Common User

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2008-05-05T01:12:00.000-07:00

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8 random facts about me

2007-12-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Martin or rather i thought about doing it when i read his (which is what he suggested).

I was in a little film through the window on Play School when i was 7. My whole class stopped school to watch it on TV but the teacher was upset because unknown to me, my bit had been edited down to a few seconds.
My first paid job was a sunday paper round for which i earnt 60p when i was 12.
I still remember watching the newsagent marking the papers up using a trusty red crayon in the back of the shop whilst it was still dark.
I ran a indie club in the late 80s/early 90s where I gave away free apples to every one with a ticket.
Not really understanding why i was there I nervously asked Liza Minelli in 1992 what her favourite biscuit was at a pointless film plug press conference thing. I can't remember what she said either.
I once produced a radio feature about people speaking Klingon that was on Pick of the Week.
The smell of boiled eggs makes me sick.
I'm a twin.
A drawing of my father in law's bull was the bull on the front label of every jar of Colman's English mustard sold in the 70s and 80s.

You're supposed to tag other people but the only bloggers i know have all been tagged. so i'll skip that bit.

BBC Blogging Event and Newsnight

2007-11-02T03:59:00.001-07:00

BBC Blogging Event
Originally uploaded by robinhamman.

We've been working q on upgrading the current BBC blogs platform for a few months now and as part of that work, Robin helped put together an internal event at work on Tuesday afternoon. Richard Sambrook and Graham have further accounts of what was a good afternoon.
One of the guest speakers; Jeff Jarvis, suggested at the beginning when being gently grilled by BBC tech correspondent; Rory Cellan Jones, that news organisations should be commissioned or assigned by their audience to go report on stories.

As it happens one of the guests at the back was Peter Barron, from Newsnight who it appears was quite taken with this idea. The Newsnight blog that afternoon...

You can tell our editor’s just returned from a blogging conference. Fresh faced and with fists clenched, he’s pushing another Newsnight experiment in audience participation. It’s quite simple – opening up the Newsnight running order to the people who watch us.

And so for the past three mornings; Newsnight's daily output editor has been sharing with users their morning email to the production team outlining the potential running order for that night's programme.

Good morning,
I'm genuinely open to any new ideas today. There are a few strong contenders for stories.

De Menezes case
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has rejected calls for the Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Ian Blair, to resign. He said mistakes would be made in anti-terrorist operations. Mr Livingstone said yesterday's verdict - that the police had failed to protect the public in the operation which led to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 - was a ''disaster''. He said armed officers pursuing a suspected suicide bomber couldn't afford to start thinking they might be "hauled off to court". What approach do you think we should be taking on this story today?

I don't know how long that NN will keep to this approach but Peter, in a comment to the blog post on wednesday highlights how the running order changed that night to include a story about lifestyle/cancer risk.

We won't always be able to oblige - tomorrow for example we have a long film from Mark Urban in Pakistan whether you like it or not - but there's no doubt that what you tell us will help us form our thoughts. If you'd rather leave it to us that's fine, if you're worried that what others say is unrepresentative get on here and lobby for what you'd like to see us do.

Radio 4's new iPM programme has gone even further and has been sharing the actual running order from the BBC's internal news cps for this magazine show. iPM doesn't air for another 10 days but they've been doing pilots leading up to the launch. See how it changed last week.

In the very distant past (1995) I worked on a BBC radio show where in what we grandly called its "multimedia edition"
we, get this, for 1 edition only....

Listeners can ask questions live on one Internet Relay Chat channel and read a transcript of the programme on another.

I feel very old.

£135.50 a year - or "no more fucking Spongebob"

2007-10-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

So Liam Gallagher is on the front cover of this month's Mojo. I'm not sure where he stands on salami slicing or the future of Storyville but he's quite clear about why he should stump up £15 a month.

Whats in your man bag, Liam ?

"Wallet, keys. (unzips bag and pulls out selection of envelopes and papers)
Fucking Bills. Fucking TV licence. (pulls out TV Licence form). It's the final reminder and that's twice they've sent it so i've got to give it to one of the girls in there [the management office]. I better get it fucking sorted ....(Bolts for the door)... or there'll be no more Jeremy Kyle. No more fucking Spongebob. "

Old Dogs, New Tricks, NMK

2007-06-13T01:33:00.000-07:00

Today I'm on the Old Guard, New Tricks panel at the NMK Forum trying to make some sense of

"How is so-called MSM (Mainstream Media) facing up to the new wave of interest in social media? Is it absorbing social media strategies or ignoring it? What does social media mean for the bottom line of big media? And how do the social media startups view their effort"

Here are the notes that i prepared thinking about the panel. See also fellow panellist Nico MacDonald .

I haven't got long but i hope i'll cover off these 4 things...

Our old "fields of dreams" focus of approaching this space, feeling compelled to "host the conversation"
The problems of Scale that that brought us despite considerable success.
"social objects" (ie: tv and radio programmes) and trying to understand how the network changes our stuff and shifting our focus to trying to reflect and engage with those conversations *away* from bbc.co.uk. (read Lost and ripples-Dan Hill, this analysis of Heroes by Dan Taylor)
The challenges that brings us of the BBC having to have antennae, reflecting it back in our output (radio good at this, web pretty bad), and finally engaging whether by tools or being "part of the community".. examples: 7 Ages of Rock, Flickr: How we built Britain, Paul Denchfield ARG for Radio 1, Andrew Marr: YouTube Group.

- I'll try and make a quip about new tricks, and say I'm James Bolam, or Dennis Waterman which will probably be received in silence.

prevailing approach...

- Best summed up I'll might quote quoting Mitchell and Webb

Are you personally affected by this issue ? Then e-mail us. Or if you're not affected, can you imagine what it would be like if you were ? Or if you
were affected by it but don't want to talk about it can you imagine what it would be like not being affected by it ? Why not email us ? You may not know anything about the issue, but i bet you reckon something. So why not tell us what you reckon. Let us enjoy the full majesty of your uninformed ad hoc reckoning, by going to bbc.co.uk...clicking on "what i reckon" and beating on the keyboard with your fists and your head".

- This isn't far off the truth for some of the BBC's activity.
- Its what Lee Bryant calls "drive by commenting", users not having stake in that space, the you suck, no you suck level of engagement .
- The "call to action" lacks focus.
- I agree with Nico that we aren't using the BBC's or journalism's traditional skills, primarily of "hosting" in this space.
- We aren't doing enough of what Suw Charman, in her fantastic essay about this space called "curating"

2) Why we've had to change - scale...and chaos..

Our approach over the last 10 years, until recently has been to host the conversation. A Field of Dreams approach..

- This has caused us challenges in terms of "publishing flow" - lose trust of users because we don't publish their stuff or get round to even looking at it.
- moderation and cost - actually this has improved substantially at the BBC. Thousands of comments an hour are published live to the server.
- We get 1 comment every 2 seconds, around 1.5m/2m a month.
- Our blogs, forums, and community spaces like 606 get more unique users per week than Doctor Who.

We've also done a myriad of smallish train people with video cameras projects.
This doesn't scale ..We need to change our approach.

3.The Chaos

Thompson Quote from BBC internal magazine; Ariel this week.

- "I'm leading the BBC in a time of extra ordinary disruption in media. It may feel pretty bumpy inside the corporation; outside both in the UK and around the media, its close to chaos. ".

Actually a better description yesterday of where we are came from Yahoo's Tom Coates..."You're not competing with Facebook, you're competing with other companies *on* Facebook"

Essentially we can't expect users to come to us. We have to go to them

4.)The Challenges

Now my notes are running out of steam but essentially we are good at being a catalyst in this space. But our focus now is reflecting and engaging with the activity. See Tom Loosemore's 15 web principles.
These are the 2 that we need to get better at in this space.

6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.
14. Link to discussions on the web, don’t host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale

Contact Us

2007-06-09T01:01:00.001-07:00

Tunbridge Wells station
Originally uploaded by seadipper

Broadcast has transcribed a clip from Radio 4's That Mitchell and Webb Sound.
and included it in their back page diary. Oh yes, very funny. Grrrr.

"Are you personally affected by this issue ? Then e-mail us. Or if you're not affected, can you imagine what it would be like if you were ? Or if you
were affected by it but don't want to talk about it can you imagine what it would be like not being affected by it ? Why not email us ? You may not know anything about the issue, but i bet you reckon something. So why not tell us what you reckon. Let us enjoy the full majesty of your uninformed ad hoc reckoning, by going to bbc.co.uk...clicking on "what i reckon" and beating on the keyboard with your fists and your head".

I have found that the BBC is revered

2007-06-09T00:50:00.001-07:00

BBC Bush House in London
Originally uploaded by Redvers Kyle.

Letter to the New Statesman this week.

According to Jonathan Freedland (Inside track, 28 May), Gordon Brown's attitude to foreign policy is influenced by economics.

I wonder, therefore, if Brown will return to the BBC World Service the millions of pounds that have been taken from its budget by successive governments from Margaret Thatcher onwards. The World Service is a national asset, trusted by its overseas audiences.

I was in Syria when Israel bombed what it thought was a Palestinian terrorist training camp near Damascus. The Syrians I was with had been listening to a radio programme of Arab music on a channel broadcast by the US when the music was interrupted by a news flash. They changed immediately to the BBC, "to find out what was going on". In Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other parts, I have found that the BBC is revered.

If Brown wants to promote UK economic interests internationally, let him fund the World Service properly. It will be worthwhile.

Robert Hamilton
Troon, Ayrshire

Reboot piece for BBC News

2007-06-01T04:47:00.001-07:00

Cuaderno de notas
Originally uploaded by denegro.

I did a piece for the Darren and the tech desk on Day 1 of Reboot. As ever with these things its only a fragmented/partial view of the day and just that bit of the day that i saw before i sat down and filed the thing. (already ducking for cover)

reboot 9.0

2007-05-31T04:24:00.001-07:00

reboot 9.0
Originally uploaded by jem.

So I've arrived at Reboot and all I can really think of is the Human League. The morning has been full of musings from academics, developers and thinkers on what it is that makes us "human".

Reboot is the small(ish), grassroots(ish) tech conference that was kicked off this morning by 29 year old Thomas Madsen-Mygdal who has been putting this annual gathering together in his "spare" time nearly every year this decade. His opening gambit was "it's not us that makes it great, its you." as the majority of presentations were suggested and voted/commented on by the attendees before the conference was scheduled. Well I'm not sure i've done much yet bar eat some of the free apricots and bananas...

Anyway I'm here all day/tomorrow and supposed to be filing an update for my BBC News colleagues later so i'll better stop this and start paying attention.

7 Ages of Rock

2007-05-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

After a difficult week its good to report on this. 7 Ages of Rock is a new 7 (natch) part BBC2 documentary from the people behind the excellent Soul Deep and Lost Highway . It starts on BBC2 on Saturday night but the supporting BBC website, which launched this afternoon, really starts to make use of some of Tom's principles. Deploying for the first time (in my knowledge) at the BBC embedded video that is shareable. (see above) , aggregation of a wide range of sources (Flickr, Wikipedia, Last FM) to compile artist pages for the 50 or so bands featured in the programmes and sensible simple navigation this is quietly impressive stuff from the ever excellent team over in (what is now) the BBC team known as Audio and Music. Some of which really are now known as AM/FM. No really. Good work sirs.

Now when did "indie" actually start ? Are you sure its 1980 ?

"The Common Parlance of the Internet"

2007-05-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

I've watched rather painfully the fall out in comments and blog posts mostly from ex colleagues, following Bobbie Johnson's series of pieces in the Guardian investigating new media and innovation at the BBC. A long blog post criticising the technology behind the iPlayer and then a wider piece the following Monday bemoaning innovation at the BBC itself following Greg Dyke's comments to a Select Committee was uncomfortable stuff. This was followed again by a column from Emily Bell arguing that "The failure to innovate is a company-wide problem, not the preserve of the people in trainers." Charming. I wear a natty pair of Clarks Desert Boots every day.

