h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh good, I already thought I just imagined that rule.

Radox hits it squarely on the head, and not with the rather brilliant "cutting edge not cut your throat."

The key is Convergence. *That's* where the web is going. And we do need to be at the cutting edge.

Perhaps just the Photographers had a 'no manipulation' rule? Some photographers do get sniffy about that sort of thing.

We had always hoped we'd get our AV hosted on h2g2 itself eventually. TRiG and I came up with h2g2aviators.com partly to prepare for that eventuality (so all the files and feeds would be set up in one place already) and partly to be independent of sites like YouTube. However h2g2 came up with the tag which rendered a lot of that effort obsolete, because all of our content had to be on YouTube from that point anyway. The exception was the audio-only work which we just had to link to from h2g2. It would have been really cool to have the audio *as* the Post articles but it was pretty clear when we got the tag that that would never be possible. AV doesn't even work in the new skin.

A small point - when we have co-produced video, we've often had to share files of 250mb+ so you'll need to consider that if you want to pull the groups together.

I see the logic of the Photographers joining the CAs, but I don't see why the Aviators would be included in that as well. When we did (for example) the Photographers' Showcase, we just went to the Photographers and talked to them about it. Convergence sounds like a nice buzzword, but it wouldn't actually bring any benefits that I can see to either the Aviators or the other two groups. 99% of making is a clip is solitary (the other 1% is sending the email asking people to look at it) and certainly someone like me who might make a clip or two a year would be put off by getting loads of emails through from the other groups.

I didn't mean 'don't discuss it', more that the future running of the Aviators needs to be open to the next group of people who start making AV. The product is more important than the process, isn't it? So if they can produce quality AV, let them define the process as well.

'Recently I have been making audio content which is aired on two local radio stations. Sometimes it is related to an entry on h2g2. I'd like an opportunity to work with other researchers with stronger visual arts skills.'

I think you're all perhaps labouring under the misapprehension that there are lots of video- and audio-making people in the Aviators who just haven't done very much for the last few years. The reality is that I was the only Aviator to ever make an EG-style video clip for h2g2, and I'm not making AV for h2g2 at the moment (I don't know who I'm making it for until we know who the new owners of the site are). A few more people were involved in audio and video when I was Post Ed, but not many. It was always a tiny group with very few active members but a lot of enthusiasm. I'd imagine there are three or four of us who could be stirred into action at a moment's notice.

So it depends what you want to do. If you self-produce audio then join the Aviators and we can put your material on h2g2aviators.com and link to it from the entry concerned. If you make audio but need help to knock it into shape, join the Aviators and someone will probably be able to give you a hand. If you make audio and want someone to make video to accompany it... you're going to be disappointed at the moment unless you're just in need of advice, but the next person who visits this page may just be the one to take up the Aviators baton

Wrong on that last count, but wise words, Rich

I will write a longer reply later, I'm just working. But concerning the AViators/Artists I always see things with the following assumptions:

a) we will move away from stupid yahoo groups in the long run
b) we want to get more people and not just the hand full of AViators we have at the moment
c) we will all get more active again
d) videos etc will work properly on h2g2

I didn't even have the idea that we could be talking about yahoo groups. In this respect you are right of course, on yahoo it doesn't work.

No need for a 'longer reply' Tav - I agree with you on (a) to (d). I just thought my perspective as the main instigator of the Aviators might be useful. It's up to you guys where it goes from here

Oh yes, it's certainly useful, we're happy about all opinions.

(If I should not sound like that it's not because of you but because of the awful lot of work that I have at the moment.)

I think the numbers of interested AVi participants will go up anyway. I know the only thing stopping me from joining the Aviators was being unable to afford the equipment. As tech becomes more available to us cash strapped types there should be more interest generated. If the various media disciplines are all in the same place that will encourage some cross media 'dabbling' which might otherwise seem a big step to take.

On the software front, I've been looking into licencing costs of software I used to use in a previous job. It's *not* brilliant, I'll be brutally honest, but it's good enough to do most video stuff. Not sure about animation stuff as I always used Flash for that. But I digress, I've been looking into the licencing and it looks like there's a possibility that this would be affordable to buy the licences for the AViators to use, which would really help I'm guessing.

As for the future of the AViators, I was wondering if there'd be more interest/activity in the future if there was a sort of direction? I saw something recently that was pointed to me (can't remember where) where someone had created something similar to the old cartoon/computer graphic animations used in the tv series, and thought "Wow. Brilliant. I wonder how many entries would benefit from that sort of thing?"

I'll be honest, I've no idea what the AViators have done, I sort of drifted off before you guys took off really, but would direction in what would be liked help? Or would that not really fit in with the ethos?

Hi all!

I just want to make you aware of this thread:

F21537567?thread=8244226?thread=&show=20&skip=0#pi10