Tuesday, July 28, 2009

BBC helps Guardian, What About the Rest of US?

The BBC is about to lend video to newspapers including the Guardian as reported by journalism website. Maybe this will reduce the amount of moaning and groaning that carries on about the BBC. I still think they offer a decent service. I saw them working on gardening at Tatton Park, it took a lot of resource for a couple of half hour broadcasts.

Also I still think the "Digital Britain" approach has missed the aspect of the Web that it allows lots of people to contribute and add comments. There is still no recent news about the BBC inspired creative archive. I think it was Greg Dyke who presented this. Clips available for mashup and soforth. My memory is a bit random but I thought the original batch included Wizz Jones in Newquay some time ago. Wherever it came from this is now on YouTube. More recent performances by Wizz Jones are also on YouTube including one from Exeter TV. If the original content could be downloaded then more edits would be possible. The BBC could look at the archive for stuff that could be mixed with new material. This could be more like the vision and leadership that Ben Bradshaw is looking for. At the moment "Digital Britain" seems to be about finding subsidies for existing structures that are in trouble but still have enough clout to complain. Apparently ITN are complaining that the new offer will make life more difficult for them. Maybe they will be offered a slice of the licence fee as compensation. But what we need is ways to open up new possibilities.