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CBC Opens ZeD.cbc.ca Code
ivar writes "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has open sourced (Apache License 2.0) the code used to build ZeD.cbc.ca. The corresponding TV show (typically consisting of content uploaded by the community) aired the announcement last night (Jan 6_, along with the Canadian broadcast premiere of Revolution OS. It's always heartening to see cool things come from a state run corporation..."
CBC has some really great stuff, it's sad more people don't pay attention...
Since moving to Britian, I've seen how far something like the CBC could go: The BBC.
The BBC kicks serious ass. Wide range of great programming. Really insightful stuff...
http://www.bbc.co.uk
And it's not fear mongering like the American news channels. (and yes, we got plenty of them in Canada...)
Kudos!
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
I saw this on CBC as well. At first I thought "that's cool", but then I went to the site. All it is is a standard website - there is no great CMS or anything else here. I can't imagine there is much below the HTML here... some simple server-side stuff, but nothing special.
On that note though - I do applaud the idea. All company websites' code should be Open Sourced under a free license IMO. After all, the company is not making revenue by selling that code, so what good is it to them?
I'm surprised the blurb never mentioned the actual show. It was a great documentary on the free software / linux movement. I remember reading about it online every step of the way but it was totally amazing hearing what was happening directly from the people.
You'd probably never catch that kind of open-minded programming on corporate television because it flies in the face of the conventional outlook. My favourite part was seeing Linus bring his two beautiful daughters on stage while RMS was proselytizing.
Well, documentaries anyway.
Well, anti-Microsoft documentaries.
When are we going to see a F-911, or a Supersize Me expose?
When are we going to see the cutting edge anti-MS, pro Linux film extravaganza?
I for one would be willing to sit down and watch cunningly edited footage of Mr. Gates and Mr. Ballmer.
CBC is not run by the Canadian government. It's FUNDED by the Canadian government.
If the CBC were run by the government they wouldn't send so much time bashing the government. (Sometimes rightfully, sometimes not.)
Personally I think we should cut all their funding since they run advertisements just like any other station.
You dolt, Penguins live Antartica.. you know the South Pole. Now if we were talking about Moose, Deer, Snowy Owls and the Mighty Beaver, you might have a point. Mmmmmmmmmmmm The Might Beaver..
Q. What is Calvin's monster snowman called? A. The Torment Of Existence Weighed Against The Horror of Non Being
RevolutionOS. Quite informative and entertaining. I advise you check it out.
I caught a bit of this last night. My favourite quote came from Stallman: "Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance."
I had to track down this quote this morning after hearing it last night.
Oh well, no point in steering now.
Since when did we get states in Canada? did I sleep through that meeting too?
Jojo
"It's always heartening to see cool things come from a state run corporation"
Yes, it is heartening to see my money(tax dollars), run me out of business.
Why is it particularly heartening to see these things come from state run corporations?
Because it shows that the state has taken notice of free software. You're a bit quick to label someone as pro-communist, I think.
Are you sure you're not a little too emotionally invested in the idea of total capitalism?
Why are they destroying their property? Destruction of property is a crime against their own class and should be punished as treason, all this is doing is letting the lower classes get a somewhat larger leg up. Completely the wrong direction.
Nice to see people in general in private and public sector funded groups dishing out the code.
Not that useful? So what.
Its like that ugly tie from your sweet 80 year old Aunt --- its the thought that counts.
ACK
I'm seeding zed-oss-0.1.tar.gz [200MB] now:. php?id =95133
http://www.lokitorrent.com/torrents-details
You may get the Torrent file from here:
http://www.northern.ca/zed/
Cheers,
ironstorm at users dot sf dot net
It is a good step, but I would love to see the government not renew their pricey contracts with MS. I don't want my tax dollars going to inferior software, when superior software can be used for free. And if any extra support is required, my government can pay Canadians, which helps our economy. More dollars in Canadian Linux administrator hands is better than in Microsoft hands. Microsoft is actually a drain on oour economy since they hire some of our best programmers and ship them to Redmond. There is a Microsoft Canada but it is purely business/marketing.
Are you kidding? The Sweater was one of the best pieces of work ever created by anyone. It was genius. Take a look at a new $5 bill. The quote on the back of it was from the original short story by Roh Carrier.
The CBC (a Canadian Crown Corporation) is a large media organization with diverse interests and actors. Internally it is divided into three distinct branches: Television, Radio, and New Media. While there is no official "pro open source" policy at the CBC, there are large numbers of us who promote open source at every opportunity.
.asp and the funds and will do not seem to be present to follow the model of zed in embracing free and open source software. With that said, cbc.ca does use apache/linux servers from akami...
Zed is based in Vancouver and is somewhat independent from the core of CBC's new media efforts, and as a result have had the freedom to do what they've done re: build and release an open source app. Unfortunately a great deal of the cbc.ca content system is based upon microsoft
The next step as others have noted would be for the CBC to join the BBC wrt codec development.
