Friday, March 09, 2012

Digital Media Primer For Geeks

Christopher 'Monty' Montgomery from Xiph.org
Today, I stumbled onto an awesome video by the open source Pholks over at Xiph.org and it was so good that I had to share it with everyone!

It's narrated by one of my new geek heroes named Christopher 'Monty' Montgomery (who btw - is quite good on camera) and the superb video is worth watching more than once to let the plethora of information really sink in.  I really appreciate the humor that he throws in and the educational aspect of the technical data is not boring in the slightest thanks to his un-intimidating style.  In essence, the video "presents the technical foundations of modern digital media via a half-hour fire-hose of information." 

To be honest, I thought I already knew a lot of the basics, but apparently there is so much more to it all - especially digital video.  Personally, I really like the way he ties basic telephonic/broadcast history with accepted scientific theory and fast forwards the evolution and quagmire of standards into the story line, poignantly 
simplifying the essential, BIG topics everyone should comprehend before claiming to be a digital media geek..

It's well worth the listen, trust me.  Also, it's quite apropos and impressive that the entire production was shot and edited on open source software :-)