A Video Lens for Canada: My new goal for the Global Jam

The new (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/ubuntu-12-04-adds-new-video-lens-for-finding-movies-tv-shows-online/) in Ubuntu 12.04 features searchable content from across the Internet. It also shows region-specific content, like the BBC iPlayer if you’re in the UK.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the video lens gave Canadians access to videos from the [CBC](http://cbc.ca/), [CTV](http://ctv.ca/), [NFB animations and documentaries](http://nfb.ca/) or [Comedy Channel](http://thecomedynetwork.ca/) shows like [The Colbert Report](http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/Shows/TheColbertReport)? I think it would!

Now, I foresee a number of possibly insurmountable problems from the start.

1. I have no idea how the Ubuntu video lens project is managed or how welcoming they are of contributions.
2. Or what sort of guidelines they’re looking at for adding content channels.
3. Or how ridiculously complicated they’ve made it to add new channels.
4. I will be very surprised if any of the above-mentioned sites have publicly-accessible APIs I’d likely need to support this.
5. Or what policies they might have that would that prevent using their content in this way.

Other than that, it should be easy!

Does anyone out there in Ubuntu Planet land have any suggestions or insight that might help overcoming the difficulties above? Comment here! Or poke me (dscassel) in #ubuntu-ca on Freenode.

4 thoughts on “A Video Lens for Canada: My new goal for the Global Jam”

  1. Having said that, it’s unlikely we’ll have time to add them that quickly now. The focus right now is on improving the robustness of what we have, making it ready for release. However, get in touch, and we can probably do something about it at some point.

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