> Slashdot: Promoting situational ethics [wikipedia.org] since 1997.
/.
I get a bit sick of people talking about the two faced morality on
Has it occurred to you that perhaps the people who, for example, are pro illegal P2P, might not be the same people who are, for example, pro-GPL enforcement?
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
The site seems to be down . . . I can certainly see why the code is so appealing.
Kudos to the CBC for reaching out and producing something not for the baby boom white middle to upper class crowd.
Yip, Road to Avonlea and other such wholesome sugary sweet productions is Canadian propaganda to fool the unwitting world into believing that we Canadians are as pure as undriven snow. (cough... gag... er... polluted acid snow, that is)
I'd like to also point out that TVOntario (who's part gov't funded and part PBS funding campaign driven) puts out alot of edgy stuff too that challenges the mind and emotions.
Back in the 80's the CBC FM would just put canned classical music on at late night - no hosts no nothing. Somehow, they completed deviated from their classical/jazz lineup and as an experiment Brave New Waves was born playing alternative music when it was alternative. A wide variety of stuff - Einsturzende Neubauen, Pogues, Butth0le surfers, Skinny Puppy, Jesus Mary Chain... It had a really cool hostess Augusta Le Pay who would munch on pizza while interviewing Laurie Andersen and a pyschic before playing an hour of the sound of fences howling in the wind. Remember this was at a time when alternative music got no air play and on a network known for it's news and playing Vivaldi's 4 seasons every 20 minutes.
Hopefully Zed will be the net version of this with just completely off-the-wall content. I'm not that optimistic - but we'll see. A lot of Brave New Waves success had to do with Augusta's and her producer's skill walking the thin line between quirky and interesting and stupid and dull...
And get over this "state run is crap" stuff (friggin' Enron fanboys...) - the CBC and BBC for that matter do occasionally provide programming that is a counterpoint to for example, Fox's "Who's your Daddy?"...
Anyone care to explain what this is, to those of us too lazy to read the article, and ignorant enough to not already know what it is?
--
The last digit of pi is four.
Anyone care to summarize WTF "Zed TV" is? And what "zed.cbc.ca" is? The site is down.
/. elitism...put a news blurb on the front page and automatically assume everyone knows exactly what you're talking about.
Typical
The CBC recently moved from Real formats to Windows Media formats for streaming audio.
After receiving complaints about the proprietary nature of their formats, they started experimenting with Ogg Vorbis streaming.
This is really encouraging to see the the public service broadcasters 'getting' open source and trying to contribute to the community. If this could take off it could be a great boost to the entire copyleft/open-source ideas.
However I would warn that in the UK the content industry is sharpening its knives over The BBC Creative Archive. I attended a conference given at Westminster Media Forum where the representatives of the content industry where rabid about copyright and patent law and extremely hysterical about 'idea theft' as it was colourfully termed. When they heard about the Creative Archive plan... Phew! Some scary people were there... And they are not impressed with Creative Commons - who were shouted at, verbally attacked and generally given a very very frosty reception...
Strangest contribution (and it was a difficult choice considering the crazy assertions and unsubstantiated nonsense spoken) has to be the Arlene McCarthy MEP linking copyright, patent and 'idea' theft with 'Organised Crime', 'Paedophilia', 'Pornography', 'Terrorism' and 'Paramilitary Organisations'... She was truly loopy, and more worryingly serious!
John Naughton was fantastic castigating the dangers from 'slavish legislaters' (she didn't like that!) and gave a really excellent and balanced presentation calling for caution against listening to only the interests of the media corporations and content industry.
Most scary person (again a difficult choice) was Lavinia Carey, Director of FACT who told us that '65% of people didn't think it was a problem to share stuff' and that 'consumers have to be protected from themselves' and those who didn't were 'gonna get a shock'. To get a feeling for the balanced tone see the campaign to link copyright 'theft' and terrorism... Scary!
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Now that that's out of the way, care to clue us in on what the software does?
Looking at their reasonably nice web site I'm guessing um, content management?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It's too bad ZeD still has "grabby" Terms and Conditions. Basically when you submit work to the ZeD, you're giving the CBC the work to use forever, in any medium, without restriction, for profit, and you're giving CBC the right to license your material to third parties. Canadian submitters even waive their moral rights, which means that the CBC can bastardize the contributor's work with impunity. It's all in the fine print. And we all know how many people read that.
Contibutors don't get paid. The CBC is a for-profit corporation. So if you're submitting, for example, a song to CBC's ZeD TV, just be aware that the CBC can use it as the title track for a new TV show, and never pay a cent in royalties. You're not even guaranteed credit for the work--credit is displayed "where applicable."
Basically for the cost of producing the low-budget ZeD TV, the CBC has built themselves a huge library of content which they can repackage and resell without restriction until the end of time.
