Today is the International Ada Lovelace Day which celebrates women in Science and Technology as she is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer.
If you’ve ever been to a web/technology conference you’ll notice this trend of programming women did not continue as there always seems to be 20 men to every woman, so she is indeed to be celebrated, though many women have made a very significant impact on Science and Technology since, a few of whom are listed here.
Incidentally, I had no idea who she was until I found myself sitting in a meeting room in the BBC one day, named in her honour.
Yesterday saw the launch of a new Global Visual Language for the BBC’s digital services. This ultimately was in response to Seetha Kumar’s task to improve user journey and navigation through BBC Online as a whole, set to her by the BBC Trust.
I really like the look of the new direction and what I’ve seen so far. It’s not unlike a style currently championed online by The Times or The Guardian and I’m particulary pleased to see a new emphasis on typography. This was no doubt due to in the influence of Neville Brody on the project.
Anyway, for a much more through analysis, check out the BBC Internet Blog..
So, as the title suggests, I shall be leaving London at the end of the month. Well, for a little bit anyway. I’ve been offered a 6 month attachment with BBC Northern Ireland as a Future Media Developer in Belfast, w00t!
What, you may ask, is a Future Media Developer? It’s basically a mix of what I currently do at BBC Switch as Client Side Developer and some project management. This is because BBC NI work with alot of independant digital agencies such as Front and Being Online, as oposed to undertaking any big projects inhouse end-to-end like we do at Switch.
Incidentally, my current job title also changed to ‘Web Developer’ about a month ago as no-one outside the BBC had a clue what the hell a CSD was.
However, BBC NI and BBC Switch are similar in alot of ways as they are both truly multi-platform content portals with daily content being transmitted across web, TV & radio, so I hope I can bring some of my experience working with Switch to NI.
Anyway, I’m throughly looking forward to getting stuck in and I guess I’ll know alot more about the job role, it’s challenges and it’s opportunites once I get settled.
On a personal note, it’ll be a bit of a wrench to leave London. To the outsider it might not always seem like it, but it’s a truly enchanting city once you are caught in it’s grasp, and it’s hard not to feel like you are taking a step down in pace & lifestyle by leaving, for however short a time period. However, the current plan is to return in 6 short months and I’ll not miss it’s price tag in that time.
I’m also incredibly excited to be moving ‘home’ for a while. I say ‘home’ because home is actually Armagh, but it’s only a mere hour away. One hour car journeys seem merely frivilous to me now. I lived in Belfast for four years while at Uni and loved every bit of it and I’m sure I will again, except this time I’ll not be living in some student pit, win!
October 18, 2009 at 15:14 ·
Filed under BBC, Video
I recently attended a comedy night called Popcorn Comedy, organised by king of puns -Trevor Klein. It was slightly unique in that it involved short form video sketches interspersed with live stand up. The compere for the night was also a chain smoking animated box of popcorn.
There were many hilarious vids on display including one of a horse dancing to german techno which I must find, but I particularly liked a video from BBC Comedy about the adventures of an unfortunate teddy bear, which I have republished for your amusement.
The live stand up was provided by Angelos Epithemiou off of Shooting Stars who was somehow managed to make the mundane hilarious – “Tea is my bestseller by a country mile, tea.”
The next Popcorn Comedy night is on the 5th of November at Roxy Bar & Screen near London Bridge , I strongly advise you to check it out for shits and giggles.
So, this has been a pretty big week for us at BBC Switch. After 3 months of development we launched the revamped Switch portal. This is a big step up for us as it is now sitting on the new Forge directory. Forge supports dynamic, database-driven services rather than static page-based services and an infrastructure that includes new hardware, systems and updated technology. It is also powered on the PAL layer by PHP. All this is good news for us developers; and those maintaining and updating the portal. It is now much easier to discover our content across various platforms and should make for a much improved user experience for our teenage audience. The lead developer for this was the very talented Charlie Rogers.
A unique feature of this portal is that it has a dynamic “live” state. What this means is that the page will automatically broadcast our online content like The 5:19 Show during the week and simulcast BBC Two when BBC Switch content is being played out on Saturday afternoons (from roughly midday – it varies.)