I'm not going to comment (too much) further except to point you to this Backstage podcast from February
where Tom Loosemore (from the BBC), James Cridland (~~then~~ now from Virgin radio but ~~now~~ soon to be a BBC exec ) and a panel of "experts", some highly critical of the BBC's position, discuss DRM, innovation and the BBC to your hearts content. (ok. for over an hour). Its worth restating again the highly complex background against which the BBC operates. This is a theme running through the podcast but here is a typical example as any. Last week the DCMS Select Committee released a paper summarising a series of submissions from the great and the good around "new media and the creative industries" over the last few months. Its a 100 page dense piece of work but fascinating especially around DRM and its recommendations around home copying. However its this anecdote about the Creative Archive project (now at the end of its pilot phase) that caused a smile.

There were criticisms by witnesses of the BBC for appearing to encourage a cavalier approach to copyright through its message to users of the Creative Archive—"find it, rip it, mix it, share it, come and get it". BECTU* pointed out that there was no suggestion of "Respect it" in the slogan and that users were quite likely to be unaware of the terms of the licence.The Music Managers' Forum suggested that the underlying message "had the air of an organisation which seeks to undermine copyright rather than a publicly-owned authority which should emphasise best practice".Many witnesses urged the BBC to use its position as a public service broadcaster with unparalleled access to audiences and experience in interpreting complex issues for public consumption to promote copyright education through its services.The Creators Rights Alliance agreed and suggested that the BBC should inform users that they were paying for the right to view content rather than the right to own it.
156. The BBC defended its slogan, saying that the terms used were "the common parlance of the Internet", used by Microsoft and iTunes, and were in no way the language of piracy.While this may be true, the common parlance of the Internet should not be setting the standard for the BBC. We recommend that the BBC should amend the slogan for the Creative Archive, if it proceeds beyond the pilot phase, to convey the message to users that content should be respected. The BBC should examine whether more can be done to oblige users of the Creative Archive to read the terms of the licence governing use of the material before downloading and consider what other action it can take to educate consumers about the purpose and importance of copyright law.

The common parlance of the internet "should not be setting the standard for the BBC". They make it sound dirty...

Sky News Priorities

2007-05-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

I think Andrew Collins has pretty much captured most of my thoughts on the media coverage of the Portugal case. As with Alan Johnston I can understand the motivation in keeping news interest high to secure an outcome but the current navigation bar for Sky News neatly illustrates the pervasiveness of this story on their current output.

Send us or tell Us for Red Nose Day

2007-03-16T05:12:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by Yes Becky.

Comic Relief have neatly adopted the "Tell Us Where Your Stuff is" model for aggregating photos/videos of the days events for today. As well as pages on myspace, bebo and picza there's the instructions on the "official" site to:

Upload your photos to Flickr and tag them RND07
Upload your videos to Youtube and tag them RND07

Mind you. So far its not been widely adopted. There are 63 Flickr photos and 16 YT video clips (all uploaded by comic relief staffers). These lovely gingerbread men were found using the rednoseday tag.

Planning Application for new BBC HQ in Salford

2007-03-01T07:00:00.001-08:00

Planning Application for new BBC HQ in Salford
Originally uploaded by jem.

Obviously I'm following this rather closely. I'm due to be working here in 2011.
The full 286 page document is available to read here:
http://documents.salford.gov.uk/docs/54178.pdf

Perhaps I'm following it a bit too closely.

Brand Confusion

2007-03-01T03:36:00.000-08:00

"BBC Jane Austen Season Trailer"

Last week I did a turn for some of the marketing execs at the BBC illustrating how users are using our brands in interesting ways away from the BBC site. Distributed world, lose control of our brands, how do we retain/measure credit. You know the stuff. I wish I'd been able to use this example then. An ITV trailer uploaded today to Youtube by a costume drama fan who then entitles it "BBC Jane Austen Season Trailer". They've even tagged it BBC. This is despite the ITV1 (and Sainsburys) logo in the final frame. We often trot out in the BBC the example of users who attribute BBC programmes to Sky as a brand. Its not often that it works the other way. Billie Piper, Mansfield Park, A Jane Austen season. It really is very hard to picture this on ITV.

Melvyn Bragg and Radio 4's history of being "interactive"

2007-02-28T03:09:00.000-08:00

In this weeks BBC staff newspaper Ariel there is a full page interview with Melvyn Bragg. It opens with Melvyn admitting that he "worries about the BBC in a protective kind of way and I'm not altogether sure why." A neat summary of my feelings to my employer and favourite media owner. It will no doubt be leaked in full elsewhere. Ariel articles usually are. My favourite (non controversial) paragraph concerns Radio 4 and its long history of being "interactive".

"On Radio 4 I'm biased, but I feel its a truly great channel that knows where it's going even though its hard to bring in change. You don't associate middle England with fanaticism but if you wanted to, you could point the listeners to Radio 4. It's their channel, they own it and they let you know. It's a fascinating relationship to be in; the mail, the email, the correspondence, the corrections they send you, the extensions to your argument. It's intense. They were interactive before the word was invented. They're not just the protest vote"

One for Steve Bowbrick who has just launched his lovely new Twitter(and Radio 4 flavoured) service; Listen With Bowbrick which I've blogged about on backstage over there.

Mark E Smith and the Licence Fee

2007-02-28T02:58:00.000-08:00

I love interviews with the old bastard. Anyway there's a fantastic Q&A in this months Uncut where is rude about everyone. Peter Hook ? - "A fucking idiot", dismisses the internet; "these techno buffs, they believe everything they read on it". He's also cuts to the chase when it comes to what pays my wages every month.

What makes you laugh ?
I like to make my own jokes up. But I do watch TV, too much - you've got to know your enemy. Its fucking pathetic. I don't know how they get away with it, especially the BBC. Me mam gets £70 a week as a pensioner and she has to pay £120 a year to watch people doing their fucking houses up. You can see that anywhere. If you want to see fucking builders, you can just look out of the window.

Goggy - 1905 -2007

2007-02-28T02:56:00.001-08:00

Goggy
Originally uploaded by jem.

F's grandmother died this morning. She was inspiring, very funny and an outrageous gossip. We'll miss her.

The day I said sorry to Eddie Mair

2007-02-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

Today I spent a considerable bit of my time ("working from home) apologising to Eddie Mair, listeners to PM and primarily those users (froggers as they have dubbed themselves) who have struggled with the BBC's blog installation over the last few weeks. Fearing the worst, my rather dull explanation post actually had the inevitable Radio 4 response of grateful, polite thanks and incredibly from one user apologies for bringing up the whole issue.

Eddie (and the PM team) has been one of our blog successes so far but I'm a tiny bit embarrassed that he first comes across me as the dozy BBC exec responsible for making his users oh so v.slightly frustrated and mildly pissed off. Anyway they seem to have quickly forgotten my anal explanations of comment spam and gone back to admiring random photos of the snow. Phew.

Outside my bedroom window

2007-02-08T00:55:00.001-08:00

Snowy view from bedroom window
Originally uploaded by jem.

Working from home today.

Life On Mars - Radio Times 1973

2007-02-07T00:38:00.001-08:00

Life On Mars - Radio Times 1973
Originally uploaded by jem.

The classic Radio Times cover on the inside of this weeks RT. That clear block of white. Just perfect. The excellent Gill Hudson (brilliant RTimes editor) calls decision to do this "There's fandom for you!". RTimes also has a snoop around the set. Of course Flickr users have already done that.

Marketing Life on Mars

2007-02-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

*Photos of the bus shelter posters of Life on Mars "nick of time" campaign uploaded by Flickr users.

I loved Life on Mars season 1, being of a certain age, a fan of the Sweeney and (briefly) the owner of a Ford Cortina about 10 years ago. (It cost me a fortune in spares and I paid some bloke to tow it away when it died on Newington Green.)
And its back for the 2nd series on BBC1/4 next Tuesday night at 9pm. Leading up to Feb 13 has been a slick marketing campaign that, for once, plays to the strengths of the show and has some knowing nods to the fans of what is actually a mainstream cop show. (An avge of 7m viewers last time round). That attention to detail in using the "BBC1 in colour" (from the BBC's trails of 1973) straplines hasn't been lost on the v.hard to please idents crowd , the excellently done Camberwick Green/"kicking in a nonce" retro taster (its recycled from one of those dream sequences) went down so well with one of the BBC points of view mboarders (and they really are a tough crowd) that he was forced to admit

for the first time ever an advert has encouraged me to watch a programme.

There was even this spoof 1973 police training manual penned by DCI Gene Hunt, which I er, saw lurking on the Bizarre pages of the Sun Online next to a story about Ashley and Cheryl (I was looking for more Vickywatch type howlers. honest guv).

The campaign has been put together by Red Bee Media . (all credits are on this Brand Republic post).

But ok its hardly Snakes on a Plane yet complementing the junctions between between EastEnders and Holby we've had a small campaign of users taking photos of posters at bus shelters and sharing them with Flickr, extensive edit wars/updates in anticipation of series 2 at Wikipedia, fans explaining the ads over at the Digital Spy forums and Points of View and naturally much blogging
and embedding . A week away and I'd say its all sorted. Gene Hunt on Twitter might have been nice though.

(Actually the best bit of marketing for the new series is the terrific tribute 1973 Radio Times cover in this weeks edition.. Buggered if I can find a pic of it online though. )

Ian and Adam's blog - It's like News 24

2007-01-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

Ian and Adam (the recently civil ceremonied gay couple in The Archers...do keep up) are on their honeymoon in Kenya. Word gets back in yesterdays episode to Jenny (Adams fairly web savvy 60something mum) and ageing tory philanderer Brian (his step dad)
Jenny: That reminds me. He and Ian have posted some more photos on their blog.
Brian (Scornfully): Whatever happened to "Wish you were here", a postcard of an elephant.
Jenny: They arrived at the Game park yesterday.. The photos are of Monbassa. They went there on Saturday.
Brian: (astonished) It's like News 24. Holidays are supposed to be relaxing.
Jenny: You should have a look.
Brian: Well he can tell me about it when he gets home.

I don't think there is a "real" blog out there (anyone ?) but the archers mb community have inevitably spoofed the idea of it in their usual biting fashion.

What the heck is on BBC World News ?

2007-01-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

Tiki Barber is an (ex) American footballer and broadcaster who i've obviously never heard of. I haven't watched a whole game of American football in my life.
However curse that New Yorker who can make you read 3000 words about anything because they have genius writers. In this case Ben McGrath's brilliant profile which contains this transcript of a radio chat a few months back (Tiki now co-hosts a sports/music radio show with his brother).

"During one show several weeks ago, Ronde (Tiki's brother) played a few bars of the song "Smack That" by hip hop artists Akon and Eminem. "It's getting played out right now" he said "but it is a good song"

Tiki: I've never even heard it
Ronde: Yes, you have
Tiki: I haven't
Ronde: Come On, Tiki
Tiki: Dude, I don't listen to the radio anymore
Ronde: What station do you listen to ?
TIki Honestly ? Do you want to know ? BBC World News
Ronde: Come On, Dude
Tiki: I'm serious
Ronde: What the heck is on BBC World News ?
Tiki: I like to be informed. The British News is different. It gives you a different perspective on the world...and they have these really weird accents.

Ronde now calls him Sir Barber "

One for Sacred Facts I think.

Celebrity Big Brother - facts

2007-01-19T02:18:00.000-08:00

Thursday Jan 11 3.5m
Monday Jan 15: 3.7m
Tuesday Jan 16: 4.5m
Wednesday Jan 17: 5.2m
Thursday Jan 18: 5.7m

Scarf Day and North Stand Chat

2007-01-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

Scarf Day
Originally uploaded by jem.

Scarf Day at the Albion

My almost annual visit to the Withdean to see Brighton yesterday coincided with "Scarf Day". This was a interesting attempt to try and inject some passion and atmosphere into what has been a miserable season for the Albion marooned mid table in League One.

Every new ticket holder was given a voucher for a new (acrylic it turned out) blue and white Brighton Scarf and season ticket holders had the chance to buy new ones for £2.50. Whilst I was queuing up for mine, the bloke in the front laughed "The ideas that come from chat rooms!"

However doomed, (it rained and we lost 1-0) this was another example of the successful campaigning and lobbying that is achieved via the unofficial forum for Brighton fans; North Stand Chat. The scarf idea started via a thread on the board from long time fan; Danny Last and was picked up in the local paper and then by the club itself.

This grassroots campaigning was nice to see even if the results were a little forlorn. The scarf swinging was a bit half hearted but then it was raining again and we don't have a roof. And good to see communities where the club/media owner's involvement with forums goes beyond just asking "what do you think ?" and then never being heard from again.

