1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,470
Benjamin Higginbotham
with TechnologyEvangelist.com.

2
00:00:02,690 --> 00:00:06,421
With me, I've got Nicholas once again,
from a Participatory Culture Foundation.

3
00:00:06,907 --> 00:00:09,144
Those are the guys who make 
"Democracy Player".

4
00:00:09,167 --> 00:00:11,427
-Nicholas, welcome!
-Hi, how are ya?

5
00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:13,130
Doing great, how about yourself?

6
00:00:13,497 --> 00:00:14,717
Amazing, thanks.

7
00:00:14,737 --> 00:00:19,887
So, you guys are on the cusp of
releasing Democracy Player 0.9.5,

8
00:00:19,950 --> 00:00:21,900
it just kinda rolls right off the tongue.

9
00:00:21,945 --> 00:00:24,284
Tell us a bit about this new release.

10
00:00:25,597 --> 00:00:27,417
Yeah, this is a big update for us,

11
00:00:27,664 --> 00:00:31,904
it's the biggest update you'll see before
our 1.0 comes out.

12
00:00:32,769 --> 00:00:36,505
We have a lot of important stuff in here,
a lot of it's behind the scenes,

13
00:00:36,778 --> 00:00:40,346
but some of the stuff you'll notice
is a redesigned interface,

14
00:00:40,488 --> 00:00:42,939
it's smoother and simpler and slicker.

15
00:00:44,940 --> 00:00:47,895
We have some nice things like
the MAC users,

16
00:00:48,229 --> 00:00:50,229
it will generate thumbnails automatically.

17
00:00:50,847 --> 00:00:54,647
If you want to download a video and
don't have that yet for Windows or Linux,

18
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,060
that's something that 
we're definitely working on.

19
00:00:57,116 --> 00:00:59,696
There's proxy support,
better BitTorrent support.

20
00:01:01,448 --> 00:01:04,795
It does a better job resuming downloads
if something gets interrupted.

21
00:01:05,822 --> 00:01:10,052
And all in all, I just think it's a
smoother and cleaner experience,

22
00:01:11,037 --> 00:01:13,387
and it's a big step towards
the update coming out.

23
00:01:13,853 --> 00:01:17,829
You know, one thing I noticed is that as
each build keeps getting released,

24
00:01:17,890 --> 00:01:21,620
the system seems to use less and less
RAM, and get faster and faster and faster

25
00:01:21,698 --> 00:01:24,614
in its ability to playback files
and download files.

26
00:01:24,748 --> 00:01:28,648
'Cause I remember working with the beta,
I think it was 0.8 or something like that,

27
00:01:28,662 --> 00:01:30,704
and it was a pretty big RAM hog.

28
00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,580
How are you coming on with the
optimisation of Democracy at this point?

29
00:01:36,117 --> 00:01:39,747
That's definitely a big focus for us as 
you know with the past few versions

30
00:01:39,850 --> 00:01:44,595
we've done a lot to reduce the number use,
improve the speed and that's

31
00:01:44,612 --> 00:01:46,982
going to be something
that we continue to work on.

32
00:01:46,982 --> 00:01:50,964
It's not clear right now whether we will
be doing some big changes before

33
00:01:50,989 --> 00:01:56,202
or after 1.0, but, you know, over the next
6 months we're going to continue to see

34
00:01:56,239 --> 00:02:01,407
much better performance, but using less
resources, feeling faster more responsive.

35
00:02:02,452 --> 00:02:04,312
So, we have to see that as important.

36
00:02:04,555 --> 00:02:08,530
You mentioned that this is one, at least
I believe you mentioned, that this is

37
00:02:08,550 --> 00:02:12,327
one of the final releases before 1.0,
or at least close to your road to 1.0.

38
00:02:12,918 --> 00:02:16,305
What do we have left to get to 1.0?
What can we expect in 1.0?

39
00:02:19,501 --> 00:02:26,531
The big thing that you'll see in 1.0 is
stability and we'll be doing a lot of

40
00:02:26,544 --> 00:02:32,044
bug fixing, trying to nail down some of 
the last final bugs that we haven't been

41
00:02:32,073 --> 00:02:37,056
able to fix so far. The biggest challenge
on our end for that is just being able to

42
00:02:37,056 --> 00:02:41,884
reproduce the bugs; finding a system
where we can see it happen because there

43
00:02:41,898 --> 00:02:45,548
are so many different kinds of setups out
there that a bug may only happen in

44
00:02:45,548 --> 00:02:49,123
those specific circumstances, and that
makes it hard for us to track it down

45
00:02:49,123 --> 00:02:53,735
and fix it. Once we see it happening, you
know, we can always fix it, and so

46
00:02:53,806 --> 00:02:57,156
stability, fixing bugs is definitely the
biggest priority.

