Produced and directed by BAFTA-nominated producer Chris Chapman, ‘Looking for Peter’ is included in the release of the 1964 Doctor Who story ‘The Sensorites’ on BBC DVD.

The documentary, which is presented by Sony Award-winning comedian Toby Hadoke, goes out on the road to discover the truth about The Sensorites’ mysterious writer Peter R Newman.

“We’re really proud of this one”, Chris said. “And the reaction it’s been getting so far has been very touching.”

Early reviews of the film have been great. Eye of Horus website called it “essential viewing… Intelligent, thoughtful, charmingly witty, reverent, and accomplished”, Cathode Ray Tube blog described it as “a gem of a documentary” and Starburst Magazine as “rather charming”.

A popular Doctor Who blog ‘Blogtor Who’ labelled it as “a most welcome diversion from the norm… Hadoke brings a warmth and sense of joy to the proceedings and one hopes for similar outings in the future.”

The film is the 15th of Dene’s Doctor Who documentaries to be released – commissioned by 2|entertain – with another dozen in the works.

The DVD will be released on 23 January but you can see a clip from the film on YouTube.

After piloting the course for external journalists in May, the BBC Academy decided to extend it to the general public with the first fully open sessions taking place on 26 June.

The 5-day course focuses on news gathering but also features aspects of strategy and community building.

Claire Wardle, who leads the course, wrote on the Academy’s website that they quickly realised it wasn’t enough to send people on a one-day social media course.

“People need short sharp bursts of awareness-raising initiatives, but then newsrooms need key members of staff to act as digital champions – able to provide bespoke training to colleagues when they need it, to co-ordinate social media activity in the short term while others get up to speed, and to evaluate what is working and what isn’t”, she wrote.

“This is how the course has been designed. It is for those people who can go back and make change happen in their newsrooms.”

The BBC Academy is the training arm of the broadcasting giant through which it fulfils its remit to provide training to the wider industry as well as its own staff.

Roles in BBC Children’s, Marketing & Audiences, Technology Operations, Learning and HQ North, all based at the BBC’s new home in Manchester, are now open for applications.

The apprenticeships are open to applicants from the Greater Manchester area, aged 16 and over, who have left formal education.

Anyone with – or without – GCSEs is eligible to apply and the closing date is Friday, 8th July.

To find out more and apply, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/north/apprenticeships

Interview with Matthew Postgate at the Thinking Digital from New Media Monthly on Vimeo.

In his talk at the Thinking Digital Conference, Matthew focused on the transition from the industrial age to the information age and the challenges this poses to traditional broadcasting.

He explained how the focus in production has shifted from simple recording to data capturing.

“The whole way of producing media is changing from capturing a rendition of reality on a tape or a video to a one where we’re going out with very high-fidelity data sensors.”

Matthew also demoed one of the BBC’s innovative projects in experimenting with surround video.

He showed clips of a drama series where the story was shown traditionally on a TV screen, but additional footage shot with a fish-eye lens was projected onto the walls around the TV. The idea is to give the viewer a sense of ‘being there’.

One of the key points Matthew wanted to get across was that collaboration and open innovation was essential in shaping the future.

“The future [of the information society] isn’t being created by one company or different companies working in isolation”, he said.

“This is very much a future that is going to be created by collaboration and the BBC is very much committed to open innovation and open research.”

Thinking Digital organiser Herb Kim interviewing Matthew Postgate after his talk.

Matthew was one of the digital leaders on stage at this year’s Thinking Digital. The event was full of world-class speakers who left the audience with buzzing minds.

One blogger (Katie Moffat, prandsocial.com) wrote about the event:

“Herb Kim has managed a rare feat with Thinking Digital, the word ‘inspired’ is used to death these days but there is no other word that adequately describes the way Thinking Digital makes you feel.”

“The speakers are people who draw you completely into their particular passion; you want to hear more, learn more, absorb yourself into their world.”

Read more

What was said at Thinking Digital – some of our favourite quotes

Radio stations from across the UK are trying to boost online listening with the launch of a new radio portal on the web.