BBC Sport on Twitter

2007-01-12T07:46:00.001-08:00

BBC Sport on Twitter
Originally uploaded by jem.

I've never really taken to IM although I get some work done with it in the office from time to time. I thought LOL stood for lots of love until very recently which shows how naive i am. So i'm surprised at how taken in i've been with twitter.. At first it just seems so dumb. Public, permanent IM with added SMS. Banality to the extreme. But then you are drawn in and can't stop. Its prurient, socially useful, and now with added bits and bobs like the BBC sport/news headlines (thanks Mario.) virtually the wallpaper to my day. All together now. "making coffee listening to Radio 4".

World Service at 2am in the morning

2006-11-07T10:58:00.000-08:00

I'm spending 2 days in Scotland for work which meant getting up pre-dawn this morning. This disrupted waking up time actually means i have even less sleep because feel compelled to toss and turn or rather listen to the world service all night for fear of oversleeping and so ..2 recommendations. (both broadcast last night between 1-3am GMT.

- Call That Justice
This was an astonishing 30 minute feature (part of a 3 part series - Pakistan last week) looking at the draconian punishments meted out, in some US states to children as young as 14 or 15. Rarely does radio these days inspire in you a raging sense of injustice or disbelief. But the 3 stories highlighted here; a youngster jailed for life with no parole at 15 (a felony crime) for taking part in an armed robbery which resulted in a death even though he never fired a shot or handled a gun. Another jailed at 14 (life with no parole) for accidentally firing a gun which killed another youngster. Another at 15 (life with no parole) for helping falsify evidence after his friend had killed his abusive mother but not actually commiting a murder; were all heartbreaking. The sober recollections of the jailed (all of whom seemed resignedto their fate) and their articulate expressions of disbelief to the situation they had found themselves in just made it worse combined with the crushing pay off "The state has recently passed legislation to allow prisoners parole after 40 years. This law isn't, however retrospective and doesn't apply to any of the voices you have heard in this documentary" This made you think and view the USA afresh. A painful, powerful 30 minutes of speech radio. You can download the podcast here.

I also heard, for the first time:

- Culture Shock
Presented by Front Row presenter John Wilson, its interesting in that it appears to be the first magazine programme I've heard about cultural memes. John's sidekick (in the same way that Bill Thompson does the same for Digital Planet) is the v.fine Russell Davies. and is surely the only radio programme in the world reporting, quite earnestly on the latest trends in Belgium. But hey I was half asleep and it was 2.30am.

flickr in the evening standard

2006-10-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

This, out of the blue, turned up in The Standard on Thursday. With quotes from Tom Dunmore (from Stuff Magazine) and from Yahoo, it was just a straightforward plug for Flickr. I think the peg was this might be the next Youtube (surely Youtube was once the TV version of Flickr) and/or here are some funny photos taken in London. It talks about the London Flickr groups but didn't bother to get any quotes from an actual photographer or attribute or credit properly the 3 photos they filled the page with.

New Guardian Music/Arts blog

2006-10-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

It launched yesterday and nothing really to report yet. Its the same principle as Sport; It brings the existing arts blogs (ie: CultureVulture) into the CommentisFree design, aggregates all of the comment pieces from the paper(s) and commissions a few web only ones to boot. Or as Emily Bell puts it:

In the wake of the award-winning and internationally admired Comment is Free, we are launching the arts and entertainment blog which will aggregate our existing critics and, we hope, some new, fresh voices in the world of culture and the arts. We believe this will be a vital and hopefully noisy forum for users and critics to interact on the burning cultural issues of the day.

But the highlight so far has been, as ever, the Guardian's best writer (save Mark Lawson) John Harris and his willingness to er, join in in the comments after his furious piece about why Oasis should have called it a day in 1996. I like Be Here Now too.

BBC Taliban Interview

2006-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

Newsnight's report from Afghanistan and interview with the Taliban has received extensive coverage elsewhere. Euan, however, raised the point that frustrated at the quality and user experience of watching the item on bbc.co.uk why couldn't the BBC "just put their videos on Youtube". The issues about using Youtube as a distribution platform are discussed at length in the comments but i raised the point at the end that users are already doing a very effective job of using the site to circulate BBC material. Youtube (i think) index their site every 24 hours so the clips weren't showing up yesterday but sure enough this morning the full Newsnight interview (in 2 parts) has turned up. Newsnight are fully aware of their items/interviews being used in this way and this example illustrates, apart from permissions, that thorny issue of credit. Ripped from BBC2 it obviously has no DOG, and the astonishing reporter David Loyn and Newsnight are not mentioned. The intros and outros to the piece have been edited out. The user (Phantomsby) has titled it "BBC Taleban interview", however otherwise i wouldn't have picked it up in my search. Newsnight followed it up with a debate between Peter Horrocks and Liam Fox last night. with again their blog being used as the place discuss their editorial decisions with some strong support (and criticism) in the comments.

Ruth Archer and the BBC message boards

2006-10-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

Feedback on Radio 4 often uses message board postings and users as a way of sourcing items and speakers. The reaction from both the BBC editors when faced with this sort of criticism (and praise) by the presenter; Roger Bolton and then the subsequent reaction from the message board community itself is always filled with tension. The difficultly for BBC producers in how to respond to what is for some, a completely novel and vocal response to their work is sometimes very skillfully done but sometimes they seem v.taken aback by the strength and depth of conversations about "their" programme online and in an arena they were, til then, only partly aware of.

Yesterday Vanessa Whitburn, the editor of The Archers, was summonsed to defend the recent Sam/Ruth/David/Sophie storyline.

Things have been getting very steamy in the cowshed at Brookfield lately and Archers listeners who've written to Feedback talk of sensationalism and complain that some of the main characters seem to have had personality transplants. After David Archer's flirtation with his old flame Sophie, his wife Ruth has now embarked on secret trysts with the farm's cowman, Sam.

Some users had accused the BBC (despite this storyline arc having started nearly 2 years ago) as just spicing the show up for the sake of it. Seeing as there is always an affair storyline in The Archers and its one of the best things about it (Brian/Siobhan, Tom/Woman from Supermarket, Ed/Emma) I personally don't really have a problem but it's upset a lot of listeners. Personally I thought Vanessa gave a very good account of herself but she ended up causing all manner of fuss over on Mustardland (the nickname for the forum because it has a yellowy background) provoking a thread kicked off by Honeysuckle of over 250 comments for "blessing the message board".

Ok, how about a mass protest at VW's patronising attitude to us messageboarders on feedback.

I had to listen to the interview three times to understand what had provoked the patronising jibe amongst users. This is what Vanessa said:

The website, god bless em, they've been going barmy on this one for a couple of years or more. The lovely things they've said. The actings great and the writing of Ruth has been briliiant. One even said the scriptwriters were right on the money with this one. It reflects the lives of two people in my circle and is much more common than is often thought.

I think this shows that Vanessa and her production team clearly use the board as an insight into the succeess or not of their storylines so all credit to them for doing so. Actually The Archers board is one of the most thriving forums about BBC programmes actually within bbc.co.uk and is the Archers site itself regularly highlights ideas, best postings, faqs written and contributed by its users.

Meanwhile the woman at the centre of the fuss; Ruth Archer or rather the actress Felicity Finch is even more honest when it comes to her internet usage and the discussion in a Q and A on the site again sourced from many message board comments

I have to confess I never look at the message board. Partly because I never seem to have the time to 'play' on a computer and partly because I know I wouldn't find it at all helpful to read anti-Ruth comments.

For someone who has had Dead Ringers poking fun at her character for over 7 years then I'd say it was the least of her worries. Mind you I think she's playing the character of a mother tempted by an affair with great depth and some sympathy. I almost believe it.
For those desperate to see a conclusion to this plotline then elsewhere in her interview Vanessa hinted that the 15,000th episode coming up week after next would be "worth tuning into" with some "dramatic developments". Blimey.

UPDATE: The Sunday Telegraph has picked up on this story saying; "The website has been inundated with messages from listeners who are using it as a form of mass protest". Except er, as of today it hasn't. Its had about a few hundred negative postings out of tens of thousands. And Whitburn praised the message board community rather than criticise it.

Today: "one person's view is as good as another"

2006-10-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Euan's write up led me to this; a piece on this mornings Today show plugging a new competition for classical music writing in BBC Music Magazine. What could have been an innocuous bit of puffery developed into almost an illustration writ large of Jeff Jarvis' constant cry "When everyone’s a critic, where do all the critics go?".
And for the icing on the cake Carolyn Quinn questioned if bloggers could be trusted to " give a decent concert review". Here's a transcript of the short piece. The audio is still available but only temporarily.

TODAY: (Caroline ) Now not enough people are writing about classical music, so says BBC Music Magazine. To encourage them its launching a new competition called the Michael Oliver memorial prize which will be open to anyone under 25 who hasn't been published in a national publication and who wants to write a feature or a profile of a musician or a composer they admire. The magazine's editor; Oliver Condy joins me on the line now as does Daily Telegraph arts critic; Rupert Christiansen.
Oliver Condy, first of all; What sort of pieces would you like to see be put in for this competition.
OLIVER CONDY: Well we're basically after a chance for young people to get an entry in to the world of classical music. Its so difficult to become a music critic these days, there's no job spec, so we're after people to write a clear 250 words, a review of a couple of discs by the same artist and also a slightly larger feature, just profiling a musician or an issue that they feel really heated about. So its a good chance for people to have a pretty liberated go at pithy music journalism.
CAROLINE QUINN: So you're concerned at the lack of youthful writers
OLIVER CONDY: Well I'm concerned at the lack of youthful writers. Its not that I want us to sweep away the old guard but I do find that there are too few critics and they get bogged down slightly in their journalese and music criticism can become very lazy and uncommunicative and i really do think that bringing young people up and interested in classical music let alone writing about it can only be a good thing for the future.
CAROLINE QUINN: Rupert Christiansen. Let me bring you in here. You are a critic and you seem to have succeeded in a job that is quite difficult to get into. What do you think about this option for opening up the door to young people.
RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN: Well its very good. I don't want to be negative about it but I slightly feel that you've missed a trick Oliver. Its not very challenging and this "musician you admire" thing sounds like a GCSE project to me. The CD Review is so short that once you've got all the names in you're through.
CAROLINE QUINN:To pick up on that, the idea of being a critic you would say is a job that not everyone can do. You don't just write a short piece and then you're naturally a critic.
RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN: I think the energy you need to pick up on at the moment is in blogs, the classical music blogs, probably by older people. It would be great to get them in the fold.
CAROLYN QUINN: Oliver Condy, How do you answer those points ?
OLIVER CONDY: I wanted to set the bar at a fairly basic level.People can make of it what they want, by say profling a musician you admire you can really get under the skin. Its whatever level you want to take it at.
CAROLYN QUINN: Its not just GCSE style ?
OLIVER CONDY: Absolutely not. I'm hoping that people of GCSE age are going to enter and there are some wonderful writers out there. For science writers, for film critics but for classical music there is a real lack..and the point about the blogs. There are, as we know, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of blogs out there and its so difficult to sift through so by giving people a bit of a benchmark, a well known publication to get published in. The prize is to write a cover feature for the magazine so there is a really good chance to get into the limelight, with a blog it would be so difficult to do that.
CAROLYN QUINN: And with blogs do you not think Rupert Christiansen that some people would think well, we can't trust a blogger to give a decent concert review.
RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN: Well perhaps we should trust them. I certainly think there is a problem now. Professional critics now are on our way out.
CAROLYN QUINN: Oh dear. Thanks for talking us before you go (LAUGHTER).
RUPERT CHRISTIANSEN: There is a lot of mistrust of the idea of an expert or an authoritative scholarly critic. Opinion has been democratised pretty much through the internet in the past few years and there is a feeling that one person's view is as good as another. I find that slightly depressing I have to say.
----More plugs for the competition. Interview ends.

Nobody but the fans

2006-10-09T03:50:00.000-07:00

I circled this in big red ink on yet another lenghty sojourn between Haywards Heath and East Croydon a couple of weeks ago. Its from David Hepworth's semi-regular column in the Media Guardian.
It sums up the problems for any publishers or how shall i put it large media company involved in creating editorial online; just how do you begin to understand the difference between publishing your stuff and what Hepworth calls the "arena". V.good on MSM attitude towards fans.

