1. Questions about your organization.

-What is your position in the Laboratorio Brasileiro de Cultura Digital?
-Well, In fact, I'm like an associated fellow. In Pixel Multimedia I am an associate. However, let's speak as a group, collectively. We are part, we follow the foundation, we have done partnerships inside the Laboratorio so it can represent the Alianza de Video Livre (ALV) on the institutional front. Because the ALV is an NGO, and we have more freedom and greater legitimacy with the Laboratorio.

-So, that means that you work at Pixel Multimedia?
-In fact, we have two fronts that are very important: Pixel Multimedia (PM) is our company and it has commercial ends, and in parallel and we have also the Aliança do Video Livre (AVL), which is an independent organization, like an arm, like a partnership with the Open Video Alliance in New York, with the Mozilla Foundation. We have several fellows in that sense. So we are talking about two institutions that play here, one is the commercial front, the other is a collective front for activism in  video and technology.

-What is your connection to the Laboratorio Brasileiro de Cultura Digital (LBCD)?
-Well, we are not formally associated. We do it by being on the side and by having many partnerships with them. The founder members are always linking events and projects with the LBCD and in his name.


-Can you talk a little bit about PM? what is your function in PM? What kind of work you do there?
-I can always talk in the name of the two institutions, PM e AVL. I think it's important to represent them. Bom, I work at PM in the front of the linear video,  do graphic production of both commodities for the company and design for other projects, and also I do the processes of coordination and production of the streamings, the live transmissions (internet broadcasts) we do of events. Furthermore I am responsible of the maintenance of company equipment. In the AVL, I am an articulator, and there  I am responsible of both production and articulation of fellows for events. I am also responsible of the executive production of making projects, organizing events, articulating people, articulating the  discussion list in Portuguese, and also some participation in the discussion list in Spanish.


-How long have you been working on the PM and AVL?
-PM has approximately one year as a company. The AVL has 8 months if I am not wrong. I have been working in both PM and AVL since their beginnings (This last sentence was answered by email as follow up question).

-How many people work there?
-At PM we are now 5 people, that is temporary because we are  in process of recruitment. And in the AVL, here in Brazil we are 4. 

-I wanted to ask you if the LBCD, PM, AVL, are all in the same location, the House of Digital Culture in Sao Paulo?
-Exactly.


2. What kind of work does the PM and AVL?


-Can you speak of the purpose and goals of PM and the AVL?
-In PM, we are essentially focusing our work in streaming.  And here it is one of the cases we are investing a lot because there is very few technology developed in Brazil. In the sense of how people is really appropriating the live transmission with more professionalism, with higher quality now, and PM realized that demand. Pixel, the founder, works with free software for a long time, with technology and video for a long time, so we started to talk, and said, well, lets invest. There happened that one of us did the first free transmissions in Brazil, which were during the first Forum of digital culture in Brazil. Since then, we realized that it  was working and we started to become more professional and she (PM) is trying to focus essentially in online technologies and video. That concept  of streaming, those issues of information architecture for building sites, the production of videos. We're always trying to give the two options of using the proprietary computer software and the free software. We can do either a streaming WMV, or we can have another support such as OGG. We intend to promote reversal of values in order to make free software increasingly adapted and adopted by people in a sympathetic process, right? And it works, it works very well. And we also have a front in PM for making VJ works, that os one thing that the founder labored for a long time and there we have created many projects in visual ambiance and we have also played in inventing some multimedia installations with the form of video, and the issues of democratization and artistic installation.

In the ALV, we  are in a context of political articulation. We started by inviting some scientific institutions to participate in this Alliance in Brazil. Here I can quote the Getulio Vargas Foundation, one of the greatest thinkers in the free culture legislation especially here in Brazil. They have made incredible contributions. The "Nunklaki Communications" that is a company here in the House (Casa da Cultura Digital) who also has worked for some time with free software and video medium. The Free Software Association, which has one of the more senior and consistent works, they make the major World Fora of Free Software. We started to articulate these people in order to institutionalize that individual will of discussing in a wider form the topic of video on the internet and the variety of formats for video. Apart from that, we performed some actions such as a show of free videos that we did in the FISL in July, in Porto Alegre. We put together 11 hours of videos licensed and producer with free software, processed, released in free formats. In one week we received 30 registrations. So we understood that the people is interested, is producing and is wanting to return. Other actions we have done are some events for discussion, for  the enrichment of the discussion about free video, and we have fueled a site that we also opened and is videolivre.org.br . We are feeding some content, divulging some actions, and disseminating information as a source of refrence for the free video here. We also made a survey in partnership with the Open Video Allience to the Ford Foundation, which was the mapping of free video productions in Brazil, and that was super cool because we focused in people that were already using the free-culture references in Brazil. And there the developers of software, the video producers, remixers. We attempted to give a general look at each Brazilian state, we tried to  interview at least one person or one collective in each state, in order to see how they were using, which format they were using,  what software, what license they preferred, which one they recommended. And with that research we ended with some recommendations for public policies geared to the free video here in Brazil. And that gave some interesting outcomes like a presentation in New York, some possible partnerships so we  can have more discussion during the Second Forum de Digital Culture that  sis going to happen now in November. We also made a video from that text which was developed and we want to promote it during the Forum in order to make it more popular. And also too, a discussion with the Ministry of Culture about what would be an ideal platform for free video, an open video  publishing platform for the use of society and free formats. This model is being studied and is being developed in partnership with PM, another company that is named Loscopio, and the Ministry of Culture. Therefore, some things are already being moved thanks to that research.



