[theora] Marketing stuff

[Maik Merten]

Hello Aaron,

thanks for that list of user benefits. I especially think the
"specification is public domain, so that format won't vanish into
nothing" benefit is rather useful. History is full of proprietary
formats that now are hard to decode (TwinVQ, anyone?) and albeit e.g. I
don't think that MPEG vanishes anytime soon being as open as possible
with specifications can't hurt either.

Maik

Aaron Whitehouse schrieb:
>>> Overall, this document seems geared toward developers, content
>>> producers, and distributors - not much information for general users.
>>> Is that what you intended?
>> Well, I'm not sure how to address general users with other means than by
>> content, which Theora itself can't generate. Once the general users
>> generate content they become producers/distributors and may contribute
>> to the pool of Theora-encoded content. Thus I'm targeting this audience.
>> Of course that "benefits" section isn't really exhaustive as-is. So if
>> anyone points out an obvious benefit for "couch-powered"
>> passive-consumers I'm more than happy to add this to the list of benefits.
> 
> You are correct that content will likely drive adoption. That said,
> everyday users are becoming content-producers with the advent of
> YouTube, MySpace, personal web pages etc. etc. I often get emails with
> travel videos attached (usually in wmv format). Then there are people
> archiving DVDs with Thoggen. We want to make sure that these people
> feel like the page is speaking to them, too.
> 
> More importantly, we want users to want Theora. I don't make a lot of
> content, but I demand it from content-producers and I support software
> and hardware that support free formats.
> 
> The Vorbis FAQ goes for a "better than mp3" approach:
> http://www.vorbis.com/faq/#fan
> 
> I would say that, for an ordinary user, the benefits are that they get:
> * high-quality video,
> * small file sizes,
> * which they and their friends can play on any type of computer
> (Windows, Mac, Linux),
> * without worrying that they are breaking the law.
> 
> * In ten years, we don't know what computers we will be using and what
> software we will be running. A monopolist today could fade out of
> existence tomorrow, taking the secrets of their formats with them. A
> free and open format can always be played. There are no secrets in
> Theora. Anybody is allowed to write a player or encoder. Any company
> can add full support of Theora to their existing application or music
> player - all without paying anything to anyone. They just need enough
> people like you to ask them to!
> 
> Just some thoughts to throw into the mix,
> 
> Aaron
>