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Anna Helme of EngageMedia has been awarded a Dunlop Asia Fellowship by Asialink, a non-academic centre of The University of Melbourne and an initiative of the Myer Foundation, who promote public understanding of the countries of Asia and creates links with Asian counterparts.

Two programs of videos contributed to EngageMedia.org will be screened on the Big Screen at Federation Square in Melbourne between 7th and 12 of December. Federation Square is the site of many of Melbourne's major arts centres and a regular place for concerts, screenings and events. The video programs revolve around the issues of migration, indigenous issues, globalisation and old-growth forests.

EngageMedia is happy to announce the release of a new report into Free and Open Source Software video codecs. It is a review of available tools for the creation, playback and embedding of online video using FOSS codecs, and a look at the most pressing areas for development to enhance their adoption by social change video projects on the web.

The Portuguese translation of the Audio/Video NGO-in-a-box, co-produced by EngageMedia and Tactical Tech, has just been released online. The Audio/Video box is a collection of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for multimedia production and distribution. The Audio/Video edition of NGO-in-a-Box is a toolkit that lowers the entry level for NGOs, non-profits and media activists wanting to use audio and video for social change.

EngageMedia will be running a workshop about online video distribution at this years Making Links conference in Sydney, October 30-31. If you are interested in finding out how to compress your video, get your content online and get it out there make sure you come along.

Japanese labour organisation LaborNet has implemented Plumi to run UnionTube, a site focussed on Japanese worker's issues.

Come to the opening of "Institutions, Capitalism, and Dissent: A Rogue Education Conference" at Trades Hall, Melbourne from 6:30 PM on 14th September. The evening will be a casual affair, featuring films, a few laughs and plenty of free food. EngageMedia will present a screening of Rocking the Foundations - an amazing documentary account of the NSW Builders Labourers Federation in the 60's and 70's, along with shorts.

EngageMedia is looking for video makers going to the APEC summit in Sydney this week. We want to cover a range of angles on the site from those challenging APEC's neoliberal agenda. If you are planning on being there, are looking for other video makers, or have content to contribute then let us know.

EngageMedia are happy to announce Ogg Theora to Flash transcoding is live on the website. What does that mean?? Ogg Theora is a high quality FOSS (Free Open Source Software) video codec developed by Xiph.org. It means that now you can make an Ogg file of your video and when you upload it you'll be able to watch a transcoded (or converted) version of this in the EngageMedia embedded Flash Player - just as you would with any other video format. At EngageMedia we try to encourage the use of free software wherever possible. As far as video codecs like Quicktime, Windows Media and Flash are concerned, these are proprietary codecs that can cost huge amounts of money for online distributors to use, depending on the license and how these videos are delivered to the web audience. We encourage the use of FOSS codecs where possible, and are hoping to increase their usability and uptake.