BBC Internet Blog

Published on 2 November 2007 in , , , ,

Many many many many years ago (well okay two and a half years ago), I wrote something on this blog about the whole work/blog thing and how it would be nice to be able to talk about work projects on a proper, BBC hosted work blog. A proper engagement between the BBC and its audience on all sorts of things. To discuss why certain things were done the way they were. To talk about how it all fits together. To say “Whoops!” when things went wrong.

At the time, the BBC didn’t really do blogs. BBC staff members did – but not the BBC itself. The BBC News Editors blog was a mere twinkle in the BBC’s eyes, but when it launched in April 2006, I felt like it was the beginning – the beginning of something good. Where various BBC people could engage with the audience, to discuss how the BBC works, why things were done the way they were, and so on and so on. All out there on the BBC website.

Brilliant I thought! And as it happened, it worked better than I ever thought it would – the News Editors really got engaged with it, and for me, it’s required reading in my Bloglines subscription.

With it followed the Sport Editors blog, Newsnight’s blog, PM’s and more. But wouldn’t it be nice if it spread to other parts of the BBC? Like my own department – Future Media and Technology – perhaps…

It was a thought that came to my mind some time later – about six months ago when the whole iPlayer/DRM “debate” came up for about the twentith time on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list. At that point, I was getting a little frustrated – there was just nothing really official on the BBC website that really went into the issues.

And of course it’s not just iPlayer. The BBC’s blogging platform (Movable Type actually) has struggled and buckled under the demand to the regular annoyance of its various users, but there’s not been anywhere for the Blogs team to talk about it! And I know there’s more.

Shortly after I learnt that a blog was in the planning. And I got excited. It was finally going to happen. And lo, it did. On 31 October 2007, the BBC Internet Blog launched. Early days yet, but it’s first test has already started – the whole 400-600 Linux users thing is certainly a baptism of fire!

Still, I’m sure all will go well. I mean, how could any blog which has the owl symbol of the BBC Computer Literacy Project in its masthead area, possibly go wrong?