0:00:00.000,0:00:02.470 Benjamin Higginbotham[br]with TechnologyEvangelist.com. 0:00:02.690,0:00:06.421 With me, I've got Nicholas once again,[br]from a Participatory Culture Foundation. 0:00:06.907,0:00:09.144 Those are the guys who make [br]"Democracy Player". 0:00:09.167,0:00:11.427 -Nicholas, welcome![br]-Hi, how are ya? 0:00:11.480,0:00:13.130 Doing great, how about yourself? 0:00:13.497,0:00:14.717 Amazing, thanks. 0:00:14.737,0:00:19.887 So, you guys are on the cusp of[br]releasing Democracy Player 0.9.5, 0:00:19.950,0:00:21.900 it just kinda rolls right off the tongue. 0:00:21.945,0:00:24.284 Tell us a bit about this new release. 0:00:25.597,0:00:27.417 Yeah, this is a big update for us, 0:00:27.664,0:00:31.904 it's the biggest update you'll see before[br]our 1.0 comes out. 0:00:32.769,0:00:36.505 We have a lot of important stuff in here,[br]a lot of it's behind the scenes, 0:00:36.778,0:00:40.346 but some of the stuff you'll notice[br]is a redesigned interface, 0:00:40.488,0:00:42.939 it's smoother and simpler and slicker. 0:00:44.940,0:00:47.895 We have some nice things like[br]the MAC users, 0:00:48.229,0:00:50.229 it will generate thumbnails automatically. 0:00:50.847,0:00:54.647 If you want to download a video and[br]don't have that yet for Windows or Linux, 0:00:54.680,0:00:57.060 that's something that [br]we're definitely working on. 0:00:57.116,0:00:59.696 There's proxy support,[br]better BitTorrent support. 0:01:01.448,0:01:04.795 It does a better job resuming downloads[br]if something gets interrupted. 0:01:05.822,0:01:10.052 And all in all, I just think it's a[br]smoother and cleaner experience, 0:01:11.037,0:01:13.387 and it's a big step towards[br]the update coming out. 0:01:13.853,0:01:17.829 You know, one thing I noticed is that as[br]each build keeps getting released, 0:01:17.890,0:01:21.620 the system seems to use less and less[br]RAM, and get faster and faster and faster 0:01:21.698,0:01:24.614 in its ability to playback files[br]and download files. 0:01:24.748,0:01:28.648 'Cause I remember working with the beta,[br]I think it was 0.8 or something like that, 0:01:28.662,0:01:30.704 and it was a pretty big RAM hog. 0:01:31.240,0:01:34.580 How are you coming on with the[br]optimisation of Democracy at this point? 0:01:36.117,0:01:39.747 That's definitely a big focus for us as [br]you know with the past few versions 0:01:39.850,0:01:44.595 we've done a lot to reduce the number use,[br]improve the speed and that's 0:01:44.612,0:01:46.982 going to be something[br]that we continue to work on. 0:01:46.982,0:01:50.964 It's not clear right now whether we will[br]be doing some big changes before 0:01:50.989,0:01:56.202 or after 1.0, but, you know, over the next[br]6 months we're going to continue to see 0:01:56.239,0:02:01.407 much better performance, but using less[br]resources, feeling faster more responsive. 0:02:02.452,0:02:04.312 So, we have to see that as important. 0:02:04.555,0:02:08.530 You mentioned that this is one, at least[br]I believe you mentioned, that this is 0:02:08.550,0:02:12.327 one of the final releases before 1.0,[br]or at least close to your road to 1.0. 0:02:12.918,0:02:16.305 What do we have left to get to 1.0?[br]What can we expect in 1.0? 0:02:19.501,0:02:26.531 The big thing that you'll see in 1.0 is[br]stability and we'll be doing a lot of 0:02:26.544,0:02:32.044 bug fixing, trying to nail down some of [br]the last final bugs that we haven't been 0:02:32.073,0:02:37.056 able to fix so far. The biggest challenge[br]on our end for that is just being able to 0:02:37.056,0:02:41.884 reproduce the bugs; finding a system[br]where we can see it happen because there 0:02:41.898,0:02:45.548 are so many different kinds of setups out[br]there that a bug may only happen in 0:02:45.548,0:02:49.123 those specific circumstances, and that[br]makes it hard for us to track it down 0:02:49.123,0:02:53.735 and fix it. Once we see it happening, you[br]know, we can always fix it, and so 0:02:53.806,0:02:57.156 stability, fixing bugs is definitely the[br]biggest priority. 