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[News] Free Software Embraced by All by UK Government

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Collaboration is the new revolution

,----[ Quote ]
| Big corporations, such as IBM, Google and Amazon, are devourers of open 
| source software because they find it cheap, efficient, low-maintenance and 
| reliable. But UK government departments, including health and the foreign 
| office, have proved risk-averse with hardly any open source in their 
| infrastructure. At the last count, the Treasury that Mr Brown ran did less 
| than 1% of its operations with open source. This is strange because open 
| source combines the cooperative spirit that was at the heart of the Labour 
| party in the past with the entrepreneurial skills needed today. No wonder 
| David Cameron called the prime minister an analogue politician in a digital 
| age.         
`----

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/18/editorial.open.source

It's the Microsoft moles.


Recent:

Newham and Microsoft prepare another MOU

,----[ Quote ]
| Steel had claimed the first MOU had been superseded when we put it to him
| that the original deal had failed to meet its key objectives. He insisted the
| objectives had been met. After we published evidence that the original MOU
| had not met its objectives, Steel tried to discredit your humble
| correspondent in his blog. He also shared confidential reports for
| publication in an apparently desperate attempt to find ways to show how the
| Microsoft deal could be justified.
|
| The reports were benchmarks produced by the Society of IT Managers, of which
| Steel is now president. The MOU had achieved all its objectives bar some
| spurious commitment to develop with Microsoft a methodology for measuring the
| performance of the Microsoft deal, said Steel. This done, "We had therefore
| agreed new actions with Microsoft in a progress review last year," Steel
| repeated in his blog. But the original agreement had stipulated that the
| Microsoft deal would propel Newham into the top performing quartile of UK
| councils and that this would be demonstrated in benchmarks drawn up by the
| UK's independent Audit Commission. Councillors opted Microsoft over Open
| Source on this promise in 2004. The deal has failed to meet this objective.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/25/newham-microsoft-prepare-mou


War of words breaks out over Microsoft MOU

,----[ Quote ]
| The salutary lesson to draw from our dealings, Richard, is not whether you
| can trust the press. It is rather a lesson in managing expectations, a
| process every CIO should know well.  
|
| The expectations you invested in your 2004 deal with Microsoft, as enshrined
| in the memorandum of understanding, were also unrealistic.
|
| To recap, the original MOU said the use of Microsoft software would "improve
| Common Performance Assessment results and Star Ratings" measured by the Audit
| Commission.  
|
| The analysis presented in the INQUIRER on Friday demonstrated that this
| expectation had not been met.
|
| When we asked you about this on Friday you told us there was a new MOU. Now
| you accuse us of twisting your words.
|
| How would you prefer to describe what happened to the original agreement? If
| it has not been scrapped, perhaps it has been decommissioned, recycled, sold
| on eBay?  
|
| Having been told you had drawn up a second MOU with Microsoft, we were
| clearly interested to learn what new terms you had agreed in the public
| interest. You said it was confidential. But the first MOU was deemed fit for
| publication under FOI rules.  
|
| You also said the first MOU was only ever a three year deal. But the document
| was accepted by a Council vote as part of a 10-year deal.
|
| Now four years since you signed the original agreement it is proper for us to
| ask how well the public money you are giving Microsoft is spent.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/23/scrapped-microsoft-mou


Newham has a cow over Microsoft MOU

,----[ Quote
| However, Newham has supplied the INQUIRER with internal studies that it says
| do demonstrate that its decision to commit to Microsoft was justified. The
| studies were performed by Socitm, a private public sector consulting firm of
| which Newham COI Steele is a vice president. the INQUIRER will report on
| these findings in due course.
|
| Meanwhile, the original MOU is enlightening. As well as claiming the deal
| would enable Newham to achieve high rankings in Audit Commission assessments,
| it committed Newham to moving all "competitive technology" to Microsoft,
| regardless of the feasibility of such a move.
|
| It also required Steele to promote Microsoft software.
|
| See attached file: Memorandum of Understanding.doc
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/21/microsoft-newham-council-goes


London council dumps Microsoft, may go open source instead

,----[ Quote ]
| NEWHAM LONDON Borough Council has scrapped the controversial 10-year
| Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it signed with Microsoft in 2004 and drawn
| up a new agreement with a new set of deliverables.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/18/microsoft-flagship-flounders


Government faces crunch on Microsoft mega-deal

,----[ Quote ]
| Rumour has it that Microsoft hasn't been feeling appreciated in the public
| sector, thinking its customers don't know what a good deal they've been
| getting since the MOU was first negotiated in 2002. BECTA, the procurement
| quango for the education sector, has recommended schools don't upgrade to
| Microsoft Vista and Office 2007.
|
| [...]
|
| "There's a big anti-Microsoft lobby growing on the green agenda" he said,
| especially among local councils who were beginning to realise that PC's were
| power hungry and expensive to maintain. They were taking interest in
| think-client computers instead.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/15/uk-gov-faces-crunch-microsoft


Related:

Lawmaker blasts U.K. government on Microsoft policy

,----[ Quote ]
| A member of Parliament of the United Kingdom has launched a stinging
| attack on the U.K. government's IT strategy, saying that it has given
| Microsoft too much control.
|
| John Pugh, who is a member of Parliament, or MP, for Southport and a
| member of the Public Accounts Committee, was speaking in an
| adjournment debate on Tuesday that he had called. The aim of the
| debate, he said, was to explore the alternatives to using Microsoft
| software, including open source.
|
| [...]
`----

http://www.news.com/Lawmaker-blasts-U.K.-government-on-Microsoft-policy/2100-1012_3-6212721.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ashm2


Abolish BECTA Now

,----[ Quote ]
| Has it ever occurred to them that if they started negotiating from a position
| of dignity and strength, rather than abject, supine servitude, they might
| just possibly do their job a teensy-weensy bit better?
|
| Microsoft is scared witless by the prospect of open source getting a foothold
| in schools, and would agree to any deal rather than let the UK education
| system discover the power and value of free software.
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=1016&blogid=14


Ian Lynch's take on the BECTA fiasco

,----[ Quote ]
| Fundamentally, I’m not complaining that we were not successful in the
| tender - I have no idea how strong the winning bid was. I’m complaining that
| the tender process adopted was broken. This is despite the fact that 130 MPs
| signed an Early Day Motion in Parliament last year censuring BECTA for
| procurement frameworks that block out Open Source.
`----

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/ian_lynchs_take_becta_fiasco


Becta's Open Source Contract To Alpha Plus Outrages Other Bidders

,----[ Quote ]
| Mark Tylor, the Chief Executive of Sirius, an enterprise support company, has
| written an open letter on the name of Becta, charging it of “cronyism”
| and “political sleaze”.
|
| Mark Tylor claims that the project cannot work out properly, as the
| consultancy that has been awarded with the contract is incapable of handling
| open source project.
`----

http://oss.itproportal.com/articles/2008/06/17/bectas-open-source-contract-alpha-plus-outrages-other-bidders/
http://tinyurl.com/6z5f3t


How not to negotiate a software contract

,----[ Quote ]
| I’m not going to comment on the legal reasons given but the subject of
| Becta’s negotiating position is worth considering. As Glyn Moody eloquently
| points out in his call for Becta’s abolition, Becta’s position could hardly
| be any weaker.
|
| “Has it ever occurred to them that if they started negotiating from a
| position of dignity and strength, rather than abject, supine servitude, they
| might just possibly do their job a teensy-weensy bit better?” he asks.
`----

http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/07/10/how-not-to-negotoate-a-software-contract/
http://tinyurl.com/5jr92k


Open Source UK attacks schools quango

,----[ Quote ]
| The Schools Open Source Project had been intended to encourage the use of
| Open Source software in schools, for education and infrastructure, and it so
| far seems to have achieved the feat of uniting the Open Source community, but
| against it.
|
| Ross Gardler, who bid as part of the not-for-profit OSS-Watch, also raised
| questions about Becta's evaluation process: "Some of the marks on our
| [evaluation] sheet were indicated as having been modified during the
| moderation phase," he said.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/16/open-source-uk-attacks-schools


Row erupts over schools open-source project

,----[ Quote ]
| Taylor went on to urge schools to ignore Becta and the project, adding: "Any
| of the organisations Becta rejected will be your best choice". It also called
| for an open source industry boycott of the project, claiming the project
| was "about jobs for the boys, spin, and discrediting non-proprietary
| software".
`----

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39434136,00.htm


The Groklaw effect hits Becta. And yes, I am coining a new term

,----[ Quote ]
| Right now Becta ( [the UK agency that snubbed the free software
| community]http://www.freesoftwaremagazin[...]) ) is in the process of being
| Groklawed by the free software community. A source close to the events right
| now told me quite clearly that Freedom Of Information Act requests are
| hitting Becta in flurries. In this case, it wasn’t Groklaw that Groklawed
| Becta. Instead, it was The Register with their article on Becta.
|
| [...]
|
| Unlike the Slashdot effect, the Groklaw effect is much more dooming for the
| company receiving it. While the Slashdot effect eventually lessens, and your
| servers can finally stop working overtime, the Groklaw effect are
| longer-lasting, and in order to get it to stop you can either straightened
| your actions, or pay the dearest price for any illegal or unethical action
| you carried out.
|
| If you’re a blogger, I invite you to use this new term. SCO’s being
| Groklawed, OOXML’s been Groklawed, and so is Becta.
`----

