Technological Battles of OSS Firms/Communities to Shape the Future of Broadcasting Industry - The Case of Savoir-faire Linux’s R&D Project on FFmpeg

DebCon is a grand opportunity for developers and free software geeks to gather together and exchange the state-of-the-art technological developments on a myriad FLOSS projects including Debian. Oftentimes, technologists (i.e., software developers in this context) wonder why ‘technology/project A’ did not diffuse widely, and become celebrated as industry standards over ‘technology/project B’, despite its supremacy, meritocratic performance or significance in the relevant industry? Part of the answer to this question seems to lie in outer space of the technological sphere where industry dynamics, nature of contributors, and technology trajectories interact ensemble in order to give rise to a technological dominance. In this presentation, we will discuss the case of FFmpeg (an OS multimedia technology) as a useful OSS platform for data transmission within broadcasting industry. I further discuss the early empirical evidence, technical challenges, and the solid results. Later, I will explain the broader implications for the broadcasting industry and how and why it can become part of the standards.

Keywords: Open Source Software, FLOSS, FFmpeg, Broadcasting Industry, Technological Trajectory, Path-dependencies, Open and distributed Innovation