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by (External) ian on Nov.12, 2009, under (External) Ideas , (External) News
Its been a long time in coming, but BBC R&D or Research & Development which Backstage is part of. Has just launched its own blog on the BBC Blogs platform.
As you’d expect the first blog post is by the head of BBC R&D - Matthew Postgate . (Matthew recently opened the TEDxManchester event and of course his video can be (External) viewed online here ), and chooses to open the blog in a overview of what BBC R&D is and where its going. BBC Backstage gets a nice mention as a core part of R&D, along with its open innovation background.
Open Innovation is a core principle of how we work and builds on the collaborative traditions the department has worked to throughout its history. We appreciate the best and most creative work comes when we share what we know, and draw on a wide community to build on that knowledge. Many of our projects are collaborative efforts, with research bodies, fellow broadcasters, universities, and companies from around the world. For several years we have been supporting the ‘BBC Backstage’ program, opening data and resources to independent developers and ‘hackers’ from across the UK.
If you would like to subscribe to the blog there is RSS and ATOM feeds. There’s also a (External) Delicious account which you may find very useful as we become more open that ever before. Enjoy…
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) bbcr&d , (External) blog , (External) new , (External) open (External) more...by (External) ian on Nov.12, 2009, under (External) Ideas , (External) Prototype , (External) Search
fanhubz-screenshot
Very interesting this (External) project by (External) Leigh Dodds and the Tails team, if a (External) little hard to describe …
The central concept is a “Fan Hub”. Each Hub is associated with a BBC ID and provides a tailored browser for shows (coming soon: artists) and related resources like series and episodes. In addition to the data directly provided by the BBC, (External) FanHubz uses a set of semantic bots to monitor Twitter. These bots will find, analyse, aggregate, and interlink tweets with Hubs. The result is a blend of static and dynamic information which lets you track buzz around your favourite shows and artists and simplifies getting in touch with other BBC followers.
So its not only a place to find out when shows you like are coming up but also a place to discovery more like what you may like via the power of the rich data within the system. Some of you may think to yourselves doesn’t the first part solve (External) a idea I saw on idea store a while ago ? Heck it might even (External) solve Will J’s ideas too . It also strikes me that using the data from Fanhubz combined with regular twittering or systems like Boxee which tweet on your behalf what your watching, you could even solve this (External) idea by Nick Shanks .
Like (External) Channelography there’s also access directly into the data, this time via RDF using the SPARQL interface which has (External) kicking around for a while now .
The guys have also (External) by stealth created a solution to Jon Udell’s thoughts about using BBC IDs as hashtags and translating them into human readable hashtags. For example here is (External) http://fanhu.bz/b006m8ln Torchwood with both types on the same page. But the same page comes up if you do (External) http://fanhu.bz/torchwood too.
Excellent stuff, can’t wait for the rest of the promised stuff.
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) data , (External) dataset , (External) fans , (External) hashtags , (External) Ideas , (External) jonudell , (External) ldodds , (External) rdf , (External) Semantic , (External) semanticweb , (External) sparql , (External) tails , (External) twitter (External) more...We plan to provide extended community features that will let you enhance and reuse the aggregated information. For now, you can join and leave a Hub through a Twitter interface, and rate BBC shows. FanHubz also provides a rich API for accessing the collected tweet and fan data. We are currently working on a signup mechanism so that you can add ratings and reviews directly via the fanhu.bz site.
by (External) ian on Nov.12, 2009, under (External) Ideas , (External) Prototype , (External) Search , (External) TV Listings
channelography-screenshot
(External) Channelography creates statistics about BBC Programmes by reading and analysing the captions within the programmes themselves. This means you get much richer data that you would normally get from the programme descriptions themselves. Its a collaborative backstage project from the guys at (External) Rattle in Sheffield using there already known Muddy platform .
