Rethink

BBC News is having another go at metadata, the Original All-purpose Not-kidding Elixir of Digital Journalism, which, in the minds of logical people-but-not-journalists, is the answer. In this case, the answer to 'personalisation'.

More than one job is on offer in the News Content Production Workflow department, with this come-on:

"It will be our greatest leap since iPlayer, and that’s why it is right at the top of our agenda.

Delivering it is going to require a fundamental reshaping of the BBC’s culture and how we work. For the new Content Metadata group in our Content Production Workflows department, the first task is a ground-up rethink of the (many) tools, workflows and technologies involved in describing and classifying all of our content -- journalism, audio, video and digital alike.

This means asking ourselves some big questions: What metadata do we need to deliver a personalised BBC? What does the future of tagging at the BBC look like? Can we take advantage of Linked Open Data to automate or semi-automate content classification? Can we provide tools to bring together disparate editorial teams working in specialist content areas? How do we evolve our current workflows into one that is ready for the challenges to come?"