New Media Free Software

New Media Free Software Jordi Alberich Pascual and Antoni Roig Telo
NEW MEDIA FREE SOFTWARE

FREE TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR AUDIOVISUAL CREATION
AND PRODUCTION IN VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

JORDI ALBERICH PASCUAL & ANTONI ROIGTELO
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SCIENCES
UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA UOC

Introduction

The development of digital communication media and, above all, the
increasingly intensive use of the Internet have profoundly and irreversibly
transformed the way in which we communicate in contemporary society. The
growing digitisation of communication products and processes over the last
decade has led to important changes, not only in terms of the contents of
these communications, but also, and primarily, in the associated tasks
needed for their creation, production and broadcast.
As opposed to the classical and usually unitary and linear structured
model of communications (and narrative), new audiovisual multimedia
productions have to be structured as complex electronic hypertexts. Thanks
to a wide, and growing, range of digital audiovisual resources and tools,
audiovisual production tasks for new digital communication media are no
longer bound by the traditional limits; indeed, they are moving on to a point
where these limits are disappearing. The new digital media break the linear
nature of analogical audiovisual media, thus giving digital audiovisual text a
form that is often kaleidoscopic, open and allowing for interaction and
participation from users in many varied ways.
At the heart of this intensive process of change and substitution of key
concepts and models that we are witnessing is the production of digital

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audiovisual applications, which is still currently in the phase of investigating its
possibilities. The directions taken are constantly in motion in the markets,
industry and society. The emergence of digital communication technology has
led to a radical change in the previous modern definition of media, aiding and
leading to the rise of new and varied communication possibilities and
dimensions. Communication in and through new digital communication media
offers communication content that is typically flexible and unstable,
asynchronous, dematerialised and/or deterritorialised, as well as, among
other possible variables, widely accessible for users around the world set
free from the here and now.
The virtualisation of audiovisual production thus produced opens the
doors to a rich field of changing possibilities. In virtual environments, the limits
are neither explicit nor evident. The sense experience proposed and
embodied in the Internet and the new digital communication media has led to
a movement towards the removal of the traditional sense of distance and
boundary. Indeed, it has been taking on, or expressing, this new field of
possibilities opened by the Internet, and the information and communication
technologies resulting from it, that, at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunyas
Information and Communication Science Studies, has led us to face up to the
fascinating challenge and task of teaching and experiencing the act of digital
audiovisual communication through the innovative use of free software
resources and tools.

Free software and collaborative environments in a virtual university

As shall be explained in more detail later on, one of the distinctive traits of
free software is its ability to strengthen collaborative networks, so that users
can become programmers and integral members of communities to develop
and learn how to adapt and improve a specific tool. Thus, virtual teams
1
can
be seen to be at the heart of the very idea behind free software, as they are
for Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). One of our main interests as
teachers in a virtual university and researchers in the field of new media is the

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form in which collaborative networks in a VLE are established. This is the
reason why the opportunity to study the use of free software tools in this
context is of particular interest to us.
We need to make some initial clarifications in terms of the type of the
student who chooses e-learning. Our experience at the Universitat Oberta de
Catalunya (UOC)
2
, and in terms of the Audiovisual Communication
programme in particular, has shown us that we are dealing with adult
students, with a high level of personal and academic maturity, previous
professional experience and training, a reasonable economic level and solid
knowledge of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). These
students have to share their time between their professional and personal
lives and their studies in their place of residence
3
and their expectations for
personal and professional development are wide ranging.
The focus on free software in the UOCs Audiovisual Communications
programme is, primarily, in response to the need to face up to the diversity
inherent in our educational model. We would highlight three fundamental
advantages:

- Technological compatibility, which allows for adaptation to different
connection systems, the characteristics of the workplace and versions
of operating system.
- Ease of distribution and access.
- Promoting the students independence, both in the learning process
(guided, but independent and with a rapid learning curve) and in terms
of carrying out individual and group projects.

