[backstage] A Five year retrospective
Hi All, Just in case you have not seen the blog (http://xrl.us/bhha3j), missed the tweet and dents... Its almost 5 years since Backstage launched into the public at OpenTech05 by Ben Metcalfe. Since then a lot of things have happened and changed. Who would have thought the political parties would be shouting about open data in their manifesto's. Anyhow, we're looking to build quite a mash-up but using you and your experiences as the data. I won't go into details right now but you can expect that the data will also be available for yourselves to build on too. So what you waiting for, fill in the forms and I look forward to seeing your answers aggregated together in the near future. https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDdkRDlNY2RmVGNuTThoaTVURHVDdVE6MQ - Mapping Your BBC Backstage Memories http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHJYV0swTGxkZDRlYnBpeUJoSXg2WXc6MQ - Images of BBC Backstage Cheers, Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Happy Christmas BBC Backstage List
Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Re: Sky hits out at Project Canvas
Just to be clear, I'm not saying we're not allowed to say anything, its just not clear what we can be said. I've heard so much about Canvas over the last year, I'm not even sure whats public, whats hear-say and whats actually secret (if anything) :) As some one said its a hot potato. I've just started re-reading Jonathan Zittrain's the future of the internet and how to stop it. - http://futureoftheinternet.org/. If you've not read it, go and download it or buy it now. And been thinking since watching Micromen #b00n5b92, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n5b92) about the balance between the pc and ce (consumer electronics). This is at the very start of Zittrain's book. Sorry for the length two inventions—iPhone and Apple II—were launched by the same man, the revolutions that they inaugurated are radically different. For the technology that each inaugurated is radically different. The Apple II was quintessentially generative technology. It was a platform. It invited people to tinker with it. Hobbyists wrote programs. Businesses began to plan on selling software. Jobs (and Apple) had no clue how the machine would be used. They had their hunches, but, fortunately for them, nothing constrained the PC to the hunches of the founders. Apple did not even know that VisiCalc was on the market when it noticed sales of the Apple II skyrocketing. The Apple II was designed for surprises— some very good (VisiCalc), and some not so good (the inevitable and frequent computer crashes). The iPhone is the opposite. It is sterile. Rather than a platform that invites innovation, the iPhone comes preprogrammed. You are not allowed to add programs to the all-in-one device that Steve Jobs sells you. Its functionality is locked in, though Apple can change it through remote updates. Indeed, to those who managed to tinker with the code to enable the iPhone to support more or different applications, Apple threatened (and then delivered on the threat) to transform the iPhone into an iBrick. The machine was not to be generative beyond the innovations that Apple (and its exclusive carrier, ATT) wanted. Whereas the world would innovate for the Apple II, only Apple would innovate for the iPhone. (A promised software development kit may allow others to program the iPhone with Apple’s permission.) Jobs was not shy about these restrictions baked into the iPhone. As he said at its launch: We define everything that is on the phone You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers. On Wed, 2009-10-14 at 13:21 +0100, Mo McRoberts wrote: Hokay, taking a slightly different tack—rather than moaning about the bits of the proposal which appear incongruous, here’s something more tangible (and arguably useful). This is how I reckon it -should- work (and, obviously, is what I’m speccing for Baird):— Assuming the technical specs for actual content formats and over-IP transport protocols have been settled upon, what we’re left with is delivery of metadata and the UI to make it useful. Essentially, there are two ways that metadata can arrive on a box; one is over the air, the other is via an Internet connection. The same information’s carried in both cases. The supplier of the box would naturally be able to predefine some subscriptions to metadata sources, but the principal initial source in most cases would be OTA (whether it’s carried by Freeview, Freesat, Virgin, or Sky). This basic metadata would consist in the first instance of a set of services. There’s some potential for duplication here, of course, as the same service metadata might arrive by way of different sources, and a service might be listed both in the context of a service offering (e.g., Freeview) or a broadcaster (e.g., the BBC). Identifying the dups is fairly straightforward, though, assuming the format of the metadata is sane. Each service listing contains a location for the actual service metadata itself, as well as: • the various delivery mechanisms for the service and what form they take, accounting for regional variations In the case of BBC 1, this would list each of the dvb:// URLs applicable to the various regional broadcasts, as well as the simulcast URL, the mobile SDP URL • preferred channel numbering This is a straightforward order-of-preference list, which may be constrained by the STB vendor. BBC 1 could, for example, indicate a preference for “1” and “101” in that order. In addition, for each regional variant, there’s a second list, so it might also indicate that 974 is the preferred variant channel for “BBC 1 London”. In terms of variations, the two tie up with one another: if there are no available delivery mechanisms for BBC 1 Scotland, for example, no attempt to assign channel
Re: [backstage] License to Kill Innovation: the Broadcast Flag for UK Digital TV?
On Thu, 2009-09-17 at 22:04 +0100, Scot McSweeney-Roberts wrote: I think that there's going to be a lot of unhappy freeview HDTV owners wondering why the TV they have recently bought isn't picking up the new HD channels when they're launched (especially as the TV was probably sold as HD Ready). But to be fair, whos's fault is that? Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
RE: [backstage] License to Kill Innovation: the Broadcast Flag for UK Digital TV?
On Thu, 2009-09-17 at 15:50 +0100, Christopher Woods wrote: Moreover, you just *know* that within months of any broadcast flag implementation, the more creative technological tinkerers will have subverted the flag entirely using commonplace/free equipment and software. Like region coding, broadcast flags really are an exercise in stupidity and corporate backslapping. The Beeb should be pointing to what happened with the Broadcast Flag in the States as the perfect case study! The US TV industry hasn't imploded as a result of the Broadcast Flag requirement being dropped, and the world continues to turn in a regular fashion. Why are rightsholders so scared of fully engaging with technology? Metaphor of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted and subsequently gone on to win the Grand National comes to mind. Further reading http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/dtv-era-no-broadcast I actually think your on to something with that case study! - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] idea: Allow access to one's complete iPlayer viewer history
Another good idea, this time from nick shanks, http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/ideatorrent/idea/29/ At present, the iPlayer provides a short sidebar listing one's most recently viewed programmes, I wish to: a) See what I have watched b) See when I have watched it c) See how many times I watch a certain programme d) Reassign some programmes to different individuals that use this account/browser/cookie combination (i.e. exclude Timmy Time from my stats) e) Optionally publish this information publicly, so that viewers with similar habits could find me, for example. He then suggests using RDF to provide a complete usable list. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC Backstage on IT Conversations
I've been on holiday for the last few weeks but just before I went, I did record a interview with Jon Udell. Its now available on IT Conversations for everyone to hear - http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4228.html I think I got a little confused when we got down to the Taxonomy question, but i'm sure the Radio Labs guys will forgive me in the future. Cheers, Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: Free Transcripts on NPR.org now
Hi Dan, nice idea. Would be great if you could add it to ideas.welcomebackstage.com, just so we got it in a better form for sharing and linking to. Cheers, Ian On Fri, 2009-08-21 at 20:17 +0200, Dan Brickley wrote: NPR transcripts are now - I read - easier to find. I had a quick look around and couldn't find one, but I didn't try that hard. Could be of interest when run through text-summarisers, auto-classifiers etc to make new routes to their content. More on NPR transcripts here - http://help.npr.org/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=5670task=knowledgequestionID=464 And googling for NPR API I find http://www.npr.org/api/index which mentions a Transcript API, http://www.npr.org/templates/apidoc/transcript.php as well as all kinds of other fun stuff (including topic lists eg. http://api.npr.org/list?id=3002). Also here's a blog post on their API - http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2008/07/npr_api_is_live_on_nprorg.html It'd be rather nice to see some work on cross-referencing stories across eg. BBC and NPR sites, to get different(-ish) perspectives on the same issues. Having textual transcripts should help with doing that at an approximate level, beyond the metadata NPR provide directly... Dan -- Forwarded message -- From: kimo k...@webnetic.net Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 7:05 PM Subject: [sunlightlabs] Free Transcripts on NPR.org now To: sunlightl...@googlegroups.com http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/08/free_transcripts_now_available.html?ft=1f=17370252 Free Transcripts now Available on NPR.org 3:32 pm August 19, 2009 comments (3) Recommend (1) byline goes here Transcripts of favorite, missed or maddening stories on NPR used to cost $3.95 each, but now they are free on NPR.org. Previously, NPR charged for transcripts because an outside contractor worked fast to prepare them to be available to the library within a few hours of a piece airing. It was a costly expense which NPR did for the benefit of classrooms and deaf audiences, or anyone who wrote to Listener Services and was willing to pay. As of the new NPR.org site re-launch on July 27, over 20,000 visitors had gone online to get transcripts. Now, all you have to do to get a story's text is visit www.NPR.org and click on the transcript link to the right of the audio button, located just below the story's title. Quotes from these transcripts are for non-commercial use only, and may not be used in any other media without attribution to NPR. Why now? Transcripts were once largely the province of librarians and other specialists whose job was to find archival content, often for professional purposes, said Kinsey Wilson, the Senior VP of NPR's Digital Media department. As Web content becomes easier to share and distribute, and search and social media have become important drivers of audience engagement, archival content -- whether in the form of stories or transcripts -- has an entirely different value than it did in the past. NPR took the new website launch as an opportunity to offer free transcripts, according to Laura Soto-Barra, NPR's Senior Librarian. We made a decision to go ahead even though NPR pays a considerable amount of money to produce transcripts on deadline, said Soto-Barra. Transcripts are posted six hours after the shows air, except for Morning Edition's transcripts which are posted four hours after the show is broadcast. We have offered free audio for a long time and we felt that free transcripts were long overdue. New software allows NPR's staff to receive daily metrics and supply data for most popular transcripts yesterday, most popular transcripts for the last seven days and most popular transcript ever. Keep in mind transcript coordinators do their best to catch and correct errors on the text. But since there is a quick turn-around time on transcripts, mistakes can occur. If you notice a spelling or typographical error, please email transcri...@npr.org, where it can be corrected. Soto-Barra said that NPR transcripts may contain minor or significant errors, ranging from the use of ex-patriot instead of expatriate. In another example, a transcriber mistakenly quoted filmmaker John Waters as saying of former Manson follower Leslie Van Houten: She's a yuppie, when what he really said was, She's not a yuppie. Transcript coordinators Dorothy Hickson and Laura Jeffrey do their best to find and correct errors but unfortunately, they cannot proofread every piece, said Soto-Barra. Librarians and transcript coordinators appreciate when someone calls their attention to errors, particularly when they involve name spellings and use of (unintelligible). categories: What is this? Share --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups sunlightlabs group. To post to this group, send email to
[backstage] RDTV launched
Hi All, Just in case you've missed it this piece of news in the middle of a pretty hectic week. We launched a project called RD TV which is a pilot project out of BBC Backstage and BBC RAD Labs. There's plenty of information on the Backstage blog and the official readme file - http://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/backstage/index.whtml I hope you find the project useful as some of the footage is well worth looking through if you have the time. We are planning to have even more formats supported in the next week or so. So if Mpeg4 isn't to your taste, you should hold out for the Ogg Theora, Xvid and WMV versions once I crank up my Quad Processor PIII Xeon box :) This quite achievement for us and we believe thinking from day one about sharing is the logical starting point going forward. Its only then can you avoid most of the legal rumbles which usually affect most others attempts to free media and data. Cheers, Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] RDTV launched