Excerpt from ZeD Terms below
===Content may be used by CBC===
By voluntarily submitting or uploading content or material to the website (the "Submission"), you expressly consent to the use by CBC of such Submission on any CBC website, CBC television/radio program, CBC recording, and CBC marketing material or other paraphernalia related to CBC programming. You grant CBC a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, unrestricted, worldwide license to: (i) use, reproduce, store, modify, make derivative works from, transmit, distribute, publicly perform or display such Submission for any purpose, and (ii) to sublicense to third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the foregoing rights. In addition. you agree to: (i) waive all moral rights in any Submission in favour of CBC, (ii) consent to your name, address and e-mail appearing as the contributor of any Submission, where applicable, and to the disclosure and/or display of such information and any other information which appears in or is associated with a Submission, (iii) acknowledge and agree that CBC is not responsible for any loss, damage, or corruption that may occur to your Submission, and (iv) acknowledge and agree that any Submission you provide for display on the Website will be considered non-confidential.
You said "Commercial interests are anethma to worthwhile broadcasting". What's so special about commercial interests that makes them so evil above someone else's political views? Nothing unless you think that Noam Chomsky provides a fair and balanced assessement of the world.
State funded media gives an unfair advantage to one point of view, (in Canada's case the leftist bias of the CBC), at the expense of diversity of views.
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
"Are you sure you're not a little too emotionally invested in the idea of total capitalism?"
s/emotionally/fiscally
The truth about Led Zep should never be told on
The content is (mostly) available on the rather nifty website; most of the show's content originates from it. Think DeviantART, except for all types of media, and with a TV show that showcases the best of it.
You are thinking of the NFB (National Film Board).
You can enjoy anything with no commercials in it... I live with a Brit.. she can't stand North American tv commercials...and to be honest I constantly wonder why we pay so much for cable that consists of 60% or more commercials.
I am going to hell and I am going to take all of you with me.
My parents (we're british, live in Canada) bought me season 2 for xmas. They've watched it faithfully (and know I have no time for TV) and say season 3 is weak. The missing character (Jeff) and change of writers make it so. Try season 2 and 1.
Probably the funniest thing on TV ever that didn't have the pythons in it.
"MY god it's a penis"
"It's a snake"
"Same thing"
Need Mercedes parts ?
You may get the Torrent file from here: http://www.northern.ca/zed/zed-oss-0.1.tar.gz.torr ent
The tracker is out of date - there are now 2 seeds. (10am EST)http://www.lokitorrent.com/torrents-details.ph p?id =95133
Actually speaking as a Canadian I agree with you to some extent.
There's long been a sort of Ontario/Quebec "cultural mafia" who suck up a lot of government arts money and produce unwatchable dreck from it.
Some form of free competition is called for - witness the higher quality Canadian stuff which has resulted from the need to survive on actual commercial TV (Kevin Spencer, Puppets Who Kill, Corner Gas, to name a few though you may not have seen these). Much better.
Please, don't bring up the BBC, then someone will bring up the fact that everone HAS to buy a TV license if they have a TV
Interestingly enough that is almost the same way CBC receives much of its funding. In Canada, if you want wo have *cable or legal satellite* television you MUST pay a fee to CBC. This fee is hidden in your cable or satellite bill. In return, we get the CBC--by law, all cable and satellite providers in Canada must provide CBC Newsworld, and one channel each of the CBC main network and Radio-Canada (French CBC). I *AM* glad that we don't have that silly license scheme here though.
Then someone with a complete lack of understanding of the way the BBC works, will call it a puppet of the government.
Cant speak for the BBC, but the CBC seems fairly independent of government, and is quite regularly on its case about corruption, etc (they also get a good skewering on "This Hour has 22 Minutes"). I DO have to say that they are far from neutral, and arguably very out-of-touch with Canadian's overall viewpoint editorially. Canada is markedly to the left of the US, but not outright socialist as often the CBC's editorial stance seems to be. Compared to th BBC programming I've seen I'd say the BBC is not nearly as ideologicallly bent as the CBC. And while they are not a puppet of the government, during election time they cover the Liberal and NDP (socialist) party much more favourably than others (Conservative, Greens, separatists, fringe parties).
As far as government puppets go, in Canada they are private media companies--Bell GlobeMedia is owned by a staunchly Liberal family with close ties to high-powered politicians. The "old and stale" Globe and Mail editorials are a good example of mutual backscratching.
Then finally someone will pour scorn on the actual quality of the programming
Much of what the CBC does is crap, and I'm sure the same is true of the BBC too, but it seems (at least here across the pond) we get to see the best of what the BBC has to offer, and even when production values are sometimes low, it is very good entertainment, which is often emulated here (hits like "All in the Family" are Americanised British imports). The CBC has carried such shows before too (Degrassi Junior High had a following around he world, Beachcombers was a bit hokey but still a perennial favourite, The Nature of Things is world-renowned and very long-running). However, finding the treasure amongst the crap that sometimes gets put front-and-centre is sometimes frustrating.
