ip neutral and why the ceeb will NEVER be the beeb. le sigh.

***update

the cbc does indeed fund and partner certain initiatives in this regard, such as the digital development initiative with nmbc and bc film: link

reading up on the bbc innovation labs, which were recently relaunched after a hiatus of sorts in the uk. it’s highly awesome, and fills me with a sense of envy towards the monarchy, a bit of frustration to know that our own people’s-history-of-hockey-cbc doesn’t have the resources nor would ever do anything as risky/dare i say innovative as this, radio 3 aside. interesting that the bbc, a state-supported organization no less, is fostering this type of exploration and experimentation, and providing the resources to make ideas fly. mmmm!

the deal with the bbc innovation labs is this:

The Innovation Labs are a series of creative workshops for interdisciplinary teams of professional creative technologists, application designers, software developers and interactive media designers, working across both Future Media & Vision platforms.

We are inviting independent companies from across England, Scotland and Wales to pitch ideas in response to a briefs set by New Media & Vision commissioners across the BBC.

moar…

arts & crafts revisited

***update below***

a few weeks ago i gave a talk on the arts & crafts movement that emerged during the latter part of victorian britain, from roughly 1860 to 1900, and i was taken with the similarities between now and then, in relation to the changes and/or transformation our culture has undergone over the past twenty years or so; and i think i’m still in teacher-mode, so this is a bit of a long post. while the circumstances and contexts are very different, there are arguable parallels in the nature of how people responded. lately i find myself more and more fascinated by the past incidents of massive change, thinking about what insights into the future can be gained by looking back.

bit of history…. originating a few centuries prior with the printing press, the industrial revolution took hold in the early 1800′s with the advent of mechanized innovations in the textile industry, and the mechanization of labour quickly spread to other industries and spurred the production of goods towards extraordinary volumes, creating a greater need for regulated tradeways (rail, road, canal, etc) and urban development. mass production of goods was rampant, newly established factories hired workforces in the thousands, and a new middle class of entrepreneurs and nouveau riche emerged.

by mid-century, the industrial revolution was reaching the crest of its first wave, transforming every aspect of british culture while it gained strength as a global empire. it’s critical to remember that these changes were happening for the first time ever, accelerating human life into the modern age at a pace that barely allowed time to gain vantage on the present before hurtling into the future, all the while changing the expectations of what that future might hold.

more after the jump…