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The Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is an opportunity to show off high quality free culture content in Ubuntu. At the heart of Ubuntu's ethos is a belief in showcasing free software and free culture, and with each development cycle we open the opportunity for any Free Culture artist to put their work in front of millions of Ubuntu users around the world. Although the space restrictions are tight, and we are limited to how much content we can include, this is an excellent opportunity for artists everywhere.

How it works is simple:

• Your submission must be no larger than 1MB for audio, 2.5MB for video and 0.5MB for photo/graphic.

• Upload your submission somewhere online (there are lots of free hosting solutions available such as archive.org). Do not email any of the organisers or judges with your submissions.

• Add your entry to one of the tables below.
• When the deadline for submissions closes, our panel of judges (Luis de Bethencourt, Lydia Pintscher, Tony Whitmore, and Greg Grossmeier) will pick a shortlist, and the Community Council will then pick the final winners from the shortlist.

The deadline for submissions is 28th Feb 2010.

Submissions

Audio Submissions

This part of the competition is for audio pieces. Music, although in any style, is preferred. Please ensure the submitted piece is of sufficiently high quality encoding and bitrate.

All audio submissions must match the following criteria:

• Each submission cannot be larger than 1MB in size.

• The submission must be able to be legally distributed with Ubuntu and be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike or Creative Commons Attribution license.

  • We will accept submissions that use the Creative Commons Zero waiver as long as those submissions are submitted by the original creator.

• The submission must be available in Ogg Vorbis format.
• Please embed the License/Author information into the file using the file metadata.
• You must provide a link to the submission audio - we cannot accept email submissions.

Video Submissions

This part of the competition is for video submissions. Any subject or topic is welcome, although Ubuntu related content is of particular interest.

All video submissions must match the following criteria:

• Each submission cannot be larger than 2.5MB in size.

• The submission must be able to be legally distributed with Ubuntu and be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike or Creative Commons Attribution license.

  • We will accept submissions that use the Creative Commons Zero waiver as long as those submissions are submitted by the original creator.

• The submission must be available in Ogg Theora format.
• Please embed the License/Author information into the file using the file metadata.
• You must provide a link to the submission video - we cannot accept email submissions.

Photo / Graphic Submissions

This part of the competition is for photography and graphic pieces. Any kind of visual art is eligible, whether photography, art, digitally generated content or otherwise.

All photo / graphic submissions must match the following criteria:

• Each submission cannot be larger than 0.5MB in size.

• The submission must be able to be legally distributed with Ubuntu and be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike or Creative Commons Attribution license.

  • We will accept submissions that use the Creative Commons Zero waiver as long as those submissions are submitted by the original creator.

• The submission must be available in a PNG or JPG format.
• Please embed the License/Author information into the file using the file metadata.
• You must provide a link to the submission photo/graphic - we cannot accept email submissions.

Terms

• All submissions must be in by 16 July 2009.
• All decisions by the judges are final.
• Content that contains nudity, racism, sexism or other offensive content will be disqualified.

• All submissions must be licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike or Creative Commons Attribution license.

  • We will accept submissions that use the Creative Commons Zero waiver as long as those submissions are submitted by the original creator.

• Please embed the License/Author information into the file using the file metadata.

Comments/Questions

• Clearer instructions for "how to submit" might be a good idea? Also; is it more appropriate to add new submissions to the start, or to the end, of a list? Final point; I understand the need to conserve space on the install, but 0.5 mb is not very large, for a high-quality photograph; would it be possible to increase the max size allowance, at all?
• Why isn't SVG allowed? Shouldn't we be showcasing free formats as well as content?

• What about animations that are not Ogg Theora?

• What about text?

  • What about Copyleft books? I'm thinking Lessig's "Remix" ... I like this idea. Maybe "Art of community"

• What about FOSS demos? (As in demo scene) With OpenGL maturing and OpenCL coming Ubuntu might get some traction in the area. Example video: 4 kb demo. | Imho larger demos show much more. This is 64k and runs atop the Linux kernel, which seems mandatory ;-). Source code availability and a proper license is also mandatory... And hey: these should be in the repos, or are we talking about the rendered video movies (as videoclips) made with such nice programs? ... Yes, an extra package would be nice, but a lot of extra work. For starters the example-content package seems fine and No we talking about linux programs. I think because of space restrictions 64k is probably the maximum.

  • I agree on this! The demo scene IS a great bit of modern free culture, largely driven by computers. Fits in pretty soundly -- dylanmccall 2009-10-01 16:11:00