The CBC *is* too overlooked, and there is quality stuff on there, but it has incompetent management. Their biggest hits never seem to air on the same day and time from week to week. They are too often pre-empted for special presentations or sports events or whatever reason they can come up with to move things around. Furthermore they have no real direction. On one hand they try to meet some kind of official mandate and be like the BBC or PBS, and on the other hand they are driven to fill air time with American movie features and revenue-generating commercials and Canadian-produced content that emulate American formulae.
There has to be a corporate-wide shake-up at CBC to allow for more innovation. They can't be both the BBC and ABC. Furhtermore, private networks are starting to make some really good, truly Canadian programming that beats what the CBC has come up with for awhile (Check out Corner Gas...also CTV has picked up the latest sequel to the original Degrassi shows at CBC's expense).
I'm not totally against the CBC--as I said they have some good programming and it's nice to see initiatives like the open source one by ZED. However, if taxpayer money is going to fund it, the CBC should offer something different than "just another network" (which they too often try to be). Private enterprise can give me the same old stuff. The CBC will know they are successful when they air something a bit off the wall that becomes enough of a hit t
Zed has championed the open source concept since its inceptions. The show descibes itself as open source television with much of the content on the show comes as contributions from the community uploaded through the web site. I haven't noticed them doing it lately, but during there second season they would routinely list the members of the Java development team in the shows closing credits. Zed also regularly posts job posting for Java developers on the VanJUG mailing list, they are always entertaining.
ZeD is being updated
Zed.cbc.ca is currently being updated.
ZeD is temporarily down, please check back later.
What do you expect them to use? Theora isn't 1.0 yet.
What about the Big Snit1 5310&e xpr=${snit}&sid=75f5de7d14c4e00a4fdddb28b43c3713&c oll=onf&type=tout
t ails&a= 259
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http://cmm.onf.ca/E/titleinfo/index.epl?id=
The Log Driver's Waltz
http://www.keyframeonline.com/kf.php?op=de
Or The Cat Came Back
http://www.keyframeonline.com/kf.php?op=det
But CNN doesn't make money by selling the code that runs CNN.com. The NY Times doesn't sell the code that runs their site. MSNBC.com doesn't sell their code either. The code behind these types of sites could be immensely useful to someone wanting to start their own fringe-hobby news site.
For those who like CBC, BBC, PBS ect check out tvo.org
tvo is TV Ontario. It's like PBS ect.. Pretty good stuff.
Why would it be surprising or unusual to see "something good come out of a state run corporation"? I don't get it.
I assume the poster just wanted to make sure to show his all American(R)(TM) If it Aint For Profit The It Must Be Bad, Eliminated Taxes, End Social Security So Someone Can Make A Buck, stance. I mean after all you wouldn't want to mention anything FOREIGN without making sure to bash it so people wouldn't think you aren't American(R)(TM) enough. This is especially important when mentioning Canada 'cause you know they got people that speak _*shudder*_ FRENCH up there!
Now, I WOULD be surprised to see something good coming out of a company that cares about nothing but profit, Microsoft or Fox for example.
Don't worry, Michael, We know you're a good Patriotic, Bush voting, Gun toting, All-American Male, not some commie that would support evil "State Run" corporations and such. No one doubts you.
Just a small clarification though, the CBC is not 'state-run'....it's 'state-funded'. Subtle but important. A state-run media organization would act as the mouth-piece of the current regime where being state-funded only means you have to lick a few boots at budget time ;-)
-- If it isn't broken, you haven't let my users have a crack at it yet --
Their handling of Don Cherry is pathetic. It's perfectly all right to make provocative statements on the CBC, so long as it comes from the left.
And their centralization of production some years ago was a massive mistake. The last thing Canadians needed was a more Toronto-centric viewpoint. Better if they had cut costs by removing one or two layers of management.
Why is it particularly heartening to see these things come from state run corporations?
This is my personal bias, but I figure that as tax payers, if we're paying for the development anyway why not get access to the what we're paying for ?
I miss Hockey Night in Canada :(
Another great site is Just Concerts, which features professionally recorded bands from all over the world (though principally Canada) performing live in Canadian venues and studios.
Admittedly, it's not open source, and so a little off topic, but think of it as the equivalent in the music world.
...is about as Canadian as Chrysler is American. That is, it is part of a greater corporation formed by a "merger of equals" where one of the equals was just a bit more equal than the other (in this case the Wendy's burger chain). So a significant portion of Wendys-Tim Hortons is Canadian held but the majority is American owned and managed (similar to how Chrysler is mostly German now).
Tim Hortons is still a part of Canadian culture, and relatively unknown in the US (it only has a limited presence in certain regions of the US). In Canada, there are more Tim Hortons stores than McDonalds stores. When I was in Hamilton (where the chain got its start) I can pretty much say without exaggeration that you are in easy walking distance to a Tim Hortons from any imaginable location in that city. If you've watched "Supersize Me" where they plot the McDonalds stores on a map of Manhattan, and add a couple more stores, that is kind of what a map of Hamilton would look like.