BBC Switch revamped portal
It is very feed based and alot of the dynamic behaviour on the server side is made possible by manipulating the iPlayer and Programmes feeds based on our Switch branded content across BBC Two and Radio 1. On the client side, there’s quite a bit of lovely Glow to make the live transitions etc.
This week also marks the return of our TV zone with The 5:19 Show making the move from online to BBC Two. It’s just as random and funny but now with even better guests thanks to the lure of TV exposure. You can catch the show again on the The 5:19 Show programmes page.
We also have several new TV shows starting in the Saturday zone. We have a new comedy about starting university called Off The Hook, it’s very funny and is also available to watch online. This was piloted last year as Fresh as an online only series, and went down very well with the audience. It reminds me very much of those heady first few weeks at Uni and I’m also quite keen on the hot Irish girl featured. This is also being shown on BBC Three which should help promote the Switch brand to a wider audience.
Chartjackers is an exciting project using YouTube celebs to attempt to well.. hijack the charts and get a collaborative single to number one, using the YouTube community. These guys are very well know individually for their vlogging talents and have approx 35,000 subscribers each! It’ll be very interesting to see how their project pans out over the coming weeks.
And finally, tonight sees the launch of The Cut, the new soap series, initially played out online every weekday, followed by a weekly omnibus on BBC Two. As this has been an in-house production, I’ve seen the huge effort put in by the production team and have to say, having seen the first couple of episodes, it’s very slick indeed. Set and filmed with five miles of Switch HQ, it’s very fast paced and includes lots of new music from BBC Introducing. In this vein, if you are a young aspiring musician, you may also get your music featured in the show. We are also putting in a big effort online, offering a backstage insight via The Cut Blog and by offering users to take away an embeddable widget to stick on their third party spaces. This helps us push relevant content to users who want it and helps increase exposure to their friends.
March 11, 2009 at 21:04 ·
Filed under BBC, Web Design
At a recent monthly departmental meeting, I met Seetha Kumar, controller of BBC Online. Seetha is responsible for the editorial and strategic development of the mammoth web presence that is bbc.co.uk and she reports to the BBC Trust.
BBC Online faces many challenges as it continues to scale and must move and adapt quickly to keep up with new technologies and trends. Some of the challenges I have encountered since I started working on sites for the BBC include;
How can we make each site/offering unique yet remain part of the BBC site and brand?
How do we bridge the gap in tone and voice between sometimes serious hard hitting sites such as Revealed and comedy sites such as The 5:19 Show?
How can we make sure we aren’t replicating content already existing on the site?
How do we ensure we aren’t reinventing the wheel over and over again when designing page elements?
How can we best move users through the site to content most relevant to them?
These are exactly the types of questions Seetha was tasked with answering and this week she has published her ten very insightful publishing priciples for BBC Online. However, these principles are not unique to the BBC and should be a must read for every website owner, however big or small.
It is continually drummed into us at the BBC to put audiences at the heart of everything we do. This is something that every website owner should also do. Design and develop with your user at the heart of your process at all times. Only then will you see your site reach it’s full potential.
I’ve reproduced Seetha’s guidelines below but they can also be found on the BBC Internet Blog.
1. Web sites and products should be designed to meet a clearly-defined audience need
Anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences and meet them with products that set new standards and even exceed expectations.
2. The best websites do one thing really, really well
Do less, keep it simple, execute perfectly.
3. Ensure there is nothing similar already published on BBC Online
We are all contributors to one website. How are you adding to what exists already? Can you reuse what has been built and is your content, in turn, reusable? Don’t create a web cul-de-sac – we have so many of those already!
4. Any website is only as good as its worst page
Ensure best practice editorial processes, technology and UX standards are adopted and adhered to. Your content may be linked to, forever, so plan for the full lifecycle. Consider how will it look in three year’s time, how it can be curated. Will it degrade gracefully – or should you set a date for it to be mothballed or archived?
5. Accessibility is not an optional extra
Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users. Your site should, where appropriate, easily translate into other languages.