The whole project is still in early alpha so don’t be surprised if you hit a brick wall where you are expecting data. But although still very early, its a interesting project and really adds a personality to programmes and locations. For example (External) here is the break down of BBC Three programming . Who would have thought Factual when it comes to BBC Three? if more interesting is (External) Jesus is the most mentioned person (hummm I don’t think its for the reasons you’d first imagined) and (External) Tesco claims the most mentioned organisation on BBC Three. And this is just scratching the surface.
There is a large description of the (External) whole project on the about page , as you’d expect. But even better like most online services, if you don’t like html. Switch to the xml version by adding .xml on the end of most urls created. For example here’s (External) all the docudramas indexed by the system.
There’s a lot of data visualised within Channelography and with more time its going to be interesting to see how terms shift over the channels in regards to news stories and plot lines. Don’t forget if you like what you see, do drop us a comment here on the blog or even follow @channelography and @bbcbackstage on twitter. Oh yes and to anyone who says we talk about twitter far too much… (External) the data says otherwise…
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) bbc , (External) channel , (External) channelography , (External) channels , (External) Prototype , (External) rattle , (External) subs , (External) subtitles (External) more...by (External) ian on Nov.09, 2009, under (External) Event
One of the conclusions from the feedback at (External) TEDxManchester was around the lack of non-digital topics involving innovation. Well (External) BarCampManchester2 aimed to put that right with a completely open style where the people don’t just attend, they participate in the whole event. The Unconference format as its termed is right for those topics to come out which you would never get at a large conference style event. Top that by setting the whole event in a location famous for arts, music and performance and you got a recipe for a exciting weekend ( (External) The Pictures say it all I think ).
There was everything from a Beatboxing workshop to a discussion on what role religion has in a digital world where all information is free. Lessons learned running a startup to deconstructing social engineering for good and bad. Google wave usage to group dynamics on twitter. It was all available alongside pizzas, sandwiches, ice cream and silly amounts of sugary food to keep people up through the night.
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) barcamp , (External) barcampmanchester2 , (External) bbc , (External) bcman2 , (External) Event , (External) manchester (External) more...by (External) ian on Nov.03, 2009, under (External) News
We have finally released the (External) short version of Episode 3 of R&DTV . As usual you can download the episode from our official R&DTV site .
Our Assets for the video are online too, and this time we’re expecting a lot more downloads because they are the full edited talks from the TEDxManchester event.
You can also subscribe to the whole lot via (External) RSS or (External) Itunes if you would like to keep a copy of all the videos for yourself. Remember all these videos are under a creative commons licence ( Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 ) , so your welcome to share them with the world and create your own remixes of the videos. The short version we edited together is under a slightly different licence which does not allow you to remix due to some musicial copyright from (External) Chicane - Strong in Love (Disco Citizens Mix) and (External) Kevin Shields - Ikebana .
All the videos were captured using our tapeless system called (External) Ingex . We captured the output of the 3 different cameras in High Def 1080p straight to a RAIDed Hard drive system then copied the as you can imagine very large streams to a couple of portable hard drives. Always backing up of course. The portable hard drives make it easy for the footage to be edited on any machine which supports the right codec. Its a very quick and painless process and does away with having to digitise or ingest tape or disc formats.
Talking of Remixing, we are happy to announce that we will be working with (External) Kaltura to provide a simplier way to remix your own R&D TV in the near future…. Look out for the long version of R&DTV alongside the Kaltura soon.
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) backstagebbc , (External) bbc , (External) bbcbackstage , (External) bbcnorth , (External) bbcr&d , (External) english , (External) gb , (External) manchester , (External) presentation , (External) tedx , (External) tedxman , (External) tedxmanchester , (External) uk (External) more...by (External) ian on Oct.06, 2009, under (External) Event
TEDxManchester audience
TEDxManchester audience
Like most events we recieve a lot of feedback about what we have done and how to improve what we have done. Here’s a cut of some of the more outspoken comments…
Was there a slant towards digital innovation/creativity? Maybe, Kim certainly thinks so.