On Fri, 2009-04-10 at 01:08 +0100, Nick Morrott wrote: On 09/04/2009, Mr I Forrester mail...@cubicgarden.com wrote: Ian and Team, Congratulations on the launch of RD TV. I've just watched the first episode (222MiB Ogg version) and enjoyed it a lot, so will be looking forward to the next edition. Thanks, its been a killer keeping quiet about it all. The blog post a while back about video now makes a lot more sense - http://welcomebackstage.com/2009/02/sharable-and-remixable-video-on-backstage/ The Theora version is already online, along with Flash and Quicktime versions. I doubt you'd need both MPEG4 and Xvid versions, unless you intend to have a lower quality MPEG-4 part 2 version (e.g. Xvid) and a higher quality MPEG-4 part 10 version (e.g. x264) available. MP3 and/or Vorbis audio-only options might also be desirable for those on the move/commute. Yes we were planning to do a Mpeg4 layer 10 aka a H.264 video/AAC+ audio version. Then a Xvid version which will play nicely on lower cpu devices like my phone and xbmc on a xbox. WMV should keep windows and xbox360 users happy. Blip.tv has a pro option which creates a mp3 and ipod mpeg4 version from what ever file you upload. But I take your point, we should do audio versions. But to just add to everything, there is nothing stopping you guys transcoding it into another format and distributing it. I kind of want to play with MKV and Theora, so I may add that somewhere else in a few days time. A question and a comment: i) Will there be subscription feeds for the different media types so that I can have new episodes appear on my MythBox? So good question, you might have seen the ATOM file which I created for the asset bundle? I had thought about doing the same for the video files but I started thinking we would wrap those up in a service. So for example we would use iplayer, blip.tv, youtube, and you would subscribe to the video though that service instead of through us directly. ii) Media quality info on the blog and download filesizes on the FTP site would be useful to get an idea as to what quality to expect from the different versions available. Agreed, we kept the blog entries quite simple and wanted to direct people who are interested to the FTP site which has not only file size but MD5 hashes. Quality is interesting, maybe we should adopt the /sample type system or do screenshots of quality. Cheers, - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] IE8 ships today
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2009/03/ready_for_ie8.html Generally the view is very positive from Mix09 but it would be... However there is lots of thoughts about people real experience of the web when they already have weird activex stuff installed already. Cheers, Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] 4th Oekonux Conference - March 27th-29th in Manchester
Sounds like OpenTech but much more focused around free software and free culture. Its also on our backstage calendar which you can also view directly now - http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/node/11 --- Free Software and Beyond The World of Peer Production 4th Oekonux Conference in cooperation with P2P Foundation [1]http://www.oekonux-conference.org/ Invitation [2]Project Oekonux researches the economical, political and social forms of Free Software and similar forms of production we collectively call peer production. In [3]Project Oekonux, different people with different reasons and different approaches get together to build something new. A lot of participants want to know, whether and if so, how, the peer production can serve as a basis for a new society. For the 4th Oekonux Conference [4]Project Oekonux cooperates with the [5]P2P Foundation. The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives researches, documents and promotes P2P practices in every domain of social life. It's a global cyber-collective and aims to be a knowledge and internetworking platform for open/free, participatory, and commons-oriented initiatives on a global scale. During the past decade the phenomenon of Free Software has become successful and well-known. It is still amazing how in the realm of software the creativity of so many volunteers leads to products which are useful for the whole mankind. Ten years after [6]Project Oekonux was founded the world has changed. As expected by us the principles of the development of Free Software are spreading out to other fields. Wikipedia and Open Access are two of the most interesting examples among many. It is time to look at peer production from a broader perspective. The [7]4th Oekonux conference Free Software and Beyond The World of Peer Production takes up this development and widens the perspective from Free Software to other fields of peer production. [8]Project Oekonux and [9]P2P Foundation are proud to welcome nearly 30 invited contributors which will share their experience, studies and insights with us on the following topics * Peer production beyond Free Software * [10]Free Design of material goods for less industrialized countries * [11]Open Source Car * [12]Free Science with Open Access * [13]Open Street Map project * [14]Peer production in art * [15]Free Farming * [16]Free Knitting * Aspects of Free Software * [17]Free Software in Latin America * [18]Innovation in Free Software * [19]Others in the community * [20]Communities and single developers * [21]Women in Free Software * Peer production and social movements * [22]The Hipatia project * [23]Social movements and peer production * [24]Indigenous movements and cyberspace * Theories on peer production * [25]Patterns in peer production * [26]Market and peer production based economies * [27]Peer production and the concept of truth * [28]Organization in peer production * Future of peer production * [29]Current limitations of peer production * [30]Money and peer production * [31]Ideas for expanding peer production * [32]Political scenarios for expanding peer production Please see the [33]program page for detailed information and some more contributions. After the inspiration of the [34]1st, [35]2nd and [36]3rd Oekonux Conference we hope and expect that in an open atmosphere critical voices as much as the enthusiasm of the hackers of all kinds once more will merge into a creative process. We hope and expect, that again the wide range of presentations contributed by international participants from science and practice will lead to new insights and broader understanding for all. We hope and expect, that as before we will have a lot of fun :-) . 4th Oekonux Conference March 27th-29th, 2009 University of Manchester Please register for free [37]http://www.oekonux-conference.org/registration.html References Visible links 1. http://www.oekonux-conference.org/ 2. http://www.oekonux.org/ 3. http://www.oekonux.org/ 4. http://www.oekonux.org/ 5. http://p2pfoundation.net/ 6. http://www.oekonux.org/ 7. http://fourth.oekonux-conference.org/ 8. http://www.oekonux.org/ 9. http://p2pfoundation.net/ 10. http://www.oekonux-conference.org/program/events/5.en.html 11. http://www.oekonux-conference.org/program/events/10.en.html 12. http://www.oekonux-conference.org/program/events/11.en.html 13. http://www.oekonux-conference.org/program/events/21.en.html
Re: [backstage] The BBC as sheep... and irresponsible ones too
Richard Lockwood wrote: In this day and age it *is* important to teach people about electronic security. This story completely fails to do so. There is something you could argue the BBC should be doing around this. There was a suggestion that Webwise 2.0 could be perfect for this... - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC5.TV
LOL :) On Wed, 2009-02-25 at 23:37 +0100, Dirk-Willem van Gulik wrote: On Feb 25, 2009, at 8:09 PM, Richard Lockwood wrote: OMFG Drat! I missed that - did Anthony Reorganize His Department Again ?! But four letter words^H^H^H^H^Hdepartment acronyms are good ! - TEH CONSPIRISSY TEHEORISTS R OUT IN FORSE Dw - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Mapping the World of Piracy
Via NewTeeVee - http://newteevee.com/2009/02/05/mapping-the-world-of-piracy/ - Enjoy! The folks at the Pirate Bay released a Google Maps mash-up Wednesday that illustrates its worldwide user base, with exact percentages by country. It’s a pretty fascinating project in that it helps to dispel certain myths about BitTorrent, namely that while piracy may be a global phenomenon, swapping movies via the Pirate Bay definitely isn’t. For example, did you know there are roughly as many BitTorrent users in Portugal as there are in all of the African countries put together? And that downloaders in Spain are neck-in-neck with those of the U.S. for the No. 2 slot? - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Make the primary operating system used in state schools free and open source
Seen this in my mailbox a few times today, sure you will all find this interesting... We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Make the primary operating system used in state schools free and open source http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/nonMSschools/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Twittering on
Feel strongly that the BBC should use something else instead of Twitter, how about voting or offering your support here. http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/ideatorrent/idea/16/ Cheers, Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BarCampLondon6 announced
Hi All, With all the talk about Digital Britian, he's a great chance to discuss and maybe organise something (yeah not the best segway) BarCampLondon6 has been announced at the Guardian's new offices near Kings Cross. Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th March 2009 http://www.barcamplondon.org/ - For much more details Tickets are still not announced but there due to come out in batches over the coming month. Of course BBC Backstage is a sponsor of BarCampLondon6 alongside Yahoo and the Guardian. Hope to see you all there... Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] If you had a ton of content to freely distribute
Well without giving too much away, the techies are in control on this one. On Tue, 2009-01-20 at 20:34 -0800, Steve Jolly wrote: Ian Forrester wrote: Say, we had a ton of media assets from a BBC programme which we owned all the rights to and wanted to distribute widely. Not just video, but images, sound, subtitles, metadata about the programme scripts, etc. How would you 1. Package it? Artists and techies will probably have somewhat divergent opinions on this one... S - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC iPlayer download on Linux and Mac using AIR
No one seems to have picked up on the launch of the iPlayer download AIR application for Windows, Linux, OSX. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/12/introducing_iplayer_deskto.html I wonder why? maybe I should save it for a personal blog post... Cheers Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] not quite in the Backstage spirit?
So one of the problems with the bbc reader, I've been told. Was that it never included a powered by backstage.bbc.co.uk. Please remember to include this attribution otherwise your prototype sits outside the backstage licence. Around the use of logos, is pretty much as James has said, although I disagree with him about it being rubbish. Its just not very pretty. On Mon, 2008-12-22 at 17:42 +, James Cridland wrote: On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 2:50 PM, Martin Deutsch martin.deut...@gmail.com wrote: Just spotted this in the newest Private Eye (dated 26th Dec)... Being fair... use of the logo means official. No use of the logo means unofficial. That's what the Backstage licence basically says. Do a quick iTunes search for BBCReader - that app really concerns me, since it's rubbish and people think it's the BBC's. -- http://james.cridland.net/ | http://notatallbad.ltd.uk/legal_info/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Your ideas are now finally welcomed
Ok so a little while back we kind of launched or announced that we were building out some of the core parts of the backstage site into ideas.welcomebackstage.com (please note the url will change one day soon). ideas is based on the Ubuntu idea torrent project and we're happy to be supporting more free and open software projects. And I'm even happier to announce the submit your own ideas section is now up and running for you all to throw ideas at. So go over to http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com, signup and submit a idea or two The ideas can be pretty much anything from why doesn't the BBC Recipe section not have a RSS and a API to large scale changes like enabling BitTorrent support with the next version of iPlayer. Feel free to go into as much detail as you like but keep the titles clear and readable. This will hopefully insure when we show them to people higher up the chain they will actually read them. Its also ok to resubmit ideas which have come up before and were not resolved in the way you felt they should have been. I'm hoping ideas.welcomebackstage's structured approach to ideas will help with getting official answers and proper sign off in the future. Cheers, comments and questions to us Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Your ideas are now finally welcomed
Sure will do, but you all know its Durpal and Idea torrent software running on a beta server. I'm more concerned with what this software could enable rather that how it looks at this moment. Do keep reporting any bugs however. On Mon, 2008-12-22 at 23:51 +, Alan Pope wrote: 2008/12/22 Mr I Forrester mail...@cubicgarden.com: Ok so a little while back we kind of launched or announced that we were building out some of the core parts of the backstage site into ideas.welcomebackstage.com (please note the url will change one day soon). You might want to remove the ubuntu logos from posts such as this one:- http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/ideatorrent/idea/7/ Specifically this logo:- http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/modules/ideatorrent/themes/brownie/images/minilogo.png And maybe replace them with.. oh uhm.. BBC logos? :) Cheers, Al. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iPlayer download on Linux and Mac using AIR
Sorry my mistake, I started on the Caching thread and have not caught up with it :x Ian On Mon, 2008-12-22 at 21:57 +, David Greaves wrote: Mr I Forrester wrote: No one seems to have picked up on the launch of the iPlayer download AIR application for Windows, Linux, OSX. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/12/introducing_iplayer_deskto.html I wonder why? maybe I should save it for a personal blog post... We can't make it work /me ducks You clearly didn't read the iPlayer caching thread - such an obvious title too ;) I made an attempt at a subject change about 3 days ago. My experience: I went to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ Then I went to the Labs. It says You are signed up for BBC iPlayer Labs. Start using iPlayer labs features. I did find http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/where_to_get_iplayer/ (the linux clicky doesn't take me anywhere useful) After about 200 clicks I gave up on finding a download of any kind. Then it just plays online and has nothing helpful to say about working offline. I didn't find anything on the BBC to tell me what to do. Now I guess I need to go elsewhere for AIR and then it will magically work - but where? A quick post to the BBC Linux support system (aka Backstage) and I went here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/install/bbc_iplayer_desktop (Thanks Alan!) But despite having flash 10.0.12 it doesn't offer AIR and this page: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR_for_Linux:Release_Notes tells me that my version of Linux (Debian, you may have heard of it) isn't supported. Ah well. Back to MythTV... and at least I can watch Strictly again with that. Merry Xmas all David - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] not quite in the Backstage spirit?
