Managing Video, Podcasts, Comments With Open Source Publishing Tool

By Geoff Spick | Published Mar 12, 2010

MediaCore is ramping up towards v1.0, offering a free video and podcast management tool for digital delivery and encouraging social content.

A Podcast of Thousands

MediaCore is the creation of Simple Solutions and is currently in open beta. Visit the demo site and you can take a guide through the slick demo that allows for easy, and attractive, navigation of audio or video content, or podcasts, making it a quick and sexy social media solution for anyone trying to get their content out on to the Web.

Offering publication or uploading in a range of formats including Youtube, Google video and Vimeo plus support for .flv, .mp4, .mp3, .m4a, .h264 formats, MediaCore can help publish content or collect it from users and ensure it can be seen at the most popular places on the net. Admins can create topics and tags to help categorize videos or podcasts.

Video For All

Users of a created site can browse different categories of video, comment and rate them, tag favorites and upload their own, subject to review. Admins can use a web-based dashboard to monitor new submissions, moderate comments and manage site settings — all from a well-formatted and unfussy admin interface.

Manage video uploading and media communities with MediaCore

Behind the Dash

Powered by Python, TurboGears and MySQL, MediaCore is a server-based solution that runs on Unix. Podcast creation is handled by the app, working with RSS and iTunes to create the necessary updates to maintain awareness for your listeners or viewers.

The first public release was v0.70 back in January and it currently sits at 0.7.2. An soon-to-be-released update will improve search and sharing to popular social sites, a tweaked front end and will make for easier installation on the server. If you company needs assistance creating sites, then the design team is available to do the leg work for you at reasonable rates.

Still far from a complete product, existing users are finding issues with MediaCore and, if you try it, you might come across them. However, the developers are active on the forums and posting fixes or workarounds where they can. Future suggestions are also welcome, with the most common one asking for HTML 5 support, (no doubt from devs with plans for iPhone sites).

Manage entries in a straightforward manner

With many competitors in the media management space ranging in size and scope — from Qumu to North Plains and Accordent — MediaCore will have a lot to do to prove itself, but mixing open source with simplicity has proven a winner time and again online. It has a long way to go yet, being able to sell video would be useful and we're sure the company has lots of plans.