FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ourmedia.org Passes 50,000 Members

Citizens media showcase also files for nonprofit status, adds new advisors

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10, 2005 – Ourmedia.org, the leading citizens media site on the Web, today announced the registration of its 50,000th member, the opening of a Donation Center, and the filing of its nonprofit papers with the IRS.

Member No. 50,000 is Pastor John Rewald of the Oasis New Life Centre in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, who published an mp3 of his most recent church sermon. (The sermon may be heard at http://www.ourmedia.org/node/85912 .)

Ourmedia allows anyone, anywhere in the world, to upload their videos, audio, photos, text works and properly licensed music. The site provides free storage, free bandwidth and long-term preservation through its partnership with the Internet Archive.

Ourmedia also took an important legal step this week in filing for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as a nonprofit educational charity with the Internal Revenue Service. The site, which launched on March 21, 2005, remains the only not-for-profit community service among a slew of new video hosting services, including BlipTV, YouTube, ClipShack, Phanfare, Revver, Vimeo, Castpost.com, DailyMotion.com, Vobbo.com and others.

“Ourmedia is exceeding our wildest expectations," said co-founder and executive director J.D. Lasica. "We have no marketing budget, but somehow 2,000 people each week are discovering us and joining, all through word of mouth. They like our mission of helping individuals create and share their own media."

Videobloggers, or vloggers, were the first to flock to the site, to preserve their works for years to come and to cut down on bandwidth bills charged by their Internet service providers. Bloggers still show off their video creations on their sites, but the works reside on Ourmedia's servers. Podcasters, who create on-demand Internet audio shows, have been the latest group to gravitate to Ourmedia, Lasica said.

Ourmedia today also announced the addition of two new members to its Advisory Board: Steve Rosenbaum, an entrepreneur who pioneered citizens media as the creator of MTV's "MTV News Unfiltered," and Nathon Gunn, CEO and co-founder of the Toronto consulting firm Bitcasters, who is working on an online artist-facilitation tool to enable anyone to self-publish.

Ourmedia also unveiled a new Donation Center, where anyone can contribute funds or buy merchandise such as T-shirts with customized sayings, stamps, books, DVDs and more. The site will hold contests for members to create new logos, taglines and designs.

Launched as an open-source project by seasoned members of the creative and technology communities, Ourmedia provides a home to more than 70,000 pieces of user-generated content. The site attracts nearly 1 million visitors a month. More than 80 volunteer moderators from 12 countries support the site by monitoring the material published by members. Other volunteers help with programming, content and strategy development. Strategic partners include the Internet Archive, Bryght, Creative Commons and Broadband Mechanics.

Lasica, who attended the Open Media Developers Summit in New York last month, also announced plans for a Citizens Media Learning Center, where experts, educators and students from leading universities will be creating the Web's richest knowledge base for free, in-depth information about digital media, such as how to create a podcast or videoblog, how to encode video, where to download grassroots video for the new video iPod or other devices, and so on.

He also announced plans to launch Remix Central in early 2006, a place where people will be able to find thousands of videos and audio works in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons that can be legally remixed and mashed up into a new creation. Anyone may volunteer to help with either project by contacting info@ourmedia.org.

About Ourmedia.org

Ourmedia, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, Calif., is an online community that hosts thousands of citizens media works for free. Through easy-to-use tools, Ourmedia lets its members publish any works of digital media – student films, video blogs, podcasts, music videos, mash-ups, photo albums, home movies, digital art, political ads, photo albums, your unpublished novel – by providing free storage, free bandwidth and free archiving. The site has won a large following as a one-stop gathering place for people to experience and learn about long-tail media. The organization's Board of Advisors includes Lawrence Lessig, Dan Gillmor, Brewster Kahle, Howard Rheingold, Doc Searls and other leading lights of the participatory media movement. For more information, visit http://www.ourmedia.org.

Press contacts:

Carla Schlemminger
schlemme@pacbell.net

Jennifer Kronstain
jennifer@jenniferkronstain.com

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