5 ms·

Campaign urges BBC News to release full text RSS feeds

22 points by pclark 17y ago

pclark 17y ago
here's the direct url: http://bbcfree.net http://bbcfree.net
kierank 17y ago
This would be pretty useful. The best use of the BBC's RSS feeds that I've seen was on a ferry and they had BBC screens showing the latest news.
pierrefar 17y ago
Given that the tax payers (and I'm one of them!) fund the BBC, we shouldn't be needing to demand this from them. They should've done it ages ago without prompting. It's our money that paid for it and we should have unfettered access. Come on Beebs, release your feeds! I'm seeing a parallel to government funded academic research that comes with stipulations that the resulting publications should be Open Access.
- pclark 17y ago
  that was kind of my point, but I didn't want to sound too aggressive by saying that yet ;)
  - pierrefar 17y ago
    Well someone needs to hammer the point home. Also, this may fall on very favourable ears: part of the most recent govrenment, ummm, cabinet improvement was a move to open up the UK government's data. RWW has a nice piece on it: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/open_goverment_berners-lee_and_the_uk_to_show_obam.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/open_goverment_berners-... And who's in charge of this? None other than Tim Berners-Lee.
    - dtf 17y ago
      Hmmm.... I wonder if they'll let him do what he really wants to do with it? The UK govt has made a number of high-profile - dare I say, "celebrity" - appointments at the moment (see also Alan Sugar, Martha Lane Fox). So do they want the best person for the job, or is it just a matter of the publicity and the prestige? As a citizen, I think TBL is an excellent choice for the job. Will the govt be able to stomach his changes? I sincerely hope we don't see him resigning from his post in 6 months, citing "unassailable differences of viewpoint with his employer".
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  I strongly agree. There's a license fee in Ireland too (where I'm from) and they do the same thing, one sentence news feeds. If you're getting funded by mandatory public contributions, then you don't really own your content, the public does. I don't care if the BBC's management wants to drive people to their website. In fact, I don't care about the wants of the BBC management at all. Besides, the textual news content even on the website is pretty shallow. People will still visit the website to get more information by watching a video.
- jrg 17y ago
  Of course the BBC sometimes (often?) take their news from the agencies (PA, AP, etc.) and then it gets complicated. (and let's not even start on what the Daily Fail and other vocal competitors will say.)
simonw 17y ago
The Guardian (disclaimer: my employer) are one of the only newspapers in the world to provide full content RSS feeds: http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2008/oct/22/full-fat-rss-feed-upgrade http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2008/oct/22/fu...
- pclark 17y ago
  are you the simonw involved with the API project?
  - simonw 17y ago
    Yes, and the MP's expenses project.
    - pclark 17y ago
      Awesome. We're based in Cambridge [UK] so if you ever want to chat news over a beer ...
      - simonw 17y ago
        I don't get up there often, but the Guardian is right next to Kings Cross - drop me a line at simon.willison@guardian dot couk if you're in the area.
- pierrefar 17y ago
  I have to say: this is how the Guardian won me over as a regular reader.
- ilitirit 17y ago
  I'd actually prefer a choice between summarized and full content. I've got The Guardian's feed on my phone, but it's awkward browsing it because of the lengthy articles. I'd prefer a summarized feed for mobile devices.
halo 17y ago
For UK readers, the majority of which are license fee payers, I agree. But I'm not sure about international visitors as the BBC generates revenue from ads shown on their site, so I'm not sure if it would make sound financial sense and be good use of the taxpayers money if it would impact their revenue stream. The downside is that people using online readers would be hit in the cross-fire, but that's unavoidable.
- pclark 17y ago
  what ads?
  - halo 17y ago
    The BBC shows ads on its website to non-UK visitors and have done since 2007. From http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2007/10_october/bbc.com.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestori...: "The BBC Trust has approved proposals for the BBC to establish bbc.com, a commercial venture to offer advertising on the BBC's international online service for users outside the UK. UK users' experience of bbc.co.uk will not be affected. ... bbc.com will use robust geo-IP technology (see Editor's Notes) to separate out international visitors to the site." From these ads, they made £1.5m ($3m) in the 5 months after launch (from the BBC Annnual Report at http://www.bbcworldwide.com/annualreviews/review2008/Digital_Media.aspx http://www.bbcworldwide.com/annualreviews/review2008/Digital...).
    - pclark 17y ago
      they should just put them in the full article feed, then
keyvan 17y ago
Until they do implement this, there's always http://fivefilters.org/content-only/ http://fivefilters.org/content-only/

