The BBC has more than one million hours of video and audio plus supporting notes and scripts. The archive trial—closed to 20,000 consumers—will launch in May and is expected to last up to six months. It’s meant to gather info to use in proposing a “public service on-demand archive” that will require apprval by the BBC Trust and “to see where we should draw the line between a licence fee funded service and a commercial service.”

It will gauge interest in various old programs, how people want to see them and when—“‘lean-forward’ exploratory mode similar to web surfing, or as a scheduled experience more akin to TV viewing.” Highfield: “The BBC Archive would be an extension of the BBC’s seven-day catch-up on demand proposals, the BBC iPlayer.

As with that proposed service, the Archive journey has been, and will be, a long one. It’s a massive undertaking. Ensuring the right split between license fee funding and commercial funding will be complex.”

The statement comes from a planned presentation that Mr. Highfield is giving at the MipTV in Cannes. Note that BBC has already released a news archive online.

Tags: BBC, broadband, content, iTV, tv, UGC, uk, video, youtube

BBC, broadband, content, iTV, tv, UGC, uk, video, youtube

They’ve been putting most of their radio shows as podcasts on their site, so maybe it was only a matter of time before they decided to put video as well.

Youtube has announced (with great fanfare) its pairing with BBC. This is the good news. The bad news is only “trailers” will be uploaded to Youtube and the complete videos will stay at BBC’s site. So it will more like Apple’s movie trailer service rather than a library of BBC content.

Tags: BBC, content, iTV, tv, UGC, video, youtube

BBC, content, iTV, tv, UGC, video, youtube

It seems that more than 50 songs already sport a “misheard lyrics” version and this particular Nightwish song has been featured on Youtube’s homepage. As a result it has been viewed almost a million times. It works even if you’re not a big Tarja or Nightwish fan (like me).

Tags: content, diy, misheard lyrics, nightwish, video, youtube

content, diy, misheard lyrics, nightwish, video, youtube

By itself, Numa numa doesn’t speak tons but look at this comparison with the Pussycat Dolls.

Apparently, the Pussycat Dolls still have some way to go until they reach numa numa’s peak in 2005.

Tags: content, diy, google, numa numa, trends, video, youtube

content, diy, google, numa numa, trends, video, youtube

One of the reasons I’m posting it is because it took O-zone’s hit (mostly in Europe though?) and transformed it into a DIY video marathon. All kinds of people did covers, some pretty elaborate like the one from the students at UBC.

Tags: content, democracy, diy, numa numa, video, youtube

content, democracy, diy, numa numa, video, youtube

There’s no doubt some of these are REAL directors. The director logo, however, raises the bar somewhat in terms of expectations. I expect these are people who have something to say or at the very least have a basic understanding of how to shoot video.

The guy on the right, does a few thing wrong (no pun intended). His composition is off – his head exits the frame. The exposure is so-so. Worst of all, as he was moving (not obvious on the screen cap), his shadow was moving on the background as well. He should’ve left more space between him and the background, or even better, used a background light.

I do understand the caveats of user-generated content. As Will Wright of The Sims put it: “We knew 95% of the creations will be junk.”

At the same time, I don’t think it’s that hard to keep your head in the frame. Learning about four-point lighting isn’t that hard either.

Tags: composition, content, directors, exposure, lighting, video, youtube

composition, content, directors, exposure, lighting, video, youtube

Some may find my irony a bit ill-fitting but according to an Independent interview with Ashley Highfield, BBC Director for New Media, he feels his job is to “oversee the end of broadcast media as we know it.” So what were the results of the iMP trials? No irony this time. Says Highfield:

Niche programmes that would have struggled in a mainstream linear schedule performed consistently well throughout the period of the trial.

While the top five programmes accounted for a quarter of all the viewing, some niche programming performed disproportionately well. The Amazon ‘long-tail effect’ – seen in the publishing and music industries – indicates that there is significant value in a broadcaster’s archive.

Some key stats from the trials:

• iMP received an overwhelming positive response – 74% said that they would recommend it to a friend
• Key benefits were that it offered genuine flexibility (to watch and to listen to programmes when they wanted), greater control and genuine, added value
• 77% used it to watch a favourite programme that they had missed, while 64% used it to watch or listen to a programme at a more convenient time; and 32% used it to watch a programme they had never heard of
• Throughout the trial there was continuous interest in all programmes: more than 85% of titles available were downloaded, with comedy, drama and documentaries being the most popular genres

Key issues raised by the trials were: only half of the programmes downloaded were watched; 27% said that the download speed could be improved; 78% of panellists, however, said that they would not compromise on screen size or picture quality for quicker downloads; 76% said that it was important to be able to view iMP via the television screen.

Note: BBC has already put a news archive on the web.

Tags: BBC, content, iTV, tv, UGC, video, youtube

BBC, content, iTV, tv, UGC, video, youtube

Cases in point: Diablo’s Hellfire expansion and Counter Strike (based on Half-Life engine). CS became so big that eventually the company behind Half-Life bought the team that was working on it. (Blizzard are rumored to work on Diablo 3 for Playstation!)

The question about user-generated content is a closely watched one because it paves the way for an engaging experience at reduced costs to the game developer. In a way, this reflects the fascination with reality TV shows. When the cost for developing a game reaches tens of million, developers are looking for ways to cut costs.

BBC recently aired an interview with Will Wright, the creator of The Sims. He praised user-generated content but readily admitted the vast majority of it was junk. Based on the one-percent rule of contribution, I figure that 99% of the users never created anything anyway. According to Will, 95% of the creations were junk.

That’s some pretty dismal statistics. I believe it was Warren Buffet who said, however, that a cigarette butt found on the street doesn’t offer much but when you consider the price, it’s an amazing deal. Same thing with user-generated content: if it costs you nothing, how can you complain about the quality?

P.S. You can view the BBC interview with Will Wright here (requires Real player).

Tags: 80:20, anarchy, content, contribution, democracy, paretto, web2.0

80:20, anarchy, content, contribution, democracy, paretto, web2.0

I’ve been trying to incentivize people

Out of the millions of visitors to the Wikipedia in June 2005, only 68,682 actually clicked the edit button and contributed in some fashion. There’s core group of about 3,000 editors who make over 100 edits per month.

It all seems downright worrying until you consider the fact that if you want to grow a community, you don’t need to focus on millions. You just focus on your 1%.

The caveat is based on my personal experience with the Wikipedia. I spent a lot of time editing articles in the first month that I found the site. In fact, my first edit was a vandalizing one – I deleted an article, just to see what happens. So the $1,000,000 question is whether the 1% of active contributors are the same people month to month? If it’s a revolving door, then we’ll definitely have a problem catering to the top 1% because they’ll prove rather elusive.

Update: Seth Godin talks about a possible future for Digg based on the 1% rule.

Tags: 80:20, anarchy, content, contribution, democracy, paretto, vidize, web2.0, wiki

80:20, anarchy, content, contribution, democracy, paretto, vidize, web2.0, wiki