Round up, Monday 17 May 2010
Post categories: round up
| 12:20 UK time, Monday, 17 May 2010
There have been many comments about the new homepage, previously in beta, that's been rolled out across the board. Feedback breaks down broadly into things that aren't working; things that have been changed and aren't liked and things that have changed and are liked.
Picking out a positive comment, Kenichi Udagawa writes:
"Lots of moaning here ... don't think it's THAT different ... but I LOVE the new top menu bar ... and I think that's going to have a big difference in terms of hits on BBC webpages. Why? Because it's one click to the News site, one click to iPlayer, one click to Sport and Weather from anywhere on the BBC website. That's big - that's really big - and yet deceptively simple. Good on you BBC!"
Jo's reading all your comments and the team are working on your feedback. Read the post and comments about the homepage and leave your comment here.
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On the Radio 4 blog Andrew Caspari's asking for suggestions on how radio podcasting could be made more popular and brought to a wider audience:
"So if you think there are things we can do to make podcasting feel easier or make it more attractive do let us know. Words like 'subscribe' ("sounds like something you have to pay for") or 'download' ("I don't like clogging up my computer") are particularly unpopular. We will try to do better."
BTW, A History of the World is back today with another 40 podcasts.
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On the Guardian PDA blog under the heading Project Canvas verdict looms: Funny kind of openness Robert Andrews reports the Canvas team as saying:
"Project Canvas has submitted key documents to the Digital Television Group (DTG) today making the next set of technical specifications available to industry. This transparency will help create an open, competitive market."
Andrews then writes:
"But, whatever the specs are, they're secret - available only to DTG's members via its website. DTG membership costs between £3,000 and £20,000. And DTG members appear to have signed non-disclosure agreements banning them from repeating what Canvas has submitted..."
Incidentally, The OFT are due to report back on Canvas on 19 May.
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While it's too late for the incumbents of Blog Towers it might not be too late for you to get a job with a cool title. BBC R&D are recruiting for several roles including trainee technologists and trainee research scientist.
"As a trainee Technologist you could be involved in one or several of our current main themes, most notably HD on Freeview, tapeless production tools, and helping to define Web 2.0 services."
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Techwatch has started a campaign to "Get BBC iPlayer on Xbox Live".
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And finally, if you're interested in h2g2, the h2g2 community held one of their "meets" in London on Saturday.
Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.
Comment number 1.
At 15:59 17th May 2010, Kenichi Udagawa wrote:Oh wow! I feel privileged!
All bodes well for my eventual BBC job application!! But I do genuinely believe that the new menu bar is a massive improvement.
Can't wait for the GVL to be fully rolled out!!
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Comment number 2.
At 21:03 17th May 2010, richardwhiuk wrote:Be nice to see more consistency on the BBC blogs - the sidebar has many items such as "Latest from BBC News blogs" which would be nice if they were on every blog instead of here and there.
Also not sure why h2g2 is part of the BBC's mandate - seems like a very poor companion to Wikipedia IMHO.
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Comment number 3.
At 13:30 18th May 2010, Rich57 wrote:I had trouble today reporting a website technical fault. After pressing the Continue button at the end of the form, there was an error. The page URL is https://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/templates/bbcfaqs/emailstatic/emailPage?entryID=&id=JOUR5Q80E318B4906QDTQ21PC2&moduleID=technical
Lots of feedback issues use this form, but if the button is broken, users will become frustrated.
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