That was certainly news for us at backstage. I'm going to follow this up and hopefully have some better news soon. On Sat, 2008-12-20 at 14:50 +, Martin Deutsch wrote: Just spotted this in the newest Private Eye (dated 26th Dec)... Andy Alcorn is a student whose hobby is computer programming. Three years ago he designed a desktop widget for Apple Macs which allowed users to tune in directly to the full range of BBC radio stations and have them on in the background as they worked, rather than having to search out individual web pages to do so. He estimates that the free software has been downloaded at least 200,000 times. At the peak of its popularity, around 65,000 people were using it to listen to the BBC. In October he was contacted by the BBC, which had tracked down his private mobile number and home address. Was it to thank him for the extra listeners he had pushed in the corporation's direction, or offering him a job on the technology staff? No. Instead the BBC Litigation Department informed him that while the BBC does not object to the reference of the BBC services ... you do not have the authority to use the BBC logo and as such the use of it amounts to infringement of the BBC's registered trade marks and of its copyright. Alcorn was ordered to remove the logo from the widget, where it appeared in a little box enabling people to knoiw what they were listening to, and provide signed written undertakings that you have undertaken this step and that you undertake not to repeat your actions in the future or face legal action. All BBC logos have now been replaced on the widget with the letters B, B and C, and licence fee-payers can now sleep easier in their beds. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC Backstage Networking Bashes
Hi All, Thanks to everyone who came out to the BBC Backstage networking bashes. Of course for the first time, we had two events one in Manchester and one in London. Across the country we have a rough count of about 370 people attend and everyone enjoyed the events. For those who missed the events, you also missed the new look Backstage Tshirts which were designed by Mark Griffin. More details including how it looks can be found here - http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2008/12/backstage_logo.html You can also find pictures of both events here - http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bbc +backstaged=taken-20081212-20081215ss=2ct=0mt=photosw=all Look out for the Backstage Videos from the events. Cheers Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Excuse the rant....
Yes we've all experienced this time to time. I have this at every Holiday Inn hotel I stay at. On Wed, 2008-12-10 at 18:17 +, Peter Bowyer wrote: iPlayer thinks that the Hilton Hotel, Leeds is outside the UK. Doubtless because Hilton's hotel broadband is provided by 'i-Bahn', which sounds suspiciously German. Good job I have some downloaded video to watch, that's all. /rant (Apologies to those Twitter friends who have enjoyed this rant already) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Backstage logo design competition is live!
Good good! On Sat, 2008-11-08 at 07:58 +, Brian Butterworth wrote: I have a few ideas in process as well. On 7 Nov 2008, 8:27 PM, Alun Rowe [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a design I'm working on... On 7 Nov 2008, at 19:17, Rain [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- On Fri, 11/7/08, Mark Griffin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Most definitely! Should i... This message (and any associated files) is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential, subject to copyright or constitutes a trade secret. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying or distribution of this message, or files associated with this message, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. Messages sent to and from us may be monitored. Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or omissions that are present in this message, or any attachment, that have arisen as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required, please request a hard-copy version. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. Alun Rowe Pentangle Internet Limited 2 Buttermarket Thame Oxfordshire OX9 3EW Tel: +44 8700 339905 Fax: +44 8700 339906 Please direct all support requests to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 3960918. Registered office: 1 Lauras Close, Great Staughton, Cambridgeshire PE19 5DP - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstag... - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC Backstage meets the London Communities Christmas Party
Yes we made the title so long you need to catch your breath mid flow :) Well the tickets are open, so what you waiting for? Details are on upcoming - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225222 and you can claim your free ticket by going to - http://bbcbackstage.eventwax.com/bbc-backstage-joins-the-london-communities-in-a-christmas-bash- or buy ticket on the upcoming page. I won't be at the party because I'll be hosting the Manchester one (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225186/, which is filling up too), but Rain will be hosting the London one and we both hope to have some video link between the two. If anyone would like to build a twitter/microblogging thing which also has a slot for video from either skype or a flash site like ustream please give us a shout. Cheers, Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Invite - MiniBar November - Special
Thanks Christian, but were really a text only list. Cheers On Wed, 2008-11-05 at 11:40 +, Christian Ahlert wrote: Hi all In November we will have a special format. You can come at 5pm and mix with international web entrepreneurs, who have been brought over by the British Council and join us for a short awards ceremony for the 'International Young Creative Entrepreneur' (and some drinks and food). You need to register separately here for this part. Alternatively you come to MiniBar - RSVP here - as per usual at 6pm, network, chat, drink and then witness the launch of Microsoft's Start-up Program plus see this years SeedCamp winners on stage. November Program Microsoft Start-Up Program - Bindi Karia Mobclix - Vishal Gurbuxani Basekit - Richard Best Soup.io - Christoper Clay uberVU - Vladimir Oane Sponsored by Micrsoft Start up Programme Your MiniBar Team - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC Backstage Meets the Communities of the North and London Christmas Party
Hi All, So as mentioned in a previous email, were having our Christmas party on the 13th December. One in London and one in Manchester. The Manchester one is already taking bookings - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225186 While the London one is just around the corner but we are sorting out the venue - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225222 Both will hold up to 300 people and are free. I hope you can all make one or the other, as this is the first time we've tried a simultaneous event before. We hope to have partners from the local communities join us and maybe help gain sponsorship for lovely extras like drink, cake, entertainment, etc. So what you waiting for? Sign up now... And if your at the Manchester event, a I'll see you in December. Cheers, Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC Backstage ideas store
Thanks Al, So idea torrent is brainstorm or brainstorm is the ubuntu name for the same thing. I've not setup the filters yet. Odd I'll look into the submit problem, I think it might be permissions again. Cheers On Tue, 2008-10-28 at 01:39 +, Alan Pope wrote: 2008/10/28 Mr I Forrester [EMAIL PROTECTED]: So I urge you try it out and report back any error or problems you might get. The submit idea link on the left seems broken (whether you are logged in or not) http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/ideatorrent/user?destination=submit/ In addition if you haven't already, you might want to take a look at the Ubuntu Brainstorm site:- http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ which has the same functionality (if not the same code base). Very early on we were asked for better selectivity when viewing ideas. Take a look at the site and you'll see down the left some of the options to allow visitors to filter the ideas in the database. Cheers, Al. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Changes at Backstage
Hi All, Things at Backstage have been quite hectic but also quiet to the public. So whats been going on? Well here's a list which I think you will find interesting. 1. New BBC Backstage Blog with comments 2. New BBC Backstage Logo Competition 3. PA Press Event API via Backstage 4. New ideas store application 5. Thinking Digital Audio via IT Conversations 6. BBC Backstage Christmas party 7. BBC Backstage and Geekup events So thats the highlights, now some details. + New BBC Backstage Blog with comments New ideas store application --- We've had one heck of a ride trying to get the backstage blog somewhere more stable. Comments have been turned off for a eternity due to spam and our mailbox has over a million spam comments. So we're moving the blog to blogs.bbc.co.uk and updating the style. We want to encourage casual backstagers to comment directly on prototypes and news items. The mailing-list will stay as it is but we hope to use the archive more to pull the list into the site via RSS. With the move, we're also launching a new site called ideas store. This is basically ubuntu brainstorm/ideatorrent setup for you all to submit ideas in a more structured way. For example people can vote up ideas and add comments. This should lead the way for people to float ideas surrounding backstage or other BBC projects/sites. So if you've always wanted to raise the idea of the BBC using OGG Vorbis streams, now you can and gather support around it. + New BBC Backstage Logo competition --- The BBC backstage logo we created back 2 years ago was great for the time. But the tag cloud format is tired and not ideal, so we wanted to see what the community could come up with. Obviously you will be rewarded for your fantastic efforts. Expect a full blog post and mail about this very soon. + PA Press Event API via Backstage --- Everything has come together and we're now able to offer the PA Events API under a backstage non-commercial licence. This means you will all have access to one of the richest event databases in the country. On top of that, PA Press have setup a competition to go with the launch of the API. There very interested in what you can do beyond sticking events on a map. + Thinking Digital Audio via IT Conversations --- We truly believe the UK is a hot bed for development and ideas but we're not doing enough to maybe promote ourselves and talent. So to aid with this, we are recording conferences we go to for future re-use on the non-profit and highly listen to ITConversations.com. Our first recording from Thinking Digital just went up last week involving Matt Locke of all people - http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3837.html + BBC Backstage Christmas party --- Every year we have a Christmas Party and most of the people suggest we should have one in the north of england. So this time around, we're throwing two. One in London (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225222) and one in Manchester (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225186). As you can see the London one doesn't have a venue quite yet. But you can sign-up now and please pass it around its free and should be a good night. + BBC Backstage and Geekup events --- We've teamed up with geekup in the north to run a small round of events around more that just internet development. So for example our first one we have invited Adrian Hon from Sixtostart up to Manchester to give a talk about Alternative Reality Gaming and Chaotic Fiction (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1225071). We expect to have our next one in the new year So lots to look forward to in the next few weeks... -- Ian Forrester This e-mail is: [] private; [x] ask first; [] bloggable Senior Producer, BBC Backstage Room 1044, BBC Manchester BH, Oxford Road, M60 1SJ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] work: +44 (0)2080083965 mob: +44 (0)7711913293 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC Backstage ideas store
So carrying on from the previous email. Ideas store is ready to go. We thought about strapping down everything but it seems pointless, so instead once you setup a user account you can do quite a bit and if not we tweak the permissions so it works as you guys expect. So I urge you try it out and report back any error or problems you might get. In the future the documentation for APIs and Feeds will appear here too, but we're also looking at ways to glue MT and Ideatorrent a lot closer together. Anyway the important url your all dying for is, http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com (please do not spread this url as its likely to move and its unlikely to stay as that url in the future) Have fun Cheers -- Ian Forrester This e-mail is: [x] private; [] ask first; [] bloggable Senior Producer, BBC Backstage Room 1044, BBC Manchester BH, Oxford Road, M60 1SJ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] work: +44 (0)2080083965 mob: +44 (0)7711913293 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPhone iPlayer
This is what kills me about iphone users, they think this stuff is new. Not only can you do this on WinMo but also over Bluetooth :p On Mon, 2008-10-13 at 02:39 +0100, Jim Tonge wrote: Jailbreak, then use PDAnet (available through Cydia). works over ad- hoc wifi network. On 13 Oct 2008, at 01:16, Ian Forrester wrote: Oh plus the iphone doesn't support that kind of functionality :) 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Interview with Jonathan Schwartz
Hi All, We were able to grab a quick interview with Jonathan Schwartz CEO of Sun Microsystems a little while ago. Due to problems with Audacity its taken a while to finally edit it down, but finally its here. its all recorded at there end, hence why I sound very muffled. I tried to ask the questions which you guys would find interesting. Its all creative commons licenced, so feel free to share and take apart the high rez wav version for summaries, etc. http://blip.tv/file/get/Bbc_backstage-BBCBackstageInterviewWithJonathanSchwartzCEOOfSunMicros417.mp3 - Mpeg3 version http://blip.tv/file/get/Bbc_backstage-BBCBackstageInterviewWithJonathanSchwartzCEOOfSunMicros368.ogg - Ogg Vorbis version http://blip.tv/file/get/Bbc_backstage-BBCBackstageInterviewWithJonathanSchwartzCEOOfSunMicros789.wav - WAV version Enjoy - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Google developer day 2008
As far as I know so far, nope. But I'm sure once I read through the thousands of emails I've avoided due to being on holiday we might have a different story. Cheers Ian Gitesh Khodiyar wrote: Registration for this years UK event is now open: http://code.google.com/events/developerday/2008/ Will backstage be there again this year? Regards, Gitesh. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: [Fsuk-manchester] Manchester Free Software talk: Ian Forrester, BBC Backstage - 22nd July
Quick reminder to people in and around Manchester... This is tonight... Tim Dobson wrote: Ian seems to be getting to know Manchester! :) I hope that some of you can make it! Tim -- Forwarded message -- From: Lucy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/7/11 Subject: [Fsuk-manchester] Manchester Free Software talk: Ian Forrester, BBC Backstage - 22nd July To: Manchester Free Software [EMAIL PROTECTED] **Please note the change in date to the fourth week of July** Next Meeting Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 22nd July, 2008. Ian Forrester will introduce us to BBC Backstage. BBC Backstage is a developer network for the public in which the BBC opens its doors to as much data and content as possible. Now in its third year, Backstage is changing to reflect the changes in the landscape and placement in industry. Ian Forrester, the head of Backstage, will explain some of the changes and outline some the big topics which Backstage are tackling ahead of the rest of the BBC and its unclear future in its new home of Salford Quays. [1] http://www.cubicgarden.com/ [2]: http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/ Location The meeting will take place at 19:00 in the Manchester Digital Development Agency on Portland Street. Access is via the doorbells at the entrance. Wheelchair access via the lift is available to the left of the main entrance. MDDA provide complimentary Fair Trade tea and coffee. Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) Lower Ground Floor 117-119 Portland Street Manchester M1 6ED Directions are available on the MDDA web site[2]: [2]: http://manchesterdda.com/directions/ General information about Manchester Free Software meetings can be found on our web site[3]: [3]: http://manchester.fsuk.org/blog/meetings/ Coming? --- If you're coming, feel free to add yourself to the FSF Groups wiki page[4]. If you would like five minutes to tell us about something, please add yourself to the wiki or contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]. [4]: http://groups.fsf.org/index.php/Manchester/2008-07-22 ___ Fsuk-manchester mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsuk-manchester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Dailysnooze - Vista Gadgets - Homepage
Great stuff Fraser. If I had a start page, I would use it. Cheers, posted on the backstage prototypes now [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, For the past 6 or 7 years (http://web.archive.org/web/20030711135006/dailysnooze.com/en/) I have run http://www.dailysnooze.com - mainly because I wanted a quick loading simple homepage for my browser, which included the BBC headlines and weather. Long gone are the days of screen scraping the bbc news pages and now luckily we have access to some nice feeds! Things have moved on a little and we now have a few extras based on backstage feeds: - dailysnooze.com browser homepage (BBC News and Weather) - BBC News Vista Sidebar Gadget (http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=653824e2-e96c-454e-b11e-ab873c8f393fbt=1pl=1) - BBC Weather Vista Sidebar Gadget (http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=5bba4a66-6982-4f37-ab97-7b83eba93a19bt=1pl=1) I only just released the gadgets so thought I should share them a bit further. They are also available from the website itself. For the homepage the brief I have always stuck to is quick loading and simple, and I like to think I have a good balance in my slightly biased opinion. From the tech side of things the gadgets/homepage get their data from my hosted DB and associated web services. I have an app running at home which updates the server DB regularly with the feed information. Hope one or two of you find these useful :-) Let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback - would love to release gadget updates with user feedback tweaks! Cheers Fraser homepage: http://www.dailysnooze.com bbc vista gadgets: http://www.dailysnooze.com/vista-gadgets.aspx - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Quick idea for BBC News video