Radioplayer.co.uk groups together radio outlets such as the BBC, Global, GMG, Bauer Media and UTV Radio in an attempt to boost ‘sluggish’ listening numbers.

Online radio listeners currently make up only 3% of the total numbers.

With the move, radio stations are hoping to bring consistency and ease of use to the online radio experience, hoping this will instigate a shift in how people tune in.

Through radioplayer.co.uk, web users are able to browse and listen to their favourite channels using the same type of player, familiar to BBC online radio listeners.

At first, the player will only work on devices that support Adobe Flash, but the developers promise a version for Apple devices will be launched shortly.

Despite using the same player, broadcasters will still be able to customise the interface and include advertising.

All players will have the same basic controls, search function and favourites option but UK Radioplayer will not guarantee that the same quality of audio will be provided by all stations.

Web developer Gary Robson says that the BBC provides a great example of what can be achieved when the owner of the site views accessibility as a basic requirement, not an inconvenient optional extra.

In addition to making sure all of their content is usable by the widest possible range of people, the broadcaster has also dedicated a separate site to provide accessibility help for its users.

‘My Web My Way’ offers guidance on how to set up your computer and browser in order to make the web easier to use. It also has an accessibility blog providing the latest developments in the field as well as case studies of people relying on assistive technology.

Work for an even more comprehensive version of the site is currently underway. According to the BBC, the new accessibility site aims to strike a balance between catering for first-time computer users and more experienced users.

Google has also been busy lately with accessibility issues. In its Experimental Labs the search giant is testing ways of making search results more accessible for everyone.

Two of their current experiments deal with minimising the use of the mouse with various keyboard shortcuts.

The ‘Accessible View’ feature also automatically magnifies the search results for easier viewing and reads the relevant information out loud if a screenreader is being used.

Feature article

Perceptions on web accessibility need changing

We talked to Gary Robson, Technical Director at Industrial Strength, a North East web design company, to find out what’s so off-putting about accessibility. Read more…

BBC Comedy has launched a web-exclusive spoof video about the aftermath of the royal engagement on Facebook.

The 3-minute clip features activity on the wall of ‘Queen Liz’ following the engagement news. She receives messages from friends and celebrities and replies with a sense of humour and swagger.

Queen Liz also prepares for a “boozy night out with Bowlesy” and creates an event for the upcoming wedding – ”Be there or be exiled. LOL.”

“U seem 2 B getting the hang of FB, nan! ”, ‘Harry Wales’ comments on Liz’s wall.

MediaCityUK is located at the old docklands in Salford Quays. Image courtesy of Peel Media

The huge media development site in Salford Quays, Manchester, is getting ready to welcome five of BBC’s departments in 2011 – Radio 5Live, Children’s, Sport, Learning, and Future Media & Technology.

Designed specifically around the media industry, the development site is currently under construction and already has a buzzing feel to it. The overall site will extend over 200 acres and will accommodate a vast number of creative and digital businesses alongside the BBC, University of Salford and regional screen agency Northwest Vision and Media.

The move will mean a significant job boost for the Northern region as the BBC’s London-based employees are reluctant to move up North. According to The Guardian, almost 60% of the company’s middle managers have refused to relocate. In total, 42% of the staff have agreed to move.

Together as one Northern region?

It is thought the new creative hub, named MediaCityUK, will invigorate the industry in the North but the move has also raised some concerns. The Journal reported earlier this month that city leaders in the North East fear the region might lose out if a pan-regional approach is widely adapted – creating one northern region.

Screen agency Northern Film & Media’s chief executive, Tom Harvey, has also expressed fears that a number of broadcasting professionals could in the future be ‘lured’ from the North East to Manchester.

Mark Thompson, BBC director general, answered the concerns by emphasising that MediaCityUK is only one part of the project aiming to engage people from across the whole of the North of England. He added that there were no intentions to undermine television production in the North East.

He said: “We want to go on building network production in the North East and commissioning more network programmes.”

The Northern Way initiative, launched in 2004 in collaboration with regional development agencies, has been working towards promoting the North as an exceptional region and a considerable challenger to the South.

