It’s apres episode and the Official Doctor Who Site is still available to us Jennie Foreigners. I guess they’re not complete bastards, eh?
Posted by JennAK as Ongoing Storm at 7:00 pm
March 31st, 2007
Color me surprised!
March 30th, 2007
It’s a Master Piece, I Say!
But will we cheer every word, every letter? Or will we simply make enough room for Fonzie to have a clear shot at roaring up that ramp? Only Time (and the Doctor Who production team) knows for sure.
I’ve come late to the party, and have only just realised what apparently everyone and their tin dog wot pays attention to new series news has known for at least weeks (if not months). I hope to make up for my tardiness, however, by looking at several issues involving The Return Of A Certain You-Know-Who (Who Isn’t Voldemort). If you’ve actually managed to stay spoiler-free, come back to this entry in July. Otherwise, read on.
“Heh heh heh heh Doctor…..” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by JennAK as Ongoing Storm at 10:04 am
Baninated!
Not this Jennie Foreigner’s access to The Offical BBC DW Website– that’s still available to me and with a little more than a day to go before the premiere, too. A-freaking-mazing.
What’s baninated is this URL in China, apparently, at least according to greatfirewallofchina.org. Wow! I had no idea I could subvert the glorious Chinese government so. Makes notes on world domination…..
Posted by JennAK as Ongoing Storm, Taking Care of Business at 9:05 am
March 29th, 2007
Here It Comes….
Two days to go until new Doctor Who. The BBC site is still available to us Jennie Foreigners, go fig. (Will it make it to tomorrow? Or Saturday night U.K. time?) There’s a lot of hype– interviews in print, sound, and video– and a lot of clips from the first story, too. Me, I am avoiding them as much as possible. I learned my lesson last year– got all jonesed up (as it were) for “New Earth” and then was compleatly underwhelmed by it when I actually saw it. All the good bits were actually in the pre-airing clips. *sigh*
(Oh, all right, I have watched the trailers for the season, including that Red Button one which is all over YouTube. I have to geek out a little bit; besides, the trailers are for the entire season instead of just one freaking episode.)
Posted by JennAK as Ongoing Storm at 10:18 am
March 12th, 2007
Coordinates Set
Chicago TARDIS has a hotel for this year’s gathering. Hooray! Now I can get down to the pesky business of lising the con on all sorts of convention calendars.
Posted by JennAK as Time and Tides at 10:07 am
March 8th, 2007
World Wide Web? NOT!
So, the Beeb has banned non-UKers from viewing official BBC content on YouGoogleTube, escalating a disturbing trend. Last fall, the Beeb banned non-UK viewers from viewing both the Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures websites, claiming charter concerns. It’s only a matter of time (I daresay, March 30 at the latest) before non-UKers are forbidden to see the content on the Doctor Who site itself.
Since when have they been so gung-ho about their charter? Has it been changed recently? (Not that I can tell, but I might be using the wrong Google keywords.) For years, the Beeb joyously offered everyone photos, games, audio samples, and video clips from both classic and current series. People from all over the world utilised the first “w” to check out distinctly BBC product and totally grooved on it. Now, though, you have to be British to play.
Surely this policy is shooting BBC Worldwide in the foot. How can they create buzz without having a fully-accessible website to promote their offerings? No buzz, no foreign sales.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that the BBC has worked hard to lose profits. You don’t have to look any further than the amount of time it took to sell the current series to an American network. Conventional wisdom has it that it was all about price– that BBC Worldwide was trying to charge for the show like it was the #1 American hit show, when at best the series has never been more than a cult fave in this country.
Nevertheless, I am still disturbed by this cutting off of access. It’s not just the Beeb dicking Doctor Who fans around here, it’s a symptom of a more pervasive disease– the need to control. In the U.S., there’s frequently talk about how the big ISPs (Comcast, AT & T, etc.) want to charge premiums for passing through their servers as you surf the web– i.e., the more you pay, the faster you can surf. Also, the faster your site will load for people. Hella good way to make $$$$ off of ebay, amazon, etc., and really awful for mom-and-pop commerce sites. (Or for the personal sites, too.)
I am tempted to say that the kind of regulation going down (or trying to go down) is purely a result of the Current Administration, but deep down I realise that the Democrats would be just as greedy. It does come down to money.
And in the Beeb’s case, “coming down to money” translates as “being anal about who can view content based on who pays licensing fees.” Perhaps also a matter of time? The Beeb requiring one to log on with their licensing fee account before you can view content. *sigh*
Although, Beeb? Anytime you want to sell international liscences for full access to your website including, say, downloads of new episodes, you let me know!
Posted by JennAK as Ongoing Storm, Pop That Culture at 2:37 pm
Flapping My Age Around Like Toothless Gums
In order to start “preserving the past” (as the blog tagline reads), it’s high time I begin what I’m tagging The Secret History of DW Fandom but can be better described as Jennifer’s History in DW Fandom. This summer marks the 25th anniversary of Sweatcon, after all.
But to cover how I actually discovered life, the universe, and the Time Lord, we’ll have to set the way-back machine for February of 1981. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by JennAK as Dress Who Up, Secret History of DW Fandom at 12:13 pm
March 6th, 2007
Best Laid Plans….
yep, so much for blogging every day this month. Real life, donchaknow. You’re lucky you’re getting this admission right now. *sigh*
Posted by JennAK as Taking Care of Business at 9:59 pm
March 3rd, 2007
Pondering Illegally Free Media
The BBC announced yesterday that they’ve slept with partnered with YouGoogleTube in order to further publicize their offerings worldwide. All things considered, I’m not too surprised this partnership formed. The Beeb used YouGoogleTube’s viral marketing capabilities to create extra buzz for the premiere of Torchwood this past fall, after all. It was only natural that the Beeb go one step further and provide official promotional material. A number of U.S. networks and hundreds of musical artists also provide official promotional to the website.
What I found interesting was this little tidbit off the BBC news coverage of the deal:
Mr Highfield said the BBC would not be hunting down all BBC-copyrighted clips already uploaded by YouTube members – although it would reserve the right to swap poor quality clips with the real thing, or to have content removed that infringed other people’s copyright, like sport, or that had been edited or altered in a way that would damage the BBC’s brand.
“We don’t want to be overzealous, a lot of the material on YouTube is good promotional content for us,” he said.
This statement has caused a lot of argument already, mostly of the “why can’t we post YouGoogleTube links to unauthorised material if the BBC doesn’t give a crap if the material is unauthorised” variety. I’m not going to get into that one here; have to put up enough with it elsewhere.
Instead, here’s what I’m pondering:
- Is the desire for free (legality honored or not) material something that’s unique to the current Young Geek Generation (i.e. 13-30ish), or is it something that’s Always Been, but just more noticeable now that more people can do it?
- Why is it that the older one gets, the more supporting of corporate media happens? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by JennAK as Pop That Culture, Time and Tides at 6:13 pm