The CBC should make a documentary about Tim Hortons (oh wait--they already did, sort of--one on the hockey star and founder of the chain that bears his name). The CBC makes documentaries on nearly everything remotely to do with Canada it seems. Overall they are very good but sometimes it's like "WTF eh?"
There have been a few shows that were rewrites of British ones. All in the Family is a remake of 'Till Death Do Us Part and Three's Company is a remake of Man About the House. I think most would claim these to be better than the originals.
Here's a list if you want further details.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Zed's site is moving at a snail's pace, so I'm not able to check to see if this is still the case, but, when I signed up for a Zed account last year, I remember that their submissions policy indicated that all submitted works become the property of CBC. They invited submissions from artists, writers and musicians, but ask for a transfer of rights. I could have understood if Zed/CBC wanted the right to broadcast the work, but I seem to recall that a full rights transfer (short of attribution rights) was in order. Can anyone tell me if this is still the case?
-- SYS 64738 --
To the person who says the CBC is biased towards the left. It's called balanced reporting.
It is balanced provided you read a SUN newspaper or the National Post for contrast maybe.
Please give a solid example of CBC being biased towards the left.
There are many:
* The whole ideological bend in the documentary "The Valour and the Horror". WWII veterans criticised the feature for being a bit too fast and loose with the facts in order to support McKenna's political views.
* The 2000 federal election coverage: The CBC made a concerted effort to dig up dirt on the Alliance party, ranging from the high-profile "22 Minutes" "change the leader's name petition" gag to giving national coverage to wing-nut candidates like Elinor Caplan harping on how the Alliance harbours anti-semetic candidates. Meanwhile, the Liberals ran a candidate in Calgary who was being investgated for his ties to Al Quaida and what photographed holding a banner proclaiming "Death to Jews!", and it made not even a whisper on CBC nationally. Also, NDP leader at the time--a self-professed "socialist" who figured a household income of $60,000 meant you were "rich" and should pay the most taxes--was from a very rich familyherself, who held interest in many factories that paid rather mediocre wages. Despite some of these contradictions in her past, Ms. McDonough could do no wrong as NDP leader in CBCs eyes. If you are a conservative politician, you'd better have a spotless record or you're slagged mercilessly.
* The whole "Best Canadian" series--it had its good moments and I liked the viewer participation, but its portrayal of Tommy Douglas (founder of Canada's medicare system) wasn't entriely complete and balanced. There is also question about the voting methodology used in selecting Tommy Douglas as the "winner".
* Middle East correspondent Neil MacDonald has raised controversy often over his apparent bias towards Palistinians/mildly anti-Semitic viewppoints (depending on who is complaining). His viewpoints often do not reflect Canadian citizens' views or the government's stand. He was allowed to freely express such opinions for years. I'd say that in the interest of free speech, that is good--but where is the "pro-Israel" correspondent? And why was he allowed to repeatedly be controversial and colour commentator Don Cherry was nearly fired for his jokes about Francophones and Quebec Separatists (that weren't even in a serious news report)?
* 2004 federal election: The CBC made a really big deal about how NDP leader Jack Layton and his wife were both running for office in Toronto, and that if both won they would be the first husband-wife in the Commons in Canadian history. Layton's wife Olivia Chow did not win and they did not make history. However, the CBC completely missed the fact that there was a husband and wife running in adjacent Vancouver-area ridings for the Conservatives, and didn't mention it until they had acutally won. The CBC probably missed it for two reasons--it wasn't in Toronto and they were not left wing. Also they didn't fit the image the CBC likes to portray of conservative politicians--Gurmeet and Nina Grewal are not old, white Christian men.
Want me to continue? I guess bias is in the eye of the beholder. I am a regular CBC viewer and like some of their programming (and yay for them advocating open source!) but to me it is very obviously biased so I know not to rely solely on what the CBC says as being an objective viewpoint.
Fifth estate - Great exposes
Passionate Eye - Great documentaries
Nature of things with david suzuki - Great enviromental/science shows (usually critical, great stuff)
ZeD - Open Source Media
Play with Jian Ghomeshi - Insightfull issues for youth. Host puffs cronic on tape Play goest to pot
Hockey night in canada - Hockey!
Correspondants - New field reporting show (it's good)
All and all i find CBC to have some of the best broadcasting on Canadian television and I'm presonally quite happy with it. I would be for adding funding if it opened up content and provided channels free of corperate interest.
--
Not only is their programming much higher in quality than American pay services like HBO, Showtime and Cinemax, but they also have an open source project for a streaming video format. Thanks to BBC America, I get to see a small part of what they produce, but could you imagine what our shows would be like if we followed a similar model instead of the crap pay TV model? Instead of 500 channels of complete shit, we'd have 40 channels of quality programming.