Here's the creative dilemma for magazine publishers on the web. They know how to fashion a product. A community site isn't really any such thing. A magazine is a compromise between the range of content that can realistically be offered, the people who can be persuaded to go into a shop to buy it and the advertisers who can be lured into supporting it. However, a website is an arena where things take place. The relationship between editor and reader is altered from priest-acolyte to host-guest. The magazine is no longer the gatekeeper guarding the door to the cupboard marked "content". They provide the name above the door of the club and what goes on inside will be dictated by the people who visit.
Editors are always ambivalent about the actual members of the public who pay their salaries. When readers are writing in to tell them how good their magazine is, they're people of rare taste and discrimination. When they're complaining about something, they're dangerous lunatics with too much time on their hands. With a community site you're inviting those self-same lunatics in and asking them to help
hand round the peanuts.
Just as the best websites are run by geeks in sheds rather than employees in cubicles, so the best community tends to be driven by people who are essentially intemperate, possibly not the kind of people you want near your carefully burnished brand.

And not that we need any more youtube commentary but Hepworth was at it again wading into the comments section of his blog for the v.fine Word Magazine which has been monitoring Youtube with love (an obsessive music fan) and horror (he 's a magazine publisher) for quite a while. Of all the tens of thousands of words about that i've ploughed through about that over the last few months, here is the best 100.

Most copyright owners don't pay much attention to their role as historical guardians until there's a pound to be made. Whenever record companies decide to reissue something from the pre-war period, for instance, they don't have a master tape to draw upon and end up having to re-master it from some fan's 78. In order to re-screen some of its old comedy the BBC has had to go to former members of staff who stole early tapes to stop them being wiped. Who's keepin all those promo videos and TV appearances and hanging on to them as companies change ownership? Nobody but the fans, if the example of YouTube is anything to go by.

The UK's top ten UGC news momentsd

2006-10-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Broadcast this week reports on what they call the "UK's Top 10 UGC News moments".
I'd link to the page on their site but blown if I can actually find it (behind a registration/pay wall or not).

They are:

1. Asian Tsunami
2. London Bombings
3. Concorde Crash
4. Terror Suspect Arrests (July 2005)
5. Forest Gate
6. Buncefield Oil Depot Explosion
7. Troops in Iraq
8. Mumbai Train Bombings
9. Whale in the Thames
10.Hurricane Katrina

My colleague; Vicky Taylor from BBC News is quoted.
"Its interesting how many vox pops from [Buncefield] said "and i took out my phone or camera to take a picture as an automatic reflex. At the BBC it is important to harness this willingess to record events. There has been a fairly dramatic change in how people view the news and their part in it... It has a much more humanising influence on our journalism. In the past we may have gone to charities and other organisations for our case studies, we now have direct access to real cases from the audience itself."

BBC Now/Next Module

2006-10-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

Just trying out embedding Google Widgets into pages using Mario's BBC now/next module

2 things in the New Statesman this week.

2006-10-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

The best thing in the New Statesman this week is a rather rude review of Colin Murray by Rachel Cooke in the radio column. There's also another one of their odd supplements that document random round table discussions paid for by sponsorship that always seems ill fitting for the magazine. With the not exactly great come on of "IT and modernisation", it has some great stuff (as usual) from Will Davies, especially on the gulf between the perception of public services and our experiences when we actually use them. There's also contributions from Matt and contributions from my boss Tony Ageh about development at the BBC.

"We are much more into the buy rather than build culture. The hope of other industries that have made significant investment is that the BBC's technology will stand still to allow them to recoup their investment. That is an unfair burden to place on a public service body. Other companies can say. "Never mind the people with accessibility issues, its all about getting our return back", whereas the BBC has to go at the speed of the slowest members of its audience"

The full debate is available only as a PDF.
Its chaired by BBC columnist, pundit and "essayist" as the New Statesman puts it, Bill Thompson who has a good pay off quote at the end to cheer you up after 16 pages of legacy systems, mismanaged public sector IT projects, and talk of the National Audit Office.

Nick Robinson #63 Political Blog in the UK

2006-09-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

Probably the best known UK political blogger (behind Guido Fawkes) ; Iain Dale (he reviews the papers on News 24 no less) has been devoting his entire summer to compiling lists of the Top political blogs. (pdf) in the UK. Clearly no slacker, he has put together no less than five Top 100s; The overall list, 1 for non-aligned and 1 each for the tories, labour and lib dems.

And in the overall top 100 Nick Robinson is ....er, #63. Iain's criteria was

I marked each blog out of ten on the following 10 areas: design; frequency of posting; writing ability; personality; comment; humour; range; interaction; popularity; independence of thought. This generated a mark out of 100.

Obviously this is subjective stuff. But oddly Adam Boulton is at #12. Are they so different in what they attempt to do ? More great feedback on BBC blogs in todays Independent profile of who they call the "BBC's Westminster Rottweiller".

"(Nick Robinsons Newslog is) a site on which he is depicted with the sort of graphic art more often found on the covers of drum'n'bass compilations."

Really ?

Allan Beswick on Blogs

2006-09-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Robin tipped me off that via his new BBC blog covering Manchester bloggers Radio Manchester had been in touch to try and get hold of celebrated blogger; Craig McGinty. The interview with presenter Allan Beswick was yesterday afternoon. Craig has posted the audio on his site. Its a fairly standard how do we trust/what is blogging type interview but it was the opening gambit from the celebrated Beswick that made me laugh.

"How do you turn blogging into a job. It's just writing rubbish.. innit ?"

Andy Griffee and BBC storytelling

2006-09-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

There's a long piece in the BBC's internal magazine; Ariel this week by Andy Griffee (the BBC's Controller, English Regions). In the week of the (staff only) BBC's storytelling festival he poses 5 questions facing "broadcasting gatekeepers" such as the BBC and arguing that "we must find ways to ride the (internet/digital) wave or risk wipe out"

How do we use a quarter of a million hours of local radio a year to harvest the potential of 8m listeners' stories ?
How do we deploy the cheap technology to enable to shape these stories in the quiet thoughtfulness of their own homes ?
How do we graft such content into our conventional television output with its godlike authorial figures and their velvet voices ?
How do we use the anarchy of the internet and the power of the BBC online brand to seek and use these stories ?
And what do we do to make such powerful stories cut through and get noticed amid the multimedia babel and almost limitless demand for our audiences time ?

He concludes by arguing that the professional storytellers of the BBC will also need "to raise their game" if their stories continue to be sought out and valued. Also in the piece is a quote I'd not seen before from Jeremy Vine when he authored a diary for The Spectator back in May essentially endorsing Dan Gilmour's mantra; "they know more than us".

I realise now and I should have realised it before that listeners have better stories than we do For years, newsreaders have 'pranced about' as if they know more than the people watching; as if it were their job to know everything. But the image of the all-knowing newscaster has been ripped to shreds by the sheer volume of information which is now moving around unmediated.
The best approach we can take in response is to say, 'Let's try to work out what's going on together.' It would be an appalling con for me and three bleary-eyed producers to walk into our office at 6.30 a. m. on a Wednesday imagining that we know more than our five million listeners. So we pool information rather than hand it down. Bring on the 'mission to explore'.

New BBC staff blog guidelines

2006-05-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

Our editorial policy team at the BBC have just issued, for the first time, guidelines for employees who have blogs or personal websites.

You can access the word document here. but I've published them in full below. A lot of BBC staff (including myself) who already blog were consulted in putting this together.

UPDATED: The guidelines are now available as webpages on the BBC site.
And as Euan rightfully reminded me a comment below this is a rare example of a policy at the BBC developed using a Wiki and featuring the input of many staff (but no meetings).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC GUIDELINES ON EMPLOYEES WEBLOGS AND WEBSITES

These Guidelines apply to personal blogs and all other personal webcontent (e.g. personal podcasts). Official BBC content which uses blogging formats must be signed off by the relevant divisional interactive head.

Principles

Blogging is a form of public conversation on the internet, in which BBC people may wish to take part.

When a blogger clearly identifies themselves as a BBC person and/or discusses their work, the BBC expects them to behave well when blogging, and in ways that are consistent with the BBC’s Editorial Values and policies.

Many bloggers, particularly in technical areas, use their personal blogs to discuss their BBC work in ways that benefit the BBC, and add to the “industry conversation”. These guidelines are not intended to restrict this, as long as confidential information is not revealed.

Blogs or websites which do not identify the blogger as a BBC employee, do not discuss the BBC and are purely about personal matters would normally fall outside these guidelines.

These guidelines complement the BBC’s Conflict of Interest guidelines.

Editorial Policy can give advice on these Guidelines.

Guidelines For Bloggers

If you already have a personal blog or website which indicates in any way that you work at the BBC you should tell your manager.

If you want to start blogging, and your blog/website will say that you work for the BBC you should tell your manager.

If your blog makes it clear that you work for the BBC, it should include a simple and visible disclaimer such as “these are my personal views and not those of the BBC”.

Unless there are specific concerns about the nature of your job, you are free to talk about BBC programmes and content on your blog. Consult your manager if in any doubt.

Don’t reveal confidential information. This might include aspects of BBC policy or details of internal BBC discussions. Again, consult your manager if you are unclear about what might be confidential.

You should not use your blogs to attack or abuse colleagues. You should respect the privacy and the feelings of others. Remember that if you break the law on your blog (for example by posting something defamatory), you will be personally responsible.

If you think something on your blog or website gives rise to concerns about a conflict of interest and in particular concerns about impartiality or confidentiality this must be discussed with your manager.

If someone offers to pay you for blogging this could constitute a conflict of interest and you must consult your manager.

If someone from the media or press contacts you about posts on your blog that relate to the BBC you should talk to your manager before responding. The relevant BBC press office must be consulted.

You are allowed to update your personal blog from a BBC computer at work, under the BBC’s Acceptable Use Policy.

Guidelines For Managers

Under these guidelines managers in each area will decide what is appropriate. They should not adopt an unnecessarily restrictive approach. Managers should ensure that any special instructions on blogging are reasonable and explained clearly to staff.

Managers should bear in mind concerns about impartiality, confidentiality, conflicts of interest or commercial sensitivity. In some cases individuals may be dealing with matters which are so sensitive that rules may have to be set on what they can and cannot talk about on their personal blog.

Those involved in editorial or production areas must take particular care to ensure that they do not undermine the integrity or impartiality of the BBC or its output on their blogs. For example those involved in factual areas should not advocate a particular position on high profile controversial subjects relevant to their areas.

Managers can consult the BBC’s Conflicts of Interest Guidelines and the BBC’s Acceptable Use Policy For Internet and Email.

News and Current Affairs

Impartiality is a particular concern for those working in news and current affairs. Nothing should appear on their personal blogs which undermines the integrity or impartiality of the BBC. For example, news and current affairs people should not:

• advocate support for a particular political party
• express views for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate
• advocate any particular position on an issue of current public controversy or debate

If news and current affairs people are in doubt they should refer immediately to their line manager.

If news and current affairs people are asked to blog for commercial gain this could constitute a conflict of interest. Managers should consult the Off Air Activities Guidance Note for News and Current Affairs Presenters and Editorial Staff in BBC News, BBC Nations and Regions and BBC Global News.

Building a Digital Britain

2006-04-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

Mark Thompson gave a remarkable speech to the RTS last month in which he talked about the BBC's response to "what is often referred to as Web 2.0." He argued that

"an engagement with user-generated content, user-recommendation and personalisation which goes beyond anything [the details of the mybbcplayer] I've touched upon this evening."

However he spent most of the speech outlining how the forthcoming BBC On demand products and their development might work alongside the new BBC regulatory regime confirmed in the White Paper. A new world of a BBC Trust, service licences and (for new products) tests for public value and market impact. Key to the thinking was that for on demand...

We believe that our Player – and, more broadly, our commitment to ensure that bbc.co.uk is at the leading edge of Web 2.0 – will drive broadband
It will encourage those who are not on line to go on line. It will encourage those who are not on broadband to adopt it.And within broadband it will encourage users to consider higher and higher speeds."

This "Driving Digital Britain" role is in stark contrast however to some of the the reams of articles in response to the Carphone Warehouse announcement. (what Ben Metcalfe is calling the "Trojan Horse of the Free Internet"). The starkest is a cheeky polemic from The Guardian's
Simon Waldman called "Freeconomics" (ho ho) in which he lays to rest this prevailing wisdom that content (from the BBC or otherwise) drives digital take up and whether the BBC's role in encouraging users to go online still exists.