Virtual classrooms become a platform for collaborative learning, in such a
way that the diversity of profiles and the encouragement from the teacher in
the shared areas form a learning community characterised in terms of
independence, commitment and diversity in learning styles
4
.
These environments thus provide a unique opportunity to observe the
relations that are established in learning communities aimed at creating and

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experimenting with audiovisuals. There are two types of communities,
depending on the type of subject:

a) Communities in subjects focusing on a certain skill (eg, dedicated to
video or sound editing, web design, 2D or 3D animation, etc.).
b) Transversal subjects, which work on the entirety of an audiovisual
project (eg, final degree project, digital broadcast production).

In the first case, the guidelines from the teacher for the shared aim are much
more obvious and the learning is structured through a single study plan that
includes the meeting of set targets together. The teacher thus has to act as a
catalyst in order to involve the community in the assessment of the groups
progress in terms of their use of the tool (through an open Forum, where each
student can take part, ask for help or tell the other group members about their
progress) and the quality of specific creations (through areas for debate, such
as the activity discussion area).
In the second case, each student develops her/his own project, with
her/his own aims, tools and targets, which she/he completes asynchronously
and which requires more personalised attention. It is wrong, however, to
consider these projects as unconnected. Students share their doubts and the
need to overcome a range of obstacles in a relatively short period of time.
The synergies produced may lead to part of the work being made public in the
shared areas and an open collaboration that can be highly beneficial from the
point of view of motivation and the possibility of sharing knowledge (in this
way, a web design project may be aided by the sharing of knowledge with
another on interactive video or an Internet TV project with a work on
storyboards).
As can be seen, the level of independence that students can achieve in
this kind of environment means that it can become difficult to distinguish
between the border between the academic environment, consumer use and
professional practice. These students can be seen to be users of portable
technology and independent tools, designed for digital consumption,

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production and distribution in a virtual environment; a privileged position both
for student and researcher. Beyond the academic skills training, we can also
have a focus group for the analysis of the dissolution of the limits between the
consumers and producers of digital media
5
. A group with a shared aim, which
can be studied in terms of a range of indicators, identifying patterns of
connection and use, establishing online work networks and, even, organising
mixed initiatives, both online and face-to-face
6
, as is already the case in our
classrooms.
So as to be able to promote the development of this type of initiative,
certain actual limitations must be underlined, such as the need to look in
depth at the ability of virtual environments to organise work groups efficiently
or the lack of free software tools dedicated the totality of audiovisual
production (this would aid transversal possibilities, so that larger proposals
could be generated, to be subsequently reabsorbed into final projects as
group projects).

New media design, creation and production using free resources and
tools

A basic list of the free software tools and resources designed to aid the tasks
associated to the design and creation of a hypothetical new media production
should initially include one or more free software programs designed
specifically for digital graphic and image processing and retouching, both for
bitmap and vectors. Likewise, it is also essential to have a tool for the design,
editing and processing of digital sound. Finally, to complete this hypothetical
survival kit for audiovisual free software, we need, obviously, a video editor,
which is vital for the final postproduction and editing tasks.
The Gimp, Skencil, Audacity and VirtualDub are rich and
comprehensive free software tools and resources that meet the needs of the
above tasks with flying colours. All four programs illustrate and embody the
increasing possibilities for creating and producing audiovisual content through
the use of free resources and tools that can be run anywhere, adapted to

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individual needs, redistributed, or improved upon, with these improvements
made public and accessible to whoever needs them. All of them are,
furthermore, free software currently included in the different subjects that form
part of the study plan for the UOCs Audiovisual Communications programme,
ie, Visual Design, Theory and Practice of Audiovisual Editing, Design and
Creation of Digital Sound or Creation of Digital Video.

