The 2007 BBC Innovation Labs are now seeking ‘indies’ to get involved.
The Innovation Labs are a series of creative workshops for interdisciplinary teams of professional creative technologists, application designers, software developers and interactive media designers. We are inviting independent new media companies from across England and Scotland to pitch ideas in response to a briefs set by New Media commissioners across the BBC. Up to 10 projects in each of four regions – Scotland, N England, London and S England – will then be selected to attend a 5-day long Lab. During the Lab, they will work with BBC commissioners and other mentors to develop the idea and prepare a final pitch. On the last day of the Lab, the ideas are pitched to the BBC commissioners for further development funding.
Here are some of the projects they want pitches on:
News Interactive
News services for young people – BBC News currently has a declining reach amongst 14-24 year olds, and we want to grow this reach via innovative new products. How could we deliver BBC News in an engaging and interactive way to this audience via the BBC News website and platforms like mobiles, online games, public screens or social networking sites?Sport
BBC Sport is looking to increase its interactivity around the major events in the sports calendar (eg Wimbledon, Rugby World Cup, Euro 2008, Olympics, etc). In particular we are looking to provide innovative services to enhance our coverage of the live action, in real time. We are keen to increase our reach among younger (15-24) audiences and are exploring opportunities on the BBC Sport website, but also on mobile platforms and on the wider internet beyond bbc.co.uk.Internet Team – search/navigation
Cross platform/location navigation – The BBC is looking for more ways to move users between interactive platforms where there is complementary content and experiences available. How can we move users between various media platforms and physical locations to increase the quality of their BBC experience by delivering them relevant content? How can we do this in ways that will excite and surprise them? Proposals need not be limited to the traditional platforms of “web”, “TV” and “mobile” but could also include use of other IP based media (ie. Instant messaging, email, images) and may want to include location-based or situation-based aspects. They may work across all of the BBC or only a small section and be based on navigation generated by the BBC or by users.Interactive Drama & Entertainment
The BBC is looking for new ways to tell stories online. We’re looking for ideas aimed at young audiences who are familiar with the web (13-19 year olds) and at older, more mainstream audiences who are becoming more comfortable with the technology. Successful proposals will have an understanding
of:* how new web technologies can add depth to the storytelling process
* how gaming elements can be incorporated
* how social networking elements could be incorporated
Check out the ppt intro by Matt Locke and the website for more info.