Kaltura Launches Free Open Source Online Video Platform

Kaltura has been rambling around the net for some time now but just only recently announced the launch of their full Community Edition which is a free, open source and self-hosted online video platform. This is a big day for all of those that want a do-it-yourself solution for video hosting.

Kaltura's new product, available for free download on Kaltura's community website www.kaltura.org, lets everyone create their own video site and integrate it into their existing site. The package offers everything one might need. The full feature list is quite extensive but includes content management, sharing, editing, advertising and syndication.

Now if you're so inclined you needn't invest time, energy and money into creating your own in-house solution. Nor do you need to start considering all of the costs of using a hosted solution which could cost hundreds of dollars per month. This means that you can now have complete control over your video platform and not have to hire on a team of programmers to put it all together for you. It also means that you have control of security, servers and your entire operation.

Kaltura does also offer paid services that include support, maintenance and professional services as well as SaaS and even SEO.

"Kaltura Community Edition puts control back in the hands of publishers," said Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO of Kaltura "When we looked across the market, we saw a commoditized landscape littered with more than 50 online video providers selling similar services and trying to undercut the others' prices. It is clear, based on what we've seen happen with operating systems, databases and application servers, for example, that the market is not only ready, but desperately in need of a free and open source alternative.”

Kaltura Community Edition is a self-hosted, community supported version of Kaltura's Video Management Platform. It is available under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 giving companies the full freedom to control every aspect of their online video. Community Edition is multi-platform and runs on Linux, Windows, Mac and soon on leading cloud computing platforms. Kaltura is also a founding member of the Open Video Alliance (www.openvideoalliance.org), a group of organizations, developers, creators, and academics all seeking to foster the open video revolution.

Kaltura's Open Source Online Video Frenzy at OSCON 2009

Kaltura is publicly announcing its Community Edition today at OSCON 2009, the industry leading O'Reilly event, in San Jose. Exhibiting at booth #207, Kaltura has a slew of great activities planned, including a rocking party, free beer at the booth and on-site demos. In addition, Kaltura is calling developers to take part in a cool contest and win some fun prizes, including an iPhone, Wii and even cash. For more details on the Online Video Frenzy and Kaltura's developer challenges, visit http://www.kaltura.org/frenzy.