VIMEO

http://vimeo.com/

By Lewis Utteridge
http://vimeo.com/
We Media – The modern media
is a conversation not a lecture
What does your website/company do?
The site supports embedding, sharing, video storage, and allows user-
commenting on each video page. Users must register to upload content.
Registered users may also create a profile and upload small user pictures as
their avatars, comment and "like" videos.

What New Media technologies is your company responsible for/rely on?

It is responsible for video sharing.

Are they the original example of this technology or a copy of something?

They are the copy of YouTube

How long have they been around?

Vimeo is a video-centric social networking site (owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp)
which launched in November 2004.
 Free Speech
How does your site promote/restrict free speech? (How does it allow
people to share ideas with/without censorship
It allows free speech by enabling users to publish videos and allowing these
users to comment on these videos. However it does restrict free speech to a
certain degree because Vimeo does not allow commercial videos, gaming
videos, pornography, or anything not created by the user to be hosted on
the site.

Is their any hierarchy of users (paid accounts/VIPs) or is it egalitarian?

There is no hierarchy in terms of users but it is used by more high end people.
 Institutions – Big media
• Is your website affiliated to a big company?
Is owned by the IAC which is a big company in the media industry.
InterActiveCorp (legal name: IAC/InterActiveCorp) is an internet company with
over 50 brands across 40 countries

If so were they always connected? When were they bought out?

Yeah they have always been connected to the IAC, the IAC formed in 1995.

The IAC
building

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAC/InterActiveCorp
We Think – New Media Allows members of society to share
and collaborate faster than ever before. Mass innovation is
now more important than Mass Production

What kind of ideas are shared on your website?

Anything visual however there are some exceptions which were discussed earlier
being commercial videos, gaming videos, pornography, or anything not created by the
user to be hosted on the site. Some of the things people share are music,
entertainment, documentaries etc.

Do they have commercial value? Does anyone buy/sell share them?

There is no commercial value to any of the videos however a lot of artists use it as a
way of promotion such as Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, Moby, Beck, Placebo,
Lykke Li, Röyksopp, Devin the Dude, and Britney Spears, who premiered her new
music video Radar there. They advertise there products but it is a non profit
organisation.

Who would be interested in your site (Audience)

The audience interested would generally be everyone seeing as there has been
over 3 million members and an average of more than 16,000 new videos uploaded
daily however it generally targets a more upmarket audience but with a site that is
so mainstream it is particularly hard to define a specific audience.
 We Think
In what ways does your site allow users to collaborate and share?
The ways in which it does this is via uploading and submitting videos on to the
website, you can also make comments on the videos allowing interaction between
the audience and the maker of the video.

What kind of information is shared on the site?

You can find all sorts of information on this website; whether it be for fun or serious
purposes. All information is shared in video format. Vimeo does not allow
commercial videos, gaming videos, pornography, or anything not created by the
user to be hosted on the site. For example music videos, TV programmes etc.

What level of expertise does the users attract?

Vimeo has gained a reputation as catering to a high end, artistic crowd because of
its high bitrate, resolution, and relative HD support.
 Open Source
Is the technology your company uses open source?
Vimeo is available for anyone to download. It is available for everyday use on the
internet and to all users of the internet. The way in which vimeo allows interaction
is via comment boxes after each video allowing its audience to discuss and share
what they think about the videos. However you do need to sign up and register to
the website to publish videos but this is free to everyone. You can not edit the site
to own requirements so therefore it is not an open source organisation.
 Copyright
In what ways does your company do to protect copyright or
promote piracy?
By submitting your Submission to VIMEO, you hereby grant VIMEO and its
affiliates, successors and assigns a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive,
irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) and
transferable license (with a right to create derivative works) to use, copy,
transmit or otherwise distribute, perform, modify, incorporate into other
works, publicly perform and display your Submission or any portion thereof,
in or through any medium, whether now known or hereafter created. VIMEO
shall be entitled to unrestricted use of any Submission for any purpose
whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the
submitter. Basically meaning you enable vimeo to do what they want with
your submission.
 Creative Commons
Does your company use or allow its users to use any kind of creative
commons licensing?

As long as you have content on the site, they are free to do whatever they
want with your work wherever and however, without compensating you.
They can license it themselves, or distribute it to others to license for
whatever use. In a way this makes the site more effective due to the fact
that you are allowed to do whatever with what is submitted.
 ACCESS Digital Divide (only
25% of the world is online)
How many users have access to your companies services?
Vimeo has over 3 million current members

Do they have to pay to be involved?

No the website is free to everyone however you do need to sign up and
register. However in 2008 vimeo plus was created and unveiled its $60-per-
year 'Vimeo Plus' package. See next slide for vimeo plus information.

Does your company work in any way to get more people in the world
connected? (Do they offer grants, support charities to get people
connected?)
The company does not offer any grants to people to get them connected.
 Vimeo Plus
• On October 16 2008 Vimeo unveiled its $60-per-year 'Vimeo
Plus' package, which allows users additional weekly uploads
(up to 5 GB), unlimited HD videos, unlimited creation of
channels, groups and albums, no ads, HD embeds, 2-pass
video re-encoding that results in higher quality, priority
encoding, and more. The arrival of Vimeo Plus also meant the
downgrade of the free version, which up to that point also
enjoyed unlimited HD re-encodings per week and unlimited
creation of groups/albums/channels. This created some
tension within the community.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimeo
Gate Keeping
How does your company control the spread of information on its service (Who
can connect with who? What kind of rules apply?)
The company controls the spread of information by only allowing the user to
decide which content is allowed to be uploaded onto the website. It also allows
you to comment and give ratings.

Are their any restrictions about who can access and contribute?
No anyone is able to access as long as they have the world wide web and
register on the website however not all videos can be submitted as referred earlier
in the PowerPoint.

Is the information filtered/censored by your company?

Yes, the information has to be censored by the user before any footage can be
submitted. It is censored by
 Free Press
Does your company offer any services that can be used by citizen
journalists for the spread of information that could be in the public
interest?
Yes, the website enables citizen journalists to upload and publish
videos in which they have taken and spread the news across the
world.

Have they been involved in suppressing this information at any point?

The only information that the website suppresses is commercial videos,
gaming videos and pornography. It doesn’t want its users to make a
profit off the website.
 Marxist Theories of
Control?
Does your company have a central ideology/belief/mission statement?
The companies ideology is to allow users to upload content in the
highest quality possible and it promotes the use of HD.

Do it’s users represent a particular ideology or point of view?

No, it is used purely for uploading videos.

Does your company allow a free flow of ideas on its service or does it
enforce a bias?
It supports a free flow of ideas and discussion, it is a neutral website.
 Power Elites
Does your company challenge any existing power structures (Big Media
Companies/Important People)
The only company it challenges is YouTube, however YouTube is winning
the battle currently because it gets well over a billion views a day. The
reason YouTube gets more views is because it is affiliated to a monopoly
called Google.

Does your Company hold a monopoly or is it part of an Oligarchy of

companies that dominate that part of the internet?
Vimeo is not a monopoly in itself and the company that owns vimeo the
IAC also is far from being a monopoly on the internet because it owns
50 brands across 40 countries over the world wide web.
 Internet Neutrality
Does your company rely on internet neutrality to be successful?
Yes the company does base itself on internet neutrality because it wants
videos and opinions from everyone but due to the high quality nature of the
site it attracts a more upmarket bias.

Would it be under threat for being banned/shut down under new legislation
like the Digital Economy Bill?
Possibly, but it is in a better state than YouTube due to the fact that a lot
more things on the website are censored and have to pass through the user
before it can be authorised.