6. Maximise routes to content
How will people know your site exists? Keep the URL as simple and memorable as possible (and remember that all URLs should be lower case). Optimise your site to rank high in Google and other search engines. Develop permanent URLs and contextualise with as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks and time as possible.
7. Free up your content for consumers to take away
Don’t reinvent Facebook or Bebo – just make it easy for users to take nuggets of content with them, with links back to your site or the wider BBC from wherever they are. Wherever and whenever users find your content make sure the feedback loops work.
Link to other high-quality sites – your users will thank you. Use other people’s content & tools to enhance your site and vice versa.Don’t feel you have to host the conversations about your content, just link to them or join in as appropriate.
9. Consistent design & navigation needn’t mean one-size-fits-all
Users should always know they’re on a BBC website, even if it doesn’t look exactly like another. Clear signposting is vital to ensure users won’t get lost within or beyond your site.
10. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent
After all, it’s our users’ most personal data – respect it. And adhere to our forthcoming cookie policy!
February 23, 2009 at 14:01 ·
Filed under BBC, Music
Mistajam is a man after my own heart.. He is also a pretty funny guy as we discovered when he came into the office recently for The 5:19 Show. Anyone who has heard KIG’s anthem ‘Head, Shoulders, Kneez & Toez‘ will know it’s incredibly difficult to get out of your head, however, I think Mistjam’s parody is worse as I have been singing it for days! Watch the video below and see what I mean.. RUMBLY, RUMBY!
At BBC Switch this Christmas we have launched a very special Chris Mass appeal, as you can see from the video, it’s a very worthy cause so if you know anyone named Chris, then please let them know so they can make a difference. Maybe.
You can keep up with the progress of Chris Mass Appeal every day at 5:19pm on The 5:19 Show.
November 26, 2008 at 22:52 ·
Filed under BBC, Other, Video
It was recently announced that BBC One & BBC Two will now be simulcast online from tomorrow, the 27th November. This follows a similar move by BBC Three and BBC Four earlier this year. With ITV also offering live streaming for their 4 channels, plus an extensive catch up service offered by the 3 main terrestrial services, I’m wondering if I really need my TV anymore?
It’s also worth pointing out that (if you’re a student) you will need a TV licence in order to watch a live stream although I’m not sure how a TV licence inspector could argue that you need a licence if you have a laptop/computer in the house even though technically if you have equipment capable of recieving live TV, you need a licence. To enforce this they would need to persuade ISPs to hand over user data, however two of the UK’s biggest ISPs, BT and Tiscali have already pledged their resistance with Tiscali stating “Handing over that volume of customer information could be considered legally and morally unacceptable”. This argument is set to go and remains a grey area if ever I heard one…
I know my personal consumption of TV has changed dramitically over the last 18 months. I used to regularly tune in to watch programmes at the time of broadcast, scanning the TV listings in early evening to see if anything interesting cropped up if I was spending the night indoors.
If I happened to notice that two equally appealing programmes were on at the same time, I might have been even tempted to break out a blank VHS and set the video recorder. However, in later years when DVD (Recorder) players took over, it just seemed like a lot of hassle.
But, this is no longer the case, I can’t remember the last time I sat down at a specific time to watch something on TV. Why would I when I know I can catch it again on the iPlayer, ITV Catch-Up, 4OD or Sky Player?
I no longer succumb to the hype of a certain TV show only to be disappointed when it turns out to be lack lustre at best, I just wait and see what bobs to the top of the most popular lists. I no longer have to interrupt my life to sit down to watch a TV show as i know it’s a watch it or miss it experience, (almost) everything is now on the Internet..
I say almost everything, because I am of course forgetting to mention that not all channels broadcast on TV are online although I would argue that the ones worth watching are. Freeview has been around for a while now and I still struggle to find anything decent worth watching whenever I flick through it. Also not everyone wants to watch their favourite show on a computer/laptop although I don’t mind in the slightest.
One area i think the TV will always have the edge is the family focal point, where the whole family can gather around, when you have one eye on the TV and the other on your Dad asking about your day. Where you are having a quick meal on your lap after a long day and are happy to just stare at whatever is staring back at you for 15 minutes.. Despite the conveniene of on-demand catch up, it requires a little more effort that just an on button.
