Ogg Vorbis is the lossy compression format that is developed by Xiph.org an open source foundation that supports the developement of open source (license free) multi media formats. With Ogg Vorbis is aims to replace the MP3 format once and to expand their line of products it has now also a losless compression format in their portfolio.
The people of the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) project have joined Xiph.org and will be supported by them. The foundation is now involved in development of compressed audio and video and could be very important in future developments in multimedia.
Here at Xiph.Org, it's our job to support open and free multimedia, even if it wasn't created here. A couple months ago, I approached the head of the FLAC project, Josh Coalson, with a proposition: Why not join forces for global domination? FLAC will get access to Xiph's resources and a laissez-faire approach to their codebase, and we get to put a working project in place to fill the gap left by a focus change that happened five years ago. |
Josh sent out a missive to the FLAC development team. Open Source and Free Software projects are more often collaborative efforts than strictly the brainchild of one person. It was important to us that the FLAC team be cool with the idea. Happily, response was positive.
Today, Tomorrow and Beyond
Today, The FLAC project joins the Xiph.Org Foundation. FLAC's mailing lists and website will be moved over to Xiph's servers in the next few days, and our collaboration will be celebrated throughout the land.
What's next? After the housewarming party, FLAC will continue to progress, and all the current Xiph projects (like Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and Icecast) will keep going, as well. 2003 has already been an exciting year for Xiph, and we're only twenty-nine days into it.
More information can be found on the website of Xiph.org here. Discuss this in our Audio Forum.
Source: Xiph.org
