BBC iPlayer and Defective by design.
iPlayer is again making
sid=07/08/15/1721229" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?_br_/_sid=07/08/15/1721229');">headlines. I have written before about the
situation where ideals and public service are corrupted by the
mechanisms of big business, so the story really brings nothing new to
the underlying situation. However the
defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/br_/_defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted');">report on the linkages
between microsoft and the BBC is illuminating. Such links can easily
be played out as natural and of no significance, in fact a resume’
loaded with (microsoft) industry experience is seen as a good thing
by large employers looking for IT experts.
The crux of this argument is not the links but the outcome. Microsoft
wins hugely if a world respected media generating organisation such
as the BBC adopts their software solution, regardless of the
particular financial deal for iPlayer. Conversely, the BBC also wins
because it gets a solution that fits their requirements now and in
the future. This is not really a surprise, it is the result you get
when the only considerations are financial and legal. Microsoft
understands this perfectly and “works with partners” to develop
solutions.
Unfortunately there is a third party, not represented in this neat
little tet-a-tet. The public. The adoption of a microsoft only
solution by the BBC for iPlayer deprives the public of the right to
choose, something that is supposed to be a hallmark of a democracy.
It deprives the public now, and it will continue to deprive the
public for a long time, which is the real reason microsoft are happy
to work with the BBC and why the propoganda arm of the british
government is equally happy to share the bed of a convicted monopolist.