backstage.bbc.co.uk

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backstage.bbc.co.uk

Type	online
Country	United Kingdom
Availability	International
Founded	by Tom Loosemore, Ben Metcalfe and James Boardwell
Motto	"use our stuff to build your stuff"
Owner	BBC
Key people	Ian Forrester, Matthew Cashmore, Ben Metcalfe
Launch date	11 May 2005
Former names	BBC Backstage, Welcomebackstage.com
Website http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/

backstage.bbc.co.uk is the brand name (and URL) of the BBC's developer network.

Contents 1 History 2 Purpose 3 Community 4 Feeds 5 Events 6 External links 7 Notable backstage.bbc.co.uk projects 8 Press reports on backstage.bbc.co.uk 9 References

[edit] History

backstage.bbc.co.uk was created by Tom Loosemore , Ben Metcalfe and James Boardwell. It was piloted internally within the BBC in the Spring of 2005, then launched on 11 May 2005. It aims to encourage innovative use of the content across bbc.co.uk, including the BBC News website, by third-party developers.

The website came out of beta as an official site on 23 July 2005 at the backstage.bbc.co.uk OpenTech event which was organised by NTK and the UK Unix Users Group. It is sometimes referred to as BBC Backstage, although the official title of the project is backstage.bbc.co.uk.

The BBC admit that in the past they had not always welcomed amateur innovators who attempted to reuse BBC content, but now, through the backstage site they aim to foster a dialogue with such developers and the wider community.

In July 2006 backstage.bbc.co.uk won the New Statesman New Media Innovation award.

[edit] Purpose

Launched partly as a response to the Graf Review^[1] of bbc.co.uk, the aims of backstage.bbc.co.uk are to encourage innovation and creativity in the UK, and to identify new talent. According to the BBC's response to the Graf report, the site aims to

“

support social innovation by encouraging users’ efforts to build sites and projects that meet their needs and those of their communities ... The BBC will also be committed to using open standards that will enable users to find and re-purpose BBC content in more flexible ways

”

[edit] Community

A mailing first mailing list, which includes several mailing lists.

In addition, there is a feed of website stories backstage.bbc.co.uk feed plus backstage.bbc.co.uk podcasts

[edit] Feeds

XML feeds are available on the backstage website for people to build with on a non-commercial basis. A complete list of the feeds available can be found on the site, but they include RSS from the BBC News Website, TV listings (in TV-Anytime format) and travel delay data. The BBC's RSS feeds, which are a main component of their backstage philosophy, output around 500 unique pieces of news each and every day from its network of over 5000 journalists.

The main list of all feeds now sits under - [Welcome Backstage Datasets]

[edit] Events

Google Developer Day: Google Developer Day London: BBC Backstage presentation.

In June 2007, backstage.bbc.co.uk and Yahoo! hosted a weekend Hack Day in North London's Alexandra Palace for several hundred developers and designers followed by a performance by The Rumble Strips. The event was hit by lightning on the Saturday morning.

Also in 2007, backstage.co.uk hosted the TV Unfestival at the International Television Festival in Edinburgh.

backstage.bbc.co.uk is currently part of BBC Research & Development. The department headed up by Matthew Postgate. The senior producer is Ian Forrester and development producer role is open. Matthew Cashmore use to be developer producer at backstage but now works for Lonely Planet, and Rain Ashford who now works for another BBC project in Media Literacy.

In April 2008 backstage.bbc.co.uk held a new event (based on the Yahoo! concept - Hack Day) called Over the Air at Imperial College which was based around mobile development and ideas.

In June 2008 backstage.bbc.co.uk held an event (based on the Yahoo! concept - Hack Day) called Mashed at Alexandra Palace in North London.

[edit] External links

• backstage.bbc.co.uk homepage
• beta of new website
• Backstage RSS licence
• Backstage API licence
• List of all the Data available via Backstage
• Idea store for BBC Backstage

[edit] Notable backstage.bbc.co.uk projects

A full list can be found on the official site.

• BBC News Archive, built using backstage rss feed
• BBC Front page Archive live on the BBC domain
• The Programme Catalogue
• How in touch is the BBC?
• Started off as a BBC Backstage Prototype and went commercial
• R&D TV, a show around development with sharing at the core

[edit] Press reports on backstage.bbc.co.uk

• New musical tools - Guardian
• Mashed 2008 review - Guardian
• - Backstage let developers fiddle - Digital Lifestyles
• - New Scientist
• - World Changing
• - Jornalism
• - BBC News
• - Wired on hackday

[edit] References

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