Ianforrester

BBC announcements

Rather than comment on what's going on in the BBC, I'll just outline some of the major points. If I feel brave later, I may care to comment.

BBC Knowledge, Entertainment, Fiction, Nations and Childrens will now be BBC Vision
There will be a new division which sits inside of BBC Vision to encorage Indies input
New media is now gone and will now be Future media and Technology (FMT)
Radio and Music will be platform netrual and will be come BBC Audio and Music

BBC News and Sports will be part of BBC Journalism
BBC Finance and BBC People will stay about the same
Audience and Marketing will be a core part of what we do everywhere.
Creative Digital Simple Open (CDSO)
If you don't respect the BBC values, maybe the BBC isn't the correct place for you.

Some observations about the Questions and Answers with Mark Thompson after his higher level speech.

Someone mentions there has always been a Radio and TV division since 1936, whats going on? Mark mentions iplayer, downloading content and talks about how under the divisions people are much more closely aligned. Mark hints at the Longtail of content and how that could inspire programme makers. Mark gets grilled about the 360 degree commisioning process and how it could be unfair to indies. Radio and Music drama could fit in Audio and Music or even Vision, Mark suggests they would sit in Audio and Music. Someone suggets iplayer is kind of dull but also offers a huge training issue which can not be ignored. Bouns are on the menu once again, Mark Thompson and Mark Byford talk about supporting 10% bouns (currently at 30%). Mark Thompson is challenged with a question about local independance and how everythings is heading towards centralisation, Mark mentions how we have 23 CMS to make content for the web. Someone ask Ashley Highfield (head of future media and technology) if the technologies should also learn tradional technology like Radio and TV, he agrees. Mark says the new BBC model will be transisional and that we need to be flexiable, envolve and change.

You can see the offical announcment here now

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Exclusive: London Girl Geek Dinner Short Film by Angela Saini of ITN

Angela and Sarah at the last girl geekdinner

Sarah Blow beat me to this exclusive, so I'll just quote her.

The London Girl Geek Dinner short film has just been released. Here is an exclusive first look at it prior to it going on FourDocs. It was filmed about a month ago by Angela Saini of ITN who was just fantastic at both directing the video and setting everything up. I hope you enjoy the video and feel free to let anyone else know about it!

I hope to see other short video's and films from the girls over at BlogHer after the conference.

The next London Girl Geek Dinner is to be announced at a later date… it is looking like some time around the end of August/ First week of September. If you want to get updates of our next event feel free to join the mailing list on www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk or syndicate with the rss feed on the site!

PS: Many thanks to Angela for doing the film for us and for her support and also to Ian Forrester of www.geekdinners.co.uk for his ever constant support for the girly geek dinners!

Thanks Sarah! I've been sitting on this documentary from Angela for quite some time now. I think its a fantastic documentary and well worth everyone's time to watch. I'm now interested to see what conversation develops following the documentary. You can also now watch get the documentary in Windows Media and Quicktime formats here.

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Rocketboom 2.0 with Joanne Colan

Stowe Boyd, sums up exactly what I think of Rocketboom 2.0 Daily With Joanne Colan.

Well, they were able to get off a credible start to Rocketboom 2.0, with Joanne Colan as the Anchor 2.0. She's doing a good job, but its not the same show for me.

Note that she refers to herself as the interim anchor, after ducking all the tomatoes.

Although seeing the bit with Baron seemingly driven mad was pretty funny.

Rocketboom was one of the few video shows that I actually turned to frequently, and it had grown on me. Just like I don't think the Daily Show would be the same without Jon Stewart, I feel the same about Amanda and Rocketboom 1.0.

I would also add one more thing. What the heck was this weeks casual Friday videocast about? I also didn't catch the whole Amber Mac meme being the next Rocketboom host. That would have been weird but you know what could have actually worked. Amber certainly has her style and its very different from Amanda.

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Street installations

This artist has created fake people and animals, placing them all over Washington DC and New York

I think of it as one step beyond the graffiti of the streets. Mark Jenkins has set a range of installations on the streets of Washington DC and New York. The installations are odd to say the least, but you can imagine what kind of react they get from passer-by. But don't worry, you don't need to imagine it, there's tons of videos with reactions on his Notes from the Underground site. Oh by the way, this was nicely found via Digg.com.