I remember sitting in various sessions around Whitehall years ago, where the general consensus was that the government needed to invest in great broadband content to get people to sign up. This was, of course, twaddle. Tesco, Amazon, eBay, easyjet, Ryanair, Napster and iTunes have done more to help the spread of fat pipes throughout the nation than state-subsidised computer games ever could.

And, for that matter, the days when the BBC could claim it is encouraging the country to get online have long since passed as well.

Ashley Highfield and Web 2.0

2006-03-21T00:34:00.000-08:00

Being interviewed before joining Bill Gates on stage at Mix 06, my boss; Ashley Highfield acknowledged this about bbc.co.uk

"The pace is hotting up ... We are already working on a radically different search engine and thinking about how we completely reinvent bbc.co.uk. It's time to completely redesign it for a web 2.0 world."

That White Paper In Full

2006-03-14T09:22:00.001-08:00

Tessa Jowell revealed all today (pdf) and the word counts are in:

Trust - 275
Ofcom- 74
Content - 55
Quota -24
Web - 19
Entertainment - 19
Unique - 17
Mobile 7
Interactive TV - 1
Podcasting - 1
7 Day Catch Up - 1
User Generated Content - 1
Blogs - 0
Manchester - 0
Web 2.0 - 0
Mash Up - 0
Berlusconi - 0

BBC should "faciliate and partner" rather than control

2006-03-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

From The Fall to myspace to Tube maps to Chelsea FC every day brings another clumsy example of brand/big media owners coping with their "community" or basically understanding how to deal with people. This control vs enable dilemma being played out everywhere I look is articulated in of all places, this morning, by the Lords Select Committee examining the BBC's Charter renewal. They have just published a further report; "Further Issues for BBC Charter Review" (pdf) looking at Digital Switch Over, The BBC's proposed move to Manchester, Sports Rights and buried in the section on the coverage of Local services is this. Emphasis is mine.

We took evidence on local services from Lord Puttnam. He told us that he
would like to see different community organisations, of different types,
getting involved in the production of local television services. He suggested
that the BBC could be a key partner with local organisations with the aim of
producing truly local services. However he was also doubtful that this would
happen because he believed “the BBC traditionally is a horrible partner. It
does not partner”

We believe that the provision of local and ultra-local services requires a
genuinely local community starting point. We recommend that the BBC
should consider the provision of ultra-local services as an opportunity
to demonstrate its partnering skills by working alongside a range of
local organisations. The BBC may have a contribution to make to
such grass roots initiatives by facilitating and partnering rather than
by controlling and directly supplying new local services. Accordingly,
we believe that any implementation of the BBC’s proposals for ultralocal
services should be preceded by further pilot initiatives involving
strong local, grass roots, participation.

BBC Awaydays, a chill and Time Travel

2006-01-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

Paula Milne who wrote The Virgin Queen which starts on BBC ONE tonight but seems to have gone out on PBS in the States already, is interviewed in The Observer this morning.

Whenever I hear the BBC have gone on an awayday I get a chill. They go to some hotel, split up into groups and come up with these headings like 'historical' and 'contemporary' and 'transsexual'.

The quote comes from a Drama writers "chat" debating whether we are currently living through a golden age of UK TV drama. Coincidentally the only 3 dramas I'm currently watching on TV are all time travel based. Life On Mars, Johnny and the Bomb and (waiting for the return of) Doctor Who. Nicholas Lyndhurst; you have a lot to answer for.

"We must change again" - Mark Thompson

2006-01-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Mark Thompson has given a long interview to kick off the *new* Observer's Media section. The paper's James Robinson reveals, that alongside robust defences of the licence fee and citing BBC News as the best example of how the BBC is moving into the future; (my bold)

He visited California before Christmas on a fact-finding mission, meeting executives from Google, Apple and Hollywood studios, among others, to 'swap ideas and experiences. I certainly didn't feel that anyone there was ahead of our thinking'.

bbc.co.uk, ABC and Lists

2006-01-02T23:51:00.000-08:00

My colleague; Helen Lippell has written a piece for the Information Architecture journal; Boxes and Arrows outlining the work and preparation that helped her overhaul bbc.co.uk's A-Z tool,
"repositioning the site index as a viable secondary navigation tool." (next to Search).
The re-architecture of the A-Z last year substantially improved the findability of content around our rather complex site and Helen has put together an excellent summary of why this service is an integral part of our network. She also has a good anecdote about the Grand Vizier of Persia.

Ashley Highfield, 2006 and TV on the internet

2006-01-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

My boss at the BBC; Ashley Highfield is asked by the Independent to predict the "people who will make the most impact in the next 12 months". His choices:

Ben Verwaayen, 53, Chief Executive of BT
"After many years of tinkering at the edges of the media industry, BT's stars may be coming into alignment in this corner of the firmament. With broadband fast enough for television watching at less than £10 a month, internet penetration set to pass two thirdsof the UK and on-demand content rights issues being resolved, coupled with a great looking TV over iP service, 2006 could be the year BT becomes the next Sky."

Sergey Brin, 32, Co-founder of Google
"Well hardly a new kid on the block. But what they're planning on doing in "video search" has a direct and very significant relevance for the BBC and other broadcasters. They plan to index every piece of information in the world. Having recently seen some of their stuff in development, I'd not bet against their plans for world domination".

Over in the Guardian, Matt Wells in a survey of 2006 media also refers to BT's upcoming TV proposition, a similar offering from Wannado/Orange, mainstream marketing of TV via mobiles and the long heralded and, currently under trial, BBC's TV/Radio over IP offering MyBBCplayer as potential things to watch over the next 12 months;

" Breathing life into Mark Thompson's vision of viewers being able to consume BBC content at any time on a variety of devices, its progress will be closely watched. The corporation is also expected to launch a new search offering."

Perhaps Matt and Ashley should have had a look at my restless colleague Ben Metcalfe who, wary of the developments above, pinpoints the constraints for businesses dependent on on demand IP services as he also has a go at the 2006 list game:

The speed of Internet access in the UK ’slows down’ as the average monthly transfer soars from 3Gig/pm to 50gig/pm. UK ISP’s, being billed by their bandwidth usage in telephone exchanges by BT (and LLU provides), cannot continue to support ever growing amounts of P2P. They concentrate on revenue-generating services such as VoIP and use connectivity profiling and shaping to limit P2P, Usenet, downloads, etc (maybe only providing access via these kinds of connections at 25% of the user’s normal connection speed). This causes problems for content providers building on-demand IP-based services and generally frustrates users.

Those new year predictions are hard to escape wherever I look but two of the best are this ironic two liner (as a commenter swiftly points out) moan from the man who invented Entertainment Weekly; Jeff Jarvis and back from blogging retirement Simon Waldman's 12 month Web Apps round up.

John Naughton, ITV and Friends ReUnited

2005-12-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

I wrote a long post about ITV buying Friends Reunited. Its still sitting there in my draft folder. And I'm not the only one to wonder at their strategy. In the mean time John Naughton doesn't exactly pull his punches.

Television people are constitutionally incapable of dealing with the web because they have been socially and professionally conditioned in the world of 'push' media with its attendant control freakery and inbuilt assumptions about the passivity and stupidity of audiences. Very little of their experience or skills are useful in a 'pull' medium like the web, where the consumer is active, fickle and informed, and history to date suggests that if they are put in charge of internet operations they screw up.

Blimey...

Oil Explosion on Flickr

2005-12-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

(Disregarding the unfortunate nomenclature). From the the first (mobile i think) video clip on Sky at about 6.45am, the range, immediacy and depth of user photos shared with the media today via BBC, Sky and especially Flickr all day has been astonishing. The amateur video shared with the BBC is here.

Meta Meta Nick Robinson

2005-12-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

Nick Robinson writes in his weekly column for The Times today about his first week of posting daily pieces to his blog.

This week also marked the beginning of a new era for me. I became a blogger. That’s the nerdy word for someone who puts his meandering musings on the internet.

The great joy of it is it that it allows a dialogue to develop through an exciting day between writer and reader. Those clever techie chaps at the BBC have taken a stage further. allowing me to link people to favourite video and audio clips — so I could show you Tony Blair’s PMQ to compare with David Cameron’s first outing. It reminded you that far from over-wheening self confidence Tony Blair displayed real stage fright at the beginning (one reason he was instantly dubbed Bambi).

I hope my blog will become a sort of Pick of the Week for the coverage of politics you wished you’d had the chance to see, hear or read.

It’s something the web can offer that TV simply can’t. It’s hard to say it but I guess we TV people simply have to recognise that it’s the future and we looked like the future — once.

Thankfully the relative low key launch of the Robinson blog has been picked up by other bloggers and a fairly cursory trawl through Technorati over the past few days has gathered almost universally postive feedback.

Another great sign that the BBC is bringing forth two way communication with its audience making a license payer feel that he gets another way to express his point other than on Points of View.
Flying Acqua badger

First podcasting, and now blogging. It looks like the BBC is beginning to embrace new media in a big way as a means of engaging with its viewers/listeners/readers in a variety of different ways, traditional and non-traditional.
NevOn

The questions in the dozens of entries were asking whether we intend there to be more launches and what are we going to do with blogs.bbc.co.uk (which currently redirects to Nick Robinson). Well further launches are planned for early in the new year and this is a project that is currently taking up most of my time at the BBC.

In news just in, journalism student Sam Reeves reports that during a visit to Cardiff University this week that my colleague Pete Clifton (the Head of BBC News Interactive) announced a forthcoming BBC News Editors blog. Pete wrote a groundbreaking column for BBC News;
"From the Editors Desktop" earlier this year where (although not a blog in look and feel) was very much user led in terms of topics and issues and is a model for our thinking for any future blog that we launch. Thanks to everyone who has fed back about this so far. Finally I wouldn't want to give the impression that this Nick's blog is the first blog at the BBC. Sites such as Ouch, IslandBlogging, and My Africa and others have paved the way.

Mark E Smith, portaphones and "fire in the hands of fools"

2005-12-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

I do love (The) Word Magazine. Like the Oldie it really does feel owned by its readers.Apart from a fantastic piece this month by Andrew Collins defending Noel Edmonds; "the crunch of Ferrari on gravel, the whiff of Paco Rabanne, the steely grip of a pro". The highlight is two pages on the thoughts of Mark E Smith who is more articulate than I can recently recall. Here's his predictable take on technology and what he sweetly dubs; 'portaphones'.

"The lads in my band have got these, y'know, laptops. You can go on the internet and get lyrics for any Fall song and how to play them. When I see them doing that, I just get their computer and go (mimes slamming laptop shut). You can't have that. Technology is a funny one. By and large, its fire in the hands of fools. These days you've got people on computers all day - if you asked them to post a postcard they'd be stuck. I had a Sinclair computer in the 1980s and I didn't like it then. It started rewriting my fucking lyrics so i chucked it in the bin. I love writing with a pen and paper, I love it. I never use them portaphones. My wife has one and all me mates have 'em. They're always trying to make me get one, but what do i want a portaphone for ? When I left school I used to work in the docks and had to talk top people on the phones there. The main thing was you had to direct and quick. You'd have these massive ships coming in from Nigeria - brrrr brrrr - (makes ship noise) - so you couldn't be hanging about on the phone. It was "No yes, no, yes, no, yes, goodbye". I don't want to chat, because I'm still half thinking there's a big fucking ship coming in.No portaphones for me. No thanks."

"My name's Nick Robinson and I'm a blogger"

2005-12-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

The first outcome of one of the projects I've been working on at the BBC; the Nick Robinson blog launched today.
As Nick (the political editor of the BBC) himself puts it:

"The BBC is about to start a trial series of blogs, each of which will be built using the kind of software employed by millions of weblogs around the world. This is the first of that trial."

More to follow in the new year.
Its great to be involved in a real live project again and I'm excited and nervous about how this is going to turn out. Thanks to all my News Interactive colleagues for actually getting this done. ( I just interfered).
Update: some feedback

it really looks like the they've decided to get on board the blogging bandwagon in a pretty serious way. Individual post pages, RSS feed and comments are all there. Comments are (understandably) moderated although not excessively judging by those they've posted so far. Good stuff.
A big stick and a Small Carrot

but as ever, our users were quick to be sceptical

Hmmmmn. Call me a sceptic but I bet Nick doesn't write this. There'll be an editorial understudy with the time / job to do it for him.
What do you say Nick? Convince us otherwise....