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 I'm not so sure, its actually a good idea I think. A simple querystring element which starts the video as soon as possible. I'll put it in our ideas section, including your reason why not :) Peter Bowyer wrote: You pretty much talked yourself out of that one, then :-) Peter 2008/7/4 Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi, just browsing the news and I wanted to send a link to a friend, and was wondering if it would be good to have a switch we could append to the URL, to make the video play automatically. Unsure if this would in some ways be detrimental - i.e. I could then force someone to unwittingly start a video, and at work with the sound up that could cause problems for some people, also maybe it's a feature that noone would use... but yeh, just a thought. As it's said, the signal is the noise! Ta, Matt -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFIbgb4QiJ2fWCDT3cRArnVAJ0Wgi5kbHA5BYTg98RO4pBx63EkwACdF/iK yWnszMfbrFtqlvTUJ3rZr+I= =WdIV -END PGP SIGNATURE- - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:40:58 +0100
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 So a little history I was approached by a large company to run a competition based on there technology. The base technology was xml but required there software to play it back. I did turn down the offer for many of the reasons brought up on the list recently. I did feel this should have done in a more transparent way but I never said no as such, so it could still happen. However about competitions, we have a couple of competitions planned already its just a matter of when. We feel its better to launch competitions around new APIs/sets of Data rather that technologies. I might be wrong, but generally a new API can really spark ideas. Cheers, Ian Forrester See some of you at OpenTech08, where we might be launching something :) Ben O'Connor wrote: Hi Everyone, I agree with Alia, can't we all just get along ? If this is to be a competition about rich internet applications, then the competition could be open to AIR and alternatives, such as Google Gears etc. That is likely to appeal to our various sub-communities better. Also, wouldn't that be interesting in itself ?! All these fevered developers taking an opening concept and applying it to their 'colours' about open this, proprietary that. I'm sure the end user isn't bothered, as long as the final result is something that makes them get all teary and touch the screen, as they whisper home. Offering guidelines but not restrictions makes it more like a sort of X-prize or Darpa race then. With a broad goal to work toward, that leaves plenty of room to go off in different directions and that allows for a nice, healthy gorge of innovation and ideas. That's how I feel about it anyway. Ben O'Connor On 4 Jul 2008, at 03:39, Alia Sheikh wrote: Oh I promised myself that I wouldn;t get involved, but yay Godzilla! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RFEzpUsUBk Ian - I'd like to know more about the competition. If all we know is that it's using AIR then that's all we'll argue^H^H^H^H^Htalk about. Whats it actually going to be? Is Backstage runnning it or is someone else? Also are competitions going to be a regular thing/will we get to play with lots of stuff eventually or is this a one off? Oh, and I crush everything:) Alia Richard Lockwood wrote: On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Dave Crossland [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 2008/7/3 Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]: On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 4:41 PM, Ian Forrester [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If we ran a competition which required the final prototype to be in Adobe Air, how would people feel about that? No problem with that. There is a large problem with that - Adobe Air is proprietary software, so it ought to be boycotted. You boycott it Dave, if it makes you happy. The rest of us can carry on living in the real world. It's using a new technology and product to encourage development, and the technology is available to end users easily and with little effort, on multiple platforms. But it tramples our freedom and community, which are more important. No Dave, you're thinking of Godzilla. Rich. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFIbglrQiJ2fWCDT3cRAjgPAJ9i8X9QUXy0GQqzA9JxKF1VdLo6nwCeMomF LtVMZpOxwghKA/nPHvpDevA= =nqL1 -END PGP SIGNATURE- - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] So was *this* what Mr. Cridland was referring to recently?
YES!! Just for the lazy, One thing conspicuously missing from the current iPlayer site is the provision of RSS feeds http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedfactory/. For those who want to consume our content via their RSS reader, or who want to create mashups http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6375525.stm of the iPlayer site - good news - every page has an RSS feed. You can even subscribe to a feed of an arbitrary search query, allowing you to use third party feed readers to alert you when your favourite programmes arrive Be happy backstagers Dafyd Jones wrote: See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/06/bbc_iplayer_20_sneak_preview.html... lots of pictures :D On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 5:50 PM, Christopher Woods [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/25/bbc_iplayer_update/ our MP3 prediction was correct! Woohoo! Plus, streaming radio gets a live rewind button. These updates look really nice and long-awaited, so kudos to all who helped make it a reality. :) (MP3! Yes!) Tech question - what encoder(s) are you using? If it's software in realtime or close-to-realtime, please (please please) say it's Lame 3.97. If the backend is using the Fraunhofer FhG codec, I think I might contemplate going and banging my head against a wall for a little while. -- e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] w: www.dafyd.me.uk http://www.dafyd.me.uk m: 07834 356 324 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] The TechCrunch BBC Debate
From yesterdays debate, http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/06/25/live-blog-bbc-techcrunch-debate/ Videos going up here - http://cubicgarden.blip.tv Cheers - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] OpenTech 2008
Don't forget backstagers If your in London and having sleepless nights after mashed. Theres OpenTech 2008 on 5th July. Look out we may have something very special to announce at Opentech 2008! - Open Tech 2008 sponsored by BT Osmosoft Saturday July 5th - ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/ http://bbcxues11.national.core.bbc.co.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/ Open Tech 2008, from UKUUG and friends, is an informal one-day conference about technology, society and low- carbon living, featuring Open Source ways of working and technologies that anyone can have a go at. You can pre-register your ticket now at www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/registration to allow you to jump the queue and pay your fiver on the door. The last two times we did this, we sold out in advance, so you are strongly advised to pre-register. New announcements: * No2ID and Open Rights Group: State of the Nation * Here's the UK EFF * Power to the People - One year one from the Power of Information Report With 3 concurrent sessions, the line-up also features: * mySociety - WhatDoTheyKnow.com launch, and other goodies * Ben Laurie and friends on network security * Danny O'Brien's Living on the Edge * AMEE, and Open Source Solar Heating * Saving money and reducing carbon through Green IT * Getting people involved with online media Totalling 60 talks across 3 sessions covering 9 hours, there's plenty in the programme for everyone including Rembrandt, Pr0n and Robot Monkeys, and all that's just in one session! The full schedule is at www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/schedule You can pre-register your ticket now at www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/registration to allow you to jump the queue and pay your fiver on the door. The last two times we did this, we sold out in advance, so you are strongly advised to pre-register. * Further information * Sign up for your tickets online, and tick the box to hear from us, or just send an email to join uf [EMAIL PROTECTED] (your address will only be used to contact you about OpenTech and will not be passed onto third parties). - or you can email [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you've any other questions. We're also looking for volunteers to help out on the day. In return for free early entry and our eternal gratitude, we're in need of a few people to show up a bit earlier and help us set the venue up. If you're interested, or have random other questions, email us on [EMAIL PROTECTED] Open Tech 2008 Saturday July 5th - ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/ http://bbcxues11.national.core.bbc.co.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ukuug.org/events/opentech2008/ Final programme may be subject to alteration. Thanks for reading! - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Protoype - News Mash Up
Thanks guys, Any more prototypes which people want to send in, are best sent to the mailing list too. Cheers Richard Askew wrote: First Prototype submission too! Some months ago I asked the guys on here to help me out with the gathering BBC content so that I could put my application into practice and here it is - take a look and let me know what you think (Obviously there is scope there for refinement): www.richardaskew.co.uk/infusednews About: Infused news was created as part of an Internet Computing degree at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus named An investigation into the need for user-submitted, multimedia content when delivering news. The aim was to integrate user-submitted, multimedia elements into existing news stories and evaluate whether or not this augmented version of the news not only makes the story more compelling, action provoking and understandable for the user, but to investigate whether the use of multiple sources gives the news story a more balanced, honest and up-to-date view of the news story. The application takes an rss feed of BBC data provided at http://dev.barnesdmd.co.uk/ff/?ffid=2. Keywords are extracted using the Yahoo Term extractor and these are used to retrive data from YouTube and Flickr, the phpFlickr classes were used to acheive this (http://phpflickr.com/). The mix of media (Imagery, Sound and Video) often enhanced the story being presented. The keywords used often return media isn't relevant due to keywords not being given enough context, or media being tagged incorrectly. If more time or the funding was made available I would look further into utilising Ambient Interface technology so that the application could deliver the information in an engaing way. * To view the terms under which this email is distributed, please go to http://www.hull.ac.uk/legal/email_disclaimer.html * - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Backstage's future plans
Capital letters? Why? :) No only kidding, will see what I can do Richard Lockwood wrote: Hope you're feeling better Ian; can I make a request please? Can we have some captal letters at the start of sentences in the text on the green background please? Please?? Cheers, Rich. The New Backstage Website is not publicly available at - welcomebackstage.com http://welcomebackstage.com/ as a beta. Please be gentle and bear in mind it needs alot more work (I'm quite sick at the moment, I' m . - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Backstage's future plans
Yes and the URL of backstage isn't going to change by the way. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yeah looked a little more and worked that out. Silly me! Looks nice. On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:04:19 +0100, Dave Crossland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 2008/6/24 [EMAIL PROTECTED]: I'm presuming the welcomebackstage.com does not yet It looks like a wireframe to give an impression of the new site, rather than anything complete or functional to me. Looks nice, though :-) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Event: Adventure in Technology
Shevek wrote: Hi, It was great to see you all at Mashed, thank you for making it even better than last year! We're organising a technology festival in Bristol this Saturday 28th June. The web site is at http://www.techadventure.org/ and contains details and directions. We want as many different types of technology in one room as possible, so everybody who comes can discover something new. We're also trying to encourage people to show how things work and how to build them, starting from the very basics, so that you can do the same. So, why should you come? - If you'd like to learn technologies which you've seen but not had time to get hands-on? - If you have something cute, shiny or cool to show off? - If you have an idea and don't have the skills or resources to make it work. - If you've built a robot which will take over the world, and need to start somewhere. - Why not? We have some stunning speakers, and we'll be organising informal sessions and discussions as much as formal presentations, because that way everyone gets to talk and ask questions about what interests them, rather than sitting through what the speaker wants to say. Since this is the first year of this event, we have only a rough idea of what's going to turn up, and we've tried to keep the blog updated as people mail us. Demos should include robotics, virtual reality, vehicle hacking, radio and video broadcast, music and recording, and there will be talks and discussions on crypto, security, politics and publicity, architecture and many other topics. We'll have a games corner and a puzzles corner, and we'll generally try to make space for whatever people bring on the day. We have lots of space, so bring friends, and we'll see you there! S. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ Its so strange all this stuff happens once I leave Bristol :) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Fwd: [sf-uk-discuss] Ashley Highfield of Beeb reviews Linux after Jono Bacon visits him
So far Ashley's review has got - 635 Diggs, so help us digg it up some more http://digg.com/linux_unix/Ashley_Highfield_BBC_executive_Reviews_Ubuntu Only takes 2 seconds. Brian Butterworth wrote: I saw this. It made me happy! 2008/6/20 Andy [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi all Saw this on the School-forge UK malling list, might be of interest to some here. The message to schoolforge only had Jono's blog linked directly. Ashleys post is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/06/linux_ubuntu_blog.html (in case you don't want to go via jono's blog). -- Forwarded message -- From: Steve Lee [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/6/20 Subject: [sf-uk-discuss] Ashley Highfield of Beeb reviews Linux after Jono Bacon visits him To: Schoolforge-UK Discussions [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Honest account makes Interesting reading http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1204 -- Steve Lee -- Open Source Assistive Technology Software web: fullmeasure.co.uk http://fullmeasure.co.uk blog: eduspaces.net/stevelee/weblog http://eduspaces.net/stevelee/weblog --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Schoolforge-UK Discussions group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sf-uk-discuss?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~--- -- Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows. -- Adam Heath - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk http://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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Backstage's future plans
Hi All, I know a whole load of you missed out on Mashed, which was a great success and I know your all kicking yourselves. But during the event, I also gave a presentation which included some things we been up to and are working on... Rather that post the presentation, I thought I'd post a quick list here. - The New Backstage Website is not publicly available at - welcomebackstage.com as a beta. Please be gentle and bear in mind it needs alot more work (I'm quite sick at the moment, I' m . We're sponsoring or will be at a range of events next year plus Opentech08 (july 5th), The Singularity conference, etc. We are also considering opening geekdinners in Manchester or offering geekup a lot of support The wild west servers trial has been a success and we're adding more for next year. We may also start offering outside access for certain experimental projects The API gateway is up and running. So expect some APIs coming soon, including a complete events API from PA Press. We working on new podcasts and videocasts, and hope to have some on ItConversation We launching our openleaning and tv backstage sompoint soon There will be a competition to redesign the logos, tshirts, etc We have a new recruit called Rain Ashford.(rain will start in July) er main focus will be the London and the South, while I'll focus on Manchester and the North. Cheers Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Techcrunch BBC debate
Peter Bowyer wrote: I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned here already... or maybe I've been asleep... http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/the-techcrunch-bbc-debate/ Yep I assumed everyone just knew about it too. I'll be there recording for those who can't make it. Cheers, - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] List admin
I have removed the email address. Sorry for the delay in this people. Morris, Nat wrote: Hi, Is someone able to get [EMAIL PROTECTED] taken off the list to stop their autoresponder bot flooding the list? Its replying to every post and itself! Cheers, Nat, - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC blog RSS feeds go... full text! Yay!
