(Like George, I'm also a producer in the interactive TV department at the BBC ;)
> I'm assuming that the Ceefax system, WAP system and XML feeds > are driven from content from the website. It's fair to say that all four come from the same system - obviously the web gets the full story whilst other platforms may get "cut down" versions. I say "cut down" - content is written according to a style guide in order that the story makes sense in different situations. So BBCi gets the first four paragraphs of a story, and journalists writing a story will know to get the full sense of the story done in four paragraphs, then anything below it is extra information. Or something like that - I'm not a content producer so it's not my forte. I'm more into systems and processes. Preferably evil ones! > Currently, as each webpage is published it will be considered > for inclusion on the feeds that provides Ceefax (and WAP and > XML feeds). > Each page will be one of: > 1) A web page that has more priority over one that exists > in the page > numbering pool. The least important page is dropped from the > numbering pool and is allocated the ejected page's number. > 2) Be an update for an existing story, where the existing > story's page > number is reused. > 3) Rejected because of relative unimportance. > There is, in effect, a database of Ceefax Page Numbers (CPN) > which are references to the web page they were created from. There is a database, however stories are assigned numbers on the basis of their editoral priority - and a priority at the time you're watching. That means that a top story is always 103, whilst the fifth most important story is always 107. What's important here is that the definition of what's the top story will change during the day - maybe even during the hour. And naturally it's all automated, based on the editorial priorities the editor of the section decides (and priorities are made cross platform), which can change in a matter of minutes. I think that's where the problems come in - the lack of stability does prevent the promotion of content by a specific page number, which is why for Ceefax, they'll only promote what they know is present at a number all the time - the main news headlines on 101 for example. It's also one reason why BBCi doesn't assign page numbers to individual stories (there are other, more boring reasons as well!) Of course that's how it's done now, and that doesn't need to always be so in the future. > When the channel is used on analogue (as it will be for > another five years) pressing TXT and the number will give you > the page too. In some regions only - Border's switching off next year for example! > As the MASSIVE TEXT that you have on News 24 and World is a > headline, which too can reference a CPN. Also breaking news > can indicate that stories are online before on air. As I understand it, the massive text (I like that term!) is manually edited into a graphics system - it's quicker and more flexible that way. Actually it's also rare that stories break online before TV - that's mainly because it takes longer to write out a story than it does to quickly pick up a microphone and talk. - 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]/
