The BBC, its Products, Data and I
I’m Hannes Ricklefs, and I’ve recently taken on a new role as Lead Architect in the BBC’s Product Group. The BBC is a fascinating place and I’d like to share some of the amazing opportunities (and challenges) I’ve experienced whilst working at the BBC with you — and how I’ve been able to explore those.
This years marks the BBC’s centenary. In 1922, the BBC was created not as a radio and television service but as a public service intervention in communications technology, and this distinction is now more important than ever. In an increasingly digitally-led society, we need to ensure that we create services, content and experiences that ensure the BBC stays relevant and valued.
Because we are a public service organisation, the way we approach data and how we create and distribute content must benefit everyone who uses our services and have wider public benefit at its heart. That means we are always committed to being transparent in our use of data, keeping data safe and secure, and giving users a choice in how they can use their data.
Like any organisation, the BBC runs on data of many different types, ranging from audience data to the personnel data about all of us working here, to the performance of our networks and systems, such as the performance of iPlayer and Sounds. And we mustn’t forget the very important finance and accounts data — these are the most carefully curated datasets we have! Even our content including programmes, podcasts, articles, recipes, educational curriculum or children’s games, are “just” large data files in these days of digital production.
These large data files are constantly being moved around our networks. Today over 90% of BBC systems are IP based and almost everything we do is connected over either internal or public networks. These networks transport the audio and video media files, information about what’s in our content (or metadata), and information that we get from our audiences, as well as all the data needed to run the business of the BBC.
This means there are hundreds and thousands of terabytes of data of different types generated and moving around our systems every single day.
Like every other media and technology organisation, the BBC is constantly looking at ways to use data more efficiently, gaining more value from the data we acquire and store, finding ways to deliver better content and services to our audiences, while aligning with our values and principles.
I’ve spent three years in BBC’s Research & Development team where we’ve been exploring how the creation of a public service data ecosystem (PSDE), through which we can model of an environment for data services, can contribute to these ambitions. The project has the potential to improve access to the data necessary for the delivery of digital public media services, while building and maintaining the trust of our audiences, by incorporating new types of functionality and controls to support transparency around data use and enabling active choice for the user, i.e. our audience.
The project proposes a new approach through the use of personal data stores (PDS). A PDS provides privacy preserving and trustworthy methods to delivering services, based on public values and context, thereby demonstrating how users can maximise service benefits and minimise risks of data exposure and compromising privacy. We are very honoured that IBC awarded us with the best technical paper for their 2021 conference and Wired also recognised our work, which you can read here.
When I saw the opportunity to lead a team driving the technical strategy for the BBC’s overall services that manage our content and metadata, audience data and audience accounts, I had to grab it. So after four years working for the BBC’s Technology Strategy and Architecture, as well as R&D departments, I am excited to start 2022 in my new role as Lead Architect in Product Engineering, led by David Andrade, Director of Product Engineering.
It is fair to say that 2021 has seen a lot of change at the BBC. However the new structure is starting to form and I can’t wait to help evolve the way we work together in the Product Group, along with our partners in the wider organisation, to deliver what must be one of the most exciting product offerings to our audiences.
Want to help us on this journey? Have a look here for our current openings.
