The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) is a non-profit organization based in Worcester, Massachusetts.[1] Its primary project is a free and open-source softwareInternet television platform called Miro, formerly called the Democracy player.[2][3] It is also the developer of Broadcast Machine, an open-source video publishing tool.[1]
A 501(c)(3) organization, the PCF's mission is to "develop technology and services that ensure everyone has access to all that the Internet has to offer", because "information is critical to building a more equitable and peaceful society".[4]
History
The organization was founded in February 2005. The Downhill Battle project precedes PCF.[5]
PCF has received financial support from Andy and Deborah Rappaport and Mitch Kapor.[1][6] It has also received support from the Surdna Foundation, Knight Foundation, and other private donors.[7]
As of 2006, Nicholas Reville was a co-director of PCF.[8] That year, PCF led a workshop at YearlyKos on how individual citizens can make professional-quality political ad videos and distribute them over the Internet.[8]
On May 29, 2007, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it had awarded PCF a grant to continue their work on its open-source video projects.[9]
Projects
Miro – a free/open-source broadcatching software application which allows subscribing to web feeds of downloadable audio and video
Miro Guide – a web-based directory of audio and video web feeds, integrated by default into the application
Miro Community – a free web hosting service for user-submitted video; hosts mostly Theora-formatted video in HTML5-compatible web browsers
Broadcast Machine – a desktop application allowing easy publishing of video files and updated internet television channels[1]
Amara (formerly Universal Subtitles) – enables collaboration on captions and subtitles[10]
The Channel Channel – a project to provide one-minute previews of internet channels; last updated in January 2007
