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
Mike Blunt
Simon Tuff
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After Broadcasting House was opened, the sculpture of Prospero and Ariel above the main entrance caused controversy.
It was said that “maidens are said to blush and youths to pass disparaging remarks regarding the statues of Prospero and Ariel”.
In the Evening News of 23 March 1933, St Pancras MP G.G. Mitchelson, who lived opposite the BBC, suggested to Parliament that the figures of Prospero and Ariel were “objectionable to public morals and decency”.
The story goes that the sculpture was amended, at Reith’s request, but there is no hard proof of this.”
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/keyfacts/stories/broadcasting_house.shtml
and
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“All this, because the statue of the boy Ariel was thought to be sexually too well endowed. Rumour had it that John Reith, the first BBC’s Director-General, ordered Gill to amend the statue to make it less offensive to the general public.”
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/broadcastinghouse/thepast/ariel.shtml