BBC to Provide Extensive RSS 176
Georgie2032 writes "The BBC News Online's Editor states that beginning in the middle of May, the BBC will be 'completely liberating the availability of its content' using its Really Simple Syndication (RSS) tool. 'So in May we'll be happy for outside websites to dip in and take our headlines'"
Just imagine (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just imagine (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just imagine (Score:2)
already there (Score:2, Informative)
Re:already there (Score:1)
I don't get it (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't really understand what RSS has to do with this. Why would adding an additional protocol, suddenly make them more amenable to others "dipping" into their headlines? After all, the HTML technology of the web allows others to use t
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it (Score:2)
Incidentally, the BBC has had RSS feeds for at least a year so why this is new news I do not know.
I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wonder... (Score:1, Informative)
Because of precisely that. The election part of the BBC's site takes up a considerable amount of resources - ditto Wimbledon and other national events. RSS is the next project in the list and rolling it out mid-election is stretching a little too much.
the BBC (Score:5, Informative)
Re:the BBC (Score:2, Informative)
Points of correction. Welsh and Scottish people also pay a TV license in the UK. I'm pretty sure they do in Northern Ireland too.
It's also only one license per household not each person watching TV. I think Pensioners get a free license now and you don't need one to listen to radio.
It does pay for the BBC and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than cable. Theres more to watch too.
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
It does pay for the BBC and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than cable. Theres more to watch too.
And it's a helluvalot better quality programming. One of the few good things about living in this island really...
Re:the BBC (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Still not British (Score:2)
You're seriously telling us that a Scot would pay his license fee?
Re:the BBC (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Re:the BBC (Score:3, Interesting)
Can we add a moderation type? Specifically, I'd like to add "Wrong (-1)" for posts that are simply factually incorrect. The parent post, for example, I would love to mod "Wrong". It doesn't rise to the level of flamebait, it's not redundant, it's not overrated...it's wrong.
Re:the BBC (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
I'd like to see the BBC paid for out of the general taxation system. It would be fairer, and they could save money on the ludicrous enforcement system.
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Would it? I'd imagine those few Brits who don't own a TV (and thus don't pay for a license) would disagree...
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Re:the BBC (Score:3, Informative)
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Re:the BBC (Score:3, Interesting)
Many people like a slightly more socialist approach to taxation. Personally I think taxes here in the UK could happily rise a few percent.
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
Although if you look at income taxes, ignore national insurance (ie assume an American has to pay health insurance), and count in state income taxes... the difference in taxation excluding VAT is not massive
I'm not sure how sales tax works over there though, whether everyone has to pay it up the chain or whether it's just (like here) at tax on the added value of the goods above production costs (which just happens to be paid by the purc
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
It's always applied at the end when the product is on sale, however all goods must be priced including VAT (So the price you see is the price you pay).
Re:the BBC (Score:2)
And it's doing a good job. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, it's all those things, and yet it does a better job than all your free market organizations riddled with their bureaucracy, massive egos, huge salaries, unhealthy festering cliques and class A drug habits paid for off the back of their subscribers.
You simply don't like the fact that our TV crap is better quality than your TV crap, doesn't irritate the hell out of people with adverts, and is free to RSS to the world. Grow up, and enjoy the competition resulting from a different market model. Oh and by the way, our tax is a hell of a lot less than you guys pay for TV.
Re:Is that why... (Score:2)
If it becomes a tax on computers - fine. I'll get a ZX spectrum.
If it becomes a tax on Internet-capable computers - fine, I'll plug an ISA ethernet card into a 386, put Linux on it and put it on the Internet. "Try watching streaming video on that, your honour."
Seems to me that we have technology giving us infinitely more flexibility in how we do things and media companies who aren't prepared for this and so are trying t
Re:Is that why... (Score:2, Interesting)
We can use this to weed out spammers (if email access has to be tied to a specific license, and mail servers can be set to reject all 'anonymous' receipts), reduce advertising, and maybe enforce some sort of compulsary training scheme for internet newbies. (e.g. don't run email vbs scripts, you stupid, stupid boy....)
Obviously, there are technical questions that need to be answered, but maybe a little regulation isn't a bad thing, in the right hands
Re:Is that why... (Score:2)
I am not installing Windows just for the privilege of watching TV over the 'net. And if they won't make a Linux player available for whatever format they choose, I am not paying a license fee. That's not something I'm prepared to negotiate
Re:And it's doing a good job. (Score:3, Insightful)
Is that why I can't get *any* satellite or cable subscription with just the channels I want, and none of the shitty shopping channels, evangelical Christian channels and other crap I'm not interested in?
Channel 4 do many programmes that are at least as good as the BBC if not better.
And ITV and Sky show many, many programs that utterly without merit (IMHO, of course). We could throw examples like that at each other all night,
Re:And it's doing a good job. (Score:2)
Interesting example. A commercial model but another state broadcaster. Seems whatever way you look at it, companies run by the state produce better television.
Re:And it's doing a good job. (Score:2)
Channel 4 do many programmes that are at least as good as the BBC if not better.
Bear in mind though that Channel 4 is a goverment organisation of sorts. It is owned 100% by the UK government but operates independently. This is important as it can take more risks as the agreement it has protects its revenue to a point becuase if it falls below a certain level then the taxpayer will step in a make up the difference. This has though never occured in the 20 on year history of the channel.
It also means that
Re:And it's doing a good job. (Score:1, Funny)
Clearly you've never seen Channel 4's Big Brother then? 24/7 coverage is on E4.
Re:And it's doing a good job. (Score:1)
You obviously don't have digital tv, if you had pressed the red button you could of watched it for 24 hours a day.
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:5, Interesting)
Essentially the BBC's job is to question the government and the opposition. They are a about as un-biased as you will get but the rest of the media makes them seem biased because they follow the route of hounding after 'celebrities' and the money big business provides. Or else they pander (like the Daily Mail) to small-minded thoughts that cease to have any bearing 3 miles outside someone's home: The "lock up the criminal scum (poor/black/non-christian people) but don't you dare build any prisons near MY house" mentality.
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:5, Insightful)
Relative to the US media, they are left wing. But the US broadcast media is very right wing, in any case.
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:2)
Which means... absolutely nothing. See, there's these people called "editors" and "programmers", and it's *their* responsibility to decide what does and does not get reported. Moreover, they're controlled by people even further up the food chain. Thus, the political affiliation of a particular reporter has essentially nothing to do with th
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:2, Insightful)
US news is right leaning because (a) there is no left wing analogue to Fox news, (b) government has far greater degrees of control (implicit and explicit) on what reports can say. It is further right leaning, because outspoken political criticism is taboo - it simply does exist in the mainstream media.
Of course, we need major qualifiers on this. Firstly, we need to work o
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:2)
Sky News may be from the gutter but at least they don't get done for lying, unlike Fox News. [guardian.co.uk]
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:1)
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:4, Insightful)
As for papers, have you ever read the Independent? The story on the front page is actually a story. They don't publish stories about David Beckham's latest haircut, and the don't publish idle celebrity gossip (in fact, no mention was made of the Blunkett affair until it transpired that he may have used his powers inappropriately). Admittedly, sometimes they can be a bit heavy with the anti-Bush sentiment, but I think they are the most impartial of the dailies.
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:1)
Left: Channel 4
Centre: BBC
Right: Sky News, ITV news(?)
The broadsheet newspapers:
Right: Daily Telegraph
Centre-right: Times, Financial Times
Centre-left: Guardian
Left: Independent
The tabloid newspapers:
Erratic whackjobs: Sun
Far right: Daily Mail
Left: Daily Mirror
Don't care so long as we get big breasts: Daily Star
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:1)
Try Newsnight [bbc.co.uk] or Question Time [bbc.co.uk], both essentially news programmes. Not incedentally, it's Newsnight's Paxman who is famous for interrogating guests, particularily repeating a question to Michael Howard 14 times because he wasnt satisfied that he got a proper answer (I think there's a video [bbc.co.uk] but I dont have Realplayer). Being interviewed by Paxman is seen like some kind of hazing ritual by policicians. Question Time has the public giving the policicians a hammering - especially the recent election special one.
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:1)
Re:Too bad you can't opt out of BBC News (Score:1)
I for one... (Score:1)
Still faster to listen to fellow techs from Britain online and a lot more colourful too. This can go in the "Yes, but can they make it into efficient text for my cell browser?" Department.
