Innovation Labs

Easy Wizards

Things are generally good in the world of OMT. We are now trying to think about the general properties of an easy to use interface to data. We are now quizzing the DESQ team to see what they would like in a map interface and striping them of mapping ideas.

For those about to attend Innovation Labs for I feel you are my audience, i hate to think it might be more general than that, i would become inhibited and cease to write.
Generally labs are fun but intrinsically challenging, you spend the first couple of days working up your idea with the support of Frank and the team. This follows traditional design practise and the mentors are supportive, it is however their role to find weaknesses and then entice you to resolve them. They are though second guessing the BBC's commisioning requirements and when the 'commisioners' (they hate that term arrive). You get to potentially start again if they find big holes in your idea. We luckily avoided that one this time.

I predict a riot.....

Another good song I'm sure you'll agree.

It's nearing the end of the third day, and we're getting grouchy.

Although our ideas are still coming together - it's getting more and more difficult to get there. Our brief and project, as it turns out, seems to be one which produces wildly differing opinions between both mentors, peers and even ourselves. It's a simple idea at it's core, but the issues about whether we should worry about moderation, resources, the BBC as it is now, or the BBC as it would like to be are taxing our grey matter beyond it's usual (somewhat limited) experience. Our brains hurt, but we're probably excercising at least one muscle for a change. Nonetheless, we're remaining half-full at all times - especially when the bar is open.

The process as set out from the start was one of taking an idea, dismantling it, and then trying to reconstruct in a more coherent form. This has been achieved 100% - from one minute to the next we are either about to give up,or perfectly happy. At this precise moment, things are calm, but continuing the song lyric analogy - "There may be trouble ahead".

Good resources for designing Web 2.0 sites...

We're giving teams here a number of resources to help them develop their ideas, so I thought it would be a good idea to link to them here for the benefit of those attending the Labs, those about to attend (we salute you! ;-) and anyone else interested. By coincidence, these three presentations are all from people who are, or once were, BBC employees. But they're far more famous for being general gurus, not for the work they do/have done at the beeb...

Tom Loosemore - The BBC's 15 web principles
This is the most BBC-relevant link. Tom presents the 15 guiding principles that came out of the BBC 2.0 research project that he led. All good, solid sensible stuff, with a fair few nicked from other gurus. Well worth using as a sense-check as your idea develops on the Labs

Matt Webb - The Hills are alive with the Sound of Interaction Design
I love this presentation. Its very witty, but also provides some fantastic insight into desiging for 'generation c'. In particular, look at his analysis of the range of experiences linked to, for example, a book, and how these can be catered for in experience/service designs. Fantastic.

Tom Coates - Native to a Web of Data
This is Tom's presentation at the Future of Web Apps conference in 2006, where it went down a storm. Tom is a fantastic thinker and presenter, and this is a brilliantly articulated 'first principles' for web 2.0 design. Basically - understand what your 'first order object' is, then make it permanent, sociable, and iterative. Very, very good advice...

Matt Locke

Wizards

"Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk." Jonathan Strange in the Ladies of Grace Adieu (Susanna Clarke)

We intend Open Map Toolkit (OMT) maps to be available to all content producers within the BBC, to enable this we need an easy setup system. The best model we can find for this is akin to 'Project Wizards' in Visual Studio. The content producer will choose from a list of options, including

• What Map


• Custom Layers


• User Generated Content


• Moderation


• Media either from internal sources or Flickr etc


• Aligning data sources, navigation and search options ..

Moving on Maps

After a couple of days of careful thought, or alternatively writers block (we are feeling the absense of Max our key motivator from last year) we are starting to make progress. The key question that is asked of our project is 'How should the BBC use maps/do they need them?'

We have spent Wednesday looking at the BBC's current use of maps, for an organisation which doesn't use maps they have an awful lot of them. All the way from simple maps on 'Where I Live' upto very complex and deep applications of Google Maps
Abolition of Slavery
and fun informative applications such as Springwatch
Springwatch Map

Matt from BBC Backstage also contributed some interesting ideas about how he is going to track and blog his overland journey to Russia
http://triptracker.net/

Fresh Blood

The remainder of the BBC team have now arrived at the Innovation Lab, we have the pleasure of showing them our luxury accommodation, good food and the joy of getting lost between the library and the billiard hall.
This really is the most beautiful hotel that can be imagined, owned as a country house by William Lister the Bill Gates of his day, old masters paintings on the wall, real books in the library.
Much more 'proper' than last years NW Innovation lab where we stayed in a posh version of Fawlty Towers.

Open Mapping Toolkit

The Open Mapping Toolkit (OMT) and API simplifies and facilitates the
creation of rich interactive map content by BBC production staff.

OMT provides BBC producers with a flexible tool for producing map based
multimedia content and visualisations. Uses extend from producer generated
content ('Blue Peter appeal stations') to user generated maps
(Springwatch). OMT provides a flexible platform portable between various
maps, e.g. google/yahoo/msn, and platforms from mobile phone to Linux pc.

Third day, certainly no third rate ideas

Yesterday was fantastic, despite my fears that I would have to sit and listen to user profiles about Dave and Sue, I was pleasantly surprised.

The profiles were deep, well thought through and challenged the way the teams thought about their idea - they helped to focus in the idea, letting the teams come up with reasons to dump questionable parts of their briefs. I often find this is the case, certainly with my own ideas. I hate finding reasons to remove things from my wonderful thoughts and ideas, by building the profiles it almost lets me blame someone else - not me!

Today is all about focus, starting to pull together the threads of thoughts and original ideas that in some cases have substantially changed from the original concepts brought to the lab. We've well and truly kicked the wheels, pulled everything apart and left them burning at the side of the road - now it's time to put them back together :-)

Matthew Cashmore