Given that the tax payers (and I'm one of them!) fund the BBC, we shouldn't be needing to demand this from them. They should've done it ages ago without prompting. It's our money that paid for it and we should have unfettered access.
Come on Beebs, release your feeds!
I'm seeing a parallel to government funded academic research that comes with stipulations that the resulting publications should be Open Access.
Hmmm.... I wonder if they'll let him do what he really wants to do with it? The UK govt has made a number of high-profile - dare I say, "celebrity" - appointments at the moment (see also Alan Sugar, Martha Lane Fox). So do they want the best person for the job, or is it just a matter of the publicity and the prestige? As a citizen, I think TBL is an excellent choice for the job. Will the govt be able to stomach his changes? I sincerely hope we don't see him resigning from his post in 6 months, citing "unassailable differences of viewpoint with his employer".
I strongly agree. There's a license fee in Ireland too (where I'm from) and they do the same thing, one sentence news feeds. If you're getting funded by mandatory public contributions, then you don't really own your content, the public does.
I don't care if the BBC's management wants to drive people to their website. In fact, I don't care about the wants of the BBC management at all. Besides, the textual news content even on the website is pretty shallow. People will still visit the website to get more information by watching a video.
I'd actually prefer a choice between summarized and full content. I've got The Guardian's feed on my phone, but it's awkward browsing it because of the lengthy articles. I'd prefer a summarized feed for mobile devices.
For UK readers, the majority of which are license fee payers, I agree.
But I'm not sure about international visitors as the BBC generates revenue from ads shown on their site, so I'm not sure if it would make sound financial sense and be good use of the taxpayers money if it would impact their revenue stream. The downside is that people using online readers would be hit in the cross-fire, but that's unavoidable.
"The BBC Trust has approved proposals for the BBC to establish bbc.com, a commercial venture to offer advertising on the BBC's international online service for users outside the UK. UK users' experience of bbc.co.uk will not be affected.
...
bbc.com will use robust geo-IP technology (see Editor's Notes) to separate out international visitors to the site."
20 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 67.1 ms ] threadCome on Beebs, release your feeds!
I'm seeing a parallel to government funded academic research that comes with stipulations that the resulting publications should be Open Access.
yet ;)
Also, this may fall on very favourable ears: part of the most recent govrenment, ummm, cabinet improvement was a move to open up the UK government's data. RWW has a nice piece on it: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/open_goverment_berners-...
And who's in charge of this? None other than Tim Berners-Lee.
I don't care if the BBC's management wants to drive people to their website. In fact, I don't care about the wants of the BBC management at all. Besides, the textual news content even on the website is pretty shallow. People will still visit the website to get more information by watching a video.
(and let's not even start on what the Daily Fail and other vocal competitors will say.)
But I'm not sure about international visitors as the BBC generates revenue from ads shown on their site, so I'm not sure if it would make sound financial sense and be good use of the taxpayers money if it would impact their revenue stream. The downside is that people using online readers would be hit in the cross-fire, but that's unavoidable.
"The BBC Trust has approved proposals for the BBC to establish bbc.com, a commercial venture to offer advertising on the BBC's international online service for users outside the UK. UK users' experience of bbc.co.uk will not be affected.
...
bbc.com will use robust geo-IP technology (see Editor's Notes) to separate out international visitors to the site."
From these ads, they made £1.5m ($3m) in the 5 months after launch (from the BBC Annnual Report at http://www.bbcworldwide.com/annualreviews/review2008/Digital...).