He will.

Lesblogs, Ben and Civility in blogs

2005-12-06T06:24:00.001-08:00

I'm at Lesblogs. More later. This is my backstage colleague Ben responding to Mena Trott's keynote where she rather naively pleaded with bloggers to be "civil". She was also irked that Ben had been a rather frank contributor to the irc backchannel over the last few days. "Who is this dotben ?" she declared. You can see me hiding in the next seat on the far left as Ben stood his corner. Ironically derided from the stage for "letting down the community" in one session, he was indirectly praised in the next, as one of the speakers on a panel devoted to RSS cited cited backstage as an example of a great initiative by the BBC.

Who owns the Oldie ?

2005-11-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Last month marked the 200th anniversary of The Oldie.
Iain Irvine at the time in the Independent Media section interviewed Richard Ingrams and saluted what is a remarkable grassroots publication.

(Ingrams) prefers to let writers come to him with what they want to write about, and the writers needn't be famous or even professional. Once he had established regular slots such as "I once met..."; readers eagerly submitted their own subscriptions, which after suitable editing; were published.

Indeed unsolicited articles are among Ingrams favourite: an account of a year spent as Rebecca West's personal assistant by Gill McClaren Row, and an astonishingly funny article by Iain Topliss about his attempt to confirm a piece of information that he first found in his 1953 Schoolboy Pocket Diary

To read The Oldie is to get the sense that it is owned by the readers."

The techniques that Ingrams uses are fairly time-honoured but some internet brightsparks are often apt to appropriate them as amazing new inventions. Bookcrossing, for example. Here's Ingrams in his editors letter.

"Mankind has made great strides in the 21st century. But there are still a great many people who have never even seen a copy of The Oldie. You can help to spread the good news by leaving this celebratory issue in your doctors or railway station waiting room.

And obviously citizen journalism or rather endless charming tales of readers meeting old actresses, their beloved school days, or how Graham Greene (the cad!) nicked their girlfriend.

Julie Burchill once called The Oldie the most pathetic magazine ever published. I think The Oldie and the Modern Review (which was probably the magazine least owned by its readers) are two of my favourites. Both are suffused with arrogance and a rejection of common magazine techniques. Yet one was a completely elite, cliqued top-down affair and the other an open, almost amateur democratic effort. Well I am 40 next year.

Creative Archive Placements

2005-10-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

My colleagues in the Creative Archive team have just announced two 4 month placements (funded by Arts Council England and hosted by the BBC). An advert turned up in the Guardian (pdf) on Monday for artists who

will have the opportunity to develop their professional career by undertaking research and producing new art works that creatively reuse sound and television materials from the BBC Archives. The placements offer specialist support and hosting by the BBC. Each of the successful artists will be eligible for a bursary of £10,000.

There are 2 placements. One for Unlimited Distribution and one for Unrestricted Access.
Basically you will get the chance to play about with the BBC archive. Leave the Likely Lads alone please kids.

Ah. So thats why I work for the BBC.

Norman Lebrecht, Beethoven and culture at the BBC

2005-10-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

Norman Lebrecht, in his weekly Evening Standard column reviews and analyses the recent groundbreaking experiment by my colleagues in BBC Radio and Music to offer internet downloads of Bach recordings alongside the recent Radio 3 Bach season. Although on the surface it looked merely an extension of broadcasting, the bold move to experiment with DRM free downloads and sharing resulted in over a million requests across the week. Taken completely by surprise (it was only meant to be a tiny add on to the week's events) the initiative had at a stroke demonstrated a demand/market for legal (free) classical MP3s (recorded in this case by one of the BBC's licence fee funded orchestras).

Lebrecht gives an update on figures he's had access to and although plagued with an almost after the fact deployment of my most hated phrase used by critics of the BBC "dumbed down", its such a stunning and passionate bit of rhetoric about my employers that I've (temporarily at least) published the full text of the article. (Its not currently available on either Lebrecht.com or thisislondon.com).

The Beeb needs more than Bach
The full text of Norman Lebrecht’s Evening Standard Column (Oct 19th)

(btw: I was not involved in this BBC project and views expressed here are my own not my employers).

Its all open source round our way

2005-10-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Tim O Reilly came to visit the BBC on Thursday and despite that, still had the energy to go Geek Dinnering in the evening. (with what it looked like more of the BBC!) . His catchphrase "What are you doing to harness the collective intelligence of your users ?" is still ringing in my ears.

Now reading Mr Hughtrain this morning i came across this. Up til now I haven't been that interested in his wine blog PR "fuss" . Giving away samples, even via blogs, is hardly worth getting worked up about. However the classic suit blog is fascinating stuff, even though I could never afford them, and I do love his business card doodles. Today he reveals that he has persuaded his poor film director pal (3 months away before) the filming of his next movie is due to start) to upload the script of the film and embrace the feedback loop.

The interesting thing for me is we're not just trying to use blogs to pimp a movie. We're trying to use blogs to actually help the making of a movie. Not only that, this isn't a low-budget indie art-school project. This is a commercial, mainstream movie from an established director.

He's quite an obscure director to be honest but that isn't the point. This is obvious obvious stuff and clearly Hugh and his pal can now look Tim O Reilly in the face and give him the right answer to his question and already the comments are coming in. Open sourcing scripts on the internet for users to review, annotate and comment. Thats not going to work is it.

Jeff Jarvis - on the button

2005-10-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ross Mayfield said exactly the same thing when I was at oursocialworld a few weeks back and now thankfully Jeff Jarvis has got up and tried to deliver a few home truths to big media at Web 2.0.

Yesterday, I’d had it with hearing content moguls talk about how all the value is in content and how they plan to use “user-generated content.” That means means they’re using users. That’s us.

So I got to the mic and said what many have said on blogs: that the phrase “user-generated content” makes our spines twist. We call it sharing. We call it conversation. They call it content. And they call us users.

It’s made of people.

User generated content. A tough one because I work somewhere where I hear and can read this phrase from colleagues and exectives every single day. But he's right and its good to hear someone re-iterate that actually its about sharing and we're all choosy about who we we'll share our stuff with. Mind you as he was having a go at Yahoo! that examples a bit flaky. But I'm with you Jarvis!

Packed Lunches, Kelly's Dinners and a conversation

2005-09-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

My three boys all now have packed lunches at schools, packed by their mum I should add. (in Beano lunch boxes..Don't ask). This was after we both shamefully allowed them to eat at various times Dinosaur foot prints, unidentified 'meat" sausages and a turkey twizzler or two for what the eldest charmingly dubs; "hot dinners". Its now all vegetable samosas, fresh fruit and wholemeal bread round our way now. (they love pizzas, chips, crisps and sweets too so don't think I'm Jools Oliver or something.)

So now a full 12 months after Mr Oliver first met the, then Education Secretary, Charlie Clarke and told him off, Ruth Kelly is finally pledging to end "the scandal" of the turkey twizzler. The key here is "pledging". She hasn't actually banned anything yet, despite the excitements of the papers. In theGuardian today in a sidebar (can't find it online) is this quote from Jeanette Orrey; (School meals policy advisor to the Soil Association)

"Overnight change doesn't work. You introduce something, you ask the kids, "Do you like it ? You have got to have a conversation. You have got to get the kids into your way of thinking, but also engage with them, explain to them why you are doing it. Its no good saying to a child. "There's a dinner"; and thats it."

Well blessed are the changemakers. Will Davies is particularly good on this type of neophile tendency of new Labour on Potlatch and how its a "It's a bizarre and politically skewed ontology, shared by management consultants, marketers and physicists, but by few others. " Jeanette (read her greatly book; The Dinner Lady) articulates perfectly the techniques (sorely absent) that should accompany such a change.
How about replacing a "new paper", "a new website feature", "a new TV programme" for example in above quote for example. Naming no names.
Actually there really will be a conversation about "junk food", vending machines, and how much beef in a beefburger.. A very heated conversation. Not in school classrooms, kitchens (if there's any left) or playgrounds but between Kelly's team and organisations like "the Food and Drink federation" who, naturally enough aren't keen on this change/regulation at all.

"Banning foods is neither a sensible nor an effective solution to tackling obesity. Balance is the key and bans will not help teach children how to build a balance diet"

said its spokesman Martin Paterson.
This one isn't over yet.. As ever with New Labour, they've started to communicate something before they have actually done it. And whats finally implemented will almost impossible to understand, research or grasp. And be as watered down as those bloomin sausages. However, I reserver judgement. Perhaps the conversation about the change following implementation really will include those who it affects.
Ie: my kids. For the type of children who (2nd shameful confession of post) play online games sponsored by Kelloggs and worse. Perhaps the idea (and its inevitable. The wonks are thinking it up already.) of god forbid, something like a smoothies website to win em over to the idea of fresh fruit, lettuce and milk might work after all.

Simon Waldman, the BBC and where power lies.

2005-09-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Simon Waldman came to speak to the BBC yesterday trying to answer the question; "where does the power lie ?". He didn't really get round to answering it but he did spend
a brilliant 50 minutes trying to articulate shifting journalism trends to what turned out to be a fairly senior and mostly mainstream TV/Radio News audience.
Although he covered a lot of familiar ground for me (Wikipedia, Daily Kos, the Guardians' Doonesbury moment, Google News, theguardian's new user led print features, the Demos pro-am report, del.icio.us, mini microsoft) it was a great talk.

I especially liked his juxtaposition of this Ansel Adams picture with this taken by Adam Stacey from 7/7 and his argument that

"the fact that this exists doesn't make professional photographers any the less"

He deliberately stressed that this is a pro-am world. Professionals and amateurs. He also reiterated that this was a boggle world (No bear with him..a convincing analogy that argues you have to offer both the mundane and the automated; Guardian Unlimited, for example, wisely decided to offer both the distinctive high quality journalism alongside the edited/tweaked wires when they launched in order to have a coherent successful offering. In Boggle you have to go for both low letter words and difficult 5/6 words in order to win. Ok you had to be there).

His opening gambit compared 1985 to 2005 and argued that the barriers to entry, distribution, findability have all but been removed resulting in these two truisms

When technology and access becomes neutral, then talent becomes more important.
Output/talent, however, improves with the feedback loop that the internet gives them.

This was virtually impossible in a pre Eddie Shah newspaper world, in a pre Sky TV world, a pre - Blogger publishing world. Owning and distributing ideas and journalism was restricted to the elite or that charming phrase; "big media" and seven figure sums. Well maybe. I'd challenge that a tad..
Obviously we have seen the roots of the creativity explosion before in small cultural bubbles before the internet gave us the universal cheap publishing tools, astonishing findability and software that facilitate sharing, collaboration, annotation, self policing and improvement. That virtuous circle that, taken to its extreme results in the 2 edits a second for 7/7 and Katrina on Wikipedia and the collaborative creation of immense value via the emergent intelligence systems such as Technorati, eBay trust and Del.icio.us.

Simon's point was that although the conditions being expressed today through the likes of blogger, iLife, flickr and Skype, appear transient, in five years time; people's creative desires and impulse to communicate would remain constant and still exist but the products and services served by these needs would have been replaced by new boys on the block. This impression that the internet has created new dynamics in journalism or culture is misplaced though (mind you i'm not sure Simon said that ...refers to badly written notes...um...), I'd say again its just accelerated it. Its democratised it.

