complete press contact list for creative commons

[Eric Steuer <eric AT creativecommons.org>]

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Attachment: ccHost_2.0_PR.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Creative Commons Releases Open Source Software ccHost 2.0

San Francisco, USA, March 28, 2006

ccHost, an Open Source project that provides web-based infrastructure  
to support collaboration, sharing, and storage of multi-media using  
Creative Commons licenses and metadata, released version 2.0 today.  
This major feature release combines approximately six months of  
development, usage, and testing into packages that anyone may  
download, install, and use to build on-line media sharing communities.

These features most notably show up and are tested in Creative  
Commons' project, ccMixter (http://www.ccmixter.org), a popular on- 
line music social network service that supports legal media sharing  
and remixing. ccHost is the Open Source Software engine powering  
ccMixter. Anyone may download, install, and use ccHost to freely  
build media sharing communities.

Perhaps the largest features in this release are to aid feedback  
between community members. First, the addition of native reviews no  
longer relies upon phpBB. This drastically makes installation of  
ccHost easier for average users while integrating the previously  
separate review system into ccHost. Also, now all users have to do to  
rate submissions is to hover over the star ratings for a media file,  
and select how many stars. Then, rather than requiring a refresh of  
the browser, the ratings automatically update.

Other user enhancements include optional text formatting for  
descriptions, bread crumb path display for easier site navigation,  
not safe for work (NSFW) flagging, and a “How I Did It” browser.  
Also, for audio-based installations there is support for M3U-based  
radio. While previous versions of ccHost had RSS support, ccHost 2.0  
now supports the ATOM feed standard and caching for all feed types.  
Beyond these, the most major under-the-hood enhancement to the  
codebase is in general performance enhancements which provide  
noticeable improvement in all areas of the site, most notably on user  
profile pages.

On the administrative side, ccHost now ships with the sample pool API  
turned on (http://ccmixter.org/media/viewfile/pool_api_doc.xml).  
Basically, this allows for multiple different ccHost installations to  
query each other for samples. Beyond the basic usage of multiple  
ccHost installations communicating through this RESTful API, anyone  
may also use the simple sample pool API to write code that interacts  
with a ccHost installation's sample pool.

Other administrative additions include import and export of settings,  
internationalization accessible through a string editor, replacement  
of magpie with custom code, a new ratings panel, stricter fairness  
policies, and various administrative options for administrators to  
customize ccHost. The monthly archives, statistics, and charts pages  
barely made it into this release, and require more testing and usage,  
yet are already solidly functioning on ccmixter.org.

The ccHost development community encourages new developers to  
contribute to the project. While ccHost already supports major audio  
formats such as MP3, MIDI, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis, it also supports  
video and still image formats. Future development needs more  
contributors to add more media (file-type) functionality to ccHost as  
well as help with internationalization (i18n) support for multiple  
languages. Adding language support does not require coding experience  
since one may use the administrative string editor to add  
localization to a ccHost installation.

Chat with other developers on irc channel #cc on irc.freenode.org,  
join the project mailing list (https://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/ 
listinfo/cctools-cchost), and edit the project wiki page to help  
shape this project's future direction (http:// 
wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ccHost).

Project Website
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ccHost

ccHost Download
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php? 
group_id=80503&package_id=156675

Feature Requests
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=80503&atid=559969

Bug Reports
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=559966&group_id=80503&func=browse

Roadmap (Project Timeline)
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcHost_Roadmap

About ccHost
The goal of this project is to spread media content that is licensed  
under Creative Commons throughout the web in much the same way that  
weblogs spread CC licensed text. ccHost is web-based infrastructure  
that may be used to host and allow for commenting, remixing, and  
distribution globally. The more installations of ccHost and its  
variations, the more content there will be available for enjoyment  
and artistic re-use in a sane and legal setting. ccHost is what is  
used for the infamous Creative Commons ccMixter project, which  
supports legal media sharing and remixing.

About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the  
creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works – whether owned or  
in the public domain. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible  
range of protections and freedoms that build upon the "all rights  
reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some  
rights reserved" approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the  
generous support of various foundations including the John D. and  
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the  
Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as  
members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons,  
visit http://creativecommons.org/.

Contact
Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
eric AT creativecommons.org

Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit