This article analyses the use of open source resources and free software in contemporary audiovisual creation and production processes. It focuses on the social and cultural implications for communicative action brought on by the use of free tools and resources in stand-out collaborative audiovisual production projects.

Firstly, it looks at the profound changes that internet and the other digital communication technologies and media have brought with them in terms of contemporary audiovisual communicative action, placing special emphasis on the growing possibilities for autonomy, adaptation, collective creation, initiatives in the configuration and definition of the tools themselves and the working dynamics for free resource and software users.

Following a detailed analysis of the basic concepts of freedom and software, it looks at the possibilities and functionalities offered by an important range of audiovisual resources and tools (Celtx, The GIMP, Audacity and VirtualDub). Finally, it offers a wide-ranging look at a representative selection of online participative audiovisual creation projects that highlight and illustrate the important social and cultural implications of the use of open source and free resources in audiovisual working processes.