I like to hark back, being of a certain age (and some go even further) to the fanzine and just do it three chords culture of punk and post punk. The cheap access to publishing and tools then supplied by the growth of independent labels, the findability offered by the (then incredibly powerful) weekly music press and the growth of fanzines (themselves a result of cheap publishing tools such as new Xerox photocopiers), the distribution network of independent record shops and growth of live music friendly pubs, clubs, gigs and hey! get this the royal mail, resulted in a virtuous circle of sharing and collaboration. This, All combined with the desire to challenge the prevailing regime of prog rock, the Old Grey Whistle Test and Rick Wakeman. resulted in dozens of dozens of great singles in post-punks golden era of 78/79/80 and a creativity boom.This connectedness also explains how in 1978/9 (See: Simon Reynolds book on Post punk; Rip It Up for a much better explanation of this) there was a sudden growth in city based compilations devoted to local bands. The growth was restricted to the art school, youth fringe but the same elements were in play.
You could also see this type of bubble/dynamic with beat groups in Liverpool in 1962/3 (helped by the local music paper Mersey Beat, Epsteins NEMS Record shop, hire purchase, ) and even (and yep its stretching the analogy a bit) the english kitchen sink movie boom of the late 50s. (fuelled by Hollywood cash, northern script writers, the access to TV offered by ITV/Granada).
And there are thousands of other examples where as Simon puts it the desire to
for users/audiences to

create and communicate
control their media
challenge the established order

are in play pre- internet.
But then thats his point. These impulses are the constant and its entirely this analysis that poses the really tough questions for mainstream media. With an audience who want to challenge you, with an audience who don't need you to control their media for you, with an audience who want to create their own media and communicate with each other about it. er, whats left for big media to do ?
But now we're in Jeff Jarvis, exploding TV, exploding newsroom territory. And thats for another day.
Obviously The Guardian and (my employers) the BBC aren't completely stumped with these questions and SImon went on to show off some of the new Guardian new community experiments; including Been There.
There was some other good stuff about individuals not institutions being the "new" filters and a forlorn attempt to explain bloglines and get your bootleg on to an unitiatied audience but overall it was very fine, if a bit doom laden as these postcards from the future tend to be for mainstream media.
The only thing that really cheered me up was the schadenfreude provided
the quote he retrieved i think from Simon's visit to Seoul (for the Association of World Newspapers Conference) earlier this year when the COO of the Independent; Gavin O Reilly was quoted as saying

"I think participative journalism is a dangerous precedent for our industry. People forget that newspapers have been an interactive medium. People have always been able to interact with us via the mailbag"

Thank god for that. Some of em still don't get it. At all. Phew.

(UPDATE: I forgot, of course that Simon trumped all attempts to play the historical analogy game with this post connecting blogs to cave paintings back in February. Damn)

Our Hidden Lives on BBC Four

2005-09-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Simon Garfield writes in the Radio Times this week a short piece about Mass Observation. BBC Four, as part of their "Lost Decade" season; are broadcasting an adaptation of Garfields' excellent diarists compilation book; " Our Hidden Lives" starring amongst others Richard Briers. (So it must be ok.) next week.

When the Second World War ended 60 years ago the celebrations didn't last long. The black-out material was removed from windows, but Britain seemed just as gloomy without it. The country was soon plunged into deep economic crisis, and men and women began to use a common phrase that perfectly summed up their frustrations: "But I thought we had won the war!" And then, amidst all the austerity and despondency, they went out and queued for hours for a tin of peaches to gives as a wedding present.

We know this to be true from an exact and fascinating source - the personal diaries of those who lived through these years and agreed to share their daily experiences with a unique organisation called Mass Observation, the purpose of which was to learn more about how ordinary people spent their days and what they thought about the world. Hundreds of people from industrial centres, country towns and remote villages wrote on a regular basis, completing their diaries after work as secretaries, shopworkers, civil servants, housewifes and electricity board inspectors. Some entries were exceedingly monotonous, but most revealed frank and funny stories about their neighbours, their allotments, their complex journeys to work, their reviews of the latest films, and their staggeringly inventive ways with mock cream.

The diaries are now archived at the University of Sussex, and they reveal a picture of Britiain impossible to find elsewhere. Where else can one read about the introduction of Clement Attlees introduction of the Welfare State in the same paragraph as one learns about the thrill of a child's first banana, or how enthralling the film at the local cinema was that evening ?

Well its just like Jason Kottke but without the micropayments. Anyway I'm especially looking forward to the second volume of Garfields astonishing collection of diaries "We are at War". A drama documentary called Little Kinsey, also based on 1949 mass observation diaries and focusing on bedroom habits, is on BBC Four next Wednesday. As Peterme is reiterating in his fascinating new "Designing for the Sandbox" (sandpit surely!) blog, then user created content has a long, long history. Before 1994 even.

Guardian says sorry again

2005-09-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Guardian has used one of its blogs again as a platform for clarifying and apologising about an editorial decision. In this case, the use of material posted to its online forums in the Guardians new Saturday print Family section. Although, as Emily Bell describes, it was perfectly acceptable within the terms and conditions of the boards it offended many users.

It was a mistake to use some of the material without more warning and consultation, given its more personal nature. We are sorry if posters have been offended or upset by this. There are individuals who have complained to GU or the readers’ editor directly and we will be contacting them personally.

For an issue with slightly more weight than the previous user led editorial reversal, this shows again how comfortable The Guardian now is at dealing with these type of issues. Whether its the format, the speed of response, or the quality of the writing they just don't sound like grudging climbdowns. They sound confident and open.

Lego Star Wars and granting permission.

2005-09-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

"Hey Dad ..I've got General Grievous". I've been spending a lot of time, in the last few months with Lego Star Wars. . So enamoured has my son become with the thing, I've already had to have it replaced once (a scratch) and last month bought a second copy after it mysteriously suffocated from too much handling after a friend came to visit.

"having" General Grievous actually means having him by the way. My son can now whip about as the evil General turning droids into tiny bricks with two lightsabres thrashing away at once jumping preposterously high in the air.

What impressed me almost immediately was as Iain Simons puts it in the New Statesman (reg required) this week is how the "project works its two brands with energy". .Well yes but paradoxically, more crucial to its success, is perhaps the way it combines the consistency of the lego and star wars worlds we know and love with that now familiar but tough leap to let go. And despite the flexibility, those flat faces and moulded hair, it still feels right. Lets face it, as an idea, it still sounds more like a creative experiment in fandom being endorsed heavily on Boing Boing because the community just received a cease and desist rather that a sanctioned MSM product. How on earth did they let it happen ?
Simons goes onto explain...

"Central to "Lego-ness" is the concept of permission - to build, to experiment, to play with the infinite possibilities of reconfiguring plastic bricks. Equally the Star Wars element is about using George Lucas's characters and iconography with the freedom of movable bricks."

To be fair Lucasfilm aren't always so relaxed, as BB are better placed to point out but this is a rare tie in, that starts with the audience. (Under tens and their Dads), and thinks that to succeed you give them control and (oddly rare for a videogame) the tools to be playful with the brand/characters. Now how do I apply this splendid liberal approach to the challenge Mrs Common User has set me. How do I prevent the the poor fella from playing it five hours a day. I'll get back to you on that one. That PSP at christmas is starting to look most unlikely indeed.

Guardian and readers contributions

2005-09-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

I had a spring in my step as I made my way to the newsagent yesterday morning. And of course after all that its astonishingly fine.The size of G2 is a bit ridiculous, a bit Russian Doll as one of my colleagues neatly put it but apart from that its a brave and innovative leap as that one 17 years ago when David Hillmans astonishingly clean, modern whitespaced design was introduced. I loved it. Dan has the best and most comprehensive design commentary.
What i picked up on straightaway though were the further improvements its introduced (in print) to try and incorporate the contributions of its readers/users and open up the paper. And at the same time further blur the dividing lines between the paper and Guardian Unlimited. Online the Guardian is obviously comfortable in this area with the (astonishing) new editors blog (which has already shown its worth as a tool to reflect user feeling/brand response conversation in the reinstatement of the Doonesbury cartoon strip) building on the work of Rafael Behr over at Th e Observer.
Emily Bell has also used the reformatting to announce a couple of new social software products including a collaborative annotation travel guide thing; Been There
where I've already been questioning Simon Hoggarts views, no less, on Brighton's fish and chip shops. He should have talked to his colleague Matthew Fort who like me knows that the only chippie worth mentioning on the south coast is this.. But I digress.
Up til now the lynchpins of reader participation, ownership and accountability (in print) had been the paper's Ombudsman Ian Mayes and his weekly column (Previously on Saturdays and now moved to Mondays) alongside the first and finest (and witty) Corrections and Clarifications column in UK newspapers. And increasingly letters pages had started to proliferate in every one of (society, education, life/it) G2 sections and supplements but now look. This sort of participation is happening all over the shop...
The high profile and explicit call to action on page 2 of the paper for feedback about the design "Whatdoyouthink@guardian.co.uk?", is obvious enough but a new innovation is the, er democratisation of the obituary pages, which originally I envisaged was to be merely annotations of the great and good but has (3 days in) evolved into a fascinating reader led space documenting what they are calling "other lives" and has so far amongst others featured a dedicated mother/cleaner/socialist/anglican worshipper,
an archaeologist, and a TV producer in admidst the actors, politicians, and sportsmen.

Now The Observer has done a pretty good job of acknowledging the role of zines in amidst its sports coverage with regular zine editor contributors but now the Guardian has started to tip a nod in this direction with some "citizen" match reports. And yesterdays Education supplement was stuffed full of this sort of stuff with 4 examples of copy being driven entirely via readers (emailed) submissions.
Finally they've taken a step further, as far as possible, the relationship with online. Upselling to Unlimited and the digital edition is difficult to get right editorially and in print (all those URLs) but it still feels pretty seamless and not too intrusive and, there again, the most prominent web print feature is again user led; a blog review and a most popular pages chart.
This is groundbreaking stuff (for UK papers at least) though and The Guardian, again, is leading the way in dare I say it having a conversation (that old chestnut) with its readers both in print and online. (and now on TV too.) Markets are conversations after all. Now will that translate into er, revenue. Those £80m printing presses and dicey circulation figures are heavy baggage to carry about for much longer.

Our Social World

2005-09-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went to oursocialworld in Cambridge. A fine day where the rapid fire presentations were interspersed with bibilical cracks of thunder from outside and some nice flapjacks. As is usually the way with these things the format was a succession of 9-10 Keynote/Powerpoints; so in descending order...

- Ben Hammersley had another successful (and thoroughly entertaining) go at arguing how there were parallels between blogging and 18th century pamphleteering and that Tatler published the first blog. One day I'll have a go at this tempting parlour game and paint amusing parallels between the blogosphere and the proliferation of DIY publishing and punk zines of the the late 70s where Danny Baker and Mark Perry were the Scobles/Kottkes of their day. But with Letraset, Carrier Bags and Permanent Markers. I will inevitably fail.

- Simon Phipps from Sun Microsystems talked about the process of setting up blogs.sun.com. In the space of a few months Sun Microsystems had 500 public staff bloggers and their CEO; Jonathan Schwartz was hard at it knocking out some pithy thoughts late at night once he's put his kids to bed. He also revealed the benefits that this has brought Sun in enabling an honest and direct conversation with its industry. (but few examples how exactly). Clearly marketing/PR have had the wind put up em. I didn't get round to asking him how/if a supposedly impartial (mostly) not technical broadcaster could/should do the same.

- Johnnie Moore got us doing some improv drawing but also talked about the relationship between consumers and big brands could be disrupted when he, as a matter of fact, revealed he was one of the co-authors of a independent Sainsburys blog; 173 Drury Lane. (the street of the very first J Sainsburys shop). Except Sainsburys hadn't really noticed. Surprisingly the BBC has relatively few of these I suspect, because you're not exactly short of BBC commentary in big media. Every single day. Inevitably some of the best blogging insights into the BBC are from BBC staff themselves. Apart from these dedicated licence fee payers of course.

- Loic le Meur from Six Apart (the owners of LiveJournal, MovableType and Typepad) talked about European blogging and their success with integrating blogging (and their software) into "big" media organisations (Le Monde), and how radio stations in France by endorsing blogging and showcasing it for the young people have resulted in nearly 3m French having a go. Blimey.

- Lee Bryant from Headshift announced in amidst several slides (pdf) discussing the role of social tagging in developing shared meaning and language, an impressive looking new project; Patient Opinion where using the feedback loop, geo-location of NHS services, blog type architecture, user tagging and self categorisation, then hey presto a bloody impressive conversational/accountable tool. Could it work for another national treasure providing free at the point of delivery services for every UK taxpayer ?

- Euan Semple (of this parish) showed some screenshots of talk.gateway, connect.gateway and our internal blogs and revealed that Richard Sambrook's blog was set up because so many people used to ask Richard; "What do you do all day ?". As one of his bloglines subscribers it turns that the answer is "quite a bit". He also argued that because of the directness and honesty of Sambrook's blog postings and because their consumption is a clear subscription model then they tend to have more impact than the staffwide emails of other executives at the BBC.

- Suw Charman talked about her work as a blogging consultant. But i missed this bit as i was having a row with my bank about my overdraft. Sorry Suw.

