Online Networking: Now it’s BBCu, not BBC2… May 3, 2006
Posted by David Petherick in : Emedia, News, Online Communities , trackbackThe headline in the Financial Times on 25th April was: BBC to shake up web with more interactivity. Thomas Power of Ecademy brought this to my attention in his recent blog.
It’s been a while coming, but the BBC’s Action Network started the ball rolling in this direction, and it’s no surprise to me that they are embracing the kind of success that sites like of myspace, 15megsoffame.com and the astonishly fast-growing www.tagworld.com (Population: Zero at 11 November 2005, Current Population: 1,601,233) have shown. [Tagworld cornered a $7.5 million series A round of financing in early March.]
The BBC understands, as Murdoch does, that there’s a major change in what online content people are buying into. They are catching the wave that Apple rides with iTunes, and podcasting, videocasting, and sites that coherently challenge ‘big media’ are all riding: People can make content, and people are interested in ‘People opinion’ much more than they are in ‘Broadcaster opinion’ - especially when they can provide their own opinion, and can see, and contribute to the feedback that generates. It’s interactive media, so it beats passive media every time. We are fickle, and we want to be entertainedvwith ‘Channel Me’. Now we can, whether we’re 17 or 70.
With broadband reaching a critical mass in the UK over dialup, and with the convergence of email, video, music, news, radio and TV into one box, and the switch of traditional TV signals to digital, be it Sony, Apple, Panasonic or Dell, that box that used to be passively watched is now being actively interrogated for content and entertainment - it’s a media centre, not a tv or computer. I think Bill Gates & Company get that, too. And watch out for Branson…
The credibility, reputation and trust that the BBC has earned globally seems poised to be unleashed on the net - and I think that is a good thing.
This is David Petherick, for the British Blogcasting Corporation, Edinburgh
Further Links of Interest:
Ecademy.com
Financial Times
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