The GIMP
7
, acronym of GNU Image Manipulation Program, originally began
as a project by Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis for the University of
California, Berkeley. It started as a simple piece of class work on LISP
compilation. Frustrated with the initial results, they looked to take the project
in a new direction.
Instead of LISP, Kimball and Mattis decided to write a project for
processing and manipulating images in C, which quickly grew to become a
complete bitmap image editing software program. Bitmap images are those
that are made up of and based on a grid or matrix of dots on which are
mapped a series of bits of information to represent the pixels. These bits of
information determine the colour and position of each of the pixels and all of
them together form the bitmap images in high resolution rows and columns,
thus offering the sensation of a real image, that of a natural and photographic
image.
As free software, The GIMP is available under the GNU General Public
License, and currently has versions that work on the majority of platforms.
There are versions available for Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX, SGIs IRIX,
GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, as well as the Mac OS X and Windows environments.
The GIMP is currently the most advanced free software for the processing of
digital graphics, with advanced digital photography retouching and editing
capabilities. It can be used as a simple digital drawing tool and an expert
photographic retouching program, with the ability to generate realistic
previews, process, convert and optimise digital graphics. Its drawing and
painting tools include all the usual options for this kind of software: pencil,
paintbrush and spray, among many others; as well as tools for selecting and

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transforming both graphics and text. It supports almost all kinds of format
(GIF, JPEG, PNG, XPM, TIFF, TGA, MPEG, PDF, BMP, etc.) and alpha
channels for slide editing. It allows for the adding of an infinite number of
plug-ins, which are constantly being created and shared around the web.

The GIMP has thus become a program that can be greatly expanded and
extended. Through the addition of the many plug-ins available, it can be
expanded to cover all the functions that may be required for our graphics
needs and interests. The GIMP enthusiasts, volunteers and developers have
written and made publicly and freely available hundreds of plug-ins including
plasma, map to sphere, fade, mosaic, line integral convolution, motion blur,
engrave, page curl, sparkle, lens flare or lunarize, which increase the range of
creative options and effects. The GIMP is also able to read vector graphic
formats such as PostScript or SVG.
The GIMP is a graphic application which is useful for both beginners
and advanced users. Using its basic set of main tools is not very difficult,
whilst making the most of all of them is an art. It is an extremely powerful and

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versatile program, suited both to simple photograph retouching tasks and the
creation and design of complex new original images.

Skencil
8
is a free software program, which is both old and new. Skencil is the
new name (suggested by Frank Koormann) with which its predecessor
Sketch has been re-baptised. Sketch was originally developed by Bernhard
Herzog. It has also been given a new graphic image thanks to the icons
designed by Taiabati
9
.
Skencil is a basic vector drawing program that handles images based
on independent graphic objects, created through mathematical operations
carried out by the computer. The objects in a vector image (such as Bzier
curves) are described in terms of line segments connected by nodes. These
line segments can be straight or curved, and that which determines this factor
are the handles. There are two handles from the nodes, which are used to
indicate the degree of curvature and the direction of the segment.

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The objects that make up vector graphics have their own characteristics,
which means that there may be graphics with certain colours, sizes and
shapes; where changing one of these characteristics changes the whole
object. In this way, enlarging a vector image does not involve the distribution
of a series of pixels (which is the case with a bitmap image), nor increasing
the number over the area, instead we simply modify the mathematical formula
that calculates the vector object. It can be enlarged as far as we want without
affecting its quality, which always remains ideal. Vector objects do not thus
depend on the resolution, which means that their size for storage is, generally
speaking, much less than that required for bitmap images. Despite Skencil
currently being published under the terms of the GNU General Public
License, part of its source code is distributed under license as Python
10
.
Skencil works on the following platforms: GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX,
and also recently on Windows environments, based on a version developed
by Joonas Paalasmaa
11
.
Among Skencils most important characteristics are its ability to
transform text to image, the ease of the aforementioned work with Bzier
curves, the possibility of exporting EPS-type files, or the development of text
along a freely predetermined path. Likewise, and as has been seen with The
GIMP, Skencil allows for a wide range of external plug-ins which increase the
programs functionalities. Among many more, we would highlight GeoObject,
(which is able to import ArcView files to Skencil), Graphic, (which allows for
the importing of simple lines and graphics), JapaneseText (a plug-in from
Tamito Kajiyama that allows for and aids drawing with Japanese characters),
or TexText (which was created by Christian von Ferber and aids the creation
of mathematical formulae with LaTeX
12
and their importing to Skencil as EPS-
type objects).

