BBC Backstage
Ian Forrester
Senior Producer,
BBC Backstage
5/31/2007

backstage.bbc.co.uk
an open innovation landscape

BBC Backstage Team
• Ian Forrester – Senior 'Backstage' Producer
• Matthew Cashmore – Development Producer

What is Backstage?
• “There's two views on the BBC. One is the traditional
view of centralised websites. The other is more open, de-
centralised and a mess. That is backstage and in there,
somewhere, is the future of the BBC”
• A developer/designer network from the BBC
• An opportunity for the BBC to offer some of the content
and services
• A way to share with 3rd party, non-commercial
developers
• Our way of stimulating creativity and innovation in the
market

Who will it appeal to/benefit?
• Developers
Designers
•
• Bloggers
Fans
•
• Everyone
• You

Why is the BBC doing this?
• The Governors' response to the Review of the BBC’s
Online services by Philip Graf committed the BBC to
using open standards to allow users to find and
repurpose BBC content in more flexible ways
• Trust is the foundation of the BBC
• We take pride in delivering Quality
• Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation
• Audiences are at the heart of everything we do
• We Respect each other and celebrate our diversity
• Great things happen when we Work together

BBC 2.0

The Three Prongs
• Making sure the BBC is at the heart of development in the
UK
– Big Boy Partners (Google)
– Independent Production companies (Headshift)
– Backstage (indie developers & designers)

Costs?
• Not providing any new or bespoke content for Backstage
• Providing this content in a different format which allows
developers to integrate it into their own projects
• Cost incurred to the BBC to re-serve this existing content
is negligible

Isn’t the BBC Poaching talent?
• Prototypes are public
• Prototypes and ideas are created for the benefit of the
individual
• Prototypes are developed off BBC servers
• Rights stays with creator unless we commission it
• BBC does not have first priority over ideas or prototypes
• BBC does not exclusive rights to any backstage ideas or
prototypes

Undermining commercial services?
• Terms of license of backstage.bbc.co.uk are that our
content and feeds may only be used for non-commercial
use
• We are stimulating the next generation of creative
developers and designers, who may go and work for
commercial services in the future
• We have worked with many commercial companies such
as Yahoo!, PA Press, O'Reilly, Google, Virgin Radio...

backstage is ...

backstage is Community
• Lively discussion lists
– Internally and Externally
– http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html
• Idea submission
– http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/post_idea.html
• Prototype submission
– http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/submit_your_pro.html

backstage is Social Events
• Christmas party bash
Hackday
•
• Teach-ins (Perl this Saturday)
University tour
•
• Conferences
Social meetups
•
– Geekdinners
– Minibar
– User groups

backstage is Podcasts
• http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/podcast/backstage.xml

backstage is Video Interviews
http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2007/05/video_interview.html
•

backstage is data
• BBC News, Sport, World Service, Radio, etc, etc Feeds
– Every single feed on bbc.co.uk is covered by the
Backstage License
• BBC News and Sport Search
– RSS search engine
• Programme Catalogue
– 900,000+ entries for BBC Programmes over the years
• BBC Web API
– BBC 7 day TV and Radio data API
• Even more to come...

backstage is changing the BBC
• Startup teams
Co-working
•
• Open Coffee/Lunch
Teach-in
•
• BBC Teens

Backstage is Prototypes

BBC Widgets

BBC on Now and Next Gadget

BBC Widgets

Traffic mashups

UK Travel News

Live travel news map

Live travel news map

Animated BBC NewsScreen in
SecondLife

BBC News Archive

Mood Memories

Good News Google Gadget

How in touch is the BBC?

Hourly news flashes via IM

Twitter Bots

Weather on Google Maps

World Weather Map

Weather Forecast via Twitter

Weather Forecast via NabazTag

Moving beyond the prototype
• We can and have commissioned prototypes and ideas
into a BBC product
• We can consider commercial licensing of subsets of our
content, if the developer wants to go it alone
• The community is full of people who have gone it alone
and can help with personal advice
• The community prototypes have inspired someone else
to build something better

Home Page Archive

Home Page Archive

Programme Catalogue

Programme Catalogue

Programme Catalogue

Achievements from backstage?
• Reaffirm our public service status by making available
content and service in a public service way – via freely
accessible RSS feeds and webs services
• Promote innovation and creativity
• Enable our users to create niche-yet-powerful
applications and propositions that the BBC couldn’t
justify spending license payer money on to produce itself

Trends going forward

Widgets and RIAs

Off-line applications

Canvas 3D

Compound documents

Semantic Markup

Pipelines

Other trends
• XHTML 2.0 / HTML 5.0
Attention 2.0 (apml)
•
• Single sign-on (openID)
Identity 2.0 (sxip)
•
• XBL (binding language)
• Mash-up tools (pipes, popfly, proto, maplets)

Cool stuff coming
• Audio & music stuff
A wild west just for you
•
• More APIs
Better support for designers
•
• ... a new website (honest)

Questions?
• Ian Forrester
– ian.forrester@bbc.co.uk
• Matthew Cashmore
– matthew.cashmore@bbc.co.uk
• Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliebee/467473573/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliebee/467461460/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliebee/467472315/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/teflon/435420333/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zanmilligan/431664687/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiefmoamba/422085377/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelightshadchanged/410237173/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterharding/410096868/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/parrita/393573944/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldsystemz/357534723/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyedropper/349706232/