Introduction¶

a toolset for collaborative video work

( more Screenshots )

Project History¶

interkomm evolved from developing a backend for Larisa Blacicz video project "mezzo moderno, mezzo distrutto" in autumn 2009, which raised the question how video files can be worked on and handled in a distributed manner other then using the web/cms approach. As this project had very specific requirements, many aspects were written from scratch again in December 2009.

interkomm follows the lets-just-try-it-out approach, so for now, rather then creating a stable software framework, one of its aims is to actually identify what "distributed collaboration" means for users and what the needs are. Read a more detailed project history.

Technical Explanation¶

( a more detailed description can be found in the Interkomm Manual )

interkomm is written in the Lua programming language. As interkomm offers a API for many usual tasks around video work, the idea was to provide this API in a form where it can be used for scripting (in Lua) or from C and C++.

interkomm consists of several parts: a daemon which survey incoming material and takes care of information workflow about the data pool and current workflow as well as indexing the data pool to make it available for search. The API which is used to offer a consistent set of functions to perform a variety of tasks. An engine which creates views (e.g. html, rss) of projects to make the data pool easily accessible.

The Free Software Approach¶

From the beginning interkomm was designed to be based on a completely free software stack and using open standards, such as the matroska container format or the theora video codec. Research on available free software solutions is a substantial aim of the project.

This approach seems necessary as so far very few powerful tools exist as free software around video editing/collaboration and media work is, unfortunately, in general still the domain of proprietory software and patented standards.

Project Status¶

There is no out-of-the-box version released as yet. You can browse the code in the subversion repository. Work on interkomm has resumed in May 2011, with a new concept, making rapid progress. The reference platforms for interkomm is currently Debian/GNU Linux "squeeze"(stable) and Debian/GNU Linux, both on i386 and ARM.

License¶

interkomm is published under the GNU Public Licence v3 or later.
Some dependencies (e.g. some lua modules included in the repository) are published under the MIT License.

Mailinglist¶

There is a development list at https://lists.plentyfact.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/interkomm-dev