Clarocada: Make words make sense...

The headline in the Financial Times on 25th April was: BBC to shake up web with more interactivity. Thomas Power of Ecademy brought this to my attention in his recent blog.

It’s been a while coming, but the BBC’s Action Network started the ball rolling in this direction, and it’s no surprise to me that they are embracing the kind of success that sites like of myspace, 15megsoffame.com and the astonishly fast-growing www.tagworld.com (Population: Zero at 11 November 2005, Current Population: 1,601,233) have shown. [Tagworld cornered a $7.5 million series A round of financing in early March.]

The BBC understands, as Murdoch does, that there’s a major change in what online content people are buying into. They are catching the wave that Apple rides with iTunes, and podcasting, videocasting, and sites that coherently challenge ‘big media’ are all riding: People can make content, and people are interested in ‘People opinion’ much more than they are in ‘Broadcaster opinion’ – especially when they can provide their own opinion, and can see, and contribute to the feedback that generates. It’s interactive media, so it beats passive media every time. We are fickle, and we want to be entertainedvwith ‘Channel Me’. Now we can, whether we’re 17 or 70.
Read the rest of this entry »