Audacity
13
is a comprehensive free software program for processing and
editing sound, which began life as a project at the end of 1999 by Dominic
Mazzoni when he was a student at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh,
and he, together with his professor Roger Dannenberg, needed to develop a

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tool able to visualise audio formats. As time went by, and thanks to
collaboration from other developers key to the projects evolution such as
Matt Brubeck or Joshua Haberman, this initial project went on to become the
general digital sound editor that we have today.

As is logical in any good free software, Audacity is still currently increasing its
possibilities and being developed by a wide number of volunteers. It is written
in C and C++, using the wxWidgets cross-platform toolkit and resources, and
all the source code is available under the GNU General Public License. It is
hosted by and accessible from SourceForge. Audacity has a highly intuitive
graphic user interface, which aids its use both by those who are new to this
kind of software and expert users. It has a very complete selection of
functionalities. It allows for both the recording and reproduction of sound,
importing and exporting WAV, AIFF or MP3 files, among others. It has all the
usual editing tools such as cut, copy and paste for all kinds of sounds, as well
as a wide range of effects that can be added and possibilities for processing

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all sorts of recordings, such as BassBost or Wahwah. It also allows for VST
plug-ins. Likewise, it incorporates an amplitude envelope editor, a powerful
spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window, amongst other basic
resources.

Finally, we have VirtualDub
14
, a video capture, processing and export utility
for Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), originally developed by
Avery Lee, and licensed, once again, under the GNU General Public License.

VirtualDub is one of the best options for the application of postproduction
effects to video, which in many cases (blur, format changes, manipulation of
colours or audio compensation, among others) are already included in the
basic program. Likewise, there is also a large number of plug-ins already in
available or under development for specific effects. It allows for video capture
from analogue devices and the editing of these captures, as well as the
retouching or correction of both audio and video files. Furthermore, it is able

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to convert formats such as DivX directly in real time from any format and input
device. It reads and writes AVI2 (OpenDML) and multi-segment AVI clips, and
it has integrated MPEG decoders, among others. It includes a volume meter,
as well as compression and input level monitoring functionalities.
VirtualDub is an application that is particularly valued for its filters,
which are complete, varied and of high quality. They allow for a wide range of
functionalities, such as deleting the typical fixed images seen in one of the
corners of the screen (if the origin is TV), or simply and easily including and
synchronising subtitles. VirtualDub can also easily be used as a video server,
as when it applies a filter, instead of using one of the AVI compressors
installed on the system itself for compression, it creates a new fictitious AVI
file which can be imported again later.
VirtualDub has opened the way for a series of modified and extended
versions, such as VirtualDubAVS, VirtualDubMPeg2 and VirtualDubOGM
15
,
which have recently been brought together under the name
VirtualDubMod
16
. Alongside the functions offered by VirtualDub,
VirtualDubMod allows for the importing of video in the MPEG 1 and 2 formats,
sound in the AC3, DTS and OGG formats and also includes help for use of
Avisynth, making it even more popular and widely used than the original
program.

Sources of information and virtual collaborative communities for the
innovation and spread of audiovisual free software

Alongside the specific references dealt with above, it is also worthwhile
reminding ourselves once again of the mass of free software present on the
Internet, whether specifically audiovisual or not, which is continuously
undergoing a process of redefinition, transformation and growth. New projects
are added daily, whilst others are adapted or modified in terms of the new
interests or needs arising from the radically evolving reality that is audiovisual
communication.

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Below is a summarised list (necessarily reduced) of the latest
innovations and the state of affairs at the wide range of sources of information
and virtual collaborative communities that currently exist and are active in the
promotion and distribution of free software, as well as some of the new,
specifically audiovisual, free software projects under development.

