RSSAOL Opens Up Audio, Video Technology
By Nate Mook | Published June 3, 2005, 8:30 AM
Despite helping to launch the Mozilla Foundation and releasing the code to its AOL Server software, America Online has never been synonymous with open source. But a number of new initiatives could change AOL's proprietary image, as the company strives to reach a broader audience on the open Web.
Faced with extending its core business strategy beyond its walled garden and rapidly falling subscriber numbers, AOL is looking outward -- rather than inward -- to bolster its arsenal of content and services. Specifically, AOL is enlisting the open source community to take over a number of projects.
First on the list are two popular visualization plug-ins found in Winamp, AOL's digital media player that is used by over 60 million people worldwide. Milkdrop and Winamp's Advanced Visualization Studio are now free for developers to tweak and utilize under a BSD open source license.
Milkdrop's predecessor, known as Geiss, was recently adopted by Yahoo for its Music Engine software. And Yahoo officials say they are now considering making the switch to Milkdrop. Developers of projectM, an OpenGL cross-platform music visualizer, have already begun to improve their software using Milkdrop's source code.
"By open sourcing these plug ins, we have empowered the passionate and highly skilled members of the Winamp community to play a direct role in the development of our projects," AOL spokesperson Deana Graffeo told BetaNews. "We're very excited to see what the community comes up with for Milkdrop and AVS."
A Focus on Community
AOL expects the projects to be managed from SourceForge, where AOL Server also finds its home. "Different members of the community are stepping up to the plate to spearhead the direction of these projects. We are lucky enough to have an incredibly vibrant developer community to respond," Graffeo said.
Going beyond just plug-ins, AOL is additionally open sourcing its Ultravox streaming protocol, which is used by Radio@AOL, and its Nullsoft Video (NSV) file format used by Video@AOL. Ultravox is the next-generation of Nullsoft's Shoutcast streaming platform that handles all types of content. Ultravox is codec, DRM and file format agnostic, according to AOL, which bills the technology as a "flexible streaming media platform."
"A good example would be 12 feeds from XYZ Corp. on one Ultravox pipe. The edge servers would then feed down 1 of the feeds to clients," Principal Software Engineer Stephen Loomis explained to BetaNews. "The possibilities are limitless at this point: Multi-angle / Multi-channel / Back-channel, live RSS updates, and overlay support to name a few."
AOL has established a Web site to disseminate the Ultravox and NSV specifications, along with sample content and an encoding plug-in.
Although Ultravox is heavily used internally, AOL representatives said that by opening its source, the company "can better encourage industry adoption and accelerate the development of the platform." Ultravox has been submitted at the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) to be considered as a standard transport protocol.
Use the Source
Unbeknownst to many, AOL is no stranger to open source. The code behind the company's Web server, which powers the AOL service, was first released in 1999. AOL has also long supported the open sourcing of Netscape, which went on to form the Mozilla Suite and eventually Firefox. In 2003, AOL pledged $2 million and personnel from its Netscape division to the newly christened Mozilla Foundation.
To help reinvigorate its struggling ICQ client, AOL has also turned to open source. Version 5 of the instant messaging software, which debuted in February, was built atop the open ICQ Xtraz platform. The Xtraz architecture was designed to encourage developers to build add-ons to ICQ.
AOL is planning to follow a similar path with the next-generation release of AOL Instant Messenger, known as "Triton," which is currently in beta testing. The Triton code base will also serve as a platform for other product initiatives, including e-mail clients, browsers and calendars.
New Development Paradigm
AOL is embracing the notion of open source on a corporate level, Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager of AIM and ICQ, told BetaNews. These recent efforts are the start of a new development philosophy at AOL that includes individuals outside of the company.
This philosophy is better suited for rapid development said Palihapitiya. All of the necessary evangelism, support and documentation coming from AOL will keep pace with the efforts.
AOL hopes the move to open source will draw a tremendous amount of interest in its projects. Eventually, Palihapitiya predicted that the Triton project could rival even Mozilla due to its scale and the massive AIM user base.
David Worthington contributed to this report.
AOL does seem to destroy everything they get their hands on. By opening this stuff up they are taking their hands off. They drove Winamp into the ground when they could have utilized the huge library of Time Warner media, and the pimp Winamp team to really take that software somewhere.
I always enjoyed playing with AVS and Geiss, and look forward to playing with even better versions of it in the future. Does this mean an AVS plugin for XMMS and other FOSS media players?
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It's bloody good news! For all the many AOL members out there, most lack the fundamental security features needed to access, for example, e-filing in the Federal courts. Getting AOL's audio and video content interoperable with high-security browsers is absolutele critical for them to maintain a customer base of professional and business users. AOL has had it's growing pains...before the CIS merger, many dialup customers couldn't dial up during peak hours.
My own personal wish: I'd like to see AOL implement a caching data-transfer protocol, along the lines of CIS Quick B, in the TCP/IP environment. This would do wonders for download speed while reducing network congestion...and the lack of speed and the excess of congestion is what keeps most folks from relying on the 'Web to deliver audio and video to them.
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Good move. Logically, the next thing would be of course to open-source Winamp. I mean, it is "free as in beer" at the current moment.
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AOL helped launch Mozilla :O
A new light is shone on them in my eyes.
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nooo AOL may have good intentions but they destroy everything they get there hands on
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Open source is a good move. But you're right about "AOL may have good intentions but they destroy everything they get there hands on."
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Who really cares what "AO-HELL" does....this is a piece of crap company that if they closed it's doors today, the world would be a better place.
AOL=SOL
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"By ScottNY845
posted Jun 3, 2005 - 9:52 AM
Who really cares what "AO-HELL" does....this is a piece of crap company that if they closed it's doors today, the world would be a better place.
AOL=SOL "
I must say that I agree. AOL is one of the worst companies and anyone that has it must be a misinformed person.
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It's great that AOL wants to release some of their buggier programs to open source.
If Triton is gonna be open source, won't it be easier for people to find exploits and use them to create programs to take advantage of it? I know that more than one person will find and report any bugs, but knowing how a program ticks makes it a lot easier to write simple programs such as booters and laggers.
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I'm sure security will be taken into account when opening the platform. I think the focus will be on the client architecture itself and building applications based on Triton. AIM's network has already been reverse engineered and applications such as Gaim are pretty full-featured at this point.
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When has AOL ever taken into account "security"? AOL software is a large virus/spy/ad ware!
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No, it's really not. Winamp and AIM are great products and contain no viruses or spyware.
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AIM is spy/ad ware. So yes it is.
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Well soon you can develop your own client on the platform without any ads.
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