47
00:02:57,681 --> 00:03:01,931
There's also just a few finishing
touches - we wanna make easier for

48
00:03:01,931 --> 00:03:05,892
people to use remote controls with
Democracy Player if they have something

49
00:03:05,892 --> 00:03:10,671
like that. I have a few more ways that
people can customise and interact with it,

50
00:03:11,290 --> 00:03:15,877
so it's mostly gonna be cleanup around
the edges, but I think it'll feel

51
00:03:15,889 --> 00:03:17,767
a more complete experience.

52
00:03:18,027 --> 00:03:21,732
One of the biggest things that's about to
happen is we're going to be renaming

53
00:03:21,732 --> 00:03:26,858
Democracy Player and we've found a lot
of people get confused by the name and

54
00:03:28,719 --> 00:03:33,399
when they first hear about it they think
that it only has content related to

55
00:03:33,419 --> 00:03:37,247
politics on it, which is definitely not
the case and not what we intended with

56
00:03:37,247 --> 00:03:43,061
the name, so we feel like it's important
for us to find a new name. We have one

57
00:03:43,081 --> 00:03:47,805
that we think is gonna work, we're just
going through some legal stuff and we're

58
00:03:47,805 --> 00:03:51,886
obviously getting a new icon and
website design so as part of that

59
00:03:51,901 --> 00:04:00,303
1.0 process we're gonna be launching a 
new name, new style for the player and

60
00:04:00,303 --> 00:04:01,485
that's gonna be big too.

61
00:04:01,581 --> 00:04:07,032
But the final thing, and what I think is
the weakest part of the Democracy Player

62
00:04:07,072 --> 00:04:10,758
experience is the channel guide; we're
rewriting that from scratch.

63
00:04:11,248 --> 00:04:15,058
The version you see now is based on some
existing software that is out there and

64
00:04:15,058 --> 00:04:17,014
doesn't exactly meet our needs.

65
00:04:17,014 --> 00:04:20,674
So what we're doing is starting over from
scratch, making something very fast,

66
00:04:20,674 --> 00:04:25,727
very responsive and once we have a 
good foundation built

67
00:04:25,727 --> 00:04:31,582
we're going to be doing a lot of work to
add a rating system, find more ways to

68
00:04:31,582 --> 00:04:33,028
trickle off the best content.

69
00:04:33,634 --> 00:04:38,354
As we've seen the channel guides reach
nearly a thousand different channels,

70
00:04:38,577 --> 00:04:42,527
it becomes more and more important for us
to find ways of filtering the best stuff.

71
00:04:42,758 --> 00:04:46,738
So we wanna make it easier for people to
share channels, rate channels,

72
00:04:46,810 --> 00:04:50,990
and see what people really like and not
just subscribe to stuff that looks

73
00:04:51,009 --> 00:04:53,825
attractive on the surface or on the guide.

74
00:04:54,614 --> 00:04:58,228
It feels like the next natural extension
for Democracy Player's gonna get is

75
00:04:58,228 --> 00:05:02,837
PNP support such as PlayStation portable,
the video iPod or other small portable

76
00:05:02,837 --> 00:05:06,924
video players and I know that's not 
currently a feature of Democracy Player,

77
00:05:06,924 --> 00:05:10,788
at least the ability to take the videos
that I've downloaded and push it to these

78
00:05:10,788 --> 00:05:13,678
other devices, mainly because it's
extremely complex.

79
00:05:13,772 --> 00:05:18,152
The video iPod is going to take a totally
different video format than the PSP which

80
00:05:18,152 --> 00:05:22,660
is going to take a totally different
format than a Place4sure mobile device.

81
00:05:22,984 --> 00:05:26,944
Is that on your roadmap to add, and is
that gonna be a 1.0 feature or later?

82
00:05:27,405 --> 00:05:29,205
And how are you gonna deal with that?

83
00:05:30,245 --> 00:05:34,755
Yeah, syncing portable devices like that
is definitely something we wanna do.

84
00:05:36,119 --> 00:05:38,189
It's not gonna happen for 1.0.

85
00:05:38,625 --> 00:05:45,300
We feel like our mission for 1.0 is to
make a solid and excellent desktop app

86
00:05:45,970 --> 00:05:48,697
that you can use every day
and really rely upon.

87
00:05:49,316 --> 00:05:53,065
That's what we wanna do for 1.0; 
get a good foundation in place.

88
00:05:53,465 --> 00:05:58,105
From there we'd like to see
Democracy Player be able to get us

89
00:05:58,105 --> 00:06:01,938
content out on more different devices,
get it onto your TV more easily,

90
00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,300
on any portable devices that you're using.