22 points by pclark 17y ago

here's the direct url: http://bbcfree.net http://bbcfree.net

This would be pretty useful. The best use of the BBC's RSS feeds that I've seen was on a ferry and they had BBC screens showing the latest news.

pierrefar 17y ago

Given that the tax payers (and I'm one of them!) fund the BBC, we shouldn't be needing to demand this from them. They should've done it ages ago without prompting. It's our money that paid for it and we should have unfettered access. Come on Beebs, release your feeds! I'm seeing a parallel to government funded academic research that comes with stipulations that the resulting publications should be Open Access.

pclark 17y ago
that was kind of my point, but I didn't want to sound too aggressive by saying that yet ;)
- pierrefar 17y ago
  Well someone needs to hammer the point home. Also, this may fall on very favourable ears: part of the most recent govrenment, ummm, cabinet improvement was a move to open up the UK government's data. RWW has a nice piece on it: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/open_goverment_berners-lee_and_the_uk_to_show_obam.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/open_goverment_berners-... And who's in charge of this? None other than Tim Berners-Lee.
  - dtf 17y ago
    Hmmm.... I wonder if they'll let him do what he really wants to do with it? The UK govt has made a number of high-profile - dare I say, "celebrity" - appointments at the moment (see also Alan Sugar, Martha Lane Fox). So do they want the best person for the job, or is it just a matter of the publicity and the prestige? As a citizen, I think TBL is an excellent choice for the job. Will the govt be able to stomach his changes? I sincerely hope we don't see him resigning from his post in 6 months, citing "unassailable differences of viewpoint with his employer".
anigbrowl 17y ago
I strongly agree. There's a license fee in Ireland too (where I'm from) and they do the same thing, one sentence news feeds. If you're getting funded by mandatory public contributions, then you don't really own your content, the public does. I don't care if the BBC's management wants to drive people to their website. In fact, I don't care about the wants of the BBC management at all. Besides, the textual news content even on the website is pretty shallow. People will still visit the website to get more information by watching a video.
jrg 17y ago
Of course the BBC sometimes (often?) take their news from the agencies (PA, AP, etc.) and then it gets complicated. (and let's not even start on what the Daily Fail and other vocal competitors will say.)

simonw 17y ago

The Guardian (disclaimer: my employer) are one of the only newspapers in the world to provide full content RSS feeds: http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2008/oct/22/full-fat-rss-feed-upgrade http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2008/oct/22/fu...

pclark 17y ago
are you the simonw involved with the API project?
- simonw 17y ago
  Yes, and the MP's expenses project.
  - pclark 17y ago
    Awesome. We're based in Cambridge [UK] so if you ever want to chat news over a beer ...
    - simonw 17y ago
      I don't get up there often, but the Guardian is right next to Kings Cross - drop me a line at simon.willison@guardian dot couk if you're in the area.
pierrefar 17y ago
I have to say: this is how the Guardian won me over as a regular reader.
ilitirit 17y ago
I'd actually prefer a choice between summarized and full content. I've got The Guardian's feed on my phone, but it's awkward browsing it because of the lengthy articles. I'd prefer a summarized feed for mobile devices.

halo 17y ago

For UK readers, the majority of which are license fee payers, I agree. But I'm not sure about international visitors as the BBC generates revenue from ads shown on their site, so I'm not sure if it would make sound financial sense and be good use of the taxpayers money if it would impact their revenue stream. The downside is that people using online readers would be hit in the cross-fire, but that's unavoidable.

pclark 17y ago
what ads?
- halo 17y ago
  The BBC shows ads on its website to non-UK visitors and have done since 2007. From http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2007/10_october/bbc.com.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestori...: "The BBC Trust has approved proposals for the BBC to establish bbc.com, a commercial venture to offer advertising on the BBC's international online service for users outside the UK. UK users' experience of bbc.co.uk will not be affected. ... bbc.com will use robust geo-IP technology (see Editor's Notes) to separate out international visitors to the site." From these ads, they made £1.5m ($3m) in the 5 months after launch (from the BBC Annnual Report at http://www.bbcworldwide.com/annualreviews/review2008/Digital_Media.aspx http://www.bbcworldwide.com/annualreviews/review2008/Digital...).
  - pclark 17y ago
    they should just put them in the full article feed, then

keyvan 17y ago

Until they do implement this, there's always http://fivefilters.org/content-only/ http://fivefilters.org/content-only/