Tuesday 15 December 2009

Wild about the Web?

The Internet is now so well-known that it is beginning to get on the Telly. And high class telly, at that. BBC2 is assembling a huge cast of Egregious Geeks to pontificate solemnly about the web in a four part series next year called The Digital Revolution. Incredibly original title, incredibly original show. In fact this is only the working title, so they might end up calling it something genuinely revolutionary, like “Garibaldi” or “Kropotkin.”

Thanks to wondrous Mashup specialists Cassetteboy, here are some preliminary rushes, straight from the Bowels of the BBC, where the Wild Things Are. They demonstrate how portentious and revelatory this digital experience is shaping up to be:

Think you could do better? You can. Competition and raw clips are available here.
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2 comments:

UKViewer said...

I actually think that considering how high tech the BBC operations are in terms of graphics and media etc, that they are quite patronising to lesser mortals in their approach to broadcasting about content or internet developments or computing in general.

Their content seems aimed at the lowest common denominator, which appears to be those who know little or nothing about the internet or internet technology.

While I have a certain amount of experience and knowledge I bow to younger people, especially my grand children who utilise digital technology effortlessly - but than they have grown up with it, not like me with Pen and Paper.

Still this Dinosaur will bumble on being an early adopter and breaking things while trying them and learning. Great fun doing it.

Pam Smith said...

I got quite excited about this until I realised that the opportunities to participate basically amounted to viewing what they'd filmed and giving feedback about it.

As far as I can gather from the site they've assembled a load of talking heads like Stephen Fry, that well known technological innovator, to talk about the Internet. A bit like every conference about the Internet I've ever been on in fact.

I think it would be much more interesting to set something up and see where people went with it, since that's what the story of the Internet really is.

I did quite a few interviews when I was involved with St Pixels and the Internet really doesn't translate to television very well at all. At best they can show you typing and reacting to what you can see on screen, which does indeed make it look as if those who participate are (as a studio guest famously said on one occasion), 'Internet saddos.'

The most successful representation of St Pixels on television was when they filmed some of us meeting up in real life! That conveyed the fact that people formed real relationships online by showing the relationships in a context that viewers could understand. Hopefully in and among the talking heads there will be some more innovative sections which seek to convey the nature of what happens rather than just show people doing it and talking about it.

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