Bar Phil Griffin’s brilliant talk on urban spaces and architecture, virtually every live presentation at TEDxManchester had been in some way about technology and social media. While in part this is likely to be down to the fact this is the main interest area of most of the organisers and attendees (demonstrated by the fact that the event was primarily promoted through twitter), it does raise a question about whether the digital space has become the primary home for ideas and innovation.
From Kim over at (External) globalsocialite
Later in the comments (External) Herb Kim from Thinking Digital and Drew Hemment replied. First Herb
Drew and Herb
Completely agree that innovation (obviously) goes well beyond digital. In the conference we produce up in the NE – Thinking Digital – our closing section was actually called Thinking Post-Digital.
We’ve also had speakers on perfume, the science of love & romance, Slow Food, poker, African microfinance, right/left brain thinking, anti-ageing research, overfishing, toymaking, demographics behind the Obama campaign & population statistics among all the usual digital tech/media/content talks.
The kind of curation that you’ll see at a main TED takes tremendous resources. Chris Anderson claims they’ve whittled their “short list” for the Feb Long Beach conference down to 2000! How big was the long list?! Lord knows how many people TED have got as employees or volunteers doing all the research, background checks & approaches not to mention scheduling diaries, arranging flights, hotels, ground transfers, biogs, slides, etc.
Followed by Drew,
At FutureEverything too we dont focus just on digital, in fact we stopped using ‘digital’ when talking about what we do many years ago, and now just say we are a “festival of art, music & ideas.”
I had a conversation with Matthew Postgate from BBC on exactly the point you raise so well.
I think you can see this in two ways.
On the one hand, drawing on speakers from “anywhere” means that we can listen to, say, an astrophysicist amaze us with insights, many of which would be mundane to an audience of astrophysicists. This gives speakers the freedom to really let rip, and deliver something profound and inspiring, that draws on the full wealth of their specialist wisdom.
On the other hand, focusing on one specific area, say digital culture, means that you can have many different perspectives, and because the speakers are speaking to an audience of their peers, you tend to get more nuanced contributions. You are less likely to get “this is the one insight that motivates me” but more likely to genuinely break new ground, and raise the bar in understanding on a particular topic.
Audience at TEDxManchester
Audience at TEDxManchester
During the opening sessions during the questions, there were some slightly political questions/rants. Being a open house, we took it on the chin. Backstage is never far from the sharp edge of the public’s views. But what seemed a good idea at the time seemed to back fire with tweets saying how boring it was making these rants but some went a little further in there writing.
I’m pleased I was one among many who was very irritated when the floor was opened to questions and some people took the opportunity to not ask questions but instead rant about everything that’s wrong with the BBC. This was not why we were at TEDx and it was an appalling abuse of the limited chances to raise issues from the audience, depriving others who really did have questions of the possibility to ask them.
Louise Bolton on (External) here’s the kicker
One bit I found very disappointing at Manchester was some of the questions asked by the audience. The first question of the day, to Matthew Postgate of BBC R&D wasn’t a question, but a political, anti-BBC rant, which I thought was extremely rude and inappropriate.
Firstly, the question was of no relevance to the speaker or the talk he’d just given. Perhaps if it had been the BBC’s Director General on the stage, it would have been a fair question, but it wasn’t. The questioner had an opportunity to ask a question to the head of what has been one of the most innovative and groundbreaking research departments in media over the last 50 years, and instead chose to make a sub-Daily Mail rant. What a waste.
Secondly, it was completely against the spirit of Ted(X) - the introductory video we had heard just a few minutes before had said that TedX was about spreading ideas, specifically NOT about pushing any political, commercial or religious agenda. Fail.
Nick Crossland on (External) his blog , and there’s even a third and forth point if you interested in reading more.
On the subject of speakers on the day there was a lot of talk about the indiviual speakers but two stuck out in Nick’s mind.
Personally, I’d single out Phil Griffin’s talk about architecture and Hugh Garry’s talk about the summer festivals film as being my highlights of the day. Possibly co-incidentally, these were the two talks which didn’t use Powerpoint slides beyond background imagery. Draw your own conclusions.