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/groklaw_effect_hits_becta_and_yes_i_am_coining_new_term
http://tinyurl.com/6r4smt


The OSC's open letter to Becta

,----[ Quote ]
| If you are a school, ignore Becta's project, ignore Becta, and seek advice
| from the people who are able to give it. Any of the organisations Becta
| rejected will be your best choice.
|
| If you are a member of the Open Source community or industry not yet touched
| by this scandal, boycott the project and refuse to have anything to do with
| it. It's not about 'Open Source', it's about jobs for the boys, spin, and
| discrediting non-proprietary software.
|
| If you are anyone else, throw your hands up in despair at yet more political
| sleaze, cronyism and incompetence, and vote for someone other than the
| current government at the next election, preferably someone with policies on
| Open Source and Open Government.
`----

http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10008436o-2000331761b,00.htm


The Case for Linux in the Classroom

,----[ Quote ]
| Linux is the only OS designed and equipped with Education in mind. Edubuntu,
| a flavor of Linux, is designed with the classroom in mind. It comes
| preinstalled with education software and applications that suit students of
| all grade levels, and even has some handy applications for the teacher too.
`----

http://teachertechblog.com/the-case-for-linux-in-the-classroom/190/


BECTA Rubbishes Almost the Entire UK Open Source Industry

,----[ Quote ]
| I've written a number of times about BECTA, charting its constant flip-flops
| on open source in schools – sometimes damning it, sometimes driving it. Like
| me, you've probably been increasingly confused about BECTA's real attitude to
| free software. Well, I think we know now, following the snubbing of all the
| most experienced UK open source players in the awarding of a major contract
| to promote open source in schools.    
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=912&blogid=14


A learning experience

,----[ Quote ]
| The situation looked to have improved in early May when it was revealed that
| Becta had issued an invitation to tender for a project to set up and run an
| open source schools project.  
|
| As Glyn Moody reports, however, despite bids from the great and the good of
| open source in the UK (supported by the likes of Red Hat and Canonical) the
| contract was awarded to The AlphaPlus Consultancy, a company described as
| having “no known experience or track record in FOSS”.  
`----

http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/06/13/a-learning-experience/


Becta schools deal stuns British open-istas

,----[ Qyuote ]
| He claimed that the decision to snub bidders that included Red Hat-backed
| Sirius and Canonical-backed The Learning Machine exposed Becta’s open
| source “posturings” as a “sham”.  
|
| Becta, which in recent months has been a vocal critic of Microsoft’s
| monopolistic stranglehold on software, invited bidders to tender for
| its “Open Source Schools” project in May.  
|
| At the time it said: “Becta wishes to ensure that schools are aware of and
| can access the wide variety of open source software in the marketplace. To
| achieve this it recognises that they must be supported in its awareness,
| adoption, deployment, use and ongoing development.”  
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/becta_open_source_schools/


Becta, open source and education: Too little, too late?

,----[ Quote ]
| Slow adoption of open source and free software in UK schools can be
| attributed to the same kind of inertia that afflicts SMEs in the UK. It
| arises from a fear of the unknown, misapprehensions of the capabilities of
| the software, over-reliance on trusted suppliers, and general lack of
| awareness of the alternatives - but the major obstacle has been a lack of
| coordination, direction or understanding from the relevant authorities,
| exacerbated by a series of agreements with Microsoft at government level that
| have effectively tied the education system into Microsoft-only solutions.
`----

http://www.itpro.co.uk/603639/becta-open-source-and-education-too-little-too-late


Becta's schools software scheme reported to EC

,----[ Quote ]
| An advisor to Becta, the education technology quango, has complained
| to the European Commission about its procurement process for firms
| to provide online learning platforms and content to British schools.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/08/becta_ec_complaint/


Becta under fire for procurement framework

,----[ Quote ]
| Nineteen MPs have accused a government agency of restricting the
| procurement of software in schools.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/29/becta_procurement_criticised/


BL = Betrayed Library

,----[ Quote ]
| So the BL's idea of progress is locking down books - you know, those
| old-fashioned things without DRM - with patent-encumbered technology.
| That's "giving as wide an audience as possible the most accurate experience
| of reading the real thing"? Only in the minds of rather dim librarians who
| understand nothing about the broader implications of the shiny technology
| they choose. Me, I call it a betrayal of everything the once-great BL stood
| for....
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/08/bl-betrayed-library.html


Good bye, British Library

,----[ Quote ]
| This is an image from the good old days. Microsoft's Jean Paoli hands over
| the OOXML specification to Jan van den Beld, the general secretary of ECMA.
| And you find Adam Farquhar from the British Library, the bearded person on
| the right. The British Library was instrumental to legitimizing the whole
| ECMA and ISO OOXML standardisation process as an 'independent' participant in
| the committee work. ECMA did a brilliant job to mature the specification text
| to get it ISO fast-tracked. Or as the ISO BRM convenor and recent consultant
| for the British Library Alex Brown reflects1:
|
|     Ecma made the road very rocky though, by initially producing a text that
|     was so lousy with faults.
`----

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-61777/good-bye-british-library


Ecma - a case study for vendor capture

,----[ Quote ]
| A small network of people of ECMA International dominated the whole ISO
| process around OOXML while technical experts of national ISO members were
| impeded by committee stuffing, rules bending and political intervention and
| the general restrictions of the revamped ISO/IEC fast-track process.  
|
| [...]
|
| On the right you find a picture of Jan van den Beld, back then general
| secretary of ECMA international who received the 2000 pages from Microsoft
| represented by its employee Jean Paoli (center). Jean Paoli is probably best
| known for taking the Microsoft credit for the standardization of XML. The
| other person with the beard is Adam Farquhar from the British Library, chair
| of ECMA TC 45. You also find the picture on the right in Adam Farquhar's May
| 07 presentation which advocates for OOXML.      
`----

http://www.noooxml.org/ecma-and-vendor-capture


,----[ Quote ]
| And the company Griffin Brown, of which the BRM convenor Alex Brown is the
| director, sent out a press release 13 March 08 celebrating the 10th
| anniversary of XML:  
|
| "Recent moves by Microsoft to standardise its Office products around XML file
| formats merely confirms that most valuable business data in the future will
| be stored in XML. … Alex Brown is convenor of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Ballot
| Resolution Process, and has recently been elected to the panel to advise the
| British Library on how to handle digital submission of journal articles."    
|
| [PJ: A bit of background on the British Library here, but the short version
| is that it uses Microsoft, was a co-sponsor of having Ecma put what is now
| OOXML on the fast track, and says today it is "pleased".] - No OOXML  
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/newsitems.php


British Library books go digital

,----[ Quote ]
| Digitised publications will be accessible in two ways -initially through
| Microsoft's Live Search Books and then via the Library's website.
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7018210.stm


Britain: E-Mail Time Capsule in Works

,----[ Quote ]
| Now the British Library is appealing to ordinary Britons for their
| e-mails, saying it wants to create a snapshot of British life in 2007.
|
| [...]
|
| The e-mails will be collated and indexed by Microsoft Corp., which
| has previously partnered with the library to digitize books from
| its archive, and they will be available to researchers before
| the year's end.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070503/britain_e_mail_archive.html?.v=1


Vista and British Library put da Vinci online

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and the British Library have digitised two of Leonardo da
| Vincis' notebooks.
|
| [...]
|
| The British Library has created an updated version of its application
| called "Turning the Pages" which allows people to browse parts of
| its 150 million piece collection via a web browser. We heard how
| this works better using Vista.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/vinci_notebooks_vista/


Publish And Perish

,----[ Quote ]
| Alexander Rose, the executive director of the futurist Long Now
| Foundation, worries about the impermanence of digital information.
| "If you save that computer for 100 years, will the electrical plugs
| look the same?" he asks. "The Mac or the PC--will they be around?
| If they are, what about the software? " So far there's no business
| case for digital preservation--in fact, for software makers like
| Microsoft, planned obsolescence is the plan.
|
| "The reality is that it's in companies' interest that software should
| become obsolete and that you should have to buy every upgrade,"
| Rose says. We could be on the cusp of a turning point, though, in the
| way businesses and their customers think about digital preservation.
| "Things will start to change when people start losing all of their personal
| photos," Rose said.
`----

http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/books-information-preservation-tech-media_cx_ee_books06_1201acid.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/yyjqoh


British Library calls for digital copyright action

,----[ Quote ]
| In a manifesto released on Monday at the Labor Party Conference
| in Manchester, the United Kingdom's national library warned that the
| country's traditional copyright law needs to be extended to fully
| recognize digital content.
|
| "Unless there is a serious updating of copyright law to recognize
| the changing technological environment, the law becomes an ass,"
| Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, told ZDNet
| UK.
`----

