCJ »

I think that this is a great idea, and very needed. While there are a number of places to find Church-related images online, there is little direction on how those images can be used beyond a page of legalese on the Church site.

It can be difficult for an increasing number of members who want to use media in classrooms and online to know how that media can be used appropriately.

There has been some discussion of this ideah at the More Good Foundation Blog and the LDS OSS Mailing list.

I don't know where the effort would need to begin, but because the Church owns so much of the media that such a project would involve there would need to be some kind of intellectual property involvement from the Church- whether official or otherwise.
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srweight
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Adding to the Church Media that is now online -

#3

Post by srweight »

mactoph wrote:I don't know where the effort would need to begin, but because the Church owns so much of the media that such a project would involve there would need to be some kind of intellectual property involvement from the Church- whether official or otherwise.

I really think that the biggest part of the media that would be put here would come in the form of images and powerpoint presentations created for lessons and family home evenings by members using personal and Church media.
russellhltn
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#4

Post by russellhltn »

srweight wrote:I really think that the biggest part of the media that would be put here would come in the form of images and powerpoint presentations created for lessons and family home evenings by members using personal and Church media.
Images are fine, but the powerpoint touches on a past thread on lesson exchange. My biggest concern is drifting away from what the correlation committee has come up with and possibly fostering urban myth in our teachings.

On the other hand, raw materials would be great. One idea I'd like to float is an on-line library of photos that members have taken. Granted, the really great shots are the ones done by the church, but some members are quite good with a camera (I've done a few that I'm pleased with). Such work would get around the copyright issue. Certainly it would add some verity to the images we see and not just the same old stock library ones.
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srweight
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#5

Post by srweight »

RussellHltn wrote:Images are fine, but the powerpoint touches on a past thread on lesson exchange. My biggest concern is drifting away from what the correlation committee has come up with and possibly fostering urban myth in our teachings.

On the other hand, raw materials would be great. One idea I'd like to float is an on-line library of photos that members have taken. Granted, the really great shots are the ones done by the church, but some members are quite good with a camera (I've done a few that I'm pleased with). Such work would get around the copyright issue. Certainly it would add some verity to the images we see and not just the same old stock library ones.

I agree with the concern over drifting away from the "Lesson". I am very interested in having a wide assortment of media to draw from for the lessons because I really think we will see members bringing their laptops and DVDs to teach with as more laptops and projectors become available. I am sure that a few good images and sound files could improve attention to lesson concepts. And I would love to be able to draw from all the Church images and images form other members of the Church who were in the right spot at the right time and came away with great shots.

I really have little interest in exchanging lessons, but I guess posting a powerpoint about the title page of the Book of Mormon does come close to that idea.
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WelchTC
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#6

Post by WelchTC »

I think that this thread is on the right track. Stay away from "pre-canned" lessons that someone can quickly pick up and use but look into "media support" ideas where you are looking for that perfect picture to compliment your already well researched and prepared lesson. Also you are on the right track on trying to figure out licensing and terms of use issues.

Tom
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#7

Post by vernondcole »

This is a great idea. I spent a lot of time trying to find a suitable digital picture of Joseph Smith for the cover page of our district calendar. A repository would be nice.
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While we are talking about copyright issues, also think about the licensing of the media and reproducer. We should avoid following the easy path of using file formats which require commercial software to reproduce -- such as .wma and .mp3 . I love that I can download hymns for free. I don't like that I must use an illegally downloaded codec in order to listen to them on my Linux workstation. "Powerpoint" is not a generic term for a computer slideshow, it is a piece of commercial software. We should be careful to select open formats which will reproduce on non-commercial software.
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srweight
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Copyright issue

#8

Post by srweight »

kf7xm wrote:This is a great idea. I spent a lot of time trying to find a suitable digital picture of Joseph Smith for the cover page of our district calendar. A repository would be nice.
-
While we are talking about copyright issues, also think about the licensing of the media and reproducer. We should avoid following the easy path of using file formats which require commercial software to reproduce -- such as .wma and .mp3 . I love that I can download hymns for free. I don't like that I must use an illegally downloaded codec in order to listen to them on my Linux workstation. "Powerpoint" is not a generic term for a computer slideshow, it is a piece of commercial software. We should be careful to select open formats which will reproduce on non-commercial software.

I would suggest that any image or file uploaded by process wave the ownership rights and therefore be copyright free.
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#9

Post by russellhltn »

srweight wrote:I would suggest that any image or file uploaded by process wave the ownership rights and therefore be copyright free.
That may be asking a little much. There are photos I have that I'd be willing to share for non-commercial church use. But I wouldn't give away all rights. I think that would satisfy most intended usage.
russellhltn
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#10

Post by russellhltn »

kf7xm wrote:We should avoid following the easy path of using file formats which require commercial software to reproduce -- such as .wma and .mp3
What format would you suggest? It should be something that the vast majority of the systems out there should be able to play without having to download additional software.
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