Two more open source projects from Adobe

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 22 July 2009 05:39

Business IT - Open Source

Adobe has open sourced part of its Strobe project under the name Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), along with the Text Layout Framework (TLF).

Adobe has been progressively opening various aspects of Flash, either in terms of publishing specifications or releasing code under an open source licence.

One of the main obstacles to making Flash completely open is its use of proprietary codecs.

The idea behind OSMF is to allow developers to create their own media players based on Flash.

Why would anyone want to create a custom media player? Apart from branding, Adobe suggests that its strategy allows the use of plug-ins for advertising, reporting and content delivery.

"OSMF provides standard functionality along with plug-ins from third parties so content providers have the flexibility to adapt monetization strategies to specific content and the needs of their audiences," Adobe officials observed.

Such plug-ins can be compiled into the player for best performance, or dynamically loaded for flexibility. Adobe says the API has been designed to allow providers to readily support both scenarios.

The OSMF site is intended to promote the development and use of best practices associated with the software as well as being a home for the open source project itself.

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