31 posts tagged “bbc”
I have always lived my life counter-cyclically (sic), leaving Razorfish before the .com crash, buying what became Schematic at the bottom of the last .com recession and then leaving the film business after a series of Sundance Film Festival hits.
From the outside, these moves seemed mad, but most of them proved to be quite prescient, and often lucrative. Moreover, I'm driven by a need to be intellectually and creatively challenged; complacency isn't in my vocabulary. I love to make things, and build teams - and businesses.So today, I've made an announcement which will catch many by surprise. I have decided to leave the BBC to join DMGT, a large British media conglomerate to become the CEO of the division which holds their digital businesses, Associated Northcliffe Digital (http://and.co.uk).
I'm incredibly proud of the work I've done over the past two years at the BBC: the redesign and transformation of the www, mobile and itv services, BBC iPlayer on all of its platforms and of course the mobile and online personalized homepages. Doing one of these would have been an achievement in itself. These successes and their resulting recognition and awards, the GSMA award for mobile BBC iPlayer, the Bafta nomination for /programmes and the .net awards for the redesigns would have been impossible without the amazing teams and people I had by my side at the BBC, I will miss them incredibly.
But for now it's on to the future and a new, much larger challenge, and one I hope and believe will be equally, if not more, stimulating and rewarding. Given the economic and sector transitions in media, publishing, commerce and technology - I have heard opportunity knocking - and can't help myself but open the door and let her in!
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This week, I took several steps to reduce my carbon footprint in the world. As some will already know though we've lived in London for bordering on three years, we do not own a car! Instead in addition to being an avid public transport user (though its not workable for my routes to and from work - as i need to drop the kids off at school) I use a pair of car services Ecoigo and Green Tomato to get from place to place. While it's slightly more than a car payment, when you add parking, congestion charge, gas, insurance and the value of the extra reading/phone time for me in the back, it's pretty much a wash in cost. More importantly, I have an incredibly low carbon footprint due to the use of a shared vehicle, which also, as a hybrid or electric has an even lower carbon/pollution index.
However, it's time to buy a car, mostly as the wife and kids want to begin exploring the countryside, and additional parts of Great Britain we've not seen, particularly the north and west (Wales). So the quest for a car begins. The 1st thing we did was put ourselves on the waiting list (secured place and everything) for a new Tesla S-series (I got to drive a Roadster back pre-release when we made Who Killed the Electric Car? However, the Tesla, even if we manage to get an early one, won't be available until at least 2010. So we need a car short-term (given that Tavin and I are about to become certified, licensed, UK drivers (my test is next week!). I'd prefer an electric, but just don't fit in a Nice or mini (at 6'2" it just won't work) I'd like to buy a Tesla Roadster, but the wife, kindly pointed out it wasnt' very practical for the kids. So we are still negotiating - any ideas welcome!
Lastly, A few weeks ago when I was at 3GSMA I stumbled upon a fascinating booth. The Solio is a combination solar charger and shared battery pack (similar to the Tumi Powerpack) but with power cells. Now frankly Solar chargers for phones/ipods/(or in those days walkmen) aren't exactly new - I had something similar from an Early Winters catalog in my teens. But the difference with this one is that it REALLY works.
I've used it on walks in the heath, or o days when I forget to charge my Blackberry/Iphone/iPod and find it indespensible. With my upcoming surf-adventure, I'm keen to use it in bright sunshine and see if my crackberry habit can lower its carbon footprint. More on that in the future.
Lastly, I'm giving a speach at a sold out session at the RSA on the future and mobile; topics I particularly love.
My team launched our newest proposition today - the BBC Mobile Homepage - with customization and device detection.. an AMAZING feat.. it's a nice book-end to the work I started just over a year ago with the revamp of the BBC's homepage. I've co-written a blog about it on the BBC Blogs about it - which you should take a look at. We've had a TON of positive response on it in the press - including some reviews. I've posted some of them below:
BBC revamps mobile site focusing on customisation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/mar/11/bbc-mobilephones
http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/41820/BBC+launches+beta+of+personalised+mobile+service.html
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/32848/BBC-revamps-mobile-site
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/mar/11/bbc-mobilephones
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/11/AR2009031100389.html
http://ariel.gateway.bbc.co.uk/viewDailyNews.asp?storyID=20950
http://www.t3.com/news/new-bbc-mobile-homepage-goes-live?=38346
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/11/bbc_mobile_beta/
http://www.techdigest.tv/2009/03/i_wasnt_aware_t.html
http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=3300
http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-mobile-content-bits-bbc-updates-mobile-times-going-out-guide/
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/03/11/4047600.htm
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/bbc-unveils-new-mobile-homepage-580949
http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/3/11/bbc-mobile-website-gets-refreshed/
http://www.mobileshop.com/news/index.php/2009/march/bbc-optimises-mobile-website
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49301483,00.htm
http://www.indiantelevision.com/end/y2k9/mar/12marge3.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/9117_BBC_Mobile_gets_a_Custom_Refre.php
Congrats to Ulyssa, Lucy, Jason, Jon, and the other Jason and the team!
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It was a crazy crazy week in Barcelona for Global Mobile World Congress. I need the weekend just to digest the activities of the week. A couple of highlights:
- I was elected to serve on the Board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF)
- BBC iPlayer won the GSMA award for best audio/video application (the industry's highest honor!) - congrats team.
In the midst of this
Interesting press clippings in no particular order:
One of my BBC teams - the BBC RAD unit got some great coverage
Nic Newman (one of my collegues) is quoted at a conference in Sydney.
Erik Huggers (my boss) interviewed in Silicon iPlayer perpetually in Beta
Hello all,
Been getting lots of Press lately on iPlayer:
The Financial Times
A few more but I'll make you google them.
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SO it's official, Obama is president. My wife can smugly say "she called it" at the end of the democratic national convention 8 years ago where he gave, what I describe as an oration, rather just a speech.
He's done it again, and again, and slowly people got over the fact that he was black, a lawyer, (law professor more intimidatingly) at least somewhat from Africa, has an Arabic middle name.. ok seriously, did anybody bother vetting this guy at all? and thus occurred, what I often refer to as the most unlikely and therefore somehow absolutely certain thing: Barack Hussein Obama is now President of the United States of America.
In the same week, thanks to my new job, I'm starting to meet lots of interesting people in the handset business, carrier business, and general mobile technology space. I've discovered that i am like a crack dealer um, candy store.. I have Free BBC content, they have devices..
I feel slightly dirty, plus I get new phones all the time (newest is a new Blackberry Bold) which once Siemens get their hands on it and do whatever voodoo they need to do, I'll be able to use! BTW the Blackberry strategy is genius, leveraging the enterprise to build consumer, app stores, alignment of side-loading and streaming. I'm keen to see them deploy it; though curious how it will play against Apple (entrenched leader) and the new Palm (which is like the rebel alliance as it's management is all former apple folks)
But mostly it made me wonder about Barack's Blackberry, which had been slated for cold fingered pry-based removal. BUT WAIT. in what is possibly his FIRST act of presidential executive privilege, he got to keep it! This, gives me even more faith that this is a man who's gonna get things done, most particularly in the midst of other, even more boring meetings.
Made me decide to phone bomb our IT desk to get my Bold activated.. joining my n96, iPhone and soon HTC HD (for demo's only)as my tools for increased productivity in the face of mind-numbing bureaucracy.
| 10 Dec 2008 12:28 |
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Net growth in Radio listenership
Nearly one third of UK adults now listening online, podcast audiences also up and iPlayer tops Google's growth chart
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This compares with 14.5m in May ‘08 when the biannual survey was last conducted. This includes 15m listening live and 13.5m listening at a later time using 'Listen Again' services such as iPlayer.
Three quarters of those Listen Again listeners said the service has no impact on the amount of live radio to which they listen; while almost half said they are now listening to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously.
iPlayer has also topped Google's chart for the fastest growing search terms, with growth above those recorded for the biggest hitters of 2007, Facebook and YouTube. 'BBC' was the second most popular search term in the UK, ahead of YouTube but behind Facebook.
Podcasting appears to have a positive effect on radio listening with 35% saying that they now listen to radio programmes to which they did not listen previously.
7.2m people have downloaded a podcast (up from 6m in May 2008), and 4.1m said they listened to a podcast each week (up from 3.7m in May ’08 and 1.9m in November 2007).
So the .Net magazine awards are in and my team and their efforts have been well recognized!
.Net awards 2009 (for those who’ve not seen it)
BBC won in the following categories...
