Hydra heads

Erik Huggers is using an odd tool to try to control the BBC's web output - the plan to halve the number of "top level directories" looks tough, but the real point is that no single person really knows what the BBC is up to on the web, and there's little sign of anything in "Putting Quality First" that will deal with it.

In the list of 400 directories published yesterday by Erik, Paid Content, in an excellent piece of research, has identified 88 that look as if they've have been mothballed - so Erik's task may not be that hard. But in the glorious way of the web, they will always be out there, cached by some machine - and probably, they should be. They're archive material, and the BBC privately acknowledges that - rather sneakily - at the end of this page. Meanwhile, in terms of new content, isn't it sensible that new shows get a reference page on the web (that's how BBC Vision seem to have been operating) - and how does that fit with cutting things in half ?

But there's other stuff going on from the BBC - take this list of "blogs", which looks fairly comprehensive at 150. Is it, though ? No listing for the "BBC Journalism Labs" blog (no updates since last August). No listing for the excellent World Have Your Say. No listing for BBC Web Developer. No listing for the College of Journalism blog. No listing for Jim Spence.

I suspect you too have found some odd stuff out there. And I don't necessarily want any of them stopped. I first want to know what they cost to run, and how many people use them. That, after all, is how we seem to be making decisions about radio and tv output - and it's more honest than just cutting things in half.

P.S. For more on the confusion inside the BBC about what it's up to, read Martin Belam's post