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6119043.html


Crimes Microsoft Gets Away With - So Far

,----[ Quote ]
| News publications are cautious about making accusations, and because of that,
| some nasty acts of Microsoft are essentially being erased from the record.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft convinced Baystar Capital to put $50 Million dollars into SCO's
| lawsuit against IBM and other Open Source users, and promised to "backstop"
| Baystar's investment if SCO lost money, according to this sworn testimony.
| But I'm told that one person's testimony, even sworn testimony, isn't proof.
`----

http://technocrat.net/no-cache/d/2008/7/30/46981


BBC set to name Erik Huggers as Ashley Highfield's successor

,----[ Quote ]
| The BBC is expected to confirm that former Microsoft executive Erik Huggers
| is to replace Ashley Highfield as the new BBC director of future media and
| technology as early as today.
`----

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/15/bbc.digitalmedia?gusrc=rss&feed=media


BBC iPlayer protest report

,----[ Quote
| First on site with me is Tom Chance, Green Party spokesperson on Free
| Software. He has organized for Dr Derek Wall, lead spokesperson for the Green
| Party to join us and make some statements about BBC iPlayer and the Microsoft
| lock-in it establishes.  
|
| [...]
|
| We have 1500 fliers to distribute, that focus on the key issue with the
| iPlayer, and why $130 Million and 4 years of development don't get you much
|                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| when you choose Microsoft DRM.  
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/iPlayerProtestReport


BBC Director General grilled by MPs on iPlayer

,----[ Quote ]
| During the meeting there is discussion of iPlayer’s total cost to the licence
| fee-payer - the BBC representatives are unable to give a figure, but start
| the bidding at £20m, excluding staff costs. Thomson gives incorrect
| information - that Mac and Linux versions of iPlayer have the same
| functionality as Windows versions - and has to change his evidence at the
| end. Perhaps it was this confusion that prompted Dr John Pugh MP to follow up
| the encounter with a letter direct to Mark Thomson today discussing platform
| neutrality in greater detail. A copy of this letter has been passed to the
| Open Rights Group.        
`----

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/01/10/bbc-director-general-grilled-by-mps-on-iplayer/


BBC website £36m 'overspend'

,----[ Quote ]
| THE BBC went almost £36 million over the intended budget for bbc.co.uk in the
| past year, it was disclosed today.
`----

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/technology/s/1051855_bbc_website_36m_overspend?rss=yes?rss=yes


The BBC Has Drunk its Brain

,----[ Quote ]
| Good to see the BBC with its finger on the pulse of computing, bravely
| serving up the facts without fear or favour here:
|
|     Microsoft's next operating system (OS) will come with multi-touch
|     features as an alternative to the mouse.
|
| Rather like the Hewlett-Packard touchscreen system I used back in the 1980s.
|
| [...]
|
| Is this a similar statement to 2003's "Bill Gates said that Longhorn will
| have a unified storage system called WinFS." found at
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3220017.stm
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/05/bbc-has-drunk-its-brain.html


Has the BBC Duped Us over iPlayer?

,----[ Quote ]
| Totally far-out, man. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BLOODY GNU/LINUX VERSION?
|
| I wonder how that complaint about the BBC providing state aid to Microsoft is
| coming along....
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/04/has-bbc-duped-us-over-iplayer.html


Feeling the heat at Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| If I ask you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?  
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that.
`----

http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc


BBC pinches hot new columnist from Microsoft

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/14/bill_gates_bbc_secrets/


Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates

,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411


BBC iPlayer Protests

,----[ Quote ]
| Who are the people responsible for creating this mess?
|
|     * Mark Thompson, BBC director general (DG)
|     * Erik Huggers, group controller at BBC Future Media & Technology
|     * Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology
|
| Right now, there is very considerable concern within the BBC that the actions
| of the Director General and his team are sending the corporation in the wrong
| direction. The BBC has been embroiled in a number of recent controversies,
| all linked back to the DG's leadership.  
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest


Leaked Ofcom blueprint bashes Beeb

,----[ Quote ]
| OFCOM SECRETS have again slipped out, as latest report suggests that the poor
| old BBC may have to ‘donate’ some of its licence fee to other channels.
|
| This leaked information suggests the BBC’s ‘excess’ licence money will be
| given, yes given, to other broadcasters for public service by 2012.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/28/leaked-ofcom-blueprint-favours


Remoulding Microsoft for the web

,----[ Quote ]
| Yesterday two of Microsoft's leading executives, Jean Philippe Courtois, head
| of all Microsoft outside North America, and Gordon Frazer, head of Microsoft
| UK visited BBC News' Business Unit, as part of a series of lunchtime talks we
| arrange with leading businesses.
`----

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/07/remoulding_microsoft_for_the_w.html
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