A small group of individuals at the University of Texas at Austin are working to change the method video could be broadcasted over the Internet. They claim that their new software, called Alluvium, will allow any individual to turn an Internet-connected computer into a TV station.

The new software uses peer-to-peer technology similar to that of BitTorrent which will allow people to stream video to multiple users nonstop, regardless of whether they have a high-speed Internet connection. Joseph T. Lopez, a graduate student who co-founded the software project, states the software is not just for tech enthusiast and struggling artists, but it could serve plenty of prosaic purposes -- like letting parents broadcast their childrens' soccer games for family members, or helping community groups find a high-tech alternative to public-access TV.

Alluvium was designed by Brandon Wiley, also a graduate student at Austin, who states that the software operates differently than BitTorrent in that it orders those component parts before downloading them. Users of the software can simulate the experience of watching live TV, by streaming video as they finish downloading it.

Mr. Lopez has run Internet television stations of his own in the past, but he believes swarmcasting software could democratize the technology, just as "podcasting" software has done for online audio distribution. "This is a much more efficient way of running a station for someone with just a cable modem," he says. "We're trying to make it so anyone can use this software."

Mr. Lopez and Mr. Wiley will be promoting Internet television by posting their program online as open-source software, along with two how-to. The documentation will discuss the technological requirements for an online TV channel, and the other will offer tips on using a station to build a community of filmmakers and artists.

Mr. Lopez and Mr. Wiley will launch their own website, entitled ACTLab TV, and will present their vision of a personal Internet-TV station in July.

All the work done thus far has been for free and neither Mr. Lopez nor Mr. Wiley views the project as a business venture. But the project's shoestring budget is part of the point, according to Mr. Lopez. "We're just sitting here with machines that we had lying around, and we threw this together," he says. "Our whole idea was that it doesn't take $20,000 worth of electronics to run a TV station online."