Web 2.0 Nic Newman of the BBC

Search and Web 2.0 Nic Newman, Project Lead BBC Search opens the debate. Web 2.0 is useful for the BBC for where we need to get to with our services, he says to open his speech, talking of the cross media future of the broadcaster.
BBC calls search find and is becoming more and more important in the digital age. Newman connects find to play and share, which is the BBC strategy for Web 2.0.
"our whole business is being changed by the deluge of digital content. It used to be that people could always find BBC content, it was number one or two on the dial, but now with so many channel, and the ways people find content has come under strain," he says.
The on-demand wave of media is really going to make search struggle. "Huge amounts of user generated content is being hosted on the BBC website, where do we list that material. The next big thing is to open up the archives, 70-80 years worth of content, how on earth are we going to list all that, search is a key part of that future."
The deluge of digital media content is driving the need for more effective tagging and searching, hs slide states. Technology will be needed to automate indexing adn unlock value of media archives, human's just can't keep up.
"We need to come up with better ways for tagging content, and using some of the users of our content to help with that process. On toip of that we can build fantastic new interfaces to help people find content they are looking for, but also serendipity for discovering other material.
"We are the bigest content site in the UK, 50% of UK online users come to a BBC site every week. There will be many different routes in to content, tv, radio programmes will need to have appropriate luggage tags to help people find it.
"A sopecific example of this is out podcast, only 20% of people using the Today programme podcast find it through the BBC interface, 80% come from another interface, mainly Apple iTunes."
"Once you have great content, all episodes, all assets, transcripts, images must be tied together with tagging to bring it all together. In the play part, the appropriate device and how do we allow people to share, so they can post on blogs and create links. The central image is that we have to think of a programme like The Power of Nightmare, in the new world that programme has the potential to be enjoyed for decades to come."
Demonstrates an example of NHS Direct being integrated into a folksonomic search on the BBC site. His examples use a lot of community ideas, young mothers creating areas of baby related shows and content that would be useful to other mothers.
"The push side of recommending side of this is very important to the BBC and there is a huge overlap with search navigation, we expect our search interfaces to push content in the future. In the future there will be overlays to add personal preferred sites on top of BBC content you are looking at. We can expose other experiences. We want to combine our own editorial skills with the wisdom of the crowds. We also want to take into account what people are doing. We can make sure the right types of sites are reaching them."
Newman is also looking to use ratings by users for film ratings for example.
Currently piloting an anotatable audio project, this will enable users to tag elements of an interview on the Today programme for example. That information will then put back into the search results.
"We are going to have spend a lot more time thinking about how we tag our content and join up process right back in the production process.
"Search will become crucial in the fabric of our interfaces. We want to re-use all the user generated information we generate to enable people to have richer and more relevant experiences going forward."