91
00:06:05,758 --> 00:06:07,918
So we're going to start tackling that.

92
00:06:07,918 --> 00:06:12,724
It may come in stages and it may 
mean that we start with the ability to

93
00:06:12,724 --> 00:06:17,489
sync to the most powerful devices to sync
file formats that they already play.

94
00:06:18,019 --> 00:06:22,271
Then, later on, we add the ability to
transfer from one format into another,

95
00:06:24,651 --> 00:06:28,008
so more of your videos are able to 
play under iPod, for example.

96
00:06:28,961 --> 00:06:31,520
That's definitely coming for us.

97
00:06:32,315 --> 00:06:37,770
Nicholas, last time we talked, we actually
went to you and that time, iTunes was

98
00:06:37,770 --> 00:06:40,999
one version lower and it didn't have
good video support.

99
00:06:41,005 --> 00:06:47,366
Since then, iTunes has added a whole new
video catalog, you have episodes of

100
00:06:47,683 --> 00:06:52,156
shows and movies and whatnot, and they've 
changed the way they deal with video.

101
00:06:52,973 --> 00:06:56,551
How does that compete with Democracy?
Does it compete with Democracy?

102
00:06:57,334 --> 00:07:00,465
And why are you better and different
than iTunes on that front?

103
00:07:02,659 --> 00:07:07,351
Yeah, iTunes has made some improvements
to the video software but the focus they

104
00:07:07,384 --> 00:07:12,573
have is really on accumulating 
a collection of videos, for example,

105
00:07:13,115 --> 00:07:17,123
movies that you buy off of the store,
music videos that you buy from the store,

106
00:07:17,411 --> 00:07:19,858
and accumulating a 
certain kind of collection.

107
00:07:20,884 --> 00:07:24,001
Our focus is more on 
the flow of the internet.

108
00:07:24,001 --> 00:07:27,286
The flow of videos that is becoming
more and more a part of peoples'

109
00:07:27,286 --> 00:07:28,234
online experience.

110
00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:34,400
I think we're really offering
an experience that's very different and

111
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:37,713
goes way beyond the approach 
that iTunes pitched.

112
00:07:38,716 --> 00:07:43,460
The channel model that we have really
lets you handle lots of videos coming in.

113
00:07:45,776 --> 00:07:50,652
Seeing what's on a variety of channels,
organising that in different ways and

114
00:07:51,955 --> 00:07:55,266
I think we still have them beat
in terms of video experience.

115
00:07:56,665 --> 00:08:00,308
From a publisher standpoint, I think the
big differentiator between Democracy

116
00:08:00,308 --> 00:08:01,868
and iTunes is torrent support.

117
00:08:02,710 --> 00:08:07,094
I can directly download a torrent
video file and as I'm publishing my

118
00:08:07,094 --> 00:08:12,504
high-definition 1080p videos, which we do,
the bandwidth is taken off of me and so

119
00:08:12,504 --> 00:08:15,223
now I no longer pay for the full
distribution of the file,

120
00:08:15,223 --> 00:08:16,494
or maybe a little bit now.

121
00:08:16,494 --> 00:08:19,918
And I think that's really one of the big,
powerful features of Democracy.

122
00:08:20,951 --> 00:08:23,541
You guys get kudos for having that
from the beginning.

123
00:08:23,541 --> 00:08:26,678
That's really what makes you guys
different and stand out from the

124
00:08:26,678 --> 00:08:28,220
rest of the crowd.

125
00:08:28,220 --> 00:08:32,456
Yeah, I think that the BitTorrent support
that we have is definitely something that

126
00:08:32,456 --> 00:08:38,933
iTunes can't compete with and we also have
a lot more flexibility with video formats.

127
00:08:39,636 --> 00:08:44,316
Both on Mac and Windows now, both able to
play Flash video files which are the most

128
00:08:44,316 --> 00:08:46,105
popular online video files now.

129
00:08:46,826 --> 00:08:51,516
And a lot bigger variety of formats than
you can play on iTunes or

130
00:08:51,516 --> 00:08:57,845
Windows media player or anything else
that tries to be a video organiser

131
00:08:57,892 --> 00:08:59,402
or video downloader.

132
00:08:59,701 --> 00:09:03,391
Well, Nicholas, it's a great product and
we always enjoy chatting with you and

133
00:09:03,391 --> 00:09:06,107
I hope you'll come back soon when you
release version 1.0;

134
00:09:06,107 --> 00:09:07,976
whatever it'll be called at that point.

135
00:09:08,258 --> 00:09:10,278
-Thank you so much.
-You have a great day.

136
00:09:10,278 --> 00:09:12,464
I'll definitely come back.
You too, take care.