The digital future of the BBC

June 9th, 2010
BBC Coat of arms

This is a rather bold headline but I’m feeling very cheerful about the digital future of the beeb this morning after an informative evening last night spent at the second There Will Be Blood event at Common in Manchester. (That’s the BBC coat of arms in case you’re wondering.)

The second speaker, Hugh Garry, although at pains to make clear he was expressing his own opinions and not those of his employer, outlined an interesting creative vision for the potential of the future of the BBC’s audio content. I probably won’t be able to recap as well as him so here’s Hugh’s blog with links to a few of the projects he mentioned.

I, of course, threw in my two pence worth with the idea that I was happy for user generated content to pop up on radio stations, websites and the BBC’s social profiles but I was less keen on the idea of the user generated Middle East Correspondent or host of Question Time; and thankfully Hugh agreed.

Alongside being a classic early adopter and evangelist for new social technologies he also issued a note of caution citing ITV’s snapping up of Friend’s Reunited before it had had a chance to prove itself, and the subsequent substantial loss.

Although the next big thing can be tempting it’s always worth sitting back and watching it grow with its audience, as he pointed out it’s unlikely to be Foursquare or Gowalla that make their millions from location based technology but another company that right now is watching, waiting and thinking.

A selection of film clips from the night will be uploaded later in the week – so do check back.

Facebook bows to community pressure

March 26th, 2009

Since Facebook launched its new home page design they’ve been battered by community comments objecting to the redesign and the new ‘Twitter’ like updates.
In a blog comment from Facebook Product Director Chris Cox, he states:

“Whenever we build something new or tweak something old, our motivation is the same: to help you share with the people you care about and find out what’s happening with them. Before we launch any new product, it first must pass a process of design, development and testing with a more limited user audience. If those results are satisfactory, we then release it for all of you to use. We know that no amount of testing is as valuable as what you have to say. For this reason, we will always look to you, our users, to tell us what is working and what isn’t so we can continually make improvements.”

So what are those improvements and when should we expect to see them?

Over the next couple of weeks, Facebook are pledging to add more control and relevance in the stream – which specifically means

  • Live updating: so no need to refresh
  • Photo tags: adding photos tagged of your friends to the stream
  • More choices for applications: the chance for you to stop seeing how many of your friends have ‘taken a quiz’

The facebook chaps are also planning to help us find things more easily by.

  • Moving requests to the top of the right column
  • Easier way to create a Friends List filter

This is the second time in as many months that Facebook users have pushed the social network to modify changes – and this, more than anything is likely to be the reason that the ‘book continues to do thrive in the ever more competitive social environment – they remember why they’re in business and respond to what there customers tell them.