Wednesday's Press Release, BBC Creative Archive pioneers new approach to public access rights in digital age, shows encouraging signs that this autumn the BBC are going to open up at least some of the archives that we, the license payers, have been funding for decades.
This is somewhat gratifying for me as, when I worked for BBC Digital Media Education in the late 90s, I proposed something along these lines (namely assets for schools and colleges being made available under an academic license, possibly from a bbc.ac.uk service) as a stimulus to growth and development of digital education content across the UK.
Of course, that never happened and it's unlikely that the education archives will be made available now either - especially in the light of more recent developments, i.e. the £150 million Digital Curriculum initiative.
There's still some evidence of 'Auntyish' thinking in this interview with Paula Le Dieu, Joint Director of the Creative Archive, 'Providing the Fuel for a Creative Nation':
Was it because the decision content has been paid for by the public, so should be there for the public to use?We didn't start from that premise. We started from the premise that we had this fabulous archive and we had a requirement in our last charter, the one that we're currently operating in, that expressly asks us to open up our archive. There had always been a strong feeling that we hadn't done that as well as we could.
But I applaud whoever (Greg Dyke?) provided the final push within the Corporation to get this long-overdue process rolling, and look forward to playing with the results :)
N.B. This also looks like a bit of a triumph for the Creative Commons project, chaired by Lawrence Lessig, as it looks like access to the BBC Creative Archive will be based on the Creative Commons model. I just wonder what the lawyers at Henry Wood House will make of the license...
UPDATED 14/6/04: Rupert Goodwin's Creative Commons gives the BBC uncommon creativity covers some of the history and context and his previous article, Auntie opens her drawers, outlines some of the risks.
Posted by lankyphil at May 28, 2004 10:46 PM | TrackBack