Now we can start looking at some more of our RSS output being full text James Cridland wrote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/06/full_articletext_feeds_for_bbc.html I've been asking for months. No, years. Finally. Hurray! Well done Jem, Aaron, and the others. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPlayer - turning it up to 11
Talking of which my Pacemaker.net DJ tool also has headphones which goes up to 11. its always the little things which raise a smile. Iain Wallace wrote: My sentiments exactly. It's little things like this that remind me that I love the Beeb :) On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 12:56 PM, Chris Riley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, Some of you may have already noticed this, but I'd just like to pass on my thanks to whoever it was that made the volume in the iPlayer (and associated BBC .flv players) go up to 11. A small touch, but one that makes me smile every time I turn it up to 11 :o) Chris - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Thinking Digital conference
I am going to double check with a couple of the people behind Thinking Digital but I think its pretty safe to say this whole thing is spam. The videos for thinking digital were up online as the conference finished on Friday. There will be a podcast but once again they will be hosted else where and linked to from backstage. I may also give full copies to ITConversations as we should be interlinking more into what they do anyway. So sorry for the last reply on this issue, but I knew nothing about it, and still don't know who these people are. Cheers Ian Iain Wallace wrote: What does it take to get an email address delisted around here? On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 3:25 PM, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Please STOP IT WITH THE SHOUTING it is very rude. 2008/5/23 TRYPHENA BRADE [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Thank you for a DECENT reply. We AIM to: host videos on BBC the Thinking Digital site Thanking you in advance Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 14:20:08 +0100 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] Thinking Digital conference Tryphena, if you could perhaps reword your initial post, so as we could understand what you are actually trying to acheive, we might be able to help. Are you talking about hosting your videos on BBC or the Thinking Digital site? Clarity and brevity will get you everywhere. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ Get Started! -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Thinking Digital conference
Hi All, Backstage is sponsoring a few a events around the thinking digital conference, if your up in the North East of England and want to hang out (lobbycom), chat with some great speakers. Drop into the Sage in Gateshead. We're running a geekdinner on Friday night which leads nicely into the BarCampNorthEast which is this weekend. For you guys who can't make it, we're putting the videos up online very fast. Actually I've put up the first session videos already. http://blip.tv/topics/view/thinkingdigital Enjoy and hope to see you in Gateshead soon Cheers - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Ashley Highfield leaves BBC (almost)
No no, Redbull on tap... That would boost productivity :) Cridland, i'm hot on your heels Matthew Cashmore wrote: There would be lots more beanbags, for one thing. I think beanbags and hammocks should be available in more offices. And perhaps more beer fridges... May lower productivity slightly... It would be the first order of the day - a beanbag for all staff and free beer in the meeting rooms. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Ashley Highfield leaves BBC (almost)
Andrew Bowden wrote: So I highly recommend everyone goes there and votes for the guy at the end of the list ;-) Mr Cridland is getting far too much support, we need to put him back in his place. Do it or I'll convert the backstage list to a MSN group ;-) You've been warned Well that's alright. Once James has become the uber-boss, we can make sure he forces you to change it back ;) Oh very good answer :) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] full posts in BBC rss feeds?
Hi Frankie, Data is in a need of refresh, agreed. Reason why BBC news don't do full text feeds is because of rights involving the content. Thats the simple answer, but I'm happy to discuss in more detail if you like? frankie roberto wrote: This might have been asked before, but... ...can the BBC please start using full-post RSS feeds? This seems to be the default now on bbc blogs, but not for the news site or a few others. Even just the first paragraph would be an improvement! Oh and http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/data/Data is well out of date? BBC Cult closed ages ago... Frankie - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Ashley Highfield leaves BBC (almost)
vijay chopra wrote: But how many times have you voted for yourself? ;p On 16/04/2008, *Mr I Forrester* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Cridland, i'm hot on your heels Actually I only voted for another person once, thought it would be cheeky to vote for myself. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Ashley Highfield leaves BBC (almost)
Gareth Davis wrote: Peter Bowyer wrote: On 16/04/2008, Christopher Woods [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It would be the first order of the day - a beanbag for all staff and free beer in the meeting rooms. Last.fm has the ballpit (with webcams) and the BPI has the free beer, I think that's reason enough for the Beeb to implement them both as sensible employee-centric policies. Surely you'd want firemens' poles and slides like Google in Switzerland?? Since you are in the advance party going to Manchester Ian, perhaps you could have a word with the project team to make sure all of this is a requirement for the new building :) And if anyone is reading this from the W1 project Can we have some slides in those big atriums going into the new BHX? Or maybe some kind of gravity drop ride? News 24^H^HThe BBC News Channel would be so much more entertaining being punctuated by screams of those taking the 'express lift' to reception :) I love the idea of a gravity drop ride to the car park or tram stop. Although we laugh about this stuff, Google's policy on free food is actually well reasoned. But I don't think it would apply to the BBC, as we're publicly funded and rightly so should pay for food. I am however going to miss the free coffee and teas from the broadcast centre. Never was a better time to switch to green tea I guess. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Ashley Highfield leaves BBC (almost)
Peter Bowyer wrote: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/who-should-be-the-next-web-guru-of-the-bbc-vote-now/ Damm your quick! So I highly recommend everyone goes there and votes for the guy at the end of the list ;-) Mr Cridland is getting far too much support, we need to put him back in his place. Do it or I'll convert the backstage list to a MSN group ;-) You've been warned - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Ashley Highfield leaves BBC (almost)
Come on guys, enough microsoft/adobe jokes. If you could seriously put someone into the position of director of future media and technology who would it be and what qualities would you be looking for? I guess I shouldn't really say who I'd like to see, otherwise it will appear in the guardian or something. :) Rob Myers wrote: Brian Butterworth wrote: Cool. Can I apply for his post please? That depends. What work experience do you have at Microsoft? - Rob. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPlayer DRM is over?
The comments are tiresome - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/comments/ Thank goodness for the backstage list eh? This seems a lot better written - http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/ipods/bbc-happy-to-go-drm-free--261475 I'm out of the office at the Guardian changing media summit but am watching for any official statements. Sean DALY wrote: Here's The Register on the subject, with an offensive title. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/ On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Andy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 11/03/2008, Ivan Pope [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks. And if I might make so bold - why do they do this? Presumably it's because they want to send Flash to a PC, and MP4 only to phones. Unfortunately user agent sniffing isn't really designed to do what they are trying to do. They would generally have to have a list of all phones user agents and whether they support Flash or MP4 and serve accordingly. There are better ways of doing this. For instance the user agent (i.e your phone) can chose itself by being given multiple options via a 300 response code. Or check what the browser/phone actually wants, i.e. check the Accept header to see if it wants .flv or .mp4 Or use the fallback of HTML object tags. Present a Flash object tag and inside it put the HTML for MP4. If flash is not present the browser should fallback to what's inside the tag (may fail if Flash is present but incompatible, or wrong version). Of course most methods fail at some point so provide a link to the user to override possible incorrect choices. User Agent sniffing is certainly not a good solution if there is no user override for correcting it's mistakes. It is certainly bad accessibility wise. What is it specific about the iPhone that this feed needs to be limited to iPhones? Nothing, it's just their way of separating PC and phone, if it isn't an iPhone they assume it's a PC. Similar to some sites that assume if a web browser is not IE it's Firefox/Netscape. Or, to put it another way, if it wasn't sniffing my phone, could I watch this feed on my N95 (insert any other capable phone or phone app here) If your phone supports MP4 and HTTP then it should be fine. For now fake user agent. In the long run complain to the BBC or the BBC Trust. (This is NOT platform agnostic as requested by the trust, specifically scanning for a certain product and delivering them better content is extremely risky). As I said it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes for the BBC to correct. If they are doing things server side then just alter there code to server MP4 if user agent is iPhone, OR if a certain argument in the URL is set. Something like: ?php $version = 'flash'; if (isset($_GET['force'])) $version = $_GET['force']; else if (isIPhone()) $version = 'mp4'; else $version = 'flash'; if ($version == 'flash') // serve flash stuff here else if ($version == 'mp4') // server mp4 here else echo 'Unrecognised version!!!'; ? And then add links with force=flash and force=mp4 so the user can correct mistaken user agent sniffing. Combining this with some of the other above methods would be even better. But unless the BBC wants to actually hire me I'm not going to do their jobs for them! Of course that code may not work, I haven't done PHP for over 3 years but it is the basic idea. Andy -- Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows. -- Adam Heath - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC Support page
I don't think anyone wants to see live internet operations :) Good suggestion Adam Leach wrote: Just trying to find a support page as i've got a number of errors when accessing the weather page and i've come across this http://www.bbc.co.uk/support/ Shame it isn't a live stream, we could see what the Internet operations are upto. Adam - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] iPlayer, DRM, Free Software and the iPhone
I will attempt to get some answers to your questions, although I think the iphone service is only a beta service at the moment? Andy Halsall wrote: This morning I came across the following; Subject: Re: [GeekUp] Fwd: [ORG-discuss] iPlayer DRM is over? From: Tim Dobson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Matt Lee has written a howto for dummies here: http://exploringfreedom.org/2008/03/08/bbc-iplayer-on-gnu-linux-without-flash-using-only-free-software/ it is less verbose and more onpoint than the flickr entry Basically, its a how-to describing how you can go and grab the videos being made available to iPhone users by the BBC via iPlayer, from pretty much any machine, the bonus being that the process and end result are all achievable using free software. The process should be fairly familiar to most people receiving this, but it boils down to; find the actual media source and download it. Now, a number of things concerned me. Firstly, the fact that the BBC are providing DRM free video, even though I was under the impression that this was not possible due to rather complex contractual, licensing and policy issues. A statement made by the BBC in June 2007 seems to confirm that, In order to maximise public value, the BBC must balance extending access to content with the need to maintain the interests of rights holders and the value of secondary rights in BBC programming. Without a time-based DRM framework the BBC would not be able to meet the terms of the trust's PVT (Public Value Test) decision. Well the new iPlayer for the iPhone appears to be DRM free, available to anyone, anywhere (if my rather quick and dirty look using US proxies are anything to go by). Moreover using the process detailed in the how-to, it is easily downloadable and indefinitely viewable. My second concern is that those of us who are using free software may use this method to download the shows we want to watch. Others will use it to grab and immediately re-distribute this BBC content. Of course this is already potentially possible on Windows based machines, by removing the DRM the downloaded shows are easly shared. With DRM free content now being made available, it may appear that any future unauthorised redistribution of this material is somehow related to those of us that use free software or asked for a DRM free service. There is already enough confusion about the free software message and the aims of the anti-DRM movmement. So if the BBC are entitled to distribute this material DRM free for the iPhone, why are they not providing it for other platforms? I'm sure Mac/Linux/Windows/$other users would quite like DRM free, non-expiring media. In addition, I have to wonder about the legality of ripping the BBC's iPlayer streams in the manner described in Matt's how-to, it works, and works well (or at least it did at around 18:00 today), the end result would be ideal for many people in a variety of circumstances. If the BBC are not entitled to distribute this material in the manner they are doing then how are the BBC going to justify this rather large lapse, a lapse caused by trying to support a very small if rather trendy minority group? The statement made by Anthony Rose to clarify why the iPhone has been singled out is, We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available I'm not sure how credible that is, given the raft of multimedia capable mobile devices out there (many more capable than the iPhone), I'm surprised that this service wasn't geared toward all mobile devices, or even all non-windows machines, after all, without a DRM component, it will presumably work on quite a few devices and pretty much any modern computer. (As an addendum, I'd love to see the numbers on how many BBC employees' have iPhones... although I assume that would be outside the scope of any viable FOI request.) I note that the service for the iPhone is intended only to be used when the iPhone is connected via a wifi connection, in future if it were available via the mobile networks there would be a rather large additional concern. The iPhone (which is only available on one network in the UK and largley from a single provider) would have a rather unique selling point, a benefit that would be rather nice in commercial terms for the iPhone's supplier (even more than it is currently). I am already rather put out that the BBC requires that I use a Windows PC to get the full use out of iPlayer (which I cannot and will not do), I'd be even more annoyed if it required me to use a specific handset tied to a specific mobile carrier to get the best out of its mobile services as well. I have some stats from earlier in the year that I wanted to look at to see exactly how many people using non-windows devices were using the BBC's various web services, one thing that struck me (apart from the fact that there were
