Hi Jim et alFear not, Jim, your post won't be read the wrong way. I want to thank you for sending it, Backstage is mostly my fault, and your email stung - in a good way. I hope you'll have provide the kick up the posterior that helps ensure henceforth reality matches rhetoric.
There are several reasons (some sound, some not-so-sound) why we've not yet managed to make more APIs available. All I can ask for is (yet more) patience. We do have some tasty new stuff in the works - a BBC programme archive catalogue API, for instance - although the postcoder API probably isn't going to be as sexy as we'd dearly wish, for all the usual dull rights-related reasons. Before he set off on his hols, Ben was hopeful about weather, but the truth is you never really know what fresh problems are going to hit until the 'go live' button is just about to be pressed (and sometimes only after that...).
The benefits of 'open media' are second nature to many people on this list, but it still an alien concept to most rights holders, be they inside or outside the BBC. Much of our work has focused on selling an open media model inside the BBC - probably too much of our time, seeing how we've neglected the very people we should be serving first (you lot).
Our lack of engagement and communication with all of you on this list is exceptionally bad form, for which I apologise on behalf of the BBC.
Maybe we really have 'gone a bit native'. Strange behaviours surface when you see bbc.co.uk at the end of your email address; fear of bringing opprobrium to the BBC due to saying the wrong thing in public can cause otherwise eloquent BBC employees to clam up. Ask us questions - there are lots of BBC people on this list.
Whatever, it's clear that the consequences of staying schtum on a list such as this outweighs the risks outlined above.
So sod it, I for one am going to deliver a BBC.co.uk core dump: 1) What is the BBC's Internet Strategy? It's here, in strategy-speak powerpoint. http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/newmedia/bbccoukstrat.ppt or here, or horridly exported html http://www.tomski.com/bbcstrategy/bbccoukstrat.htm To summarise, the BBC's internet priorities are: i) On Demand ('How can we make our programme available on demand?')ii) Context ('How can we aggregate public service media produced by the BBC and by others in new and valuable ways? How can we help people navigate round it all given the paradox of choice?')
iii) Engagement ('Our website is successful, but still feels like Ceefax v2.0 - how can we turn bbc.co.uk into a true many to many public service media environment, while still keeping hold of the values which have made the BBC what it is today etc etc'
iv) Ubiquity ('How can we get our content everywhere people might want it?')
2) Ideas which get me going, and might persuade me to splash some
cash, include:
- Brand new ways of aggregating, navigating, annotating, searching and generally getting to grips with 1,000s of TV & Radio programmes in an online environment (not just the web - anything IM-related would rock). Trust me, have no poverty of ambition with this stuff. The more bonkers the better. Nothing is sacrasanct, including channels, the schedule and especially the traditional EPG grid.
- The bbc.co.uk homepage: It's always been an awkward compromise. Please tell us how to make it better. Please. Less has got to be more. I'm glad to report progress implementing one simple but powerful idea from backstage - a BBC homepage archive will go live "soon" as a result of this prototype: http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/archives/2005/07/bbc_homepage_ar.html .... and yes, he did get paid.
- Local, local, local. New, clever ways to tag & aggregate as wide a range of BBC content as poss, even in the absence of geocoding. The challenge here isn't so much the aggregating (postcodes, anyone?), it's more about scraping existing content and making educated guesses about the localities for which any given url is relevent. You've done some awesome stuff integrating BBC content with Google Maps, but I just know it's possible to go much, much further.
- Any radical innovation in PVR EPGs. I'd love to hear from anyone playing with Digital TV & Radio - be that with Freeview versions of the MythTV open source EPG or Topsfield 5800s ( see http://www.toppy.org.uk/ ) The pandora/promise.tv 7-day PVR started life as a Myth TV-based prototype we commissioned (see http://www.promise.tv ) In short, bring internet thinking to Digital TV & radio - it's fun, and the collision between the two worlds is bound to lead to some tasty new stuff emerging.
3) Enough of me telling you want the BBC wants from you. What else do you want from us?
More than the usuals -Tom
Hi,Please don't read this in the wrong way but is the backstage project becoming stagnant?A few months ago there was a lot of hype and it sounded promising but for me personally I havent seen much in the way of new "things" for the developing community to use. Yes, the feeds are great but to some extent they were already out there and if we're honest it was only a matter of time before people began to use them without the BBC's consent. We are yet to see anything of the API's which have been "to follow soon" for months now and there has been little implementation or word of it from any of the numerous prototypes that have been put out. As a group I've also noticed that messages are sparse and recently more about petty points than anything interesting to developing.I think the concept of the backstage is great but I for one would like to see a more active, engaging approach from the BBC and I think there is only so many places one can take an RSS XML feed... How about some ideas from the BBC about things they would like to see? How about real life ideas which they potentially want to implement?Any thoughts on this? Jim. -Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
This e-mail, and any attachment, is confidential. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system, do not use or disclose the information in any way, and notify me immediately. The contents of this message may contain personal views which are not the views of the BBC, unless specifically stated. ___ -- - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
