Back to the point of this: Tod Maffin's post on Inside the CBC leaves me with some questions. According to the post, the CBC is revamping it's website so that people can
comment on items rate them link to them from their blog or website subscribe to specific types of content search for specific video content submit user-generated content.
So, is the CBC getting into the content business, or the software business?
There are already many sites that allow you to do these things. Sites such as del.icio.us, digg.com, not to mention Google and YouTube already allow you to comment on items, rathe them, link them to your blog or website, subscribe to them, search for specific video content and submit user generated content.
They allow you to do this with any and all content, including that produced by the CBC. So, if you wanted the latest information on say Afghanistan it's a fairly simple matter to get all of the latest info from a number of sources. You can then get that content delivered to you on your cell phone, via email, or on your myYahoo, myGoogle, myAOL etc.,
I think it's great that the CBC can get feedback on items, and it should allow for comments, questions and differing opinions and respond to them. What I don't understand is why the CBC would, in effect, challenge companies like Google/Youtube and Digg.com on their own turf? Why spend the money to reinvent technology that's already out there and what is the incentive for people to use the CBC proprietary site to do these things when they actually have access to less content than they do using the preexisting services?
Perhaps I simply don't know the whole plan? Perhaps I am missing something? But I run a small website set up to promote and encourage Canadian content but in creating it I didn't try to reinvent the wheel. I used technology that is already there, and largely free to use.
It seems to me that the CBC's first priority should be removing restrictions from it's content. In setting up the previously mentioned website I usually could not directly promote CBC content. I had to wait for it to show up on Google, YouTube or del.icio.us and then get the content from one of those companies (for free). CBC's restrictions on the use of it's feeds made it impossible to do otherwise.
Personally I think the priorities for the CBC web site should be to allow feedback and commentary. Beyond that the CBC should loosen restrictions on it's content, and then create a small team of people to make sure that the content gets out there using existing technology - in other words to make sure that it gets tagged for del.icio.us and digg, to help and encourage people to get it on their blogs and websites, etc., - this creates an automatic viral kind of marketing that ultimately draws a wider audience.
I have said before that one of the problems the CBC has is that the only place you hear about CBC programming is on the CBC's air, or its website. So people who don't watch or listen to CBC tend to continue not watching or listening. In setting up the Friends of the CBC Myspace I have this confirmed on a regular basis. I talk to people almost daily who only found out about a program or a special that was coming up, or even a podcast through that MySpace page. Now the CBC seems prepared to expend a great deal of resources (financial and otherwise) to perpetuate that problem - to build a closed environment for it's content which is actually contrary to the Web 2.0 ideal. Web 2.0 is not just about technology, applications, and web sites - it is about open doors and the free flow of information.
If I'm missing something here someone please tell me what it is.
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