Who should be the next Web guru of the BBC? Vote now!
April 15 Mike Butcher
Following the heated debate surrounding my post about how the BBC should now pick a head who can open up the corporation’s massive platform to outside developers and startups, I’ve decided to run a poll listing a very wide field of internal candidates (since we don’t know who will apply from outside as yet). So get voting!
April 15th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
April 16th, 2008 at 8:55 am
April 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Comments
April 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Mike, um, seriously - who outside of the BBC and maybe you bloggers will have heard, let alone know enough about these people?
I vote for Tom Loosemore, but if I had to choose from this list I’d pitch in for Richard Deverall. Or was it a secret ballot?
Someone emailed me to see if I was going to apply (er, no).
April 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Cough.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
James Cridlanf is by far the best slash coolest person there. The votes say it already.
w1n!1!!1twelve!!!1!
April 15th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Ben - Ok, so I might consider adding Tom to the list except for the fact he just left after a million years for a job at Ofcom and seems much happier with the new commute!
As for Cridland - I can just tell this is going to get spammed by geeks now, right
April 15th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Cory Doctorow……
April 15th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Obviously it would be unwise of me to recommend anyone. But that guy at the bottom of the list, I think his name is Ian Forrester or something looks like someone you want running the Future Media & Technology division of the BBC.
Alright poor joke.
Hey and Cridland isn’t as geeky as myself…
April 16th, 2008 at 4:28 am
What you really need is someone from outside the corporation with the right background and a proper passion for public service with a proven track record i n putting forward the case.
That’s ME, BTW.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:36 am
I vote that James Cridland gets Jenny Abramski’s old job…
April 16th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I would have voted but couldn’t find a single woman on this list. Does this mean that there aren’t any in tech and media at BBC? I feel depresseed.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson - You are absolutely right, there ARE no women on the list, which was compiled from all the media speculation to date. Check again in half an hour - I have a candidate in mind I can add.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Pefect, looking forward to that.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Where’s the “none of the above” button?
April 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am
And you forgot this man http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/brandon_butterworth/
April 16th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Have now added two highly qualified BBC women to the list:
Dr. Jo Twist, Research manager of cross-platform audience, http://tinyurl.com/5qw2he
Alex White, Launch Director, Digital Media, BBC Worldwide, http://tinyurl.com/595szv
April 16th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Out of those, I’d say Tony Ageh or Richard Deverill. I worked a lot with Richard when he was in BBC News. Great bloke. Good vision.
When I left, I said I’d only return to take Ashley’s job
Nic Newman has a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time and not listen - I have actually have a recording of him saying to me, while discussing an overdue employment contract “If you don’t like it here, piss off and find something else”
It will probably go to Eric Huggers.
If John Angeli was still at the BBC and wasn’t ousted by Ashley et al. for being so flipping brilliant I’d vote for him in a heartbeat. A genius.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Ooo yes! Brandon Butterworth. Someone who *actually knows* technology.
The trouble with people like Highfield and Newman is they are self-confessed non-techies.
Which always troubled me. ;p
April 16th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Jo gets my vote.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Hi Zuzanna,
I seriously hope your vote isn’t just because Jo is a woman, that would be very sad if it were.
My vote goes to Tony Ageh, he’s an inspirational leader and thought communicator. I was incredibly inspired by him both professionally and personally when I worked with him at UpMyStreet. He also has the experience to pull it off really well, unlike a few others on the list.
Go Tony!
Thayer
April 16th, 2008 at 10:22 am
CRIIIIIDLLLAAAAAAAND (ate my hamster).
April 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Personally I’d rather have someone outside of the BBC to turn it all upside down and breath some new life into it. I’d also expect them to have a couple of tech advisors reporting directly to them that know the ropes and know how to get round policy and politics!
But that’s just me! So my vote would go to (a BBC outsider tbd!)
April 16th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Good to see some more diversity added to the list.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Would help if my job title was correct!!
April 16th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
me
April 16th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Two words.
Brandon Butterworth.
Seriously though, is this anything other than an ego-massaging excercise for the “in crowd”?
April 16th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Too many of my friends on the list really - we could make it a jobshare? Though I have to say that I’d go for Tony Ageh to be the person who would make the best of it and give us a BBC we can be proud of. Assuming I don’t get the call, of course…
April 16th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Bill - Interesting that out of the non-geek crowd (as in Cridland/Forrester) Ageh is in the lead. He certainly has the tech creds and the experience. Question is, can he deal with the byzantine politics?
April 16th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Hey what would be wrong with the future of the BBC being run by a geek? How much hassle/kudos would the BBC get if it split the appointed 2 or more people into the role?
April 16th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Tony A would cope with the politics easily. And with Tony you get someone who actually thinks beyond the now and really “gets it all” including what non tech, non media industry license fee payers might want and need from the BBC in the years ahead.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I have to agree. I worked with Tony at UpMyStreet and again briefly at the BBC and he’s an honourable and brilliant man who really passionately believes in the public service angle of the BBC and in the Internet’s transforming power. He’s one of the least cynical and self-serving people I’ve ever met and I think one of the absolute most likely to be able to drag that place around. He would also, I think, be the ideal person to try and explain why the BBC shouldn’t just end up as a commercial organisation in ten years time and how the net can support public service activity (and how public service activity can support the net).
April 16th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Calling James a geek is silly. He hasn’t got *any* RFCs.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
That Ian Forrester seems a pretty hoopy frood.
OK, the fact he hasn’t got a phone line may count against him, but anyone who takes down 180gig in podcasts a month must be dedicated…
April 16th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Interesting that we now have possitions of R&D (now called R&I) and head of technoloigy (now called FM&T) open at same time. In years gone by these were one and the same role, and arguably that sort of technically savvy leadershipo is needed now more than ever.
This represents an opportunity to unify these roles once more, but also a rather scary interlude in leadership for those of us looking for a steer.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Daren Forsyth all the way, he’s the perfect candidate… this department needs shaking up and he’s the one to do it!
April 16th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Surely being a good director is about leadership and being a good manager? There’s 1500+ tech expert staff to lead and get the best out of in FM&T plus all manner of fudge to wade through internally and externally. Charm and being excited by things with screens isn’t necessarily the requisite level of experience for £m’s of budget and that level of responsibility. The last thing the BBC needs is another showman in that post, especially not someone still naively wet behind the ears. iPlayer for example…. Great idea, (now a) great product and success, but don’t forget it the 4 odd years of farce and f*ck up it took to get it to market, draining all the resources and greatly reducing the chances to do other innovations. How many really, really great technical minds left during this time as they were so fed up? The waste… It’d be a nail in the coffin for the beeb to repeat those mistakes again. Dear me. I hope John O gets it. He is actually really good.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Okay, I’ve voted for one of the above
But I’m also surprised Rahul Chakkara isn’t on this list…
April 17th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Thankyou John Rebus :)… I’d like to buy you a pint. Seriously, reading all the threads and especially Tom’s post after mine, Tony is the one with the “heart” and intellect to navigate the next ten years and help avoid Auntie being commercially led and more than just playing out TV across IP. Simon Nelson did an outstanding job at Radio though there was real connection between online and and on-air and really complimentary too. That’s my two penneth…we all know who has the job anyway….ooops bit of cynicism creeping in…time to stop.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Surely the question here is ‘why the fuck is the role 85% politics!!??”. I’m hoping Huggers will get in there and make the role more 50/50. And then do the same to all the roles immediately beneath him. Then maybe the division will start delivering to something like 50% capacity and the politicians can fuck off into, errr, politics…