Can you make a documentary series about the digital revolution online using revolutionary online techniques? Errr…..perhaps not. At Beeb Camp there was a fascinating presentation by a duo from a BBC project in production which aims to tell the history of the Internet. The Digital Revolution will be a four-part documentary series about our new bright shiny digital world. The producers want to make it using social media – Wikipaedia, Delicious etc They want to live the Digital Revolution itself: “we’re not starting the conversation we are joining it”.
They want to make it a multi platform experience with open source access to the research and the materials created. The technology team are aware that they might be making a promise they can’t fulfil. They may get far more interaction than they can handle. And they won’t be able to include everyone’s perspective. They know that at the end of the day they have to make a ‘tightly crafted programme’.
The tech team also have to convince the ‘linear’ production team that it won’t be a drain on their time, in other words, that the transaction costs are manageable.But as we are finding out, crowd-sourcing can become unmanageable, a cacophony of voices. You have to encourage public participation with a purpose and invest in the resources to make it happen.
And despite the revolutionary title, the BBC team are likely to come up with a sordid commercial obstacle. How can they put all the material online and make it available if it’s covered by precious international copyright or distribution deals?
It all sounds very complicated, but that doesn’t make it wrong to try.
As one of the pair who presented the ‘Digital Revolution’ piece at BeeBCamp, I can say we’re unreservedly chuffed to have been blogged about already. I only wish I had a live URL to share with you – such a work in progress is Digital Revolution (working title).
Fair comments above. We do have a boggling array of issues ahead of us in attempting to make our production process as open as possible.
We’re trying to call this an ‘open production’ rather than an ‘open source production’, as we don’t want to mislead people. It’s unlikely people will be able to write the scripts, film footage for inclusion in the programme, or access the editing process to actively co-author the documentary, things perhaps the open source label suggests.
Our approach may be more akin to that of GoldCorp’s request for help http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/22/a-deeper-look-at-the-netflix-innovation-contest/ We’re looking for the wisdom IN the crowd, rather than the wisdom OF the crowd – hoping to be guided towards stories and information to inform the documentary process – and give full credit to those who help us in this and hopefully reward with early released footage of interviews and material online.
We want to share as much as possible. We want to join the conversation. We want to learn and, in turn, provide knowledge and links on the road to telling a story of the web, past, present and future. We want to make a damn fine documentary series.
Whatever the level of openness we achieve, however, one thing is certain – we will always be honest when engaging online communities.
Cheers,
Dan