Open Source at the BBC

Open Source at the BBC Michael Sparks BBC Research and Development michaels@rd.bbc.co.uk I work on scaling online delivery of BBC content to as wide an audience as possible Presented at Open Source Forum Russia, April 2005 BBC R&D

Open Source • The BBC... • Is a creator of open source software • Is a user of open source software • Why? • Good business reasons • Good public service reasons ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Proprietary Systems For balance... • The BBC... • Is a creator of proprietary systems • Is a user of open proprietary systems • Why? • Good business reasons • Good public service reasons ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Terminology • Free/Libre, Open Source Software • Terms often used interchangeably • BBC tends to use latter term, since it focusses on approach, not politics ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Why use Open Source? • Why does the BBC use Open Source • Open source software is not special, per se • Open Source software represents solutions • No speciﬁc policy for or against: • Solutions, proprietary and open source are all evaluated on their merits • However open source is itself often a extra merit ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

What Open Source Software does the BBC use? • Lots, more than could be listed. A subset: • Running the business • Network infrastructure - Apache, Perl • Desktop Applications - Open Ofﬁce, Firefox • Desktops - Mac OS X • Building the Business • Standards development • Video codecs, ﬁle formats, network systems, ... ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

The real question • Why would the BBC NOT use Open Source? • Would you ask about proprietary? • It would prevent the use of useful technologies: • It would isolate us from community developments • It would limit the BBC’s choices • It would mean, for example, no Apple based systems • It is difﬁcult to avoid open source software ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

The Real question (2) • Why would the BBC NOT use Open Source? • ... or open source derived systems? • We would not be able to use - the internet, email, the web • If would mean no Microsoft based systems: • Even Microsoft produce products containing or as open source - “One of the great things about IronPython is it’s open source” • If you use the internet, you cannot avoid open source, even if you tried. ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

BBC R&D Open Source • Projects available as open source: • Kamaelia - Network streaming research platform • Dirac - Wavelet based video codec • AAF - Professional video/audio authoring and storage format • ... and others ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Why release X as Open Source? • Variety of business reasons. • A selection: • Not your core business, not a saleable product • Will be in development anyway. • No feedback is no loss, any feedback or patches back is a beneﬁt to the business • Standardisation development • Collaboration • Validation of theories and peer review ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Open Source vs Open Standards • Open source and Open Standards are NOT the same thing. • Open standards allow any interested party who is able to participate to join the process • Often hardware systems result in a paid membership to run the standards body • Open Source allows any interested party to fork the software given a need. • This may be because of a narrow minded developer/group choosing to exclude a section of the possible community, through licemsing or arrogance. ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Open Source vs Open Standards • Good Open source based Open Standards... • Have a good means of dealing with conﬂict • Good examples: • Internet RFCs, and associated processes • Python PEPs, and associated processes ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Beneﬁts of Open Source • People who need problems solved work together to get them solved • Feedback on your solution • Suggestions of better approaches • Validation of approach • It provides a lever to boost the brainpower of your organisation ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Experience • Real Beneﬁts to BBC R&D projects: • Dirac: • Community stepped forward to assist and direct development • Performance boosts • Kamaelia: • Validation of ideas • “This framework looks like it has a real chance of making a complex problem simple” • Opened doors to collaboration with partners ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Biggest Benefits • The biggest benefits the BBC gains from releasing in-house code as open source: • We maximise the benefit to the BBC and the BBC’s community of users from the investment the BBC makes in R&D. • The biggest benefit the BBC gains from using open source software: • We are using code developed by people with similar uses to use, and who will therefore fix the biggest pain points first. ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Software Licensing • The BBC seeks to safeguard its investment in development. • Various options: (simpliﬁed) • You only have the right to use • You can do anything, as long as you allow others the same with your code, and credit all authors • You can do anything, so long as you credit authors • You may do anything you like ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

Case Study: Kamaelia “камилия” • Scalable media distribution experimentation platform. • Released December 2004 • Licensing allows proprietary applications to use the toolkit, but changes to the toolkit must be shared. Also includes patent pooling style protection. • Has allowed public discussion, with a variety of beneﬁts • System has been ported to mobile phones; validation of approach; architectural improvements; cross linkage to other projects. ©2005 BBC. Part of the Kamaelia project, http://kamaelia.sourceforge.net/ BBC R&D michael@rd.bbc.co.uk

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Open Source at the BBC

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Open Source at the BBC Presentation Transcript