I'd rather have "Fair and Balanced" news... (Score:5, Funny)
Who do they think they are syndicating content without permission from US Copyright courts? [sic]
Re:I'd rather have "Fair and Balanced" news... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:I'd rather have "Fair and Balanced" news... (Score:2, Insightful)
There is no reasonable guide for what is "fair". The extreams (both left and right) have been bashing away at the means of determining if something has gone off ballence.
At best Fox provides a diffrent spin from the rest of the news media.
I've watched the BBC news feeds and while there is spin it's not that bad.
Between BBC, CNN and Fox you'll have enough peaces to
Re:I'd rather have "Fair and Balanced" news... (Score:1)
Ah, yes, RSS... (Score:1, Troll)
On the same day as H2G2 is released in the US? (Score:1)
Great formats and programs, but balance problems (Score:3, Insightful)
However, all is not well with the news content. The BBC is famous for switching to "propaganda mode" whenever British interests are involved, as good as they are with things that are far away. Also, there are been repeated charges of a systematic anti-Israeli bias [honestreporting.com] in their coverage.
They do great work, but for all the gushing, do remember they have their share of problems.
balance problem ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ummm.
Maybe I'm missing something, but the 'honestreporting.com' site does seem to have a single aim of increasing the amount of PR favouring Jewish interests.
If you are after balance, it strikes me as odd that you would refer
I am not a particular fan of the BBC, and its 'youth' shows are shockingly bad, especially radio 1, which is for tards. But its news is pretty good, in an up-itself British sort of way.
Re:balance problem ? (Score:2)
The Essential Mix is an awesome show. I've got mixes from some of the world's best DJs they did for TEM on Radio 1 and they're phenomenal.
"If the bass is too deep, you are to weak.
If the music is too loud, you are too old!"
Re:Great formats and programs, but balance problem (Score:2, Interesting)
Example from your link:
"This is a highly sensitive issue," the narrator says, but "the majority of neo-conservatives have been and remain Jewish...are strongly pro-Zionist and want to topple regimes in the Middle East to help Israel..." Says bbcwatch, "It is hard to find clear blue water between these theorie
Re:Great formats and programs, but balance problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering the amount of disagreements the BBC has had with the goverment of the day durin its time maybe it should be called an Anti-Propaganda Mode.
The BBC while not perfect is generally held to alot higher standard then other broadcasters, and I think that is something to be proud of.
Re:Great formats and programs, but balance problem (Score:1, Interesting)
"For Zion's sake I will not be silent,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest."
Isaiah 62:1
While individual programmes broadcasted by the BBC may contain some bias, I think it is fair to assume that honestreporting.com has an even larger bias, given its aff
Well, if both sides hate them... (Score:2, Informative)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2402.shtm
Seems to me, they've got the balance pretty right.
Re:Great formats and programs, but balance problem (Score:2, Insightful)
The reason that these allegations are made is because the Israeli government is used to the overwhelming pro-Israeli bias in the US media. When foreign (not just British) media displays any kind of balance (by, say, criticising a decision made by the Israeli government) then cries of 'Anti-Semite' go up.
Re:Great formats and programs, but balance problem (Score:1)
Correct w/ regard to the definition of a semite, but wrong for the definition of an anti-semite.
Anti-Semitism was term coined to specificaly refer to hatred against Jews, not semites in general. Read that [wikipedia.org] for more info than I can be bothered to type.
Contradictory names? (Score:3, Insightful)
Kinda like the MPEG-4 "Advanced Simple Profile," maybe.
Re:Contradictory names? (Score:2)
Re:Contradictory names? (Score:1)
Great job !! (Score:1)
Slashdot violating the BBC's license? (Score:5, Interesting)
Further investigation shows this page [bbc.co.uk] which indicates that UK Based sites can also make free use of the syndicated feeds. It seems other sites need to license them.
BBC started testing a while ago (Score:2)
Re:Slashdot violating the BBC's license? (Score:1)
Re:Slashdot violating the BBC's license? (Score:2)
Right, snooker requires RSS (Score:1)
What's a whore to do? (Score:1, Troll)
Maybe (Score:1)
Do you really have to do all that editing of live bookmarks etc to add an RSS feed (on the 99% of sites which don't give you the little icon in the bottom right corner of the screen automatically)?
Re:But this exists already... (Score:3, Insightful)
Theres only one reasonable explanation.. (Score:2, Funny)
sure they say its ok now, but just when you feel safe publishing their stories that claim will have mysteriously dissapeared from their site..
thats when the lawsuits start.
