KindleInternational Amateur Scanning LeagueBoing Boing readers may be familiar with the FedFlix program, where Public.Resource.Org obtains government video and makes it available on YouTube, the Internet Archive, and our own Public Domain Stock Footage Library.
We took a big step forward today with the birth of a new club in Washington, the International Amateur Scanning League. These volunteers, organized by members of the DC CopyNight and by employees of the Smithsonian doing volunteer work after hours, is going out to the National Archives and Records Administration and copying over 1,500 DVDs to be uploaded to the net.
What makes this grassroots digitization effort so remarkable is that it has the full support of the government. Indeed, David Ferriero, the U.S. Archivist, joined me in the initial meeting where we taught volunteers how to rip DVDs!
You can read more about this new effort on my announcement at Radar O'Reilly and we posted photos of the initial meeting, which was hosted at the Sunlight Foundation in the middle of the Washington blizzard.
- Ransom America's public domain video treasures back from the National Archives!
- Watch America's public domain video treasures, rescue the public domain from paywalls
- Watch the 1967 Bob Hope special, save America's public domain videos
- Progress report on liberating America's video archives
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.
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