Previous – Book1 Page14 – Next
cared for. Together they walk along the wall, looking at each newspaper cutting in turn.
“Here it is.”
|
Bite Size History – The BBC Before The Decimation in 2162AD there was a social enterprise called The British Broadcasting Corporation (The BBC) which transmitted news and light entertainment across the airwaves via a mix of radio and television. In its final stages it also maintained a variety of websites on the internet. That all imploded when the oil and gas ran out, and when electricity supplies became unreliable. A social enterprise was a special type of business which was required to reinvest its profits in furthering its own aims. That meant that there were no shareholders demanding a return on investment. The BBC needed to make just enough money to keep itself going as a business. Some of the presenters and journalists became household names, though the real unsung heroes were the ones who worked behind the scenes. The organisation relied on expert technicians in telecoms, electronics, and computer software. Back in the mists of time, the BBC adopted a Wednesday Afternoon Side Project culture. The techies at The BBC were allowed one afternoon per week, during working hours, to concentrate on their own personal side projects. The ethos was “go out and do some good in the world”. By encouraging hundreds of fanciful yet worthy projects, the expectation was that one or two of them would actually succeed and really make a difference. That’s how iPlayer started. The BBC is the reason that in Wolfland, many businesses and schools still devote Wednesday afternoons to Side Project time. It’s a proud tradition based on hundreds of years of engineering heritage. |
Previous – Book1 Page14 – Next