16kB: Web Developement and Design Brought to by 16kB

The Blipvert Project is brought to you by James Cordiner and 16kB. We are a web developement studio based in Toronto, Canada. We build custom web applications and help small and medium sized businesses with open source software and technology solutions.

Blipverts are made using:

- the Python programming language
- XML generated by swfmill and Amara
- the Django web framework
- all powered by FreeBSD

What Are Blipverts?

Blipverts are a new kind of Flash banner ad built by custom programs that modify and recombine existing Flash advertising found on the web. They are original creations utilizing the net's vast DNA of Flash SWF data contained in banners ads. The blipvert system collects this information from SWF data urging us to buy more cars, phones, etc. from the web and creates from those new abstract blipvert banners. These are then distributed back into the net from our ad servers.

A blipvert appears at the top of this page as the banner ad. You can refresh this page to view some more blipverts. Blipvert software is an emerging system. Blipverts are intended to be viewable by anyone with a recent version of Flash, but due to limitations of our current build processes they may not all be viewable in your Flash player.

The Blipvert Project is a design project and our blipverts are not intended to sell nor are we affliated with any product or brand.

A Short History of the Term "Blipvert"

Blipvert Viewer
The name blipvert comes from the 80s TV series Max Headroom where the world's largest media corporation, Network 23, had created a form of advertising that condensed a thirty second commercial into a high intensity three second blipvert that would increase viewer's memory retention and prevent channel surfing. The network planned to sell them in a lucrative contract to the mysterious Zig Zag Corporation when it was discovered people were self combusting while watching the blipvert during testing.

As far as we know our blipverts do not pose any health hazards to viewers.

How Are These Flash Blipverts Made?

Blipverts are created through a process that recombines SWF data found on the net. Normally Flash banner ads would be designed withen a Flash authoring environment utilizing source graphics, shapes and Actionscript which is then stored as a FLA file and then exported to the web as a SWF.

With the advent of open source flash utilities such as swfmill it is possible to explore SWF data in a far more open and unhindered manner. Our blipverts are created by collecting XML fragments from existing SWF material on the web which is then modified, altered and remixed with other XML data and inserted into a blipvert XML template. This XML is converted into a SWF and then placed on our advertising network. Swfmill handles the conversion from the binary SWF format to XML and back and the mixing and modifications are done in Python. A more detailed explanation describes how a current Python/XML mixer called SwapGraphics has been used to build many of the current blipverts.

So What Are Blipverts For?

These blipverts are an exploration of multimedia design produced with open source tools and a variety of programming processes. Those being shown on this site are really just a few of the endless permutations that could be constructed from the vast array of SWF data that can be found on the web.

Advertising and commerce have always been at odds with the open and shared philosophies that are at the heart of the web and the internet. The Blipvert Project in a small way seeks to address this balance by introducing a system which responds to the presence of banners ads created for marketing by generating banner ads that are simply an experiment in aesthetics and web design.

We hope to design more programming for the blipvert system in order to build more complex and original blipverts. Anyone who might be interested in this should contact the project.


The Blipvert Project is by 16kB