Backed by tech veterans Andy Rappaport and Mitch Kapor, the PCF is looking to do for video what podcasting has done for audio. Publishing over the Internet using standard RSS feeds, the aptly named Broadcast Machine software includes a companion DTV viewer that lets users subscribe and manage different broadcasts.
Similar technologies are already in place for podcasting, including Apple’s recent upgrade to its iTunes player that lets people subscribe to and manage different podcasts.
“The DTV rolls up everything you need to find video channels, subscribe to channels, download video and watch it in one package,” PCF co-director Holmes Wilson said.
Wilson said regularly produced Internet video shows, or Internet TV, will inevitably become a large market as the technology catches on.
"We want to make a mass medium for video that works in the same way as blogs do today," he said.
All based on BitTorrent technology, a popular file sharing application, the PCF software includes a built-in DTV Channel Guide, which already boasts more than 100 free internet TV channels. Producers need only submit to the guide for consideration.
A host of commercial companies are trying to capitalize on Internet TV, including digital playback developer TiVo, which recently began testing a new service that lets customers download shows off the Internet before they air on television. In August, TiVo inked a deal with the Independent Film Channel that offers many of the channel's shows to TiVo subscribers via broadband.
PCF, however, plans to stay nonprofit. But that doesn’t mean the foundation is thinking small, Wilson said. Already plans are in place to integrate Microsoft's Windows Media Player into the Broadcast Machine, enabling digital right management (DRM) that larger producers will no doubt want.
"Most of the publishers we are dealing with at this stage aren't using any DRM," Wilson said.
Both the Broadcast Machine and the DTV player are available free from The Participatory Culture Foundation’s website.