GNU
17
:: Started in 1984, the GNU project exemplifies collaborative work in
the development of a complete free operating system, as well as a range of
different and highly successful specific applications such as The GIMP. It
maintains close links with the Free Software Foundation itself.
SourceForge
18
:: A website that hosts and centralises active open source
developer projects, providing developers with a long list of online services.
Gnome
19
:: An organisation that offers a comprehensive editing tool and
development platform for Unix and GNU/Linux. Gnome is also an active
community of professionals and volunteers who are expert developers of free
software.
Python
20
:: Website for the object-oriented programming language of the
same name. Important parts of free software such as Skencil are distributed
under its license.
Hispalinux
21
:: Website of the active Association of Spanish GNU/Linux
Users. It is a key source of information and communication for resources,
forums and collaborative initiatives in free software throughout Spain.
Agnula
22
:: Acronym for A GNU/Linux Audio distribution, Agnula is a
European Commission project for the creation, promotion and distribution of
free audio software, led by the Centro Tempo Reale
23
(Florence, Italy) in
which the Music Technology Group from Barcelonas Pompeu Fabra
University takes part.

Jordi Alberich & Antoni Roig, september 2004

- 13 -


- 14 -

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GAUNTLETT, DAVID (Ed.). Web.Studies. London/New York: Arnold/Oxford
University Press, 2000, ISBN: 0-340-76048-6

HAMPSHIRE, S.; PREZ-MONTORO, M. (Eds.). Fundamentos de
Teora de la Comunicacin. 1
st
ed. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de
Barcelona, 2004. ISBN: 84-477-0876-4

HARRIES, D. (Ed.). The New Media Book. London: British Film Institute
Publishing, 2002, ISBN: 0-85170-925-7

HINE, C. Virtual Ethnography. London [etc.]: Sage Publications, 2000. ISBN:
0-7619-5896-7

LIEVROUW, L., LIVINGSTONE, S (Eds.). The Handbook of New media.
London [etc.]: Sage Publications. 2002, ISBN: 0-7619-6510-6

MANOVICH, L. The language of new media. Cambridge, Massachussets:
The MIT Press, 2001, ISBN: 0-262-13374-1

MANSELL, R. (ed). La revolucin de la comunicacin. Modelos de interaccin
social y tcnica. Alianza editorial. Madrid, 2002.

TURKLE, S. La vida en pantalla. La construccin de la identidad en la era de
Internet. Barcelona: Paids, 1997, ISBN: 84-493-0461-X

TURKLE, S. What are we thinking when we are thinking about computers? In:
M. Biagioli (ed.). The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1999.
http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/routledge_reader.html

WENGER, E.; McDERMOTT, R.; SNYDER, W.M. Cultivating Communities of
Practice. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2002. ISBN: 1-57851-330-8

NOTES

1
Defined as a group of people working with a common aim in a project using
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) (Hampshire and Aguareles in
Prez-Montoro and Hampshire, 2004).
2
http://www.uoc.edu


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3
Despite Catalan currently being the language for study, we have students residing
both in other parts of Spain and other countries including UK, France or Belgium.
4
The aim of this model is to promote students ability to manage and become
responsible for their own studies (Hampshire and Aguareles in Prez-Montoro and
Hampshire, 2004)
5
A methodological approach to take into consideration would be that proposed by
Wenger et al in the study of communities of practice (see Wenger, McDermott and
Snyder, 2002)
6
In just one year, spontaneous initiatives have sprung up that combine work in
person and online: a digital magazine and a visual experimentation group
7
http://www.gimp.org
8
http://sketch.sourceforge.net
9
http://www.taiabati.it
10
http://www.python.org
11
The development version of Skencil for Windows environments and its
executables can be found here: http://skencil.org
12
http://www.latex-project.org
13
http://audacity.sourceforge.net
14
http://www.virtualdub.com
15
All these are available on the SourceForge website, http://sourceforge.net
16
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net
17
http://www.gnu.org
18
http://sourceforge.net
19
http://www.gnome.org
20
http://www.python.org
21
http://hispalinux.es
22
http://www.agnula.org
23
http://www.centrotemporeale.it

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