Re: [backstage] iPlayer, DRM, Free Software and the iPhone
Ok so I spoke to many people and there is no official answer, yet! Yes I know your all waiting with baited for some news but your'll have to wait a little longer it would seem. Till then, I would suggest you don't do anything your mother wouldn't be happy about. :) Cheers Mr I Forrester wrote: I will attempt to get some answers to your questions, although I think the iphone service is only a beta service at the moment? Andy Halsall wrote: This morning I came across the following; Subject: Re: [GeekUp] Fwd: [ORG-discuss] iPlayer DRM is over? From: Tim Dobson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Matt Lee has written a howto for dummies here: http://exploringfreedom.org/2008/03/08/bbc-iplayer-on-gnu-linux-without-flash-using-only-free-software/ it is less verbose and more onpoint than the flickr entry Basically, its a how-to describing how you can go and grab the videos being made available to iPhone users by the BBC via iPlayer, from pretty much any machine, the bonus being that the process and end result are all achievable using free software. The process should be fairly familiar to most people receiving this, but it boils down to; find the actual media source and download it. Now, a number of things concerned me. Firstly, the fact that the BBC are providing DRM free video, even though I was under the impression that this was not possible due to rather complex contractual, licensing and policy issues. A statement made by the BBC in June 2007 seems to confirm that, In order to maximise public value, the BBC must balance extending access to content with the need to maintain the interests of rights holders and the value of secondary rights in BBC programming. Without a time-based DRM framework the BBC would not be able to meet the terms of the trust's PVT (Public Value Test) decision. Well the new iPlayer for the iPhone appears to be DRM free, available to anyone, anywhere (if my rather quick and dirty look using US proxies are anything to go by). Moreover using the process detailed in the how-to, it is easily downloadable and indefinitely viewable. My second concern is that those of us who are using free software may use this method to download the shows we want to watch. Others will use it to grab and immediately re-distribute this BBC content. Of course this is already potentially possible on Windows based machines, by removing the DRM the downloaded shows are easly shared. With DRM free content now being made available, it may appear that any future unauthorised redistribution of this material is somehow related to those of us that use free software or asked for a DRM free service. There is already enough confusion about the free software message and the aims of the anti-DRM movmement. So if the BBC are entitled to distribute this material DRM free for the iPhone, why are they not providing it for other platforms? I'm sure Mac/Linux/Windows/$other users would quite like DRM free, non-expiring media. In addition, I have to wonder about the legality of ripping the BBC's iPlayer streams in the manner described in Matt's how-to, it works, and works well (or at least it did at around 18:00 today), the end result would be ideal for many people in a variety of circumstances. If the BBC are not entitled to distribute this material in the manner they are doing then how are the BBC going to justify this rather large lapse, a lapse caused by trying to support a very small if rather trendy minority group? The statement made by Anthony Rose to clarify why the iPhone has been singled out is, We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available I'm not sure how credible that is, given the raft of multimedia capable mobile devices out there (many more capable than the iPhone), I'm surprised that this service wasn't geared toward all mobile devices, or even all non-windows machines, after all, without a DRM component, it will presumably work on quite a few devices and pretty much any modern computer. (As an addendum, I'd love to see the numbers on how many BBC employees' have iPhones... although I assume that would be outside the scope of any viable FOI request.) I note that the service for the iPhone is intended only to be used when the iPhone is connected via a wifi connection, in future if it were available via the mobile networks there would be a rather large additional concern. The iPhone (which is only available on one network in the UK and largley from a single provider) would have a rather unique selling point, a benefit that would be rather nice in commercial terms for the iPhone's supplier (even more than it is currently). I am already rather put out that the BBC requires that I use a Windows PC to get the full use out of iPlayer (which I cannot and will not do), I'd be even more annoyed if it required me to use a specific handset tied to a specific
Re: [backstage] RSS Feed Thumbnails Missing
I've fwd'ed on your email, hopefully it will be fixed soon. Fraser Murrell wrote: Hi, I noticed that for all news RSS feeds, the media:thumbnail elements that normally provided us with a link to a thumbnail image of a particular article is no longer present.. As of around 11:00 this morning (GMT) they started to disappear, and now there are none! Will they be back? I hope so! J Kind Regards, Fraser - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Own up now, who was this?
Oh thats funny :) lol Matt Barber wrote: Haha On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Iain Wallace [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://dumpedimage.com/?image=843 :D - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk http://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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Over the Air sign-up now live
Hi All, Seeing how everyone's so obsessed with the iPlayer streams on the iPhone :) I thought you'd all like to know the official sign-up for Over the Air has now gone live - http://overtheair.org/blog/?page_id=20 If you don't know what Over the Air here's a quick recap. Over the Air, is the largest grass-roots mobile developer event that London has ever seen. It takes place over a Friday - Saturday (48 hours of mobile development) in hack-day-style; but featuring workshops, tutorials, speakers and lots of other good-stuff like network APIs and emerging platform SDKs. There's tons more at www.overtheair.org. I can also tell you we are certainly looking to include a server of high quality streams like those found on the iphone which will be legally cleared for purpose of the over the air event. We also have Android and OpenMoko! Thats all I can say for now, but subscribe to the over the air feed for more big announcements soon. Really hope to see you all there, Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Undermining iPlayer DRM
Well I knew this was coming... :) Now I'm looking for some really innovative ways to view BBC iplayer content... I think the Xbmc and Wii developers can now go off and build something. Phil Wilson wrote: Have now switched user-agents and am browsing away ;) aaand we're away http://www.flickr.com/photos/pip/2317139476/ Not sure how the tokenisation etc. works just yet, and not all programs are made available as mp4. Phil - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] What would you love to see coming out of BBC Vision in the near future?
Yes I see the odd one out :) Tim Dobson wrote: Ian Forrester wrote: I was hoping to get a brainstorm of ideas for APIs and Feeds you would love to play with in the near future, while focusing on Vision/TV After Barcamp I think there are a few ideas in a more generally direction, not just about feeds and API's... Anything more? - Free Software Orientated Stuff - Open Standards Orientated Stuff - Freely Licenced Stuff - Stuff that works Up North - Stuff that I need Vista + Digital Restrictions Management(DRM) to use See if you can spot the one I put in to test whether you were awake :P Bet you could see those coming ;) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] What would you love to see coming out of BBC Vision in the near future?
Yes awesome Matthew! Phil Wilson wrote: I knocked up a little unsophisticated something: http://www.dracos.co.uk/play/bbc-iplayer-quick/ :-) This is ace, thanks Matthew. Phil - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] What would you love to see coming out of BBC Vision in the near future?
I like the idea of this, hard sell but who knows maybe a prototype could bring this to life. David Greaves wrote: Ian Forrester wrote: Hi All, I was hoping to get a brainstorm of ideas for APIs and Feeds you would love to play with in the near future, while focusing on Vision/TV I got most of the obvious stuff like, - A reference page or service for all programmes (/programmes in XML) - keywords Anything more? I'm not sure of the scope of the above points... Given concepts like crossover and product placement it may be worth looking at in-program timing of generic 'objects'. eg: 25:00-26:23 Music: Band:Ah-ha Track:Take On Me Album:... 25:00-26:23 Actor: Bruce Lee Character: Benny 25:00-26:23 Product: Coca Cola 25:00-26:23 Actual Location : Slough GPS-coords:39729358734652 25:00-26:23 Fictional Location : Monaco for *that* famous scene :) This does not need to be commercial - I could see it being used to identify concepts in educational material too. Who does this? Well, collaborative approaches could be used (FreeDB/CDDB worked), some companies would provide product/media info (would need guidelines), some programme makers would find it added value (education) - heck maybe an actor's agent would provide the data as part of the service (or the actor themselves if they were on the 'bronze' package ;) ) Clearly this works when it's about providing meta-information rather than links to a page. Those come from the apps using the meta-data. Tied to this (and many of the other points raised) would be a UUID system for uniquely identifying objects, resolving duplicates and possibly establishing relationships. Clearly one or two minor issues to resolve but... David - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] What would you love to see coming out of BBC Vision in the near future?
Thanks to everyone who answered, some really interesting thoughts for DMI and other advanced prototypes. I'm presenting your ideas on Friday, so this is what I have across two slides In-programme timing of generic objects or people Access to the Edit logs of programme makers Access to the scripts with timings TV schedules as a API with past and future ability Direct links to iplayer programmes XML of upcoming iplayer programmes XML of programmes about to drop off iplayer (see Matthews prototype next slide) Links between programmes and their programme catalogue entry The Programme Catalogue and synced with DBpedia A reference page or service for all programmes (/programmes in XML) Small image/icon per programme with the rights cleared XML or pub/sub messages for upcoming and favourite programmes Ability to link BBC identity with favourite programmes Keywords, Tags and Search across them and other data Access to Subtitle data in XML Videos in alternative formats Wmv, Theora, Dirac, etc I'm going to spend at least 25% of my presentation on these points alone. Who knows maybe they will sink in and we might get some traction in certain areas. Cheers, Ian Ian Forrester wrote: Hi All, I was hoping to get a brainstorm of ideas for APIs and Feeds you would love to play with in the near future, while focusing on Vision/TV I got most of the obvious stuff like, - A 31 day schedule in XML - TV schedules as a API with past and future ability - Direct links to iplayer programmes - XML/RSS/ATOM/JSON of upcoming iplayer programmes - XML/RSS/ATOM/JSON of programmes about to drop off iplayer - Links between programmes and their programme catalogue entry - The Programme Catalogue! :) - A reference page or service for all programmes (/programmes in XML) - XMPP pub/sub messages for upcoming programmes - keywords Anything more? Ian Forrester This e-mail is: [x] private; [] ask first; [] bloggable Senior Producer, BBC Backstage BC5 C3, Media Village, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] work: +44 (0)2080083965 mob: +44 (0)7711913293 - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] One-day Conference To Help Web Developers Address Accessibility in Web 2.0
I don't believe there will be, but ability.net have said they want to do more of them depending on this event. Maybe even even up north Tim. Fearghas McKay wrote: On 5 Mar 2008, at 12:24, Tim Dobson wrote: students... (yes, £90 *is* a lot for a student if you add it to travel and accomodation) I couldn't agree more. £150 for freelancers who live locally, who I bounced this to, has been more than they can afford. And a complete non-starter for coming down from Edinburgh. Is remote participation an option? f - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Request Frequency
Yep if you can cache or database the calls, then great. If not, well the way the BBC infrastructure is set-up, we are supplying a cached copy anyway. I expect we will tell you if it gets out of hand. Cheers Ian Richard Lockwood wrote: Why not database the data the first time it's grabbed in a time period of your choice - per hour or per day maybe. Then it's far fewer requests. On this I run a cron job every morning: http://www.sdldev.co.uk/weather/map_big.asp Cheers, R. On Feb 7, 2008 3:45 PM, Rob Dunfey [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, I'm writing an application that displays weather at various locations throughout the world on a digital globe, similar to Google Earth. I use the BBC Weather GeoRSS feeds to grab the weather info for each location, this involves making a web request for each of the 278 locations I display on the globe. I would like to share this app with people but for each person i share it with, another 278 requests are made. Is this considered acceptable behavior? If 200 people used this application just once, that would be in excess of 55,000 hits? Is this acceptable? All the best, Rob -- SilverDisc Ltd is registered in England no. 2798073 Registered address: 4 Swallow Court, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN15 6XX - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iplayer on exotic devices
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: All of this is documented in that xboxmediacenter.com forum which Ian posted a link to earlier (in fact the starting post of this thread I think), including an executable PHP script for generating the URL for the RTMP stream. Thanks Phil I was going to say the same :) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Coming up for Backstage in 2008, what you may not know....
