Frequently Asked Questions
General Inquiry
1. How do I register as a VideoLectures.NET user?
Getting a VideoLectures.NET account is free and takes just minutes to set up. Go to the VideoLectures.NET homepage (http://videolectures.net). Just above the Search button at the top of the homepage, click New User and Sign Up. The Registration page appears. Type your first name, last name, email address. Read the Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and type the code shown in the box. Click the I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy checkbox. Click Register and activate the account by clicking the link in the activation mail you should receive shortly after successfully performing this first step.
2. How do I contact a specific speaker at VideoLectures.NET?
VideoLectures.NET is intended as a video publication site and as an interactive experience with the speakers’ videos, but does not have a function of agent. VideoLectures.NET is not in contact with the speakers whose videos are hosted and instead offers to the users the speakers’ homepages as an opportunity for direct contact with the speakers. Inquiries related to specific conference and course materials will be forwarded to the conference organizers and members associated with that event for their consideration. However due to the tremendous volume of email inquiries received it is unlikely he or she will be able to respond personally.
3. Under which terms do lectures get published on the site?
VideoLectures.NET operates on few levels; since we film conferences the content is usually peer reviewed and already has an editorial board which selects the accepted papers which eventually get filmed. The content that comes from universities is reviewed from faculty members within the curricula. The video editing is done in-house and is never censored. The lectures are never edited in a way which would allow content or viewer manipulation.
4. Where does the training content come from?
The training materials are being developed within the FP5, FP6, and FP7 European Framework Programs, where VideoLectures.NET is being used as an educational platform for several EU funded research projects such as PASCAL NoE, ECOLEAD NoE, SEKT IP, COIN, E4, Euridice, LarKC, NeOn, PetaMedia NoE, SMART, Tool East and different OER open educational resources organizations among others The OpenCourseWare Consortium, MIT OpenCourseWare, Open Yale Courses and other scientific institutions like CERN.
5. How can my University, Group or Company become an affiliate of VideoLectures.NET?
At this moment there is no formal way of being an affiliate of VideoLectures.NET
6. What to do if you as a speaker, publisher or its agent want to remove certain content from this website?
Please note that the VideoLectures.NET website do not host/upload any illegal files on our servers. It is only a collection of peer reviewed information and information from the internet using legal searching techniques. However, we offer a service to remove content from the website if the copyright holder (speaker) requests so. These removal requests are only valid if:
- you are, or your company is, the copyright holder of the content in question
- you provide the exact links to the content.
- you provide the complete name(s) of the content in question.
- you provide complete contact information (including the name and phone number of the contact person), not a general mail address. If your request complies with all of above information, you can contact us by e-mail at the following link: info@videolectures.net
7. When encountering a problem (technical or editorial) how do I leave a comment or review?
There are two scenarios for which your comment can be posted: • via review or comment box which is placed below each event or lecture. • via our ticket system placed in the bottom right corner of each lecture. Clicking on bold text »ticket system« will reffer you to the page where problems, questions or comments can be reported.
8.What is the VideoLectures.NET Comment Policy?
VideoLectures.NET never censors comments based on political or ideological point of view. We only delete those comments that include the following transgressions: • are abusive, off-topic, use excessive foul language • include ad hominem attacks including comments that celebrate the death or illness of any person, public figure or otherwise • contain racist, sexist, homophobic and other slurs • are solicitations and/or advertising for content non-related personal blogs and websites • thread spamming (you've posted this same comment elsewhere on the site • are posted with the explicit intention of provoking other commenters or the staff at Huffington Post. • contains content that may infringe the copyright or intellectual property rights of others or other applicable laws or regulations.
Legal Issues
9. How does VideoLectures.NET define non-commercial use?
Non-commercial use means that users may not sell, profit from, or commercialize VideoLectures.NET materials or works derived from them, unless otherwise noted.
10. Who owns the intellectual property published on the VideoLectures.NET Web site?
The intellectual property of the videos is owned by the speaker of each particular video. The speaker gives VideoLectures.Net permission to videotape their presentation for educational purposes and authorize to distribute the presentation in various media, including, but not limited to the classroom, television (broadcast, cable and satellite), internet (including webcasts and podcasts), and any other communications medium currently existing or later created. The speakers transfer all the necessary rights (especially the right to reproduce, distribute, and broadcast) of their talk, excluding moral rights, onto the portal VideoLectures.Net. VideoLectures.NET also clarifies that it will not edit any content of the video, nor claims any ownership of content. The videos can be removed, edited or distributed on the presenters’ request. Prior to making any materials publicly available, the VideoLectures.NET team reviews all the video material extensively to provide the best possible quality and determine the correct ownership of the material and obtain the appropriate licenses to make the material openly available on the Web. We will promptly remove any material that is determined to be infringing on the rights of others.
