BBC Documentary About Slashdot

Well, we usually shy away from projects like this, but the concept that the BBC has is both intelligent and interesting. They are doing a series about electronic communities called Digitribes and would like to do a show (1 of 6) about Slashdot. Click below for more information about the documentary and how you can help. They are looking especially for readers from the United Kingdom, but would like to hear from people worldwide as well.

Want to appear in a BBC Documentary?

World of Wonder are currently developing a 6 part TV project for the BBC called Digitribes that will give voice to different communities whose existence has only been made possible through the internet.

We're interested in featuring Slashdot in one programme and are looking for a wide range of interesting characters from this community that we could potentially feature. If you are interested in appearing in the programme please get in touch by email (ryee@worldofwonder.net) as soon as possible. In order to give me an idea of your character, the following information would be helpful when replying.

• A brief biography and description of yourself.
• The background of how you first became interested in Slashdot.
• Any interesting anecdotes from your time in Slashdot
• An explanation of what being in the Slashdot community means to you and friendships that you have formed here.
• How your life on Slashdot contrasts with your normal life.

Thanks for helping this gentleman out, folks.

Comments

your suspicions are well-founded

[jsm2]

A quick conversation with a BBC mate reveals that what has been sent is the "house template" letter to start research for a documentary on X, where X is anything from a condemned tower block to the Bavarian Illuminati. A bit boilerplate, but hey, it is not given to everyone to have a clue.

My answers would be:

A brief biography and description of yourself.

I was born amind a thunderstorm in a Huddersfield tenament, the child of a milkmaid of easy virtue, and an indeterminate number of lost Persian sailors. As a child, I was prodigiously curious about words, and ate my way through five volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary until stopped by a curious fear of the letter K. My knowledge of computers comes from the workhouse, where a kindly beadle would strike me with a copy of Knuth (Vol.1) to still my piteous cries (a cruel act indeed, given my phobia). I am fat.

The background of how you first became interested in Slashdot.

I was interested in dots ever since university, where I studied punctuation under the great Professor Ewan Cribb. My interest in slashes developed later, while I was playing with Billy Boston's swing band.

Any interesting anecdotes from your time in Slashdot

I remember a terrible tussle I once fought with a ruffian.

An explanation of what being in the Slashdot community means to you and friendships that you have formed here.

To me, it means air, water, freedom and modesty. I have only one friend, a Mr. A Coward, who constantly impresses me with the volume of his invective and erudition. One day, I will beat him to the coveted First Post!

How your life on Slashdot contrasts with your normal life.

As different as chalk from carbonate. From my eerie eyrie next to Lake Erie, I spend my days chasing chicken-hawls and remonstrating with them. On Slashdot, I merely lambast.

God, I'm bored. The bit at the top about the BBC having a form letter is true though.

jsm