Hi Guys, So yes I've been meaning to write this post around the time of Christmas but it didn't quite happen. I blame the cheap drink prices in Bristol. -- So as I alluded to in a post about recently, we have set-up a IRC server which will be used for live chats between internal and external developers. We hope to have this running so you can all use it before the end of this Quarter. We're also consider running a Jabber server and Flash communication server, so you can all build prototypes on servers which you may not normally have access to on a basic LAMP stack. We understand that our APIs are getting a little long in the teeth and one of backstage's aims from day one was to be involved in the process of more APIs and data sources. So we build a API Gateway which eases the wheels for API deployment to the outside world in the future. All of these run on the Backstage Wild West Servers and we've seen these being used for many purposes. We are still hoping to take some of your prototypes on-board as they grow. About Ideas and Prototypes submission. The Backstage at bbc.co.uk email address where all the ideas and prototypes go is so full of spam its unreal. This will be solved once we get the new site live because the forms on the current site have become spam bait. Please send all submissions to the list for now. So yes I did once again mention the new site again. Well I'm hoping that we can put the site live for you all to see really soon. Maybe also sometime this Quarter (he says sticking his neck out). There is much more stuff planned for this year including a range of events, more meet ups and even a new way for getting backstage sponsorship of your own events. Take care, now back to getting iplayer on exotic devices. Cheers Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iplayer on exotic devices
Martin Deutsch wrote: On 1/4/08, *Ian Forrester* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just in case anyone missed it, there's a bunch of developers trying to bring BBC iPlayer content to the Xbox1 and Wii. The main thread can be found here - http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27063 [...] This is possibly not the best thread for it, but I'd been meaning to ask lately about iPlayer on slighlty less exotic devices - namely cable. With Virgin Media, I already have access to a selection of catch-up VoD content from the BBC (and 4oD and Virgin Media's own channels). Is iPlayer on cable going to bring anything more than a slightly pinker UI, or will it also mean the same selection of programmes as the web-based iPlayer? I've been enjoying some BBC Scotland programmes on my laptop over the past few days, and it would be nice to be able to watch them at a slightly higher resolution. cheers, - martin Hi Martin, I think its public knowledge that we have a cable version of iplayer too. It was talked about in Edinburgh and elsewhere - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jun/27/digitalmedia.broadcasting So don't worry that's coming down the pipeline... - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iplayer on exotic devices
Andy wrote: On 04/01/2008, Ian Forrester [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So if your building a iplayer for an exotic device platform, do get in touch. Quick questions: Adobe Flash is prohibited on non-PC systems, is the BBC suggesting we violate Adobe's EULA or just not use the streaming version? Hold on a sec, we would never suggest breaking Adobe's EULA. No one is suggesting porting Flash to a non-PC system. You can play certain flash files using a bunch of other players. For example VLC, Mplayer, FFMpeg, Gnash, etc will all play Flash 4 files. Gnash can even render the animation and interaction of Flash 7 and 8 files. Flash playback and even creation isn't exclusive to Adobe, just like PDF. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iplayer on exotic devices
Andy wrote: On 04/01/2008, Phil Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You don't need the iPlayer source. All of the heavy lifting on the client is done by Flash itself. Flash is somewhat inefficient as it's adding an extra layer in the way of the hardware. It is also prohibited to use the Adobe Flash Web Player on anything that isn't a PC so how can the heavy lifting be done by Flash if Flash is prohibited? Also I thought Flash was only streaming, what if someone wanted to build a download engine? Some people don't like leaving there PC on all the time. Why not put download on an always on device? You may want your router to actually do the downloading. Or if you have some kind of NAS you may want it to do the fetching as it has closer control of discs and is always on. In that case you don't even want the playback components so all that's needed is the transfer. No DRM rubbish as that's on the machine that does playback. But again the BBC won't let us do this it would appear. This may seem far fetched but if you have a couple of home PCs and maybe a Media Centre or Set top box would you not benefit from having one centralised download unit instead of duplicating the download and storage to each device? Apart form the BBCs we hate people knowing how this works attitude I see no reason why it can't be done. After all the DRM isn't needed here as you only need to know about DRM to actually play the file. Downloading involves grabbing files, you need know nothing about them, just what the transfer protocol is. So BBC what *is* the transfer protocol for the downloads? iPlayer delivers a standard FLV over a standard RTMP stream. These are not open protocols but they are quite well understood. URLs of the actual docs would be good. I don't know of anything capable of playing iPlayers Flash stream apart from Adobe Flash Player which as mentioned can't be run on anything that's not a PC. Gnash by the FSF is a good place to start. Also do we have a way of getting the URLs of the stream and program information without the need for screen scraping*. Some weird and wonderful devices may not want to display the information the way the BBC designed it. Webpages are nice for desktop PCs but some devices have different UI capabilities. Please read through the thread of the xbox media centre forum, or check out Phil Wilson's post about this - http://philwilson.org/blog/2007/12/downloading-from-the-bbc-streaming-iplayer-is-hard For all you know someone may want to design a toaster that projects the programme on the wall if someone asks it to play a certain programme via voice command. Having to look at a webpage and say right right right, down, click is a lot less intuitive than play Have I Got News For You. Yes this may seem a little unrealistic but why do the BBC want to limit the scope of creativity? The BBC never want's to limit the scope of creativity. We do hope to have a API in the future but right now, you can get XML out of the normal site (as Phil found out). If we really wanted to limit your creativity we wouldn't create XML files and stick them on the public servers :) If anyone wants to implement a downloader for some kind of NAS or server, or router then it would be interesting to see (once the BBC hands over what's needed). You could do this now if you like, there are already applications which rip streams. iPlayer on a toaster would be fun for the pure novelty value but I'm not sure if the voice recognition stuff is anywhere near good enough yet for my suggestion. Might be able to find some other kind of UI that would work, any suggestions? Andy if you can make it happen, I will personally pay for you to come to the BBC and demo it in front of the iplayer team. Even if you use something like a Nabaztag to navigate through BBC iplayer radio content that would be cool! * I am almost certain this was mentioned at some point, but I can't for the life of me think where. The point is that with some collaboration and knowledge its almost possible to build a iplayer for another device without breaking any of the fundamental stuff I talked about before. This isn't the end of the road, but we would love to speak to people hacking iplayer on to xboxs, mobile phones, appletv, smart devices, etc... Who knows maybe there might be one thing we could do our end which makes your life easier. Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iplayer on exotic devices
Dave Crossland wrote: On 04/01/2008, Barry Carlyon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: silly point - Just in case anyone missed it, there's a bunch of developers trying to bring BBC iPlayer content to the Xbox1 and Wii. The main thread can be found here - http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27063; is xbox1 a typo, myself a poor student, still only have an xbox1so iPlayer on the Normal Xbox would be interesting... Yes, the original Xbox, not the Xbox360. The original Xbox's preloaded software can be modified to run community developed programs like the Xbox Media Center It is this program specifically that Ian is referring to; not all Xboxs will be able to view iPlayer streams, only ones modified to run XBMC. I believe this can all be done with one CD image now. Stick the CD in the drive of a Xbox1 and its firmware will be modified and you can install xbox media centre. Like I said, the Xbox running xbmc is interesting because it supports a network, is open (as such) and has a scriptable environment (python). You can imagine sooner or later set-top makers releasing boxes which have the same functions for a price. Reminds me of what dave sent a while ago - http://gizmodo.com/339513/dash-express-runs-on-openmoko-foss-platform-nerds-heads-explode - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Programme Catalogue offline
Its going to be a while but we are working on it. I expect sometime during Jan/Feb it will be back up in some form. Martin Deutsch wrote: Hi folks, The Progamme Catalogue http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax has been experiencing some technical difficulties and unavailable for a couple of weeks now. Much as I'm enjoying the testcard, does anyone know when it might be back online? Thanks, - Martin - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] uk_rt XMLTV listings stopped updating on 19th Dec
Strange will email some people Stuart Ward wrote: David Greaves said the following on 25/12/07 18:37: Hi XMLTV/Backstagers Looking here: http://xmltv.radiotimes.com/xmltv/ It's clear there have been no updates since the 19th Dec. It would be awfully seasonally spirited if someone were to kick someone to kick something :) Merry Christmas - and hopefully a TV-ish New Year. David I have programmes up to midnight on 31 December but nothing after. Stuart - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Broadcasters to launch joint VoD service
I'm sorry you feel that way. Outlook 2003 is standard issue on most BBC desktops and laptops, and you know how weird outlook can be as default :) I spend most of my time using Thunderbird ;) Oh quick question for everyone - should I switch over to Evolution? Michael Walsh wrote: And more importantly, why did you just send a suspicious file in you email? What are you doing sending .dat files anyway? Andy Okay - I'm getting quietly tired of yet more BBC people sending .dat files as attachments in their emails and you keeping quietly schtum! Either correct everybody or correct no one. Please be consistent or consider your position! -- Michael Walsh Mobile: +44-(0)771-2524200 Mobile: +353-(0)85-1278212 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.digitalrightsmanifesto.com Blog: http://digitalrightsmanifesto.wordpress.com - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Eddie Mair wants you to mashup their audience geodata
Hi All, I've put a blog post explain in full the details of the Radio 4's PM programmes call for audience postcodes. - http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2007/12/eddie_mair_of_b.html But I also wanted to make sure you all knew that the data set created from this data will be released under a backstage licence and you will be able to create even more interesting _stuff_ that the guys on Radio 4. Currently it seems to be 10,000 plus postcodes of audience members who listen to the PM programmes or read the iPM blog. They have been geo-located and obviously stripped of any private data. Hopefully we will put the final dataset (maybe an excel file and KML file) on Backstage along with the Radio 4 site. Cheers Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] The BBC Backstage Christmas Party 2007
Can I just add if someone would setup a parallel event that would be great! Matt Lee wrote: Dave Crossland wrote: Who else is up for this? :-) How many other people would attend a parallel event, run somewhere outside London, like.. Manchester? matt - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Please release Perl on Rails as Free Software
open sourcing code will only take you so far: http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet/ Whilst I applaud the technical achievement of the individual developers, I deplore the situation that has forced them to do this. Just to answer a couple of things in that blog entry... Agreed we do have a strange and challenging infrastructure. Its highly reliable because yes its mainly about publishing static files and ftping them around the world. You could even apply this is very web 1.0. I still remember my shock almost 4 years ago when I learned that the XSL I was writing could never be deployed dynamically like I was use to before. Its frustrating for example that we have not been able to launch our new website (yes remember those promises) for similar reasons but its not really fair to just blame Siemens for all of this. The BBC is changing and the likes of Backstage with our wild west servers and audio and music with there own frameworks, we starting to catch up with the sweeping changes which have happened. Stuff like /programmes, blogs.bbc.co.uk and the Worldservice Bangladesh Boat API. http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2007/11/bangladesh_boat_1.htmlwould never have happened a few years ago. At least not on bbc.co.uk. There is a air of change going on as of late. I hope to have much more examples to show in the very near future. Till then, feel free to rant and rave about our infrastructure at the Christmas Party :) Cheers Ian Forrester - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] The BBC Backstage Christmas Party 2007