- Hugh Macleod briefly referred to the usage > buzz > advocacy dilemma of marketing and the potential of blogs in this area (see Technogoggles commentary) when he revealed the history of how he (and his client) had set out to sell a brand of wine. A nice dry Rose as it happens which was on offer for free at close of play along with some olives and sun blush (why not dried?) tomatoes.

Ross Mayfield the boss of Socialtext demoed Wikiwyg which looks very impressive. Its a, er wyswyg tool for wikis. He also criticised the use of the phrase "user generated content". "I hate that phrase" he says arguing that actually language and framing really do matter if you intend ot have a relationship with your users and that such initiatives (to succeed) need shared control as this is the only way to foster trust amongst participants.

As is usually the way with these things the most provocative and useful presentation of the day came from one of my colleagues; Tom Coates. Although he rightfully passed on the the challenge of defining "social software" he had a go at defining current themes in i dunno, social media and showed a couple of proofs of concepts that he'd been working on in with his BBC Radio and Music colleagues. He also touched on (substantial) developments in this area that weren't blogs which was the dominant theme for the rest of the day.
Tom's themes from the top:

Social Software with an individual goal or "social software with a point".

If you give users the ability to share, some ability to self-categorise and commit to openness (the distributed internet) and the primary focus is an individual act (storing and showing off my pictures) there can be incredible collective value. Tom and also Max Niederhofer (later in the afternoon) went further arguing that more importantly its giving users objects (an event, a picture, a radio show) that is a pre-condition in allowing allow users to express themselves. Tom (and his ex-colleague; Matt Biddulph) and others have elsewhere concluded that this is an important driver in making these networks flourish. Furthermore the objects need standard unique identifiers. Now these clearly exist for books, and to a certain extent for music tracks (CDDB) but its been their absence for programmes (either TV or Radio) that led to an infrastructure project at the BBC called Programme Information Pages (pdf) that both Tom and Matt (and others) worked on.
Examples: Flickr (photos), Upcoming.org (events)

Collaborative Annotation of Media, Your Stuff.

Another example where given certain tools and pre-conditions, individual annotation and actions can lead to collective value.

Examples: Del.icio.us (bookmarks), and because I''ve just had a look at it theguardian's new Travel Guide; "Been There".

Tom showed off an interesting proof of concept that took audio streams and allowed users to annotate (using Wiki functionality) radio features/shows at various time junctions. This breaking down of programmes into micro content combined with a neat way of thinking about sociality (but obviously for someone who works for a broadcaster based around audio/video) was interesting and not something that the early A/V Flickr type apps(Youtube )

Collaborative Creation of Media

Where thousands (although in Wikipedia's case andI always forget this, its still skewed towards a fairly small set of editors, moderators and writers who do 90% of the 'work' and the rest being done by the masses who make 1 or 2 edits a month.
eg: Wikipedia

New Ways of Sharing Experiences

eg: last FM
Tom also showed off the proof of concept for Phonetags (which plays on some of the functionality of Audioscrobbler/Last FM and combines it with Radio and a neat use of SMS)

New Ways of Harnessing Individual Creativity or Play. Aggregating behaviour.
eg: microformats
There are obviously dozens of examples here but Tom cited this one which is a new project by Kevin Marks from Technorati which attempts to solve the issue of having thousands of distributed content forms (eg: reviews) in many format. What if we could recognise them and present them back as meaningful feeds/sources. ?

Don't know if Tom is gonna post up his slides and apologies in advance for any misattribution but these 5 themes ended up being a useful framework for me thinking my way through this maze and not falling into the trap of launching YASNS. Thanks Tom.

And thanks to Geoff Jones for putting the whole shebang together.

Error Messages: the way to do em

2005-08-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

Flickr usually get the right tone, but this is the best i've seen. This morning on Bloglines.

Mark Thompson and an Open BBC

2005-08-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

I can't find the full text of the speech anywhere but The Guardian has published extensive quotes. Most of the publicity from Edinburgh coming from Thompson and (Jana Bennett) has focused on the announcements that the BBC is going to launch trials to internet stream BBC ONE or TWO in the new year, launch a 7 day TV catch up service (similar to the Radio service) and the launch encompassing all of this of a MyBBCPlayer which will also feature a growing amount of BBC TV and video archive.
However buried in Thompson's speech was this ringing (ok, a few caveats) endorsement of openness and the concept of many to many and a very a rare example of a TV executive using the phrase "network effect".

"I also believe that these digital rights solutions will exist in a world which is increasingly open and interoperable and we are working with partners like Microsoft and Kontiki to find them. The first stage of digital was notable not just for the world wide web but for its many successful walled gardens and pieces of proprietary hardware - from the first Sky digibox to the iPod. I'm sure some proprietary products and services will continue to flourish in this second stage - we're partners both with Sky in satellite TV and with providers of linear services on both cable and ADSL. But the biggest momentum at present seems to be behind open solutions where choice is wider, where the consumer is fully in control and where awesome network effects can get to work"

UPDATE: The full text of the speech is here: Mark Thompson, BBC Press Office | Speech given at the Edinburgh International Television Festival 2005

In the top 312

2005-08-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

The blogosphere loves a bloomin' list. And here's Feedsters' Top 500 blogs. The lovely Backstage (We're not even sure if it actually is a blog although its built using MT) is currently er, No.312. Engadget is No.1.

Jamie Kane and Wikipedia

2005-08-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Well I was going to blog this yesterday but in my lethargy Andrew, Martin and Ben have already chipped in. In fact even the (paper) Guardian has written a story on it that turned up in G2 this morning. They, of course, neglected to mention that Rob Cooper from the Jamie Kane team has now clarified that there was no intention by the BBC to game Wikipedia and help promote the project. As if it now matters...
All I can really add is that the current (it might still be deleted) Jamie Kane Wikipedia entry has evolved into a comprehensive overview of the game, the BBC's motives for developing it, and an accurate insight into what has after all been a (very) minor kerfuffle.
All in the space of 48 hours. The lengthy debate on the vote for deletion page has nearly 100 comments now mostly arguing for the article to be kept and it shows as Martin points out, how these internet tools can be used swiftly as a platform for the BBC to respond when its decisions and actions are held up to scrutiny. And it looks as if following the blog posts above and the commenting on Boing Boing and Wikipedia itself and emails to those writing about the story that this is a model of the BBC attempting to be accountable to its audience. But Hutton this is not.
As it turns out the "official" game site is still the top entry in Google.

But look who's rising fast.
And who's this? Did we invent her too ?

Citizen Prommers

2005-08-15T03:10:00.000-07:00

Anthony Holden, the music critic of The Observer wrote a piece yesterday ("Log On, Lash Out", 14.8.05) for the Review section entirely made up of quotes from users of the message board on the BBC Proms website.
In it he admits that the board's users are "discriminating", "lively" and its full of "welcome wit". Who'd have thought it ? He concludes the piece by admitting that contributor; "I loathe Lucy" has come up with a better reason than he could for "schlepping" down to the Albert Hall instead of listening at home with a "glass of claret".

The sound quality (on Freeview), he or she complains, was 'dreadful', with poor orchestral balance, insufficient reverberation, low dynamic range and too much distortion.'The whole effect was like listening to a bad mono recording from the 50s,' said I Loathe Lucy. 'Hardly progress to the 21st century.

Surprisingly there's currently no reaction, as yet, to Holden on the board although there is plenty of that welcome wit on offer especially the thread (initiated by Tim Durham) about the absence this year of proms phenemenons I was unaware of; shouting and rhythmic stamping; "Where Have All the Good Shouts Gone?"

My favourite shout at the Proms was at the Last Night last year, when The Liberty Bell by Sousa was about to be played, it was simply:
"It's!"

UPDATE: Martin also picked up on this and picked out some better quotes;)

Yahoo: Head of Social Media

2005-08-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

Paid Content (via Simon Waldman) reports that Yahoo have hired Elisabeth Osder as Senior Director, Social Media in their media group. Yahoo Media VP; Scott Moore argues that this area is will be one of their 3 top priorities this year (along with user experience and broadband.) The PC report quotes Moore and goes on...

"(this is) a clear indicator of our intention to go deep in social media and user-generated content." Her initial task will be to set up a plan that integrates Yahoo's growing phalanx of social media tools -- Yahoo 360, Flickr, etc. -- with an emphasis on interesting user-generated content. "Figuring out how to harness the power of that self-expression and user-generated content, not only the willingness and desire to share, is the essence of what is Elizabeth is going to do for us," says Moore. Part of her job is to figure out what kind of resources will be needed. Adds Moore, "This is a real initiative and a real focus for us. We'll do what it takes."

Jeremy Zawodny, from the Yahoo Search group came to visit us at the end of July and this appointment confirms many of the themes and memes from his presentations both to the BBC and to Open Tech that weekend ( including his non denial denial that Y! were developing a blog search.) James Boardwell has encapsulated it perfectly in his post; Yahoo: more like human activity and less like software. where he describes the data centric world that Zawodny hinted at but argues that trust will be the issue to solve (and identifiers! *pdf) once these types of models are established.

the main issue will then be around trust. Who do you trust to provide this information? How do you 'know' the data is itself trustworthy? You don't. You have to go with the filter you use - and the 'brand values' of 'trust'. Who do you trust? Yahoo!? Google? the BBC? And to what extent?

This is a conversation that i feel like i've had many times over. And will have again.

Beethoven vs Backstage

2005-08-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to what looks like the name of a Kelloggs blog; the fantastic Tech Crunch "Dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing every newly launched web 2.0 business, product and service." no less I've just been trying out IceRocket (where do they get these names?) which is a v.fine new blog search/trend tool. What impresses the most are the graph tools that plot the popularity of various memes/products/posts knocking about the blogosphere.
Here's Backstage versus the BBC's Beethoven Downloads

Backstage T Shirt

2005-08-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

When Backstage was announced, Ben Hammersley was so effusive about the project that he could barely contain himself. In tribute to this post and because Backstage needs some competition prizes I've knocked up a team t shirt to give away. (or rather the app on Cafe Press did). Ben M mentioned this in his presentation at Open Tech last saturday. (1 minute in).

Unfortunately I couldn't find the BBC Model B font so i used a commodore 64 one instead. Ben M says it should be black.

Bottom Up Takeover

2005-07-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

Kevin Kelly has written a long "I was right and you weren't" piece in this months Wired on the ten years of the web. To be honest, the veteran Wired editor, founder of the Well, and one of the people to coin the phrase; "the new economy", he mostly was. He charmingly talks of "TV dodos" and those that didn't "get it" in an entertaining race through the web in 1995, 2005, and 2015. The clear thread that runs through all of his analysis is the role of er, us. What he unfortunately dubs the "bottom up takeover"

What we all failed to see was how much of this new world would be manufactured by users, not corporate interests. Amazon.com customers rushed with surprising speed and intelligence to write the reviews that made the site's long-tail selection usable. Owners of Adobe, Apple, and most major software products offer help and advice on the developer's forum Web pages, serving as high-quality customer support for new buyers. And in the greatest leverage of the common user, Google turns traffic and link patterns generated by 2 billion searches a month into the organizing intelligence for a new economy. This bottom-up takeover was not in anyone's 10-year vision.

He's also, despite a few references to security and privacy full of quite reassuring utopian visions of 2015 also controlled by er, you and me.

And who will write the software that makes this contraption useful and productive? We will. In fact, we're already doing it, each of us, every day. When we post and then tag pictures on the community photo album Flickr, we are teaching the Machine to give names to images. The thickening links between caption and picture form a neural net that can learn. Think of the 100 billion times per day humans click on a Web page as a way of teaching the Machine what we think is important. Each time we forge a link between words, we teach it an idea. Wikipedia encourages its citizen authors to link each fact in an article to a reference citation. Over time, a Wikipedia article becomes totally underlined in blue as ideas are cross-referenced. That massive cross-referencing is how brains think and remember. It is how neural nets answer questions. It is how our global skin of neurons will adapt autonomously and acquire a higher level of knowledge.

Yes Kelly has concluded that the futureweb is some sort of a glorious vision of a vast human brain. "Its on" is how he concludes the piece and stresses we are witnessing the birth of some new throbbing thing or other. Are we ? Blimey. That might be nonsense but in identifying the user at the centre of this activity and realising that its the power of the network, and the power of collaboration (distributed or otherwise) is where its at and it won't be the smallness of files, the ease of distribution (however improved) that will dictate web2.0 proves the old bugger has still got it.