11. What license VideoLectures.NET uses and what does it mean?
The content on VideoLectures.Net is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license which essentially states that you are free to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work, also you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work), you may not use the work for commercial purposes and you may not alter, transform, or build upon the work.
Technical Issues
12. How can I download videos from VideoLectures.NET?
The videos are not downloadable at the moment but VideoLectures.NET expects to change this policy in the next few weeks or at least at the first server upgrade in the near future. Please note that only the sections of MIT OCW and Yale are downloadable.
Download restrictions
Video downloads (where available) are limited to several lecture downloads per day. We were forced to introduce download limitations due to several web-bot experiences in which automated downloaders tried to transfer terabytes of data and consequently over-saturated our servers and internet connections, thus hindering our quality of service to other users.
13. How can I view locked videos from VideoLectures.NET?
Some of the videos are locked and not public upon speaker’s requests due to fresh scientific content and results.
14. How can I upload videos on VideoLectures.NET?
At this moment we do not provide upload, because all the material on the page is peer to peer revised and by allowing free upload we might compromise our position. Although future plans will allow upload. Direct upload is possible for Institutions or Companies which are interested in long term cooperation and have financial resources for hosting, editing and filming lectures.
15. What if my video doesn’t play?
First make sure to have all the necessary technical requirements listed below. Also note that most residential ISP's block ports to combat viruses and spam, which could also be the reason for not being able to see the videos. The most commonly blocked ports are port 80 and port 25. Port 80 is the default port for http traffic.
16. I'm behind a firewall or using Internet security software. How does that affect my connection?
A firewall is used to block unwanted traffic from your network and/or computer. If you are on a university or corporate network, check with your Network Administrator to make sure that the local network’s firewall is configured to allow streaming media content to be viewed. You need to open the following protocols and ports: WWW/HTTP port 80, TCP Ports 8080, 7070 and 554, and, if possible, UDP ports 4040, 7007 and 554.
If you have your own software or hardware firewall installed, please refer to the documentation that shipped with the product or visit that company's website for more information
17. Why does the stream continuously buffer?
The player needs a certain amount of video buffered into memory before it can play. If it doesn't have enough network bandwidth to buffer as much as it needs to, the player will keep trying but never succeed at playing the video stream. Issues that could keep you from having enough bandwidth for buffering include:
- a slow network connection (such as a dial-up modem)
- too many services or applications using your local network (e.g., watching video while downloading files and surfing the Internet)
- too many people using the local network
If you have previously played the stream successfully but are currently experiencing problems, try clearing the history and cache in your browser.
18. How do I check my connection speed?
Windows Media Player will automatically detect your connection speed by default and does not need to be set manually. If you need to change this setting go to Tools > Options, and click the Performance tab. Go to the dialog box Connection Speed and click the radio button next to Choose connection speed to pick the appropriate connection speed for your computer.
19. What monitor settings are recommended for viewing the programs?
Because of the media-rich content we provide, we recommend viewing the programs at a minimum screen resolution of 800 X 600 pixels. We prefer to use 1024 X 768, but most settings should provide enough space for display of the pages.
20. What are the technical requirements for viewing VideoLectures.NET video materials?
To best view and use the site, VideoLectures.NET has adopted the following guidelines:
- Our site works on the Unix, and Windows platforms.
- For watching videos higher-speed connections are preferable, slower connections, such as 28.8 kbps modems will not provide good stream, but should allow users to download materials which will take a longer period of time.
- VideoLectures.NET has tested the site with the following browsers: o Internet Explorer 6.0+ (Windows) o Safari 4.0+ (Mac OSX) o Firefox 3.0+ (all platforms) o Google Crome (all platforms) o Opera (all platforms only flash player!!)
Note: For viewing Windows Media files in Firefox please make sure to download the Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin, we provide the download link below the video box in the ”See also” section. Also make sure to install the latest version of Adobe Flash player.
For MAC users The videos on VideoLectures.NET are also compatible with MAC OS. For OS X you will need to download Flip4Mac Windows Media plugin
Note: When connecting to Windows Media streaming servers, the Flip4Mac may try to download the requested media instead of streaming it. This can cause the video stream to stutter or loop back after a few minutes of play. To correct this:
1. Open the System Preferences utility 2. Click Flip4Mac WMV to open the Flip4Mac preferences pane 3. Open the Movie tab 4. Select "Create streaming movies" 5. Close System Preferences and restart any open browsers
The next time you access a WMA or WMV stream, the plugin will display the streaming progress bar instead of the download bar, and the stream should play correctly. For OS 8/9 you will need Media Player 7.1
After you've downloaded the correct codec or Media Player you may need to quit your browser and then re-start/re-open it for the player to work correctly.