0:02:57.681,0:03:01.931 There's also just a few finishing[br]touches - we wanna make easier for 0:03:01.931,0:03:05.892 people to use remote controls with[br]Democracy Player if they have something 0:03:05.892,0:03:10.671 like that. I have a few more ways that[br]people can customise and interact with it, 0:03:11.290,0:03:15.877 so it's mostly gonna be cleanup around[br]the edges, but I think it'll feel 0:03:15.889,0:03:17.767 a more complete experience. 0:03:18.027,0:03:21.732 One of the biggest things that's about to[br]happen is we're going to be renaming 0:03:21.732,0:03:26.858 Democracy Player and we've found a lot[br]of people get confused by the name and 0:03:28.719,0:03:33.399 when they first hear about it they think[br]that it only has content related to 0:03:33.419,0:03:37.247 politics on it, which is definitely not[br]the case and not what we intended with 0:03:37.247,0:03:43.061 the name, so we feel like it's important[br]for us to find a new name. We have one 0:03:43.081,0:03:47.805 that we think is gonna work, we're just[br]going through some legal stuff and we're 0:03:47.805,0:03:51.886 obviously getting a new icon and[br]website design so as part of that 0:03:51.901,0:04:00.303 1.0 process we're gonna be launching a [br]new name, new style for the player and 0:04:00.303,0:04:01.485 that's gonna be big too. 0:04:01.581,0:04:07.032 But the final thing, and what I think is[br]the weakest part of the Democracy Player 0:04:07.072,0:04:10.758 experience is the channel guide; we're[br]rewriting that from scratch. 0:04:11.248,0:04:15.058 The version you see now is based on some[br]existing software that is out there and 0:04:15.058,0:04:17.014 doesn't exactly meet our needs. 0:04:17.014,0:04:20.674 So what we're doing is starting over from[br]scratch, making something very fast, 0:04:20.674,0:04:25.727 very responsive and once we have a [br]good foundation built 0:04:25.727,0:04:31.582 we're going to be doing a lot of work to[br]add a rating system, find more ways to 0:04:31.582,0:04:33.028 trickle off the best content. 0:04:33.634,0:04:38.354 As we've seen the channel guides reach[br]nearly a thousand different channels, 0:04:38.577,0:04:42.527 it becomes more and more important for us[br]to find ways of filtering the best stuff. 0:04:42.758,0:04:46.738 So we wanna make it easier for people to[br]share channels, rate channels, 0:04:46.810,0:04:50.990 and see what people really like and not[br]just subscribe to stuff that looks 0:04:51.009,0:04:53.825 attractive on the surface or on the guide. 0:04:54.614,0:04:58.228 It feels like the next natural extension[br]for Democracy Player's gonna get is 0:04:58.228,0:05:02.837 PNP support such as PlayStation portable,[br]the video iPod or other small portable 0:05:02.837,0:05:06.924 video players and I know that's not [br]currently a feature of Democracy Player, 0:05:06.924,0:05:10.788 at least the ability to take the videos[br]that I've downloaded and push it to these 0:05:10.788,0:05:13.678 other devices, mainly because it's[br]extremely complex. 0:05:13.772,0:05:18.152 The video iPod is going to take a totally[br]different video format than the PSP which 0:05:18.152,0:05:22.660 is going to take a totally different[br]format than a Place4sure mobile device. 0:05:22.984,0:05:26.944 Is that on your roadmap to add, and is[br]that gonna be a 1.0 feature or later? 0:05:27.405,0:05:29.205 And how are you gonna deal with that? 0:05:30.245,0:05:34.755 Yeah, syncing portable devices like that[br]is definitely something we wanna do. 0:05:36.119,0:05:38.189 It's not gonna happen for 1.0. 0:05:38.625,0:05:45.300 We feel like our mission for 1.0 is to[br]make a solid and excellent desktop app 0:05:45.970,0:05:48.697 that you can use every day[br]and really rely upon. 0:05:49.316,0:05:53.065 That's what we wanna do for 1.0; [br]get a good foundation in place. 0:05:53.465,0:05:58.105 From there we'd like to see[br]Democracy Player be able to get us 0:05:58.105,0:06:01.938 content out on more different devices,[br]get it onto your TV more easily, 0:06:02.360,0:06:05.300 on any portable devices that you're using. 