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10 years of the Internet on the radio: Going Digital and Clicking My Fingers

2011-08-23T16:34:00+00:00

Tim Berners-Lee (right) being interviewed by Bill Thompson.

During June and July 2001 I helped some friends in the BBC's Radio Science Unit with Go Digital, a new technology programme that had been commissioned by the World Service for their English language service, where it would sit with programmes on health and science as part of the broader non-news coverage on the English language service.

Working with Tracey Logan, the presenter, we made some pilot programmes that were not intended to be broadcast, fine-tuning the balance of packages, presenter introductions and conversation with the 'studio expert' or 'presenter's friend' who was supposed to turn up each week and offer commentary, background information and - where necessary - a translation of any obscure technical terminology from the interviews and reports that made up the bulk of the show.

It was a role I described as 'well, Tracey', since after each interview or pre-recorded package she would turn to me and I'd go 'well, Tracey', and say something I hoped was helpful.

The show was first broadcast in August 2001 and I agreed to take part in the first four or five programmes, while things bedded in, but it was made clear that once Tracey had found her feet there would be a different guest each week to provide some variety and ensure that the commentary wasn't limited to one person's perspective.

Go Digital was well-received, and celebrates its tenth anniversary this week with a special live broadcast from the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House. Gareth Mitchell took over as presenter in 2004, it was renamed 'Digital Planet' in 2005 and became Click (the radio version of the TV programme) earlier this year.

It has changed time slot, changed duration, had many wonderful producers (including some who may not have understood anything about computing or technology but tried very hard), moved from its original home in S7 in the basement of Bush House to the glory that is C21, and travelled the world, most notably to Venice to report on digital art that features in the Biennale.

Although much has changed it is still recognisably the same programme. I can say that with some confidence because I'm still there, presumably because it would be more trouble to find someone else, and so nobody has yet bothered. I don't go 'um', sound generally coherent and turn up each week.

Much has changed since 2001.

MySpace didn't launch until 2003, and has had time to grow and decline while we've been on air. When we launched there was no Facebook, no YouTube and no Twitter, while Google was only three years old. The Code Red worm was attacking computers running Microsoft's IIS Web Server, and I was using a Sony Vaio laptop with 128 megabytes of memory and a massive 20 gigabyte hard drive. My mobile phone was a phone, although it did send and receive text messages.

Over the years we have covered the technology landscape, from AI to Zero-day vulnerabilities, with a lot of attention paid to developments outside the developed economies, and a constant focus on people rather than the computers, phones or networks. The pace of change means that we are never short of topics with which to engage, whether it's the use of social media to provoke political change, the challenged to our ideas of privacy, our ability to keep up with Moore's Law and double the capabilities of our computers every 18 months or so, or the importance of digitally transmitted information services in transforming the lives of the world's poor and deprived.

It's a testament to the World Service that the programme has remained a key part of the science offering, and that talking about digital technology is still seen as worth doing, but that may be because we're not really a technology programme at all. Tracey, Gareth and I have always been more interested in the people than the technology, and we try hard to avoid simply holding up shiny toys and going 'ooh' and 'aah', even though I'm an avowed technophile.

And now we're in the midst of a revolution in human capabilities caused by the emergence a new class of intelligence-amplifying tools that will be as profound in their impact as the invention of stone tools, fire or print proved to be. A smartphone and Google-equipped teenager today, able to tap into much of the world's knowledge and their entire social network without a thought, is a very different person to me at 18, and they are going to build a different world to live in.

I hope that we get to report on it, for a least a little while longer.

Bill Thompson is Head of Partnership Development BBC Archive

The picture of Bill, TBL and an unknown sound recordist (Ed's update: No longer unknown, he's Julian Siddle from the Science Unit) is by Christian Payne and is used under licence.
You can listen to Click and the Click archive on the BBC website
Follow BBC Click on Twitter
Read Click and Digital Planet merge on The Editors

Peter Horrocks' somewhat smaller world

2011-02-04T14:00:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx

Spare a thought for the BBC's newish Director of the World Service Peter Horrocks.

No sooner has he sat down in his seat in Bush House than his paymaster, the Foreign Office, announces an unprecedented cut of 20 per cent in its funding.

No sooner has Mr Horrocks announced the inevitable closures and loss of jobs that have resulted, after tortuous negotiations with the Board of Management, the BBC Trust and the Foreign Office, than his chief lieutenant Craig Oliver announces that he is going to work for the Prime Minister whose Government has just inflicted such pain.

Mr Oliver is the new Andy Coulson or Alastair Campbell, running the media operation at No 10 and perhaps even now preparing to complain about the way his former employers have reported the latest Downing St initiative.

He certainly knows who to ring.

Craig Oliver ran the BBC's election coverage and edited its main TV news programmes, so jaws didn't just drop in the newsroom when news of his political appointment flashed up on screen, they crashed to the floor.

Of course I knew none of this when I interviewed Peter Horrocks in Bush House on Tuesday evening. I thought he looked a little distracted, but put that down to boredom with my questions, which were hardly original, as opposed of course to those which you, dear listener, had sent me.

When I talked to Mr Horrocks I asked him about the statement which William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, had made in the House of Commons, that the BBC had originally proposed that up to 13 languages should go but that the Government had refused permission for such a large cull. Was that true?

Here at Feedback we are eagerly awaiting the appointment of a new Chair for the BBC Trust, the person who is supposed, above all, to protect your interests. As soon as we know who he is (and it most likely will be a he) - we'll try to get them on the programme. Let me know what you'd like to me to ask him.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
Peter Horrocks wrote about the cuts on the BBC Editors blog last week.
Richard Sambrook, once a Director of Global News at the BBC, has some advice for Peter Horrocks in The Guardian. Neil Midgley in The Telegraph says that MPs are angry with the Foreign Secretary about the World Service cuts. Melanie McDonagh in The Evening Standard says that "life can carry on without the BBC World Service."
The picture shows BBC World Service staff protesting against the cuts outside Bush House. It's by Ben Sutherland. Some rights reserved.

Painful day for BBC World Service

2011-01-26T18:37:15+00:00

Editor's note: Peter Horrocks is director of BBC World Service. This blog post, published on the BBC Editors Blog, explains the cuts to the service announced today - SB

It's been a painful day for the BBC World Service and the 180 million audiences around the world. This morning I announced a fundamental restructure to the BBC World Service in order to meet the 16% savings target required by the UK government's Spending Review last October.

At the moment BBC WS is funded by Grant-in-Aid provided by the government.

BBC WS will be funded by the licence fee from April 2014.

Over the next three years, we will have to make to an annual saving of Â£46m by April 2014.

In all the changes announced today, the aim has been to protect the WS, its quality and reputation and, where possible, our footprint.

Continue reading this blog post and leave a comment on the BBC Editors Blog...

Picture by Loz Flowers. Some rights reserved.

Sir Michael Lyons on the new licence fee settlement

2010-10-22T12:50:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx

In this week's edition of the BBC's in-house newspaper 'Ariel', the main feature is about the heavy workload the BBC's chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, now has as a result of the recent cull of executive board members. One of her three main responsibilities, it said, was preparing for the renegotiation of the licence fee which was expected to start in 2011 and take a considerable amount of time.

Well hardly had the paper hit the Corporation's corridors than her load suddenly got considerably lighter. On Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the licence fee would be frozen for six years. The negotiations were over before they had started.

The deal, which means a 16% cut in the BBC's income, was hammered out in an extraordinary last-minute negotiation, so last-minute that no-one told the Board of S4C, the Welsh language television broadcaster, that the BBC was taking it over. The S4C Chairman is now talking of going to judicial review.

The licence fee-payer is now to pay for the BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring as well as for some local initiatives which are dear to the heart of the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. In the view of some the BBC's independence has been revealed as a mirage since the Corporation has been treated like a Government department caught up in a spending - or rather a cutting - round.

I went to see the Chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, shortly after the Chancellor had made his Commons speech. Some BBC executives were shell-shocked by the announcements but Sir Michael was determined to put a positive face on the settlement, perhaps because, as a former council leader, he was well aware of the scale of the cuts which had just been imposed on local authorities.

Here is an extended version of my Feedback interview:

Do you think listeners should be consulted or are you happy for the decisions to be made on your behalf?

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow @BBCFeedback.
Steve Hewlett also interviewed Sir Michael Lyons on this week's Media Show.
The picture shows Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the BBC Trust.