The Xiph.Org Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization[1] dedicated to producing freemultimedia formats and tools. Their primary focus is on the Ogg family of formats, the most successful of which has been Vorbis, an open and patent-free audio format and codec designed to compete with the patented MP3 and AAC. Current development work is focusing on Theora, an open and patent-free video format and codec designed to compete with the patented MPEG-4, RealVideo, and Windows Media Video. In addition to its in-house development work, the Foundation has also brought several already-existing but complementary free software projects under its aegis, most of which have a separate, active group of developers. Among these are Speex, an audio codec designed for speech, and FLAC, a lossless audio codec. The Xiph.Org Foundation was founded by Chris Montgomery, creator of the Ogg container format. The name "Xiph" is a shortening of the original company name, Xiphophorus, named after the common swordtail, Xiphophorus hellerii.[2] The projects by Xiph.Org are High Priority Free Software Projects.
