The great BBC Techcrunch debate
Posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 12:09am. #
Here’s my opening salvo, lovingly recreated out of sparse notes, from tonight’s event…
First, I should welcome you to BBC Broadcasting House. It was built in 1932, and the room we’re in, the Council Chamber, was envisaged by the architects as “enabling, for instance, representative international committees to meet in London under the BBC’s own roof”. Just outside is a statue done of Ariel by Eric Gill (he of Gill Sans fame, the BBC’s appropriated font face). Lord Reith himself insisted that the penis size of the statues was reduced. I’m not sure what that says about anything but I thought that was important to mention.
I’d like to take us out of the world of future media, and into the world of radio for a second.
The BBC believes strongly in the mantra “agree on technology, compete on content”. You can look at any number of things here - from joint funding of RAJAR, the industry audience research body, to our work on DAB Digital Radio - working together with the commercial sector and others to help develop and promote a successful platform. The same can be said for Nicam and teletext. And then, the current nascent project I’m working on with the commercial radio industry, RadioDNS, a way for your radio to know where to find web services that complement the audio content.
The BBC also helps educate to create a marketplace. BBC News clearly helped make the internet be seen as a serious news medium. Other radio stations use the BBC’s “Radio Player” brand as an easy-to-understand moniker for an online live/on-demand audio product. We all use “forward-slash” when pronouncing website addresses, a trend set by the BBC in a doubtless tiresome steering group meeting. We have a tremendous heritage in working with an industry. After all, we were originally formed, in 1922, to standardise and sell radio sets.
So, back to the building. When it was built in 1932, apparently there were two large offices. One belonged to Lord Reith. But that wasn’t the biggest. The biggest office in Broadcasting House apparently belonged to PP Eckersley, the chief engineer.*
So, as we open our doors to you tonight, remember that technology has always been a major - perhaps the major - part of the BBC.
Things that we’ve learnt: 1) the BBC’s terms and conditions need rewriting to be clear that ‘non-commercial use only’ means ‘ask if you want to use this stuff for commercial gain’, not anything else; and 2) that the average web-startup out there finds it impossible to work out who to contact at the BBC with a bright idea. And that inevitably, rights issues are the main topic of conversation. An enjoyable night, though if I have to accompany one more visitor up those flights of stairs…
Photo: flickr user hugovk. Used under licence. * - I remember being told about this office ‘fact’ by someone, but can’t remember who, or whether it was Eckersley. I can’t find anything on t’internet to back this up. This may be bollocks. As might the story about Eric Gill’s penis-shaving order.
Hugo said at June 26th, 2008 at 8:34am 
Mike Blunt said at June 26th, 2008 at 10:14am 
Simon Tuff said at July 4th, 2008 at 12:15pm 