Re:Theres only one reasonable explanation.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Nah, I'm sure it won't be the whole stories, just all the headlines and some snippets so you can send other people to their site from yours. Half-assed viral marketing.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:But this exists already... (Score:5, Informative)
Reuters [reuters.co.uk]
The Times [timesonline.co.uk]
The Guardian (interesting... the content is free but if you want to read it in a paper format you can subscribe) [guardian.co.uk]
The Sun [thesun.co.uk]
The Mirror [mirror.co.uk]
ITN Sites [itn.co.uk], e.g. Channel 4 News [channel4.com]
The Scotsman (a surprisingly large online presence) [scotsman.com]
The sites you mention: FT and Telegraph, it isn't surprising they charge as they have concentrated readerships with higher levels of disposable income, so why not go for a straightforward revenue model?
I have no doubt that the popularity of BBC news is for reasons consistent with the popularity of their television and radio news: high quality and impartial in a way commercially sponsored news could not be (commercial news also remains very popular: the total cross-media circulation of ITN, Times, Sun, etc is massive).
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
Reuters does not put all of its stuff on the web. It is a mixed subscription + free model.
Sun is not a newspaper. It is a form of porn disguised as news. It does not serve the same audience.
The Mirror is not a newspaper. It is a form of prudish porn disguised as news. It also does not server audience that plans to read news.
Times is planning to go to a subscription model. In fact, I think they are trialing a system for charging non-UK subscribers.
This in fact leaves only the Guardian and t
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2, Insightful)
I read a while ago an article (IIRC from The Guardian, whom almost certainly finds BBC as it's biggest competetor online) complaining how BBC websites are paid by the domestic licence fee and yet a massive chunk of it's cost is from foreign readers.
You cant just buy that kind of advertising of British culture, or influence of British values. Nobody ever complained about people in Africa learning English (proper English, I might add) from BBC Worldwide. Online: Americans, Chinese, Iraqis, perhaps a few No
Re:But this exists already... (Score:5, Interesting)
To have other sites using their news feed will enhance the reputation of the Corporation further and can only be a good thing as far as they are concerned. Because they strongly depend upon their reputation when it comes to gettting funding it's a win-win situation.
That's a very good reason for the decision.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
No, it's horribly biased by British culture. I remember during the DC sniper case, their American correspondent couldn't get it through her head that Americans weren't going to rise up and demand a national gun ban. She went into a gun-store like it was a weapons depot in some third-world country.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:3, Insightful)
In actual fact here reporting was reflecting the fact that your average man on the street in Britain is opposed to gun public ownership.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
I said no such thing. "Bias" doesn't imply a deliberate attempt to shape public opinion. An unbiased news source is one that doesn't slant coverage in any direction, even if it conforms to public opinion.
In actual fact here reporting was reflecting the fact that your average man on the street in Britain is opposed to gun public ownership.
First off, I was watch
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
I said no such thing. "Bias" doesn't imply a deliberate attempt to shape public opinion. An unbiased news source is one that doesn't slant coverage in any direction, even if it conforms to public opinion.
Oh I see, a bit like FOX news ?.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
Oh, no, wait, it isn't.
Sorry to disappoint you, but real people aren't stereotypes, and you can't defeat them with straw-men. I think Fox is every bit as biased as the BBC, Guardian, NY Times, or Pravda. Try again.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:1)
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
All fine and good, but irrelevant to the question of bias. If the average Briton thinks McDonalds is an evil corporation, that doesn't mean the BBC is unbiased if it portrays Micky-Ds as an evil corporation in its coverage.
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2)
Re:But this exists already... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:But this exists already... (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe someone at the Beeb has seen the screensaver (Score:5, Interesting)
The screensaver shows a swirling mist of RSS headlines from a selected feed, and every few seconds zooms in on one, lets you read it, then twists it away into vapor.
Hard to describe, but there's a movie here [engadget.com] which shows it in action.
Pure eye candy of course, but majorly cool!
Re:Maybe someone at the Beeb has seen the screensa (Score:2)
Re:But this exists already... (Score:1)
Re:Partage (Score:3, Informative)
no its greek actually
[Shortening (modeled on gene), of mimeme from Greek mimma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate. See mimesis.]
even the American dictionary [reference.com] gets that right, i guess your schooling didnt though, not suprising though.