Contact Information: Sierra Lovelace Bite Communications for Wikia (415) 365-0379 Lisa Bennett Kaltura (212) 981-3965
Wikia and Kaltura Partner to Add Collaborative Video Capabilities to Wikia Communities
Wikia Deploys Kaltura's Open Source MediaWiki Collaborative Video Extension, Allowing Users to Collaborate in Video and Other Forms of Rich-Media
| Source: Kaltura
SAN MATEO, CA and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - March 12, 2008) - Wikia, Inc.
(http://www.wikia.com), the leading provider of community resources for
building and organizing free content on every topic, and Kaltura, Inc.
(http://www.kaltura.com), a pioneer in Collaborative Media, announced today
that the companies have partnered to offer collaborative video
functionality to Wikia's communities. Wikia has deployed Kaltura's
collaborative video extension to the MediaWiki software and the
functionality is now available on several leading Wikia sites. The
functionality allows Wikia users to jointly create and edit collaborative
videos, audio tracks, animation, and slideshows as well as text and images.
"Wikia's communities are comprised of passionate and active users who
understand the value in sharing knowledge -- Kaltura's collaborative video
technology gives users even more ways to collaborate, which complements our
existing functionalities perfectly," said Angela Beesley co-founder of
Wikia. "Kaltura's tool is easy to use and intuitive and I am confident that
we will see some very interesting and creative additions to the various
wiki communities now that our users have this functionality at hand."
With the Kaltura Collaborative Video Extension, any user can start a
collaborative video project and upload clips, photos, or audio tracks to
the wiki. Users can also help edit the collaborative result using Kaltura's
online video editor. When adding clips, users can contribute their own
material or import content from the Kaltura Network of legally remixable
content, which contains millions of videos, audio clips, and images that
are in the public domain or that are available under the Creative Commons
BY-SA license. A live example of a collaborative video on Wikia can be
found at http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo3.
"We are honored to partner with an innovator like Wikia. Launching the
open source extension to MediaWiki is our first step towards supporting all
other leading web platforms and assembling together the largest Creative
Commons repository and a Global Network of rich media collaborators," said
Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO of Kaltura.
"In the spirit of openness and collaboration, we invite all MediaWiki-based
sites and other partners to join our growing Network and deploy our
technology in their sites, in order to enable their users to collaborate in
the creation of rich-media," said Shay David, Kaltura's CTO. "Soon we will
be announcing our support for other leading wiki-software, content
management, and blogging platforms. We also invite developers to join us
and contribute their time and skills to advance and enhance our open source
projects."
About Wikia, Inc.
Since Wikia's launch in November 2004, 1 million articles on 5,000 topics
have been created and edited by over 375,000 registered users in 70
languages. Wikia enables groups to share information, news, stories, media
and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales
and Angela Beesley launched Wikia in 2004 to provide community-based wikis.
Wikia is committed to openness, inviting anyone to contribute web content.
Authors retain their own copyrights and allow others to freely reuse their
content under a variety of GNU and Creative Commons Licenses, allowing
widespread distribution of knowledge and ideas.
For more information, please visit: http://www.wikia.com
About Kaltura
Kaltura has developed the first open source platform for video creation,
management and collaboration. Kaltura's platform enables any site to
seamlessly and cost-effectively integrate advanced interactive rich-media
functionalities, including video searching, uploading, importing, editing,
annotating, remixing, and sharing. The platform also includes unique
collaboration functionalities that allow groups of users to create rich
media together, and enables publishers to access and syndicate reusable
content across the Kaltura Network of content and to enjoy aggregated
hosted video services such as video advertising, professional editing, and
DVD printing. Founded in 2006, Kaltura's management and advisory team
includes top notch advertising, marketing, and media executives as well as
open source experts and seasoned technology entrepreneurs, including
co-founders of ICQ, Cyota, and Destinator Technologies. Since its public
launch in September 2007, New York-based Kaltura has won the People's
Choice Award at both the TechCrunch40 event, and the Mashable Open Web
Awards.
For more information visit http://www.kaltura.com or visit the Kaltura blog
at http://www.kaltura.com/blog/. Users can also test the MediaWiki
Collaborative Video functionality and provide feedback at
http://www.kaltura.com/devwiki.