Trisha Shetty (Editor)

MediaGoblin

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Developer(s)
  
GNU Project

Written in
  
Python, SQL

Development status
  
Active

MediaGoblin

Initial release
  
2 June 2011; 5 years ago (2011-06-02)

Stable release
  
0.9.0 (March 26, 2016; 11 months ago (2016-03-26)) [±]

Repository
  
git.savannah.gnu.org/mediagoblin.git

GNU MediaGoblin (also shortened to MediaGoblin or GMG) is a free, decentralized Web platform (server software) for hosting and sharing many forms of digital media. It strives to provide an extensible, federated, and freedom-respectful software replacement to major media publishing services such as Flickr, DeviantArt, and YouTube.

Contents

History

The origins of GNU MediaGoblin date back to 2008, when a gathering was held at the Free Software Foundation in order to discuss the path that Internet communities should take. The answer was that restrictive and centralized structures were both technically and ethically doubtful, and may harm the typical fairness and availability of the Internet. Since then, a number of projects have appeared to prevent this; including Identi.ca, Libre.fm, Diaspora, among others.

The coding of MediaGoblin started in March 2011, still being under active development.

  • 2012-08-24 – version 0.3.1 released, with theming support
  • From October 2012 to 9 November, the project launched a crowdfunding campaign through the Free Software Foundation.
  • 2012-12-20 – version 0.3.2 released, with support for 3D models, collections, and API.
  • 2013-03-12 – version 0.3.3 released, with interface and API enhancements, and avoiding unneeded processing of some videos.
  • 2013-06-17 – version 0.4.0 released. New plugin system, support for PDF and Open Document Format through PDF.js and LibreOffice respectively. Experimental implementation of the Piwigo API.
  • 2013-09-05 – version 0.5.0 released, with a pluggable authentication system (including OpenID and Mozilla Persona), pluggable media handling and comment notifications.
  • 2013-12-03 – version 0.6.0 released, web-based administration for user permissions, media complaint handling, non-interactive uploads, authentication via LDAP and user-specific Disk quota.
  • 2014-08-26 – version 0.7.0 released, base Pump.io API implemented, incorporated Skeleton for a more responsive layout, introduced the Sandy Seventies Speedboat theme, command line batch uploading, experimental 'blog' media type and a metadata plugin.
  • 2015-06-04 – version 0.8.0 released, client to server API improved
  • 2016-03-26 – version 0.9.0 released, Python 3 support (supports Python 2.7, Python 3.4 or later). Improved OAuth security. Internal improvements for federation (improved database layout and particularly in permitting generic relations, comments, etc.). Improved the way collections are handled. Bugfixes.

    • Design and features

    MediaGoblin is part of GNU, and its code is released under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License; meaning that it adheres to the principles of free and open-source software. The copyright on everything else (e.g. design, logo) is given to the public domain. Christopher Allan Webber, the core developer, came up with the name "MediaGoblin" which also makes a pun with the pronunciation of "gobbling". The project mascot is a purple goblin called Gavroche wearing clothing that resembles a stereotypical artist costume.

    The main page displays an upper banner with MediaGoblin's typeface and an authentication section for users. The remaining space is left to show thumbnails of the latest posted works. Each user owns a personal profile comprised by two vertical sections – one for uploads arranged as a gallery and another with a customizable text box. For displaying media, the platform focuses on the work itself rather than overstocking with options and buttons; nonetheless, comments can be added under the artwork description. Some other features like tags, metadata, theming, Creative Commons licensing and GPS support can be enabled as separate plug-ins to enrich the usage of GNU MediaGoblin.

    The platform successfully hosts and displays many sorts of media:

  • As of version 0.3.1 it includes support for plain text (ASCII art), images (PNG and JPEG).
  • HTML5 capabilities are widely used to play video and/or audio contained in WebM format; while FLAC, WAV and MP3 uploads are automatically transcoded to Vorbis audio and then encapsulated into WebM.
  • 3D models support (preview and renderization) was added on 22 October 2012 and is achieved by means of HTML5 Canvas, Thingiview, WebGL and Blender.

    • References

    MediaGoblin Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA