Have your say on the service review of BBC Online and BBC Red Button at the BBC Trust's website

It's been a while since the last round up on the blog, but some things are too important not to bring to your attention:

1. BBC Trust service review: BBC Online and BBC Red Button

The BBC Trust has launched a public consultation as part of its' review of BBC Online and BBC Red Button.

There's a "commentary" written by Suzanna Taverne the trustee who is steering the review. Quote:

"How, for instance, can BBC Online News best serve audiences in the age of Twitter? How can BBC Online help connect audiences around its best drama or factual programmes? What creative or editorial opportunities does the BBC's presence on a range of screens offer journalists or programme makers?"

BBC News also has the story. The consultation runs until 23rd January next year and you can send your response through the BBC Trust's website.

For those who like to wander down memory lane, here's two round ups of reaction to the last review way back in 2008, one curated by Jem Stone, the other by me.

2. BBC News: responsive design on mobiles

Steve Herrmann explains some updates to BBC News mobile site on the Editors blog. The sites were built using "responsive design". Steve also responds to some comments:

"Jesse Moore - HTC: We know there are some devices that are incorrectly classified by our systems, often due to the fact that some devices have different identifiers dependent on the mobile network they are on. In any case we will certainly be doing everything we can to correct errors and ensure the redirection behaves as it should. In the meantime, please use the "Mobile Site" link at the foot of the page should you wish to use the mobile site - the selection will be remembered as long as cookies are not cleared. At this time the redirect only applies to the BBC Homepage and the News site."

EConsultancy has an in depth look at the new site:

"The video content looks great, but it does take a while to load using 3G. Also, you have to click the play button twice - once to load the content and once to start the video - which is a bit of a pain as it isn't made obvious."

3. Media Player Updates for Android

Both Techwatch and Geeky Gadgets report some updates to the BBC Media Player for Android phones.

Chris Yanda's blog post about the Media Player is still open for your comments.

4. Research and Development: Invisibility Cloak!

Over on the BBC R&D blog Rosie Campell tells of her visit to Teen Tech Coventry:

"As always, our 'invisibility cloak' was an instant hit. With gradual prompting, most students were able to piece together how it worked - combining their knowledge of blue/green screens with the fact that the camera was surrounded by blue LEDs and the fact that there was something special about the cloak material - it is retroreflective cloth."

Rosie incidentally is one of the BBC Future Media ambassadors.

5. Goodbye Ceefax

Ceefax has been switched off.

Gizmag is among those saying goodbye:

"The passing of Ceefax is also the passing of an age when being able to see headlines of breaking stories and getting the weather forecast on demand was like something out of the future. We now live in a world where the latest information on anything from world events to showbiz trivia is no further away than a smartphone..."

Goodbye Ceefax

Nick Reynolds is Public Accountability Executive, BBC Online

A screen shot of the new 2012 portal

It's been a dark, dank, cold, grimy, drab and frankly 'orrible start to the year.

However there have been some interesting stories about BBC Online. Here are five to tickle your jaded palate.

1. BBC Sport has announced that its website will be relaunced in February. (If you were lucky enough to be at the BBC Online Industry Briefing in November you would have seen a tiny taster).

The new year has brought a new look for the BBC Olympic 2012 site. Roger Mosey has responded to some of the comments raised on his blog post:

@Andrew Yes, this is a portal only. Content is created across bbc.co.uk and manually placed on the portal. Without it, there wouldn't be one single place where you'd see everything we're doing about the Olympics and all things 2012... Where possible, we're inserting text or graphical links back to the portal in every relevant item of content. Providing the user sees the link, they can navigate back in this way.

2. Our very clever colleagues at BBC Research and Development are investigating
"An Affective Interface for Mood-Based Navigation". Or as Rosie Campbell puts it:

The problem of mood subjectivity will need to be addressed; since something I find humorous may not be so funny to you (this became apparent in our user trials where many people rated a serious documentary on 70s fashion as very humorous...)

3. An article in the Guardian "BBC considers charging viewers for archive TV shows online" unleased some speculation and chatter including this from the Register:

...the debate, while in its infancy, is stimulating some fascinating responses. Lifelong freetards who refuse to pay for media content vow to pay for iPlayer shows, because they value the BBC. While BBC supporters baulk at paying twice...

PC Advisor also polled its readers.

Just to be clear, it's worth quoting the original Guardian article at length:

However, a spokesman for the BBC said that this is not a "two-tier" licence fee system, but a micropayment to cover costs including payments that would have to be made to programme makers for the rights. "We never stop future-gazing at the BBC and there are always a number of new ideas under discussion", said the spokesman. "Any such ideas would need to be developed in conjunction with the industry and with rights-holders and they would certainly not lead to a two-tier licence fee

4. Back at the BBC R&D blog Joanne Moore has reviewed research into how users feel about sharing their data:

When interviewing Facebook users, although concerned about the visibility of their personal information, it was identified that adjusting privacy settings is a one-time action, rarely revised.

5. BBC iPlayer ended the year with a record breaking set of performance figures. The performance packs are no longer published on this blog but you can find them at the BBC's Media Centre.

You can read interesting links about BBC Online on this blog's delicious account. We also gently guide these links into the Twitterverse on the bbccouk_blogged twitter account.

Nick Reynolds is Accountability Executive, BBC Online

Two weeks ago, after more than ten years of life at the BBC, the h2g2 site on BBC Online was closed.

Much of what the BBC now does in social media, both editorially and technically (in particular in moderation and hosting) was learned with or developed from the original h2g2 team (which included the likes of Mark Moxon, Peta Haigh, Ashley Stuart Noble and Jim Lynn). The BBC is keeping the technical platform named after Douglas Adams (DNA) which came with the community and DNA will still underpin the BBC's moderation and commenting service in the future.

During its time at the BBC, many people were in charge of h2g2, including myself. Although whether I was ever really "in charge" of something that depended to a large extent on the passion and dedication of its community is open to question.

h2g2 is the most civilised, delightful and best behaved online community it's ever been my pleasure to encounter. I'm pleased that a way has been found for h2g2 to live on and hopefully prosper in the capable hands of the Community Consortium (Not Panicking Ltd), Robbie Stamp and technical partner Noesis.

Moving h2g2 to a new home has been a rollercoaster ride. It's the first time to my knowledge that BBC Online has ever done anything like this and to say the least, it was complex. So I'd like to thank some of the BBC people who made this happen: Joey Haasbroek, Paul Wakely, Marcus Parnwell and the User Publishing Services Team (formerly the DNA team) in particular Mark Neves and Steve Francis who lead on the technical work, and last but by no means least the h2g2 editors Sam and Natalie.

You can join the new community at www.h2g2.com and follow the Consortium on twitter at @h2g2c2.

Nick Reynolds is Accountability Executive, BBC Online

Schedule Wall for Barcamp MediaCityUK. Photo by Ian Forrester

1. Betas galore!

A beta of the new BBC home page was launched this week. This post by James Thornett is still open for your comments.

Josh Halliday produced a storify of initial reaction alongside his piece in Media Guardian. The Register's headline: "BBC Website ditches modules in facelift".

After the initial flurry in the twittersphere more considered opinions emerged including Gareth Klose's "On the Beta BBC home page":

The new one feels both busier, and simpler. Without the excessive and technically unreliable customisation it’s lost that horrible of air of “is it a homepage or a BBC specific My-Yahoo?"

Don't forget the other blog posts currently open for comment about BBC betas:

• An insight into the Radio 1 and 1Xtra Homepages UxD by Yasser Rashid.
• More detail on Radio 1 and 1Xtra Homepages from Chris Johnson.
• A Labs version of the BBC Radio Homepage by Chris Kimber.

2. BBC iPlayer and Accessibility Tools

In this week's edition of Radio 4's In Touch Daniel Danker (General Manager, Programmes and On Demand) was interviewed about BBC iPlayer and accessibilty tools  This followed up the previous week's programme which featured feedback from blind users of BBC iPlayer.

3. BBC Journalism Portal

You may have missed this paper which gives details about how the new BBC Journalism portal works.

Maritta Eager, BBC World Service Head of Development, summed up how the portal helped journalists across the BBC to cover the June 16 Abuja bombings:

Before the Portal this would have involved multiple phone calls and emails. Here everyone could see that conversion instantly. Commissioning was done for everyone in one place without any phones or emails. The Abuja office weren't getting 20 calls. The bureau simply accessed the Portal online. Others outside the Africa community could go into the conversation in real time or after the fact.

Also see Kevin Bakhurst's talk: "How has social media changed the ways newsrooms work?"

4. IBC conference

Kevin was speaking at the IBC conference in Amsterdam where the BBC News app for Samsung TV won the "TV app of the Year" award.

Also attending was Daniel Danker who was interviewed by Videonet: "Tablets are bringing viewers back to the schedule at the BBC".

5. BBC Research and Development blog

There's been some interesting stuff on the R&D blog recently including:

Ian Forrester looks back to a "Wonderful Weekend at BarCamp Media City". There's a video too.

See also this story from the Guardian and "BarCamp? What's a BarCamp" from About The BBC blog.

Plus "Create Your Own BBCQR Code" by Duncan Robertson and "RadioTAG" by Sean O'Halpin

Have a nice weekend.

Nick Reynolds is Accountability Executive, BBC Online

Average daily BBC iPlayer requests

July's performance pack for BBC iPlayer is now available (as a PDF to download).

Highlights as always selected by my colleagues in the Communications team here in BBC Future Media:

July 2011 saw BBC iPlayer receive 153 million requests for TV and radio programmes in total, with continuation of new devices growing in usage. Mobile devices, tablets and games consoles delivering more requests than in June, and IPTV requests specifically rose from 1.8m in June to 3.2m in July.

 Nick Reynolds is Accountability Executive, BBC Online

Chris Hamilton (Social Media Editor, BBC News) writes:

"The guidance is based on common sense, the section on personal activity starting with the phrase: "Don't do anything stupid". It goes on to say - among other things - that you shouldn't say anything that compromises your impartiality or sound off "in an openly partisan way".

Read more and comment at the Editors blog at BBC News.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

But there's still room for May's performance pack for BBC iPlayer (available as a PDF to download).

Highlights as always selected by the Communications team: 

In May 2011 the BBC iPlayer received 159 million requests for TV and radio programmes in total.

Weekly user numbers were strong this month. The week of 9th May delivered a new record of 7.2 million online users in one week (excludes Virgin Media cable).

The Apprentice and Doctor Who dominated the top ten most-requested TV episodes this month. It was also a strong month for factual content - including Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail, new series Inside the Human Body and Panorama: The Death of Bin Laden - as well as entertainment, including Russell Howard, the Eurovision Song Contest and Psychoville. New dramas The Shadow Line and Exile were also in the top 20.  

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

The PDF is available as a download here.

Some highlights selected by the Communications Team:

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

Yesterday's session was held under "Chatham House Rules". Which seems to have created a minor storm in a twitter teacup (One Man and His Blog published a thoughful post on this subject with some interesting comments yesterday afternoon).

Today is described as a "wider public session". There are full details of how you can follow events today and lots of detailed blog posts about a wide range of the subjects covered on the College of Journalism website.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

Extract:

For some time we've been frustrated that the contributions of our key editors feel like they are tucked away on the site - more number 13 court than Centre Court - and so one thing we decided to do was to start producing their blogs in our main production system. For the past six years they have been created in Movable Type, a specialist blog software, which is why the pages look different to our news pages. This shift promises us extra efficiency and flexibility, and we hope that it will make our top correspondents' analysis feel much more like an integral part of the website.

Just in case you missed it, you can read and comment here.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

On the Radio blog Richard Morland explains:

...The prototypes database tells us how many people have checked into a performance and how many times they have checked in but the BBC does not hold any users' personal data. The system is completely anonymous, so while we can visualise the numbers of users we're unable to tell who they are. We also signpost that users can amend Facebook privacy settings to decide how and with whom they share this information. As Radio 1's Big Weekend is a ticketed event, we felt that this would be the perfect choice for an experiment of this kind as it reduce concerns of the audience sharing where they are. We also felt that this was a great opportunity to raise awareness with our audience of location privacy. The way we are doing this is to promote how to stay safe on-line as well as providing top tips for anyone using location based services.

I hoping for a follow up post with more technical detail on the Internet blog soon, but in the meantime you can read more and comment at the BBC Radio blog.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

To use the mobile version of the Desert Island Discs archive, you'll need a phone with a web browser and reasonably large screen. It's compatible with almost all "smartphones" (to be technical, it works on Android, Blackberry, iPhone and N-series Nokia devices among many others). Just open the web browser on your phone, and use this address: https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/radio4/desertislanddiscs

Read more and comment at the Radio 4 blog

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

Click here to access a PDF.

Here are some headlines selected by my colleagues in the communications team:

• March 2011 saw a new record being set, with 38 million requests for Radio programmes, boosted significantly by World Cup Cricket 2011 coverage and Chris Moyles' Longest Show Ever for Comic Relief

• Overall, BBC iPlayer received 160 million total amount of requests for TV and radio programmes across all platforms, up from 148 million in Feb.

• Live streaming on BBC iPlayer was at the highest levels seen to date for both TV and radio - for TV making up 15% of all requests, and for radio, up to 75%.

• Wonders of the Universe was the most requested programme, with Comic Relief in second place. The rest of the top 20 included children's (Tracy Beaker Returns), and new titles from comedy (How TV Ruined Your Life, Mrs Brown's Boys), drama (Silk) and factual (Attenborough and the Giant Egg)

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

Here are some headlines selected by my colleagues in the Communications team:

February was another very strong month for average daily requests. A new record of 4.5 million online requests per day was set, 5.3 million including BBC iPlayer requests on Virgin Media; however purely because the month had 28 days compared with January's 31 days, the monthly total was correspondingly lower... The new BBC iPlayer Apps helped Apple's iPad total requests increase +22% month on month, now delivering 2 million requests for TV programmes per month, up from 1.6 million in January, on that device alone. Since launch on Feb 10th, the Android and iPad apps have been downloaded a combined total of over 460k times.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online

From The Register: "BBC to take cautious approach to 3D hype". A comment on the Reg Hardware story from FredDibnahProtege:

Good ol' Auntie for realising 3D is a gimmick that is more about the Cinema's being able to generate more money per seat...

From The Telegraph: "BBC delays 3D TV decisions until 2012":

...the BBC's more cautious approach will frustrate television manufacturers, who know more programming will be needed to boost sales...

From TechEYE: "BBC takes cautious view on 3D TV: Viewers not that fussed either".

From Broadband TV News: "BBC warning on 3D standards".

From Computer Weekly: "BBC commits to the cloud".

From Broadband TV News: "Ofcom: BBC syndication policy fails consumer".

From the BBC Research and Development blog: "Universal Control":

Given the trend for home media devices to gain connections to the home network, we believe that the best way to gain the advantages listed above is via a standardised API: a way for devices to communicate with one another over the home network to share information about and control the presentation of media to the user.

Also from the BBC R&D blog: "R&D and Blue Peter- Ski Rossendale Free-viewpoint visualisation".

The BBC's Tom Scott needs your help to build a "science domain model": Science Ontology (from Tom's personal blog). Thanks to Tom.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online