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Tuesday night was a slightly reorganised Manchester Free Software, due to a small admin and booking error. It was decided to keep the talk on the 22nd as Ian Forrester had already agreed to the date. Really, the date change didn’t matter to the crowd that turned out, some interesting people from various areas, I also spotted one of the Folly guys in the crowd as well.

Ian Forrester was, up until recently, BBC Backstage, that was until a new member of staff started recently. Backstage is the “freen and open” side of the BBC, spearheading the production of open APIs, free content, and sharing within the BBC. For a media company this may be strange, but due to the “unique way the BBC is funded” we almost have a right to the production content of the BBC to be free and open to all UK license fee payers. As described by Ian, Backstage are at the forefront of new media in the BBC, keeping a eye on new “Web 2.0″ trends and trying to adapt existing data and services to acheive new levels of interaction with the mass public.

Ian described a time where anyone syndicating BBC News stories were instantly sent a C&D order. After stern warnings internally from Ashley Highfield via the Ariel magazine the BBC decided to change its ways an allow access to the services of the BBC by the general public via APIs, and Backstage was born.

Overall, Ian’s insight into the inner workings of the BBC explained alot. He mentioned the Backstage Wild West servers where anyone within the BBC is allowed to use space for any purpose, subverting the already existing Siemens infrastructure. While I was discussing this with Simon this morning he noted that it shows there are key problems within the BBC if a group has to circumvent the normal operating proceedures to carry out their work.

For all those who missed Ian on Tuesday, he’ll be speaking at Geekup Liverpool on 29th July, signup on Upcoming and check it out.

*Edit*

Ian’s video is now available on the BBC Backstage blog.