I don't have the time to dig up the link right now, but I do want to make certain that people realize that the BBC has an amazing set of programs. Better selection of music, actual comedy and drama on radio as well as news. It beats all American radio programming hands down. Not only that, but their online offerings are phenominal as well. To bad the closest thing we have is NPR and it, frankly, sucks. It could be soooo much better.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Please give a solid example of CBC being biased towards the left. And looking for a TV show or radio piece, not just the normal "the cbc is left"
ok heres a personal story in dealing with the 'reporters' of the CBC
During the 2000 elections there was a news story that the langley/abbotsford Reform party MP Randy White was using a missing/murdered 10yr old named Heather Thomas for political gain. The 'reporters' approached the mother of the then missing girl and briefly showed her the news letter by Randy White and she went ballistic on TV.
Now the truth of what really happened. The so called reporter is a member of the Federal Liberal party. Randy Whites news letter showed a picture of the missing girl asking if anyone had seen her (note there were thousands of these pictures printed and distributed everywhere in BC) They never asked Randy White what happened, just slammed him in their 'news' broadcast.
Why did Randy White even print the picture? because the family asked him to. I know this as the fact as I am the one who contacted Randy White. I asked Heathers mother for permission to contact local politicians because we were all suspecting that this was a murder case and wanted to know what the lawmakers would do to change the laws on child killers. anyone with kids out there
think about this, how would you react to hear that some politician was trying to use your child for political gain? Heathers mom just lost it... like most parents would do and the CBC 'created' this news story to slam the conservative MP during election time. decidedly very left wing thing to do...
As far as Im concerned the CBC is nothing but a puppet arm for the Federal Liberal party and should be completely disbanded...
"I don't remember where I heard this, but someone did a little research a while back to find out who would be the Canadian government if only CBC employees got to vote. Answer: Majority NDP Federal government. No bias in the news here, move along..."
Wow, that's a laugh out loud. "I hate bias. have no source but I remember someone saying something that agrees with how I feel about the CBC which is it is biased."
All sources are biased, full stop. I have a journalism degree from a real university which is far more than the average reporter these days and I have no rouble recognizing this. The concept of "unbiased journalism" is actually a recent (liberal!) notion that arose out of consolidation of media sources and their abuse (think of the Spanish American War). Now that we have plenty of choices again, media sources are again tuning to biases (lifestyle journalism!), particularly in the blog-sphere. Unbiased journalism may be a blip in the history of reporting.
If you want to be entertained, take the source that makes you comfortable (ie. Slashdot is fun for Microsoft bashing and Linux trumpeting). If you want to be informed, check a number of sources (ie. re an investment decision in Microsoft!)
People consume what they are comfortable with just like they gravitate towards sources that praise their past purchasing decisions and lifestyle choices.
Yes, it is available to citizens at no cost over the air. However, it is impossible to get cable or legal sattelite TV in Canada without having some of your money get sent to the CBC.
Plus, the CBC is not the State by any stretch of the imagination. It's a bunch of people who, as it happens, are working in a sector of broadcast media that has been legislatively granted a degree of creative independence. CBC Television is a bit ponderous because it has to worry about advertizing revenue, whereas CBC Radio has a longer, and in my view more successful, tradition of media independence.
CBC people make an extraordinary effort to be part of the Canadian community, showing up at public events and giving them welcome support and visibility. Arguably, that's part of the CBC mandate, but when I look at the hours and conditions required to make this effort, I think it goes well beyond the job description.
I listen to CBC Radio and I like what I hear. Sometimes the content is boring, sometimes enlightening, but always civil and thoughtful. In short, these are people who reflect my values as a Canadian.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
Actually, the NFB has created some great stuff over the years. I visted their library in Toronto and had a great time.
does anyone know of any torrents of the show ? I don't have access to the program, and the site only has individual content items (not the entire show).
It seems like they're on to something really good here..
You know they also offer ogg vorbis streams of CBC radio (presumably after many complaints about their proprietary streaming... now if only the BBC could change from that awful RealMedia stuff)
CBC's other ingenious programming that was spawned by Brand New Waves is actually www.CBCradio3.com An on-line, flash-programmed, media-zine, complete with streaming audio of candian underground and indepedent artists, as well as live concertns, streaming film, photography, animations, and other cool things of interest to the hipster and cultural elite alike.
I believe Zed is affiliated with Radio3 somehow.
I think the benefits of a public broadcaster is the ability to go out on a limb, and trailblaze; not just in content, but in the form of media. While the big media just keep buying up more radio stations and tv stations, and airing the same content across them, the public broadcasters are diversifying, and bringing new forms of media to a ever-more homoganized market.
Long live the CBC.
Actually, this isn't about CBC trying to steal your IP - clauses like this are pretty standard _any_ time a corporation accepts material from the public for possible publication. The reason being, if you send in your great idea, and it happens to be similar to something already in progress, the corporation is in a tough position - they must keep very careful records to ensure that they can prove in court that they came up with the idea independently. These clauses tend to be draconion to guard against someone spamming them with ideas that they might concievably be working on, with the intention of suing later.