-What results do you expect? Why is this work important? How do you feel about trying to achieve these results?

-I think that the scenario mainly in Brazil is this. We are doing some revisions of public policy for understanding that relation between intellectual property and content. Even for Internet use because that was very foggy here in Brazil. In the last four years we have seen the Brazilian community to grow up much on the Internet and the use is becoming increasingly accesible either by private houses or by  apparatus that the government provided. So we are passing towards the copyright reform bill. We are  analyzing principles and rights of internet users for minimally adapting those  issues of  legislation in order to enrich a little bit the use of content, remix, the possibilities of appropriation of content, some discussions of  access in the sense of infrastructure so we can go the closest to a broadband in Brazil, because our connection is ridiculous and we have a lot of bandwidth limit yet. But that is boiling now and all these people involved in digital culture are moving that and the government has also made many actions to make it work and to really discuss that in a more open and wide way. Therefore, I think the scenario is very positive and as we talked, we have a very strong community in Brazil and very interested, supporter of free culture for a long time, of the Creative Commons as well, it is one of the largest user communities of Creative Commons . So I think that yes, the results are now really showing up. Before they were always present but now,  with that support of inclusion from the Federal Government that is now prevailing, the Lula's government, we have grown a lot, and we have managed to see us as a more general community of users itself. Personally, I think that for our actions it was essentially important to create  the collective Casa da Cultura Digital, because they are many different companies that work in different ways with digital culture. And there,  you put together a series of different voices, that are working on the same environment, are creating content in the same place, are arguing about the uses, thinking the issue of how to reach the users, how the things can be better democratized in the network communication. in conclusion, the results are very positive because the people is very active now, and we are finally recognizing ourselves  as a collective and we are no longer isolated making some actions. So, that perhaps will continue growing like this, extending the appearance of those results.


-When it was founded exactly PM and the AVL?
-Look, the PM was founded  in November 2009. The AVL it is hard to tell, because formally it can  have about 8 months. Since it is an institution  a little bit more spontaneous, we already have some joints before, some conversations with OVA. It was founded at the beginning  of  2010, I think you can put it like that.


-Very good. Let's now talk about the role and context of ITC/Information in PM and AVL work? How do you use information in your work? examples?

-It is a central issue. Both the AVL and the PM work with tools, technologies, including free software. The concern is to work in a way that we do not feed vicious or liar models. We have a desire to be very careful with that content in a political manner so we do not make the mistake of feeding models or systems that we know do not work, that we know that not all people receive them, that wee realize that are limited, and that you can not achieve the freedom of help unless you pay or that you must accept parameters that many times are too invasive with the issue of freedom of expression.



-Can you give an example of the kind of technology that is used in PM and AVL?
-For example, for streaming where we have invested many resources for building web sites, we have suggested wordpress. And we have a developer that is a personal friend here, that has made some plug-ins for wordpress that facilitates the issue of embedding of streaming, along with participatory communication such as twitter or bate-papo. Those plug-ins were developed by the PM and are now in the  wordpress library called stop-paso. Furthermore, for example, the issue of turning to streaming the issue of OGG, giving users the option of watching in a free format. We are use to  transmitting  in Flash, to receiving in  Flash, but we are studying other formats so the people can have the option of which browser they want to use.


- What influences the choice of ICT in the PM and in the ALV?
- The PM has a policy of being a commercial enterprise in order to one day have have the capacity of  investing and supporting interesting free software projects that we believe the people is developing. I think its one of the main concerns with a business model. However, we want free software to be developed so  we re-invest money into our company in order to develop free software. In the AVL, it is the same thing. We do not have profitable ends. Therefore, all technologies that we use are free and the choice of them is aligned with that sense.  First, we choose free software projects that we think are going well, that are in well pad, that are being  developed languages that have a flexibility of use. We have also used Internet communication mechanisms that are private and that everyone uses, always trying to put together some complementary technology that is free. I think we do not have to be extremist with free software, because on the Internet people is starting  to liberate content until now, to liberate codes of software and tools now. Furthermore, we always try to combine in this way, for example, if we use Twitter, and we know Twitter is important,  at the same time we  develop a plug-in that is free to embed that Twitter into your site and we make that knowledge available and open.


- I think that strategy is good, you can not say I am not going to use Twitter because it is proprietary software.
- Yes, and, you're isolating your self. I think its a little bit unreal. If you're really talking about communication that is it. Like if you were saying I am not going to  use YouTube. Right. Then you are going to be isolated in your field, and it is going to be difficult for you to talk with more people and show other possibilities. For example, you are using Youtube, but you can build your own, you can and need to decentralize that content so more public can have access to it.


-Are there barriers to the use of information and ICT in your work (lack of education, awareness, access, skills, time, money, etc.)? examples?
- Barriers in proprietary tools or free tools.
- In both. Let's talk about the free. Is there any barrier to the  use of free tools?
- I think that today what we have is, and this crosses PM and AVL. One thing which is needed so badly, for example, are free video editors. Because we work professionally  with video it is  very hard to have the same performance, in the same amount of time, with free software editing than with  proprietary software. Proprietary software is still so light-years more developed. With free software, Caden-Live for instance, you still have a lot of technical restrictions and that ends delaying the professional editing rythm.