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SVG support in IE 7.2?

Don't know how I missed this in my aggregator but…

Microsoft publicly stated IE will have core engine support for SVG in IE7.x (most likely 7.2)

Honestly, I like to think this will happen, but I got a feeling there will be a clause. Something like support for SVG only works when using a XAML wrapper. Or you will need to enable it in the preferences somewhere.

But then worst that what I just wrote, it seems Microsofts Chris Wilson is stating that the above claim is bogus.

Actually, I did not state that IE7.X will have SVG support. I did say that I think SVG is gaining momentum as part of the interoperable web standards platform, and as such I expect we will add support for it in the future.

As for “IE7.2″ – I have not heard anyone inside or outside Microsoft say that, certainly not me. It’s a myth.

On the positive side, if Microsoft did some how suprise us all with SVG support, they would be joining the 2D vector graphics party. Firefox had SVG support ages ago now, Opera 9 just launched with even better SVG support and Safari Dev, Konqueror, Seamonkey, Camino and Amaya all have different levels of support for SVG.

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Geek and Geekhag podcast number eleven – The Experience

Me and Sarah discuss a few things in this 1 hour podcast. Some things I've talked about in previous blog entries and others are quite new.

Xbox 360 hacked?
Sanyo HD Camcorder
Movie Piracy
Its the experience that counts
Snakes on the plane
Don't copy that floppy
Geekdinner
Rocketboom
Police with guns
Sarahs now British

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Orange are up to something…

Recieved a email from Orange the other day. All it said was…

We’re creating an something. Something secret. Something big. if you’re interested, click here

This leads to a page with the following details.

On July 17, 18, and 19 we'll be working on a unique project at a secret foreign location and would love your help. You will work as part of a team constructing an amazing installation in a stunning landscape. You'll be expected to get your hands dirty – but don't worry, you don't need specialist skills, enthusiasm is enough. The whole thing will be filmed and broadcast on national television, as well as reaching an international audience on the internet.

If you'd like the chance to be selected for the casting session, which takes place on Wednesday 12 July in London, and to be part of filming this amazing experience, click on the 'next' button below.

This opportunity is available to anyone over 18. You must have a have a valid passport, be free from 16 to 20 July and be willing to pay for your travel to the casting session in London.

If you are chosen for the final project then we'll be paying for you to fly abroad to our secret (European) location and we'll put you up in a hotel. However, you'll have to pay for your travel to Gatwick Airport.

Entry form closes at midday 10 July.

And curiousity may have killed the cat, but I've signed up deciding that I can drop out at anytime if I really wanted to. Anyway, I'll have my camera to hand if I do get invited to the casting session this Wednesday. Oh and for those interested, I signed up as a self-confessed work-a-holic.

update I got my orange email today saying I was not selected for the orange project. Oh well, I'm sure it was something very naff anyway.

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Unboomed, Rocketboom split before hitting the mainstream

I've not really mentioned the rocketboom split, I only found out when I noticed nothing was not being downloaded since the start of July. So I checked out the site and read the announcement

Amanda Congdon has decided to move to L.A. to pursue opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood.

We wanted to meet her demands to move production out to L.A., however, we are a small company and have not been able to figure out a way to make it work, financially and in many other ways at this time. While we continue to remain with open arms, Amanda has in fact quit and left Rocketboom. So sadly, we bid Amanda adieu and wish her all the best.

Rocketboom goes on.

Andrew Baron, the founder and creator of Rocketboom, will stay with the company in New York and will continue to produce and direct the show. We are in the daunting process of recruiting a replacement for Amanda.

While Amanda will be sorely missed, we have big plans for Rocketboom and are determined to make the show better than ever.

After Field Week and a week on hiatus, we know that you are hungry for the news! Rocketboom will be back with a news episode and an interim host this MONDAY, JULY 10.