- Web application of the year : BBC iPlayer, runners up Gmail & Photoshop Express
- Best redesign of the year: bbc.co.uk, Runners up Last.fm & Facebook-
- Mobile site of the year: bbc.co.uk/mobile, Runners up Google Mail & Facebook
Not bad for a year of work!
At the BBC, I spend a lot of time arguing about the balance of audience desires and the editorial voice of the BBC. There's a recent blog by Max Gadney which details, quite nicely I'd say, the BBC's position. Though frankly in a more user-centered way than much of the BBC.
So Dave Winer, someone who I quite respect and admire dives into a similar debate says here that he views programmers & journalists as being quite similar... neither particularly fond of users or allowing them to drive, affect their output - other than in prescriptive and limited forums and processes. I found a lot of my difficulties in my previous role in that article, journalists often believe in their absolute position as accurate arbitrar and communicator of the truth, to the detriment often, of listening. He is in then accused, though that's not how I read it, of going even further than I probably feel - into the realm of crowdsourcing editorial opinion - (something that anyone who's EVER been a member of a committe of more than 3 people knows is both impossible and guarantees mediocrity). However, I'd propose that actually that's not what he said at all, he was arguing for the point that we need to LISTEN to our users, carefully and critically. We need to listen to both what they say, AND what they do.
My mother-in-law's old business partner, a real estate broker used to say "buyers are liars" his customer's would say they hated Tudor, and then buy the 1st tudor house they saw. I've seen this more often than I can detail here. People are surveyed - "Would you buy this product X," - yes I would, they say or often, "naw I don't need a phone that big just for some giant screen... it wont fit in my pocket... " - then they see the advert, or better yet the product (iPhone) and before you know it everyone is making big-touch-screen-phones and punters are buying them by the dozens. Really, that's the point, however, isn't it? We need to listen, watch, think and analyze what the audience does, thinks and how they behave. They'll say they don't want feature X or they wouldn't really use it, but in actuality they will & do. Or they'll say I WANT that feature - but then in reality they NEVER use it. This is a CORE principal of user centered design and user research - one that I've worked to invoke at the BBC (in my old role).
However, I don't want to paint all the BBC as non-user centered, in fact, one of the most interesting things at the BBC, is something we call NEWS CPS (it's a combination CMS and presentation layer system + analytics platform) it gives real time data to journalists, changing their ability to integrate audience feedback with their reporting... it has a bad wrap, mostly as it was developed by hand and can be dodgey from time to time, but its vision, I think demonstrates some WORLD-Class thinking. However, I'd propose this is an exception and not a rule generally in the twin worlds of software & journalism, and some of those same journalists who have embraced the CPS system detest the BBC's homepage because it proves something we always feared, beyond a doubt... that people, generally, really want information about news, football, celebrities and the weather just about once a day.. The Basics are still true... in terms of demand on the homepage - and some within the BBC would say that's proof it has failed, rather than celebrate it's real power, to enabe that choice, and the personalization of their next 10 personalized selections.. I'd answer them by saying, +30% of our audience still personalize the page.. which is double in an apples to apples comparisom to iGoogle, which means we've gotten something right.
Today I stumbled on a quite old blog by Jason Calcanis about Generation-P that I think, summarizes almost perfectly my opinion on the topic. Participation, transparency, and freedom are what Jason says the new generation expects.. I think he's absolutely hit the nail on the head. This means that hiding your methods, sources, decision making or even trying to outthink the audiences desires, wants or needs will fail if not done in an open way - or without listening to them, I would argue. Yet so much of what I see in businesses today is a real FEAR of transparancy, REAL transparancy and actual freedom - participation is both encouraged, but heavily moderated, transparancy is managed by the comm's department.. you get my drift (i'm not slagging the BBC, by the way, this is true in ALL major corporations, in fact, by comparisom the BBC is quite open - demonstrated by my very ability to write this in a blog!)
While I completely understand the nature of this fear - the idea that wisdom of crowds + freedom of choice, the delusion of the masses, might unmask some of our less well thought out positions, ideas or reporting.. I suspect it will have the opposite effect.
Given the choice, the transparancy and good information, that can be trusted - learned from and inspired by - I think the BBC could leverage these three ideals to do things that were fundamentally more successful & engaging than ever before. But to do it, we'll need to unlock the doors, open up the system and let people see us naked, dirty and occasionally wrong... We'll also need to ENGAGE with our audience, not fear them, and realize that it might turn out that the audience actually really HATES Top Gear..
Though frankly, I REALLY doubt it.
