Conversation with Borys
(21:06:32) MethodDan: So I was just going to ask you a few quick questions about the site, how you got started, licensing, that sort of thing
(21:06:40) Borys: sure
(21:06:51) Borys: so it's not going to be a tea article
(21:06:52) Borys: oh well
(21:07:06) MethodDan: hehehe well maybe I can work tea into it somehow
(21:07:09) MethodDan: let's see
(21:07:34) Borys: so, it got started in my mind something like March last year
(21:07:43) MethodDan: right
(21:09:23) Borys: I was pretty tired of existing film websites. IMDB - couldn't stand its looks, rottentomatoes didn't provide good recommendations, Criticker provided ONLY recommendations,and Flixter... well, is just a myspace for movies. Anyhow, it felt like there is some room for something different
(21:09:53) Borys: And this is the English Internet
(21:10:01) Borys: in Polish web it was even worse
(21:10:16) MethodDan: right, I hadn't thought of that
(21:10:25) Borys: only one big film website where you could not even discuss with people without being insulted
(21:11:29) Borys: so in general I wanted a user-generated film website when people who love film could blog, talk and get some cool social features like personalized recommendations based on taste / taste comparison with other users and more
(21:12:07) MethodDan: So is that how you'd describe it to a newcomer? When someone says to you, what is Filmaster?
(21:12:29) Borys: yeah, basically
(21:12:38) MethodDan: Cool
(21:13:36) MethodDan: So how does it work technically? What platform or language do you use?
(21:14:05) Borys: We use a whole range of free software to run it
(21:14:34) Borys: the key ingrediants are python (language), django (framework) and postgresql (database engine)
(21:14:48) Borys: and apache2 as a web server
(21:15:41) Borys: but there are lots of other tools an libraries that we used on the way, like subversion for version control, pootle for translation management, pinax project to get some free (in both senses) django libraries
(21:15:59) Borys: Eclipse IDE / vi to develop
(21:16:07) Borys: and probably more that I can't remember right now
(21:16:21) MethodDan: No worries, that sounds pretty comprehensive
(21:16:50) MethodDan: I'm a big fan of Django, what made you choose it for this? Do you use it for your other sites such as Polish Linux?
(21:17:24) Borys: No, frankly I had no django experience, neither any python experience before starting Filmaster
(21:17:41) Borys: which may explain why it took so long to get it done :)
(21:17:58) Borys: I code Java for living, have been into Java/J2EE for 7 years now
(21:18:03) MethodDan: Ah ok
(21:18:25) Borys: Done some PHP as well - PolishLinux is just a Wordpress instance with some custom stuff
(21:18:54) Borys: same with my other projects (mostly IT-related, all in Polish so you haven't heard about it I'm sure)
(21:19:24) Borys: But why django? Mostly because I wanted to learn something new.
(21:19:51) Borys: and was looking for web frameworks that do the job
(21:20:02) Borys: the choice end up to be between ROR and django
(21:20:23) Borys: I think choosing django was a bit of a blind guess
(21:20:34) MethodDan: How have you found Django in comparision to other things you've used? Would you use it again?
(21:21:00) Borys: I kind of liked the ruby language more, but django seemed a bit more professional and promising to get things done - I guess this was the final reason to go with it
(21:21:32) Borys: Yes, definitely. It's turned out to be an awesome framework.
(21:21:56) Borys: With a few small irritating limitations, but still great
(21:22:28) Borys: definitely much more suitable for a project like Filmaster than Spring (a Java framework I use a lot at work)
(21:22:37) MethodDan: That's great
(21:22:51) Borys: I know :)
(21:23:05) MethodDan: I may be biased but I'm a big fan of Django, even over Rails. I tried Rails but didn't find it as good
(21:23:20) MethodDan: Plus I prefer Python to Ruby
(21:23:30) Borys: I may look into Grails soon for some work related stuff -- we'll see how this works
(21:23:47) Borys: mainly because it runs on JVM and banks hate change
(21:24:10) MethodDan: I suppose if you already develop in Java it makes sense as well
(21:24:44) Borys: we'll see how reliable it is
(21:24:54) Borys: but django is definitely reliable
(21:25:38) MethodDan: So do you do all the development for Filmaster yourself or does anyone else help out?
(21:25:55) Borys: no, thank god no
(21:26:00) Borys: otherwise I'd be still coding
(21:26:13) Borys: and we would not be talking right now
(21:26:19) MethodDan: hehe
(21:27:07) Borys: I started coding with Adam Zieliński, a guy who I worked with on other web projects before, like OSnews.pl - a IT citizen journalist website
(21:27:48) Borys: so we worked together from, say, August 2008 till January 2009 when first public beta of Filmaster.pl (Polish edition) was unveiled
(21:28:53) Borys: and then, when the webiste already stared to be recognized and had some 1000 users, we decided to publish the code on an AGPL license
(21:29:12) Borys: well, this is a bit of a lie because we planned it beforehands
(21:29:30) Borys: but we wanted to release something that we're not overly ashamed of :)
(21:29:58) Borys: I think it was in March 2009, 2 months before releasing Filmaster.com
(21:31:11) Borys: and it turned out to be a good move as a couple of developers started contributing from day 1 and some cool features like IMDB/Criticker imports, more reliable search engine and more was developed by contributors, namely turin, bolo, mrk
(21:32:01) MethodDan: Filmaster is a free open source network service so is it licensed under the AGPL then?
(21:32:18) Borys: yes, AGPLv3
(21:33:01) Borys: and the content is published on Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
(21:33:14) MethodDan: What made you decide to license that way?
(21:33:20) Borys: each user needs to accept this before signing up
(21:33:46) Borys: which is a bit fascist, I know
(21:33:52) MethodDan: Was it important to you that it be open source and promote free culture?
(21:33:58) Borys: but otherwise it would be much harder to control it
(21:35:06) Borys: yes, well... it's user's contents after all, right? I don't like the fact that companies set up websites, lure users to contribute and then take their content and can do anything with it, leaving the users with nothing
(21:35:27) Borys: by making it free, all those restrictions are non-existant
(21:36:21) Borys: everyone can use the content and it's a very cool thing
(21:36:57) Borys: especially when you think of some external projects that can now, e.g. use the content from Filmaster in their... I don't know... media players for instance?
(21:37:26) Borys: it would be cool if VLC or some other free software project integrated with Filmaster to provide their users more information
(21:37:40) MethodDan: That's a great idea
(21:37:41) Borys: just like Amarok integrateswith Wikipedia to fetch information about artists
(21:38:01) Borys: there is just plenty of possibilies when there are no restrictions
(21:38:18) Borys: or -- should I say, when the restrictions are reasonable
(21:38:32) Borys: because CC is not public domain, SOME rights are still reserved
(21:38:44) Borys: like the right to honor the author
(21:39:19) MethodDan: Yes you're asking for attribution in the license? Did you consider share-alike or any of the other possible restrictions?
(21:40:04) MethodDan: The other CC licenses I mean. Attribution-Sharealike seems very popular
(21:41:59) Borys: yes, I have
(21:42:05) Borys: it's not a random choice :)
(21:42:29) Borys: I think culture does not to be restricted in a way software does
(21:42:43) Borys: because "by sa" is more restrictive obviously
(21:42:51) MethodDan: yep
(21:42:52) Borys: it's a bit like GPL for content
(21:43:01) Borys: while by is a bit like BSD
(21:43:15) MethodDan: That's a good analogy
(21:43:18) Borys: I just think culture should be more free
(21:43:33) Borys: and nothing bad happens when someone remixes it and uses commercially
(21:44:19) Borys: the danger od "closing" is much bigger in code
(21:44:39) Borys: and AGPL protects against that
(21:44:54) Borys: it's kind of intuitive for me
(21:45:03) Borys: that culture and code are way different
(21:45:13) Borys: and they do not need to be treated in the same way
(21:45:52) Borys: I'm not sure if it was clear what I was saying though :>
(21:46:07) MethodDan: No that makes sense :) Does being open source help with development of the site you think? The ability for someone who sees a bug or contribute code to you. Reducing your amount of work and hopefully improving the software
(21:46:16) Borys: I would need to find better analogies I guess
(21:47:08) Borys: funny thing, being free first of all software helps in promoting the website
(21:47:37) Borys: it's still a bit of anew thing to open source web applications
(21:47:51) Borys: and there are not that many of OSSD-compliant web services
(21:48:02) Borys: I was trying to find more with Johnattan Gray recently
(21:48:15) Borys: and we end up having a list of some 6 or 7 services?
(21:48:32) Borys: let me find the web site listing them...
(21:48:33) MethodDan: Identi.ca is probably the most high profile one at the moment
(21:49:17) Borys: here it is: http://wiki.okfn.org/openservices
(21:49:24) MethodDan: Thanks
(21:49:31) Borys: well I think Wikipedia is :)
(21:49:43) Borys: and then Wikidot - a wiki farm, very popular
(21:49:46) MethodDan: Oh yeah, good point
(21:50:08) Borys: they license the code on GPLv2 I think
(21:50:34) Borys: and the content is CC by default
(21:50:49) Borys: btw, created by my Polish friend from my home town, Toruń :)
(21:51:19) MethodDan: So getting back to Filmaster, it has Polish and English language versions and I happen to know from a friend who tried it that you can use the same account in either language and it's all tied together. She was very excited by that. Did this add to the development overhead?
(21:51:44) MethodDan: Was it important to you that it be integrated?
(21:51:52) Borys: No, not much overhead, as we planned it from the very beginning
(21:52:13) Borys: te data structure assumes localization of the content
(21:52:19) Borys: but the metadata is common
(21:52:46) Borys: its all nicely described on the wiki: http://filmaster.org/display/DEV/Localization
(21:53:15) MethodDan: A lot of sites seem to have a different database for each language version and it's very annoying. I suppose designing this up front took away that headache for you. Could you add more languages? Would you want to do that?
(21:53:30) Borys: sure!
(21:53:35) Borys: take a look here: http://filmaster.com:6666/projects/filmaster/
(21:53:43) Borys: Catalan version is 22% done
(21:53:46) MethodDan: wow
(21:54:07) Borys: and just today we've got two people who want to translate it to Spanish and Norwegian
(21:54:31) Borys: a Turkish friend was mentioning a Turkish version, but nothing certain yet
(21:54:37) Borys: so yes, there are plans to expand
(21:54:46) MethodDan: Excellent
(21:54:58) Borys: what is important, we do not want to be taking care of all the local versions
(21:55:05) Borys: we can host it and have it integrated
(21:55:30) Borys: but it has to always be a team of 2-3 people who would like to take over the maintenance of localized versions
(21:55:47) Borys: as this is not as easy as just translating the labels and deploying
(21:56:09) Borys: there is a lot of work to actually get the potential users hear about the website and start generating content
(21:56:19) Borys: it's the hardest job in a social media project
(21:56:33) Borys: and Filmaster is one, even though a bit different than others
(21:57:18) MethodDan: I suppose this is another advantage of open development and open content, translators can come in and get involved
(21:58:01) Borys: sure, they can even take the code and run teir own version if they don't want to use our infrasturcture and database
(21:58:36) Borys: but of course it's highly recommended to keep it integrated as more ratings mean more precise recommendations, etc
(21:58:46) MethodDan: Of course
(21:59:08) MethodDan: So to round up then, what are your goals for Filmaster? Where would you like to go with it in future?
(21:59:49) Borys: Oh, I have no clue
(22:00:29) Borys: I mean, we have a long list of tasks to implement, just take a look at: http://jira.filmaster.org
(22:00:37) Borys: and hit the roadmap
(22:01:25) Borys: we'd like the people to feel at home on Filmaster, contribute, socialize and just enjoy te website, I guess that's the ultimate goal
(22:01:39) MethodDan: Great
(22:02:30) Borys: OK I was lying. The real plan is this:
(22:02:43) MethodDan: world domination?
(22:02:45) MethodDan: :)
(22:02:49) Borys: 1. Create Filmaster
2. Open Source it
...
...
5. Profit!
(22:02:56) Borys: and world domination as a side effect
(22:02:59) MethodDan: lol yeah that sounds right