Hugh Morgan WIlliams, chair of The Northern Way, said in The Journal that the North East will benefit from the collaboration as long as it’s entered in our own terms.

He said: “I’m not in favour of a pan-Northern approach, I think that could be dangerous, but we have to recognise the benefits of working together.”

@North initiative leading the way

As part of its ‘out of London’ campaign, the BBC has commissioned an initiative to engage creative people across the North of England.

Launched in November last year, @North is aiming to uncover the next big interactive content for children. A budget of £500,000 is up for grabs for up to four projects to be commissioned by CBBC and CBeebies.

Whether it’s in the form of web content, mobile content, gaming or applications, the aim is to “find the kind of creativity that sets standards for children’s content in the future”, a BBC statement read.

Peter Salmon, the director of BBC North, described @North at its launch event in the region as “the first tangible tranche of cash going into key developments” which will allow Northern England to work with CBBC – a key part of the corporation.

He said: “This shows the kind of plans and potential that we want to bring to the North and we might be able to deliver in the region.”

The initiative is engineered in close collaboration with the Northern regional screen agencies – North West Vision and Media, Northern Film and Media and Screen Yorkshire. It is hoped that @North will establish good practice that will set the basis for the BBC’s future collaboration with companies in the North.

Applications for the project have already been submitted and, during the spring, the ideas are to be developed and commissioning briefs drawn up. Pitching will take place from July to September.

In the ideas put forward in these coming months, the North has an opportunity to demonstrate its true worth to the BBC.

The series’ first episode’s somewhat forced comments about connecting and collaborating on a different level than ever before are presented again but are now given some flesh to their bones. The interviewees raise an array of interesting points that take the episode further in unravelling its arguments.

While experts and key figures in the development of the web argue their points, the viewers are also compelled to form their own views of the issues. Does being constantly online lead us to have unreal ideas of friendship or of life without consequences? Or has the web enabled us to engage and share information with each other and made our lives better?

Interesting points are made, for example, when bringing the huge educational success of South Korea, the most connected nation in the world, to the agenda. Even Bill Gates gives us his first original thought of the whole series. “I asked questions when I was young. Now my son will ask the same questions and be able to search for the answers – and then ask more questions.”

The debate is occasionally brought to life with delightful examples such as a fast-food chain proving a point about the illusive nature of online friends. A free burger was offered to anyone who would get rid of ten of their Facebook friends. It turned out that a single whopper was more important to hundreds of thousands of users than ten of their so-called ‘friends’.

The thoughts of 1960s media visionary Marshall McLuhan’s provide one of the highlights of the episode. As the web is being compared to an exciting city as well as a coffee shop that brings people with different backgrounds together, McLuhan’s arguments about a global village are suddenly incredibly current again.

The series ends on a slightly clichéd note, exclaiming “This is only the beginning”, but there’s no denying that Virtual Revolution has raised some interesting points, sparking a lively debate on the subject.

As the web is likely to be the single most important development in the modern world, it has definitely been worthwhile to stop and think about the journey so far.

Watch the fourth episode on BBC iPlayer

Visit the programme website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/

BBC News app is first one on the launch list, followed by BBC Sport app in June – just in time for the Football World Cup. A dedicated app for the iPlayer is also in plans.

First made available to iPhone, the apps will shortly after be compatible with BlackBerry and Google’s Android based devices.

Paolo Pescatore, the director of applications and services at CCS Insight, said in The Independent that the iPhone represents a platform that everyone needs to get on.

He said: “This was a missing piece of the jigsaw for the BBC’s digital strategy and this is likely to be the start of many apps to come.”

The move, which was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, has caused anxiousness among newspaper publishers.

Worried that free BBC apps will undermine commercial publishers in this new, but potentially lucrative market, the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) has insisted the move to be subject to a Public Value Test as it’s said to be an entirely new service rather than an extension to an existing service.

David Newell, NPA director, said: “Not for the first time, the BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers. We strongly urge the BBC Trust to block these damaging plans,”

Sources: The Independent, MediaWeek