Hi All, Yes Christmas is a time for peace and humanity across the backstage list :) (Well at least it will be till you all read about Kangaroo Project - http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/06/project_kangaroo_logical_for_w.html Anyway, as most of you know we always try and run a Backstage Christmas Party and this year is no different. After much messing around with venue owners and many false promises, we're happy to announce the Christmas Party will happen at the Ye Olde Cock Tavern, Fleet Street on Saturday 15th December. Obviously we want to make sure you all get in, so we're reserved 100+ tickets for backstagers. You can sign up for the event here - http://cubicgarden.eventwax.com/bbc-backstage-christmas-2007-party/register and if you select the backstage ticket use the promocode *apis*. Why API's? Because that's what you've all asked for and trust me, Santa will deliver *. We expect to have quite a few treats on the nights including Werewolf and the Open Rights Group are going to help us to recreate the speakers corner experience. So I'm looking forward to hearing Dave Crossland and others win the hearts and minds of the tipsy crowd with a breathtaking speech for why any non-Free software is wrong. Its going to be a cracking night and look forward to seeing you all there. Cheers Ian Forrester p.s - more details can be found on upcoming - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/321754/ * - I expect santa to be a little late this year ;) - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] PlugLondon
Hi All, Just in case you haven't already seen, the first pluglondon happens on 8th December at the Skype offices just off Tottenham Court Road. Its event which has very strong aims... 1. A place we can discuss, explore and showcase interoperability and evolution of platforms and software solutions. Things like mashups for example. 2. A meetup of all the creative developers who put London on the map as a centre of software innovation. Show some support and pop along to the url below. http://www.pluglondon.org/ I should be there, maybe to talk about Conduit. Cheers Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Late notice but Joost developer day
From our friends at Joost -- We're delighted to invite you to Joost's first developer days, a chance for you to meet some of our developers, get some tips for building Joost widgets, and share your own experiences in building them. *Who:* These workshops are aimed at developers with at least basic knowledge of html and javascript *What:* * a (free) lunch * short presentations from the widgets team at Joost, including an introduction to building widgets, and an update on widget features in new releases * a preview of our first commercial widget * the opportunity to work on a widget or two yourself or use the workshops to get hands-on help for widgets you’ve started to develop. * we'll finish up with a drink or two and some free stuff to take away. *Where and when:* * initially in three locations: London, Amsterdam and New York. London (Covent Garden) – 1pm – 6pm – Friday 16th November Amsterdam (Central location) – 1pm - 6pm - Saturday 1st December New York (Broad Street) - 12pm – 5pm - Friday 7th December We expect places to fill quickly so please RSVP (to [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ) as soon as possible, and let us know which Developer Day you would like to attend and whether you would like to bring a friend or colleague. We’ll then send you more details on the location and format of the day. You may have to go on a waiting list, but we’ll let you know if that happens. - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Now playing
Thanks Chris, it looks good. Its almost like the Comet/TCP hold thing those great guys did a while ago. http://www.sleevenotez.com I'll add it to the backstage prototypes later today. Cheers Ian Chris Riley wrote: Apologies for posting this to both lists, but it applies to both the masses on backstage and the developers on the developer list. I've coded a hopefully useful, if not idea stimulating web page. It is called Now Playing http://cgriley.com/nowplaying/ and shows you information about the artist currently being played on BBC Radio 1, BBC 1xtra, BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. It is based on some BBC data released at hack day, with Yahoo Pipes and JQuery thrown in. I made it because when I'm listening to the radio I like to know a bit more about the artist. Have I heard some of their tracks or albums before? If I've no idea who they are what have they done in the past? How much can I buy their albums for, what has been released? What is on their website, do they have a website? Which artists are they like? All those questions are answered by this new page. It is designed to update itself in real time with the current artist being played, and seems to work quite well. As always the best way to see what it does is to give it a go, and if you want more info about how it works, data sources, known issues etc. then there is an obligatory about page. http://cgriley.com/nowplaying/about.aspx I know I could have just hooked into a Last.fm page and updated it as the artist changed, but I wanted to do this because I can, you know ;o) As usual your comments are welcome, but only once you've read the about page (I don't like time wasters). Enjoy! Chris Riley http://cgriley.com - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BarCampLondon3 Tickets now available
http://barcamp.org/BarCampLondon3 Be quick otherwise they will go in seconds. Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Wii News Channel
Talking of developing for the Wii, I was playing with the everyone votes channel and I was thinking this would be cool for bbc news votes. Some of votes are already quite political in nature and with a worldwide base of 5million Wii's online? This could be pretty cool as an experiment. Shall I see if I can squeeze Opera into giving us credits for the Wii browser, for development purposes too? Cheers Ian Barry Carlyon wrote: I had heard that one of the student radio stations was building a flash player for their radio stream for the wii….. I don’t think nintendo had opened it up (yet) otherwise a lot more would have been heard about it I believe that the wii channels run off parsing of rss feeds, since it would be small enough to be parsed effectively for use… -- Barry Carlyon Webmaster LSRfm.com/LSweb.org.uk/leedsaction.co.uk/luubackstage.com mobile: 07729048443 skype: barrycarlyon * From: * owner- backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk [mailto:owner- backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk ] *On Behalf Of *Matthew Cashmore *Sent:* 16 October 2007 10:58 *To:* backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk *Subject:* [backstage] Wii News Channel So, um, was messing with my new Wii last night and was having a play with the News Channel – but it’s a bit naff – I was wondering if anyone knew anything about how to build channels for the Wii – or even if Nintendo have opened it up at all? m - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Thoughts from a previous BBC employee
So yes once again there are some good points in the thread. We have been knocking on peoples doors about more feeds and api's and I do believe once we have the API gateway system in place, you guys will finally see more of them. Also look out for more diverse API's because the API gateway should protect almost any kind of API we want to make public. Oh and don't get me started on the API will be the Accessibility of Web 2.0 thread. :) Our partnerships with other large companies like Yahoo and Google has been important for us and them. Not only because of the big events like Hackday (who else would put on such an event?) but because we can collaborate in a way that no one else would ever dare. For example we're still in talks with some large companies and a couple of government agencies about making there API's available under our licence. Who else would they trust with there data? The sponsorship of events is always going to be tricky, but we tend to sponsor small grassroots events. D.construct is bigger that ever before and we were one of the original sponsors back 3 years ago when it was just a small one day conference. This year we again sponsored D.construct and paid for the Food and Venue of the after party at Audio (Yahoo paid for the drinks [1]). I even got up on stage and said this to the huge crowd of developers. And _everyone_ agrees that the after party at Audio this year was the best ever. On the sponsorship front, we are also going to start supporting even smaller grassroot events by giving each event organiser a chance to put forward themselves for sponsorship. This means your local Ruby, Python, SVG, XSL group could afford that venue room which has been out of the question. Least we forget the University work we have been doing to increase the profile of development in the UK economy. We're not going to change the face of education but with partners from the Angel funding and Venture sectors, we will see more respect for developers in the future. And this is just the start... We do believe in this sector and the BBC is in it for the long term. We haven't always been as transparent as we could have been, for example the Backstage Wild West servers we announced at Hackday have been up and running for months now. But that's changing... We aim to be a lot more transparent and as the number of participators (developers, designers, bloggers, hackers, etc, etc) grows, we will stay relevant and facilitate there deeper relationship with the BBC. Take care, Ian Forrester [1] Great picture Murray from Yahoo with the drinks bill, notice the Backstage Lanyard btw - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cubicgarden/1356473775/ Matthew Cashmore wrote: There are some really fair points here... Firstly I think the BBC is a lot more relevant to developers than most other broadcasters - I think backstage is testament to that - but I also don't think that we've necessarily made ourselves as relevant as we could. I think we've all been disappointed by the lack of new APIs and feeds that we've released over the last 12 months - no excuses - this is because we've been focusing on being part of the community, being at the conferences and talking to people about what they want.. .this has perhaps left us with a little less internal work than we may have otherwise done... But... What it has achieved is a much bigger buy-in to what we want to do - we've essentially been running around inside the beeb shouting - developers are cool! Work with them. Now we have to concentrate on making that stuff actually available to you - part of that is the new website, part of that is the new totally developer focused list, and part of that is us spending more of our time making these things actually available and working. Giving you the tools to really get inside the beeb and it's systems. To that end we've been working really hard on getting an API gateway online - that's nearly complete - we've been working really hard on making sure that when an API goes live it's properly documented etc... All of these things take time, and I'll be the first to admit that releasing new feeds and APIs has therefore taken a knock. I asked the developer list last week what feeds and APIs they want to see - that is now my number one priority - actually making that stuff available. Ian is furiously typing away right now about the importance of working with the rest of the industry and encouraging developer growth within the UK... Coming soon to an email client near you. m On 9/10/07 11:47, Phil Gyford [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 10/9/07, Gavin Montague [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No one I spoke to said that Channel 4 wasn't relevant to them as developers. However, Channel 4 hadn't shelled out to sponsor a web development conference. Fair enough - I wasn't aware of the sponsorship thing. I'm inclined to think they should stop producing cruft like Strictly Come Dancing
Re: [backstage] Browser statistics
I'll see if I can get this done again, with as much detail as possible. Cheers, Ian Allan Jardine wrote: Hello all, A while ago the BBC released a set of browser statistics for people viewing the bbc.co.uk web-site ( http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/msg03899.html - Thanks Kim! ), and I was wondering if you might be able to do this again, to get an up-to-date record of what the trends are, and what the current market share is? Half a year after the other statistics it might be interesting. Also (a very sick request, and I do apologise for it but...) is there any chance the IE break down can include IE5Mac (if it even registers)? Many thanks Allan - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Thoughts from a previous BBC employee
Wasn't exactly what I was asking but there you go. I actually asked if Matt had noticed a natural cycle of communities starting, dying, reviving, peaking, dying... It was also in challenge to Matt saying he'd never seen a community die earlier in the talk. I'm not a keen metafilter person so prefered to hear what Derek Powazek had to say later to the same question. Because in his book design for communities he talks about this cycle in the last chapter as natural - http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Jhvfh6thHS8C#reviews_anchor I'm surprised Bobbie hasn't said anything about my blog post yet, I know he's aware of it ;) Cheers Ian Brian Butterworth wrote: Ian Forrester from BBC Backstage asks how dying communities can revive themselves. (Wonder why?) http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/10/03/future_of_web_apps_metafiltercom.html Brian Butterworth www.ukfree.tv http://www.ukfree.tv - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] From FoWA - Paul Graham from Y Combinator
I attended the FOWA conference and have quite a blog post saved up from my notes. But I wanted to explorer the myths or truths of Silicon Valley. Paul Graham this morning said you should move to silicon valley if your serious about this stuff or at least its an advantage. This caused quite a stir and prompted Ryan Carson (co-owner of the conference) to stand on stage afterwards and say its not about Silicon Valley and you can run successful start-ups anywhere in the world. This was further brought up in a discussion with the guys from Jaiku (finland) and Placez (germany). Tom Coates announced late this afternoon (not seen anything on his blog about it) he would be moving to San Francisco to run the yahoo startup-like project The Brickhouse (congrats tom!). And finally Dick Costolo from Feedburner (Chicago) had a few choice words to say about Paul Graham's its all about Silicon Valley comments. So anyway, I wondered what others felt about this issue? Bobbie has a nice overview of what was said by Paul earlier - http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/10/04/future_of_web_apps_paul_graham.html Cheers Ian - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Thoughts from a previous BBC employee
Well it was worth linking to, I felt Jason Cartwright wrote: Thanks for posting this here Ian, I was too chicken. My blog is going nuts with hits from the BBC proxies :-) J On 10/3/07, *Mr I Forrester* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a similar vein to Tom Coates post a long time ago. Someone who loves the BBC but also hates some of the decisions it makes. Had me up most of the night. http://www.jasoncartwright.com/blog/entry/2007/9/bbc.co.uk_2.0_why_it_isnt_happening http://www.jasoncartwright.com/blog/entry/2007/9/bbc.co.uk_2.0_why_it_isnt_happening - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk http://backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - 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/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