I think it was prudent for CBC to stop broadcasting the show as many found its "portrayal of facts" offensive. In any case, it seems some transgressions are more serious than others, as McKenna's and MacDonald's jobs were not seriously on the line, whereas CBC only grudgingly keep Cherry, who's editorial stand on issues matters less then those of producers and correspondents.
I heard a lot about Hakim Faqiryar because he was running in the riding I lived in at the time. I was disappointed in the media overall for the lack of attention the story got vs. the press some given to non-issues like an Alliance candidate's "Asian Invasion" comment or Elinor Caplan's assertion the Alliance harboured anti-semites (her Alliance opponent was Jewish). In any case, the CBC never covered it nationally, but IIRC, CTV televised a story on its national evening newscast and the Herald and Calgary Sun wrote articles on it. Maybe if it happened post-9/11 when Al Quaida gained much more infamy they wouldn't ignore it. In any case, the fact the CBC ignored the issue until Stockwell Day (a conservative politician) got himself tangled in a lawsuit over it speaks to the priorities at CBC News.
As I said originally, the CBC did not cover the election of the Grewals until the election was actually over--not even as a side item on the numerous occasions they mentioned Layton and Chow. The article you reference was released AFTER the election resultes were in. You are also mistaken about them not being MPs before the election--it was Gurmant's THIRD ELECTION. It was also the second time he made history (in 1997 he became the first Sikh MP in Canadian history). His wife might be a back-bench rookie right now, but her husband is NOT a career backbencher--he has been the opposition's Deputy House Leader, Foreign Affais critic and is one of the few opposition MPs to be a committee chair. He is more active and influential than most Liberal MPs.
How far left CBC is biased is in the eye of the viewer, but you'd have to be blind and deaf not to notice some degree of leftward bias. Also as you state, the CBC is rather Ontario-centric. Considering the CBC is a taxpayer-funded, public netowrkk for ALL canadians, the fact that they are neglecting two-thirds of Canadians with their Ontario focus is wrong. Actually it's worse than that--they are TORONTO-centric. Even northern Ontarians have trouble identifying with the CBC at times. Given that Toronto is the most American-like city in Canada (yes, even more so than Calgary--I know from first-hand experience) the CBC is doing the nation a disservice. They are also overlooking the fact that some of the best stuff Canada has to offer has come from "the hinterland" outside Toronto--CODCO, 22 Minutes, The Nature of Things, Beachcombers, Corner Gas, North of 60, and many more all relied on talent, locations, cultural references, etc from outside Toronto.
I don't have much experience viewing BBC, but I watch the US PBS all the time. I think it is head and shoulders above the CBC. The PBS nightly news is first rate. Their panels are always balanced, with one Republican vs one Democrat, or and Industry rep versus and Enviromental rep, etc. The CBC is always slanted to the left, so much so they would never consider inviting someone from a Left-of-Centre think tank.
/pet peeve
PBS puts out lots of other great shows, like children's programming. I think the CBC should look at what PBS are doing and emulate it.
pet peeve. CBC are Eastern based (and biased), and do a news program at 10PM in the East. Then they re-broadcast that program at 10PM in the West and call it National News. It Ain't.
How many times do we have to say, we don't have any links to paramilitary organizations?
Someone you trust is one of us.
Isn't that a truism of all television channels and networks? Maybe the BBC could be excluded
Personally, I just go where the S/N ratio is highest and of the five channels I through my antenna, CBC is by *far* the best. Interestingly, the other publicly funded channel I receive (Access) has some really great PBS documentaries...in the wee hours of the morning. (With a four-month-old child, I see more wee-hour television than I need.)
If I want to be stupified with sitcoms or yet another Law & Order or CSI spin-off, I turn to Global or CTV. If I want balanced news or interesting documentaries I turn to CBC.
But generally, I find it best to just leave the TV off.
Thus, a corporation with their own interest like any other corporations. Copyright is their livelihood, so expect them to own all your submissions. Despite all the people who say the CBC is fair, when it comes to copyright, you can expect the CBC to protect their own interests. Moreover, they seem to have some interests in Disney or vice versa. You don't see them paying lip service to other entertainment cartels like they do Disney.
The CBC is a corporation. You can't remove corporate interests from them, especially copyright interests. Just read their terms for your material submissions. In short, they own it for all time and you don't.
They really amazed me after reading their terms to own all submitted works, which means you own nothing after you send it to them.
Please spare us of your childish attempt to display your "geekiness".
The point is not whether the code is cool or special enough to you. The point is Open Source. Period. Besides, something of no interest to YOU, might very well be useful to numerous others. (FYI, if you didn't watched the show, the host actually encouraged people to share and improve the code. So, if you walk to walk and not just talk the talk, go ahead and make it SPECIAL!)