Phil Griffin action
Phil Griffin action
Phil Griffin, an architectural commentator, spoke passionately, with loads of warmth and humour, about the urgent need to re-think our attitude to urban buildings, new and old. He connected with the audience and provided a refreshing perspective on sustainability and care for communities when considering design and development.
Paul Coulton from Lancaster University gave an ace talk on how mobile games can generate ideas that spread. He was incredibly funny, knew his stuff, and despite being on at the very end of the day, won the audience over immediately, and kept us engaged with a superb presentation. Some of Paul’s stuff is here.
My favourite talk at TEDxManchester was from Hugh Garry, who’s Twitter (@huey) bio describes him as someone who ” does interesting digital things with Radio 1″. Well Hugh does a lot more than that and his talk on the Shooting Summer project for the BBC was gripping.
Although all the talks got talked about, Dr Mariann Hardey recieved quite lot of critisism for just having the title social scientist. Louise wrote this…
(External) Dr Mariann Hardey’s presentation on social media etiquette, which focused largely on how to use platforms such as Facebook – given that probably almost everyone at TEDx is digitally savvy enough to have been using social media for some time (as evidenced by the heavy tweeting during the afternoon), it was surely a case of preaching to the long-converted.
Mariann has responded to the critisism she recieved on (External) her own blog post titled Stating the obvious. .
Mariann Hardey
I am a social scientist and this means that, in common with others in my discipline, I seek to understand the social world that we all share. We do this through theoretically informed empirical research. So yes - for some people parts or all of my presentation at the recent TEDx might be dismissed as ‘trivial’, ‘uninteresting’ or ‘boring’. Such critics have every right to hold and broadcast their opinions. However, in so doing they are closing their minds to the possibility of understanding or as Max Weber (another social scientist – but rather more venerable and long dead) put it ‘verstehen’ - by which (broadly) he meant to indicate that human interaction and society is so complex that it may be best understood through detailed description and interpretation. Even if this is ‘just to’ state the obvious.
In actual fact quite a few people commented how they liked Mariann’s talk because it was bolted in reality and it helped them identify behavours which they see from others around them. Others said it had useful case studies which they could now turn around and use to convice others. Likewise CBBC’s Marc Goodchild’s talk included a lot of useful material for thinking about working with children and young people. it was also noted (retweeted) that it would have been funny if Marc and Ben Light had got there presentations mixed up.
Marc Goodchild
Ben Lights presentation centred around how people and social networks define their identity online, but from a totally different perspective. Louise sums up…
He used popular site Gaydar to illustrate his findings about online identities, stereotyping and fascinating market data, such as gay men being more likely to use all the obscure features on a mobile phone than straight people. It was clear that much of Light’s research about personal branding applies to non-gays who date online, too, and there was much laughter at a question from the floor about whether the professor had pursued his findings on other niche online dating websites, such as those for people who practise BDSM.
All the other talks went down well, including (External) Paul Coulton’s mobile gaming for better , the future of journalism by Sarah Hartley and (External) What is broadcasting by Matthew Postgate .
Strange enough, a couple people thought we’d actually had (External) JJ Abrams , (External) Alain de Boton and (External) Susan Blackmore as speakers not videos from previous TED events. Ian (External) went as far as to compare the TED conferences to TEDxManchester. There certainly not even in the same ball park but we’ll certainly take it as a compliment.
With all the hard talk about speakers, innovation, etc. Everyone had a good word to say about the whole event its self.
Nick called the event serious,
If you had to sum them up in one word, I’d say Sheffield was whimsical, while Manchester was serious. Sheffield had a talk about autonomous musical tapping boxes; Manchester had social media etiquette.
Kim wrote,
You can’t argue with the concept, and this being Europe’s largest TEDx event, it brought with it some good speakers and interesting discussions
and futher wrote,
I think it’s really important to look for inspiration from outside the technology realm sometimes – from science, art, politics, etc. The BBC has amazing access here so it will be great to see how BBC backstage might be able to facilitate this kind of thing in the future.
