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Canada's CBC - Powered By OSS

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the only-makes-sense dept.

Otter Escaping North writes "Blake Crosby's Under the Hood column on CBC's website recently discussed how almost the entire site is powered by open source software. It's great to see a government-funded agency making frugal technology decisions, and even better to see them trumpeting the benefits of doing so."

11 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Now for the media content by bignickel · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a Canadian taxpayer I'm thrilled to see so much OSS in use at the CBC. Now they just need to focus on non-proprietary file formats for their content (Windows Media is still king - at least for my regional radio). However, Ogg is an option for the national radio broadcast, and the always excellent Radio 3 Podcast. Now, we only need to get rid of Freestyle...

    1. Re:Now for the media content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Now if only radio3.cbc.ca (Microsoft-IIS/6.0, ASP.NET) could break the damn flash habit they'd be fine.

      Also, www.cbc.ca (Apache/1.3.29 (Linux/SUSE) mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a mod_jk/1.2.6-dev) has changed dramatically in the last year, the page is now dominated by advertisements where previously there were none, and at the expense of content. It has lost the professional look it had, it now gives the impression of something like an ISP homepage instead of a national news agency.

      Also an auto refresh on a main page is a really bad idea. I'll reload the content when I choose to thanks. A year or two ago they merged their Science section into their Health section - bye bye quality science journalism, I don't care about every little bogus money making scheme of the health industry, I want to see real science stories.

      [rant]Same thing happening to Discovery's Daily Planet with Jay Ingram (former CBC radio guy) when they foisted off Natasha Stillwell on the show to give it that pop science edge to appeal to women and children.

      David Suzuki is treated as some kind of eco-terrorist now... The modern media is in dire need of some quality science journalism, when Newscientist and Nature are considered authoritative sources, the end is near. Damn it, maybe I should just go start my own real science news site that is not driven by populism.[/rant]

      I applaud the use of FreeBSD-Postfix mailservers, but stuff like Tomcat (java is evil) and Wordpress (cookie-cutter insecure cms) make me want to puke.

  2. The fact that the CBC uses OSS..... by 8127972 · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...... Likely has more to do with their lack of funding:

    http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.h tml?id=b07beeab-4ad7-4fba-a2d7-f223bc16cd70&k=5921 2

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
    1. Re:The fact that the CBC uses OSS..... by Kimos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or they'd just rather spend the funding they do have on content and journalists, rather than software...

      IMHO what makes this interesting isn't money, it's that a huge technology-centric organization like the CBC can use OSS and that it works great!

  3. Hardly Praise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Let's consider the source... It's the CBC. they have one of the lowest ratings of all networks in Canada. They lost the bid to broadcast the 2010 Olympics (which are in Canada), they lost the rights to broadcast the Briar (Curling). Their last truly big hit was "The Beachcombers", or at least nothing has come close since. (Maybe "Corner Gas" will do it).

      - I would be hard pressed to count this as praise for OSS when the CBC has no idea what they're doing in almost every other department.

    1. Re:Hardly Praise by Goose42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, overall the CBC's ratings are lower than other Canadian networks, but the CBC has a drastically different audience than any other Canadian network. Would CTV or Global air something like The Nature Of Things (one of the greatest science documentary shows ever created) during primetime? Or spend the money to make it in HD? Hell no. Does any other major corporate network (radio, TV, or otherwise) give a crap about independant music in Canada? Hell no. But the CBC does, and the massive success of the Radio 3 podcast is proof of that. Its not so much a corporate network as it is a public service. Being that they're partially funded by tax money, they have a duty to give to the widest possible base of viewers. Even though they're loading up on the reality shows, they're still dedicated to The Nature Of Things and their documentaries (hell, they even have a whole cable channel dedicated to them).

      As well, CBC News is still considered to be some of the best in the business. CBC Newsworld is by far the best news channel I've ever seen, and George Stromboulopoulos's The Hour is truly amazing.

      While they may be losing out on some major bids due to lack of funds, that doesn't really matter as much to the CBC as it would to a completely corporate network, because the advertising dollar isn't their sole bottom line.

      As for Corner Gas, that's CTV, not CBC.

    2. Re:Hardly Praise by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know about CBC, but you could say similar things about public television in the US, which is mainly privately funded. Public TV doesn't have the ratings.

      But...

      Most of the innovation in television programming in the US comes out of PBS.

      Would there be a cooking channel without Julia Child? Home improvement shows without This Old House and Crockett's Victory Garden? The History Channel without a long tradition of shows like The American Experience and of course Ken Burns Civil war? A Disocvery Channel without Nova? Even reality TV shows have their origins in public broadcasting (albeit the PBS versions were considerably more high brow).

      Sure, you may like Discovery Channel better than Nova (I don't), but the fact is people don't invest in something like that until the know it's going to be popular.

      Somebody has to dare to be unpopular, even if it's because they're stuffy and pretentious.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  4. Good. by ninja_assault_kitten · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good, maybe they'll have some money to devote to content.

  5. Re:Bah. Ogg streaming? by xa0s · · Score: 2, Informative

    bah.. streaming is SOOooo 20th century. Podcasts baby! (in AAC)

    http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/

    No Windows Media required

  6. I don't believe it by 0racle · · Score: 2, Funny

    There would be no way to verify the x% required Canadian content. If its not 15% Canadian crap, it can't be on the CBC.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  7. All right! by FlyByPC · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Any site that not only uses open-source, but has cool games like Sushi Samurai is OK in my book!

    (...even if the game is a shameless clone of BurgerTime with different sprites. Using Wasabi as a weapon is just too cool for words.)

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.