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.x ml).
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&at id=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 CommonsCreative 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@creativecommons.org
Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit“
Link: wiki.creativecommons.org
