BBC opens TV archive to remixers

BC News | Last Updated: Thursday, 8 September 2005, 12:03 GMT 13:03 UK

The BBC has released the first TV clips from its archive onto the internet for people to "rip, mix and share".

Almost 100 clips, from shows such as Walking With Beasts and Tomorrow's World, are for the UK public to use for free in their own creative works.

The BBC hopes to foster innovation by letting anyone re-use its material for personal and educational purposes under the Creative Archive Licence.

BBC Radio 1 launched the scheme with a competition to produce a music video.

The clips, mostly a few minutes long, range from animals to landscapes and art.

The licence says they must not be used in commercial or campaigning ways and must not be used to defame other people.

'Tuned in'

The scheme has been in the pipeline since former BBC director general Greg Dyke first mooted it in 2003.

The British Film Institute, Channel 4, Open University and Teachers' TV are also set to make more material available.

Paul Gerhardt, director of the Creative Archive Licence Group, said the scheme was aimed at "a young, media aware audience".

They were "naturally tuned into the idea of content being available when they want it, and who will welcome the right to shape it to meet their needs", he said.

Radio 1 and 1Xtra listeners are being invited to edit the clips and set them to three minutes of music.

Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt said: "My experience of the creativity of our audience leaves me in no doubt that together we'll make some great material."

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++ Related

Citizens do media for themselves
BBC News | Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 August 2005, 07:55 GMT 08:55 UK

By Jo Twist
BBC News technology reporter


[Blogs, podcasts, and vlogging mean people have instant conversations]

The Asian tsunami and the London terror attacks marked a turning point for the reporting of events.

The traditional relationship of professional media publisher farming out content to consume has been digitally eroded since the net started.

But these events underlined the value of "citizen media", as people chronicled their versions of events through images and video taken on mobiles or eyewitness accounts on blogs.

The internet is giving people a voice, a chance to self-publish, and the ability to rapidly share what they say in ways never quite possible before.

"There is a big transition happening between traditional, top down media and bubble-up, grassroots, emerging media," says JD Lasica, co-founder of Ourmedia.org, a finalist in the e-inclusion category of the UN's World Summit Awards.

"We want to help that bottom part emerge and flourish. Technology is easier to use and cheap enough to put into the hands of almost anybody with a modest budget."

Part of the reason is the emergence of easy-to-use, multimedia tools for self-publishing, such as blogs or podcasts.

'Breathtakingly creative'

JD Lasica's Ourmedia is a place online where anyone can publish their own digital home movie, music, photos, or even plain old blog for free.

The "free" bit comes courtesy of support from The Internet Archive project. Its mission has been to document and keep a slice of digital life of how the web has evolved over the last decade.


It shows that creativity and entertainment does not have to come from Hollywood and big media, but that we all have this innate talent to tell stories and to entertain each other

JD Lasica, Ourmedia
QUICK GUIDE

Broadband
It's a godsend for people who cannot afford spiralling bandwidth costs. JD hopes to take advantage of peer-to-peer file-sharing distribution in the future.

Since its inception in March 2005, not-for-profit Ourmedia has attracted more than 31,000 international members, and now plays host to 22,000 separate pieces of media, from travelogs to tastes of family life.

More than half is video, with video blogs - or vlogs - proving highly popular. Some of it is of "breathtakingly creative", says JD.

It encourages people to upload and publish the content using Creative Commons licences, which means they can decide the terms of use for their material. It also encourages a "remix culture".

"Right now our lead video is blind banjo player in Tibet someone had filmed. This is what we were hoping for; to bring us all into one media village.

"It shows that creativity and entertainment does not have to come from Hollywood and big media, but that we all have this innate talent to tell stories and to entertain each other," says JD.

'Inexpensive tools'

The content is policed by 40 volunteers from 10 countries, and the rules are no porn and no copyrighted material.

The team have removed some copyrighted material, but there have only been three attempts so far to publish obscene material.

"The web has evolved from place where people go to do research into a social space now and people understand what the ramifications are of that," argues JD.

Ourmedia members are encouraged to be creative

"It is not just a hang out for geeks and weirdos, so they feel comfortable now. More of our lives are moving online. Younger people are born and breathe the net."

People have with them "marvellous inexpensive tools" to hand, says JD. Broadband too has helped. Faster speeds and increased reach means that people can do more, see more, and spend the time to experiment more online.

"We are comfortable with idea of creating works and letting strangers see them. We like showing off so our media is great place for displaying talents. We like having conversations about things that matter," says JD.

But Ourmedia and similar sites are not going to put traditional broadcasters out of business, says JD.

Nor should this type of citizen led publishing be seen as any kind of threat. Instead, it is a chance to look "under the hood" and see what people want and like to do with their own pieces of media work, and to understand that people do it for different reasons.

"Most people who do it are not doing it to attract mass audience," says JD, "they are doing it for themselves or family. So there is this phenomenon of niche media.

"Traditional media needs to transform and evolve and open the doors so they are not lecturing us, but having conversation with us," says JD.

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