But of course I followed a selection of links from the blogosphere and hit across a selection of, well lets say views and insights. Bear in mind that at the time Technorati's number one search was Rocketboom and sixth Amanda Congdon. First up this great thought from Tom

Amanda Congdon teams up with Cory Doctorow and friends and produces BoingBoingBoom? Quick, someone with a fashionable blog, write about it and tell Nick Douglas – it's a meme-in-waiting!

According to the huffingtonpost Joanna Colan is going to replace Amanda.

And of course before long, a link to Amanda's unboomed site and the now famous upside down map videocan also be found here). Its also worth reading in full Amanda's for the record post and the 180+ comments.

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Last nights geekdinner with Chris Anderson

Chris talking to Dedrie, Rachel and Chris

Well I'm still pretty speechless about yesterday's Geekdinner with Chris Anderson. Not only was it the most popular geekdinner I've done to date (between 80-90 people came along, not including the @media social) but it was also the most stressful in a good way. Before I go into details, I would like to say thank you to Dr Jo Twist, Rina Gill, Nizam Shaikh and of course Chris Anderson.

What made the geekdinner stressful was the amount of time between announcement of the event and the actual event, which was a total of 7 days. I found a venue the Bottlescrue on Holburn Viaduct which allowed me to have the back room free on a Friday night. The room held about 40-50 people maximum, but there was space outside of the room for overspill. This was great because according to the signups on Wednesday it looked like we may get about 35 people. (The maths I usually do according to most other geekdinners I've done is, take the signup half them and add a few more.) Well this time my maths was badly wrong. Almost everyone who signed up, came along and then some. So we quickly ran out of food. So half way through the night just before Chris talked, I pleaded with the manager to buy more food. And in the end all the extra cash went straight back into more food. Honestly, ask Nizam, we bought everything they had. Nothing was left after the geekdinner, no chips, no pittabread, no crisps, no nothing. So big cheers to the Bottlescrue for doing everything they could and coping under the massive pressure. I'm sure there profits for the night went through the roof. I'm also glad I didn't have to run to tesco and buy tons of stuff.

The only other negative for the night which was also related to the huge crowd of people who turned up, was the move to outside. Outside was fantatstic and the London summer air was warm and inviting. But it also meant traffic and noise from the street. When it came time for Chris to talk, he was always fighting against the background noise of the street and general bar area. I positioned him where I thought it might be best, aka noise behind the crowd but there were so many people it was hard for Chris to shout that loud. I'm very sorry to everyone who were around the fringes who found it very hard to hear him. If we were inside it would be very different and usually at geekdinners, I have a microphone and PA system setup. Oh and for the record, I did try and rent one from work, but they wouldn't let me take it out of the building. So I might have to invest a cheap one from ebay or something.

Ok finally on to the positive and frankly amazing night of fun the geekdinner was yesterday. Chris was on top form, I was worried because Rina did say he had just done 3 talks that day and was slightly tired but was very much up for the geekdinner. Actually talking to Chris briefly, he said he was actually look forward to the geekdinner more than anything else, simply because it was his type of thing. Who could say no to Beer, food and good conversation in a nice London bar during Summer? Anyway he was a little concerned about projecting his voice when he finally got to the venue but was happy to hang out and speak to people after a 45min Q and A. So while the food was being consumed quickly, I hit two glass bottles together and got the talk going.

Now I didn't record the whole thing but Kosso did. So as soon as he uploads the video, I'll link to it. I did however start to record the question and answers. And will have them up soon. As usual there are tons of photos by myself being uploaded to Flickr using the tags londongeekdinner and geekdinner.

I was highly impressed with the amount of new people who turned up and I have to say the percentage of women to men wasn't that bad either.

Thanks again to everyone who came, I'm planning the next one with someone from Amazon for late July. So keep your eyes on the geekdinner site for announcements.

The videos from yesterday are now up.. There a quarter of the size and encoded in Mpeg4. Quicktime and VLC will play it back no real problem.

Chris Anderson on the Long Tail – 4meg

Chirs Anderson starting the question and answers – 31.8meg

Chris Anderson on Net Netrality – 13.7meg

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