0:06:05.758,0:06:07.918 So we're going to start tackling that. 0:06:07.918,0:06:12.724 It may come in stages and it may [br]mean that we start with the ability to 0:06:12.724,0:06:17.489 sync to the most powerful devices to sync[br]file formats that they already play. 0:06:18.019,0:06:22.271 Then, later on, we add the ability to[br]transfer from one format into another, 0:06:24.651,0:06:28.008 so more of your videos are able to [br]play under iPod, for example. 0:06:28.961,0:06:31.520 That's definitely coming for us. 0:06:32.315,0:06:37.770 Nicholas, last time we talked, we actually[br]went to you and that time, iTunes was 0:06:37.770,0:06:40.999 one version lower and it didn't have[br]good video support. 0:06:41.005,0:06:47.366 Since then, iTunes has added a whole new[br]video catalog, you have episodes of 0:06:47.683,0:06:52.156 shows and movies and whatnot, and they've [br]changed the way they deal with video. 0:06:52.973,0:06:56.551 How does that compete with Democracy?[br]Does it compete with Democracy? 0:06:57.334,0:07:00.465 And why are you better and different[br]than iTunes on that front? 0:07:02.659,0:07:07.351 Yeah, iTunes has made some improvements[br]to the video software but the focus they 0:07:07.384,0:07:12.573 have is really on accumulating [br]a collection of videos, for example, 0:07:13.115,0:07:17.123 movies that you buy off of the store,[br]music videos that you buy from the store, 0:07:17.411,0:07:19.858 and accumulating a [br]certain kind of collection. 0:07:20.884,0:07:24.001 Our focus is more on [br]the flow of the internet. 0:07:24.001,0:07:27.286 The flow of videos that is becoming[br]more and more a part of peoples' 0:07:27.286,0:07:28.234 online experience. 0:07:28.920,0:07:34.400 I think we're really offering[br]an experience that's very different and 0:07:34.400,0:07:37.713 goes way beyond the approach [br]that iTunes pitched. 0:07:38.716,0:07:43.460 The channel model that we have really[br]lets you handle lots of videos coming in. 0:07:45.776,0:07:50.652 Seeing what's on a variety of channels,[br]organising that in different ways and 0:07:51.955,0:07:55.266 I think we still have them beat[br]in terms of video experience. 0:07:56.665,0:08:00.308 From a publisher standpoint, I think the[br]big differentiator between Democracy 0:08:00.308,0:08:01.868 and iTunes is torrent support. 0:08:02.710,0:08:07.094 I can directly download a torrent[br]video file and as I'm publishing my 0:08:07.094,0:08:12.504 high-definition 1080p videos, which we do,[br]the bandwidth is taken off of me and so 0:08:12.504,0:08:15.223 now I no longer pay for the full[br]distribution of the file, 0:08:15.223,0:08:16.494 or maybe a little bit now. 0:08:16.494,0:08:19.918 And I think that's really one of the big,[br]powerful features of Democracy. 0:08:20.951,0:08:23.541 You guys get kudos for having that[br]from the beginning. 0:08:23.541,0:08:26.678 That's really what makes you guys[br]different and stand out from the 0:08:26.678,0:08:28.220 rest of the crowd. 0:08:28.220,0:08:32.456 Yeah, I think that the BitTorrent support[br]that we have is definitely something that 0:08:32.456,0:08:38.933 iTunes can't compete with and we also have[br]a lot more flexibility with video formats. 0:08:39.636,0:08:44.316 Both on Mac and Windows now, both able to[br]play Flash video files which are the most 0:08:44.316,0:08:46.105 popular online video files now. 0:08:46.826,0:08:51.516 And a lot bigger variety of formats than[br]you can play on iTunes or 0:08:51.516,0:08:57.845 Windows media player or anything else[br]that tries to be a video organiser 0:08:57.892,0:08:59.402 or video downloader. 0:08:59.701,0:09:03.391 Well, Nicholas, it's a great product and[br]we always enjoy chatting with you and 0:09:03.391,0:09:06.107 I hope you'll come back soon when you[br]release version 1.0; 0:09:06.107,0:09:07.976 whatever it'll be called at that point. 0:09:08.258,0:09:10.278 -Thank you so much.[br]-You have a great day. 0:09:10.278,0:09:12.464 I'll definitely come back.[br]You too, take care.