Hoping to make it to BarCampManchester so hopefully see you there!
Louise finishes her post with,
Tedx Manchester probably raised far more questions than the panel could ever attempt to answer. There was a feeling the surface had barely been scratched on some discussions while it was great to have new topics (such as the gay research) thrown open for our perusal…
…Thanks are due to the BBC for hosting and to the huge team who worked hard to pull it all together (details of whom are on the TEDx Manchester website).
Ian finishes a comment on (External) Sarahs blog with,
To be fair to the TEDx Manchester organisers, that’s a lot to live up to! They’ve already said they appreciate our honest feedback and will take it on board when considering future events.
Well I can tell you all, we were not kidding. We have read and are actively seeking feedback.
Thanks to everyone who has blogged and microblogged about the event, we hope to keep adding to the list as we go forward. So feel free to comment below and lets cross link where ever possible.
(External) 3 Comments : (External) tedx , (External) tedxman , (External) tedxmanchester , (External) tedxnorth (External) more...by (External) ian on Oct.03, 2009, under (External) Event
The conference is over and its been a great success, but before going into all the feedback we have received, its worth reflecting in pictures from the event. All taken by our (External) official camera man for the day, Shaun .
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) bbc , (External) conferecne , (External) manchester , (External) tedx , (External) tedxman , (External) tedxmanchester , (External) tedxnorth (External) more...by (External) ian on Sep.07, 2009, under (External) Event
There’s been a lot of talk and wonder about the line up of speakers for the (External) TEDx Manchester event . Well the wait is almost over. Here are the confirmed (External) speakers for the event .
You can also get tickets for the event now using the (External) online booking system . What more encourgement do you need?
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) conference , (External) manchester , (External) tedx , (External) tedxman , (External) tedxmanchester , (External) tedxmcr (External) more...by (External) ian on Sep.07, 2009, under (External) Event
Over the air is two-day event focus on development and design on mobile. Part hack-a-thon, part bar-camp and part traditional developer conference. It features an overnight coding competition and social event along its wealth of specialised lectures.
This year the Over the Air team have not only the overnight coding competition, social/party and a wealth of lectures sessions on a range of topics relevant to mobile development and design ranging from high-level overviews to panels to hands-on tutorials.
Over the Air 2009 is technology neutral but will feature a strong focus on connected mobile web/applications and experiences. There will also be a new un-conference element so come prepared to suggest or run your own ad-hoc sessions in addition to the scheduled program.
It’s free to attend? So you can’t afford not to be there!
The event kicks off on September 25th and 26th at Imperial College London’s South Kensington campus . For more details and to sign up and visit http://overtheair.org.”
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) bbc , (External) bbcworldwide , (External) Event , (External) ota , (External) overtheair (External) more...by (External) ian on Aug.18, 2009, under (External) Event
Being a proud supporter of the last 2 (External) Thinking Digital conferences , we have been inspired and tend to use quotes and discussions from the event all the time. Well now everyone can get a taste of the quality of the presentations as Codeworks (the team behind Thinking Digital) start releasing the (External) videos of this years event. RSS feeds can be found on (External) the Vimeo site .
One of our favourite talks was from Matt Mason, Author of The Pirates Dilemma: How Youth Culture Reinvented Capitalism. His book looks at the problems and opportunities created by the rise of piracy and on the potential of piracy as a business model. This is a subject the backstage community are fully up to speed on, but worth forwarding on to others not so up to speed.
(External) Thinking Digital 2009 Talks: Matt Mason - The Pirates Dilemma from (External) Herb Kim on (External) Vimeo .
(External) Leave a Comment : (External) media , (External) tdc , (External) thinkingdigital , (External) videos (External) more...backstage.bbc.co.uk is a developer network to encourage open innovation and support new talent. (External) Content and data feeds are available for people to build upon under a (External) non-commercial basis .
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