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BBC Open Source launched
Elphin writes "The BBC today launched their BBC Open Source website, providing a home for projects such as their video codec dirac , TV-Anytime Java API and Kamaelia network testbed."
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I certainly hope that they are taking it seriously. I'd love to be able to subscribe to their programs, instead of waiting to have them come out on Bittorrent.
Any BBC'ers out there have some good series suggestions? I've got Little Britain, and the new Doctor Who. What else should I be looking for?
They're pissed off at having to pay ripoff prices to the people (such as Microsoft and Real) whose audio codecs they use, and they're sure as hell not keen to start paying licensing fees for video codecs as well.
Additionally, they think they can get better performance out of Dirac than is being got out of current codecs, which will save them bandwidth.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
I think it is responsible of them to not refer to the perpetrators as "terrorists". These days "terrorist" is nothing more than a buzzword used by those politicians and businesspeople who participate in deceit and real-world trollery.
But in any case, I do respect the BBC's willingness to contribute back to society. They actively strive to promote the deployment of knowledge, rather than try to restrict and limit its dispersal. But that is most likely because their main goal is not profit. Maximizing profit will always be against what is best for society, as the externalities are not taken into account.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
What inspired the British Broadcasting Corporation to suddenly leap into the software programming foray? Are they hoping to build some sort of new service out of all of this, or is it just going to end up as a bunch of disconnected apps?
;-)
Q: What inspired Bell Labs to create Multics/Unix?
A: Because they needed it.
BBC has been pushing more and more toward internet-based content. While they've been struggling with legal issues, it is becoming more and more clear that they are extremely serious about this and not just blowing smoke up everyone's hind quarters.
Put this stuff together:
1. A highly competitive streaming video codec.
2. A TV Listings lookup API.
3. A distributed/P2P sharing API.
While these could go together into a few different gizmos, it seems that they are all targetting the concept of showing television over the internet. Oh, that will be a happy day. I might even pay the British TV Tax just to get Dr. Who!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Hopefully, the BBC will be able to forge some open standards through this approach. In the past, BBC developments have shaped (or at least steered) the adoption of technology in the UK, and I think Open Source is probably the most compatible with their remit as a public service provider.
It appears that broadcasting today is driven by information technology --- and this means software. The two are inextricably linked. As the BBC is funded by the public (rightly or wrongly), it is good that it should release as much IP related to its technology back to a public domain, and not rely on proprietary technology (hence Dirac). I don't want my license fee going to Microsoft or Real, I paid the BBC!
The Beeb just continue to impress me with initiatives like this - good on them!
They are not the government, the motives and objectives of the BBC are laid out in a royal charter that is approved by the secretary of state for culture. What they aim to do is approved by government, but the government does not run them, that's an important difference. BBC news is the best in the UK and arguably the least biased, they were highly critical of Iraq.
And yes they do have competition, the BBC has created an enormous number of new channels over the last 5 years to keep up with the growing number of cable, satellite and digital terestrial channels.
If this is any indication, BBC is taking the concept of Internet broadcasting *very* seriously. I'm not very suprised about this. Great Britain is after all the country that managed a 40% switch to digital TV in only 3 years and are used as a classical example by now. Plus, the European Union intends to do a full switchover to digital for all media by 2012 and God forbid the Brits would be left behind. :)
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
I know that the beeb is not perfect, but as a UK citizen who has been living in the US for 3 years, I know come to appreciate and cherish the commercially unbiased broadcasting from the BBC. Compared to the crap that is broadcast here in the US, the beeb is the best broadcasting corporation in the world. You only have to look at US cable media coverage of the Iraq invasion to see this.
"these people" provide news and media without advertisements and commercial backing, and thus without commercial bias, and that is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.
I fail to see what you complaint is. Subtle and contentious wording after the atrocious attacks in London is understandable. Did they distort the truth? Completely ignore major work events or just outright lie as the US cable networks do on a regular basis?
Try watching Fox News for a day before criticising the good ol' beeb.
-SL