Can't believe this is modded Insightful. Oh well, we're on Slashdot after all...
OMG! I never saw her pic before in my life! She is a hot as she sounds!
Thank god for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and edgy, sexy-voiced female DJs who love electronic noisecore. :)
I've got a bad attitude and karma to burn. Go ahead. Mod me down.
Explain how it's more Americanized that Calgary or Vancouver.
Yeah it is an opinionated statement that Toronto is very American, but in my case it is an informed opinion because I've actually BEEN there and to some American cities (Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Milwaukee, etc) and I've been able to see the similarites first hand.
Torontonians are in a bit of denial because they have the impression that then the world thinks of Canada, it thinks of Toronto fisrt. Perhaps I should explain since others have not, why I think Toronto is an "American" city (Actually, Vancouver is fairly "American" as well in the sense that it is shares some common characteristics with San Fransisco and Seattle--high-tech centres, thriving Asian communities, etc--Toronto, however, is even more so).
There are differences for sure, but the day-to-day Toronto experience is very American-like:
* First impressions--you step off the plane into a very big, busy airport, where you are greeted by efficient but impersonal staff that herd you along like cattle during peak traffic. The size, the impersonal nature of the staff (out of necessity I'm sure) eta at Pearson are exactly like the way you are treated at O'Hare, Hopkins, etc. In fact, at PHL the newer terminals even have the same architecture as the new Pearson terminal. In Calgary, they have greeters in white coboy hats to say "howdy" to all the internatinoal arrivals. In Montreal, you hear French first and most staff have an accent (if not French, something else). Right from the start there is something defferent.
* Roads--Nowhere else in Canada will you find such big, congested monuments to automotive excess. Outside the GTA, nothing compares except for American freeways. That includes making the most useful thoroughfares toll roads. That makes driving in the area just like driving in a big US urban centre. The drivers are even just as rude. Even Calgarians are more polite on the road, and Montrealsers, well we won't go there, except to say they somehow learned to drive like the good people of Paris.
* Architecture: So long as you stand looking away from the CN Tower, Toronto basically has nothing distinguishing from any big American city--it is "Generica"--which is what makes it so good as a film location for American features. It is about as exciting as Winnipeg excet with the scale of a US city, and even Calgary, whose city planners seem to abhor imagination, is more visually pleasant. At least Calgary has a mountain view, big parks, a very nice zoo, etc that are fairly prominent.
* Cleanliness...if you live in a Canadian city outside Toronto, in some places within Toronto you can actually notice it isn't as clean. Toronto isn't filthy, and is probably cleaner than the average big city, but there is a difference.
* Size...Toronto is HUGE...Montreal and Vancouver are quite large but quite distinctive...but when you go down the list of largest cities the size drops dramatically...Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg....they just don't have the scale of a big American city like Toronto. And unlike Montral and Vancouver there isn't that cultural distinctiveness to remind you that it isnt the US.
* Friendliness/temperment. Toronto shares a similar temperment with Americans that reside along the eastern seaboard...you are all so uptight! Relax, man! People who move to Calgary from BC make that observation about Calgary...then they visit Toronto and find out whoah...now I know what uptight REALLY is! I know that Torontonians are actually pretty nice people one you know them, but strangers on the street, in the stores, etc...if I had to live there I'd probably get an ulcer. I thought that the more east you went the more uptight you got, but I was wrong...it's the closer you get to Toronto--found that out when I went to the maritimes.
* Culture -- there is a LOT to do in Toronto, the cultural scene is amazing...umm...not unlike New York. And therein lies the rub. Toronto is culturally activ
what exactly is being open sourced.
All you've said is that they're a website, with a TV show. Well, so? The Daily Show has a website too.
I think we can all grasp that there's some kind of TV show involved.
But what's the code *do*?
Is it a codec? Is it a message board implementation? Is it something akin to Slashdot's code? Is it content management? Is it a tool for the show's producers to use when putting the show together? Is it some kind of chat thing?
Nobody's explained *that*, and *that* ought to have been in the slashdot post.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Please. "British sitcoms" or "British comedies", not "Britcoms". The first time I heard the word was when Penelope Kieth (sp?) used it during a PBS pledge drive. She said something like "British comedies, or, as you Americans put it, 'Britcoms' ...". Well, I'm an American, and I've never put it that way, nor have I heard any other American put it that way (at least, not until the pledge drive). It's a bad word. Please don't use it.
Mind you, British comedies are, in general, much much better than American comedies, especially if the American comedy is a ripoff of a British one (e.g., "Three's Company"). (The only exception that I can think of is "Whose Line is it Anyway?", where the American version is somewhat better.) I dread, absolutely dread, an American version of "Are you Being Served?".
Back on topic, I just looked at the Zed site for the first time. The home page is a disorganized jumble of overlapping text and graphics that is largely ureadable (pic here.). I didn't bother going any further into the site. Why would anyone want the source code to this?