BBC Make it Digital

Challenges and Successes - A Talk by Bill Thompson

tNMoC Series 1 Episode 1
First broadcast 16th February 2017, 20:00
Duration: 01:02:28
In February 2017 Bill Thompson came to the National Museum of Computing to talk about the 'BBC Make IT Digital' Initiative, the Micro:bit, and the BBC Computer Literacy Project Archive.

Clips from this programme

Introduction by Dr Stephen Fleming in the EDSAC area of tNMoC: Bill Thompson is best known for his weekly column in the Technology section of BBC News Online and his appearances on Click, a radio show on the BBC World Service. A mention of David Allen and the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Bill is a Cambridge graduate, writing for the magazine 'Computing' and for Computer Guardian

Duration: 02:55

Bill Thompson's talk: First use of a computer in 1981 from studying Psychology and an pigeon experiment at Cambridge, econet networking, on-line Basic. The internet and Acorn Computers, Steven Johnson and the 'Adjacent Possible' of Big Data. The Guardian newspaper online was a good idea at the time

Duration: 03:45

Bill Thompson's talk: Partnerships in BBC Archive, Roly Keating (Director of Archive Content, BBC from 2008), Tony Ageh (Controller Internet / Archive development, BBC), BBC Archive of cultural value, index it, Genome indexed and tagged Radio Times from 1923 (Andy Armstrong & Sam Urquhart), BBC's mission (in part) is to be an Agent of Change whilst moving through changing technologies, making it work for people so that they can use what is offered

Duration: 07:38

Bill Thompson's talk: Media Literacy: The BBC must work for people so that they can use what is offered, from Radio to Smartphone use, news that can be trusted, not 'Fake News', OFCOM, taking advantage of the affordance of technology, e.g. The Smartphone. The BBC mission's duty of care

Duration: 04:51

Bill Thompson's talk: The Journalist's/ BBC's promise of confidentiality (James Harding, BBC Director of News and Current Affairs)

Duration: 01:06

Bill Thompson's talk: BBC's Duty of Care to the entire audience via adequate Literacy, e.g. The BBC Computer Literacy Project (David Allen), Programmes, hardware (Acorn), Micro Men, the whole ecosystem continued: Computers Don't Byte, Webwise, GCSE Bitesize

Duration: 04:13

Bill Thompson's talk: The BBC incentive for 'Make IT Digital' & The BBC Micro:Bit, to help audience of all types with Network and Digital Technologies in their lives, a careers quiz, Weatherwatchers, The BBC Micro:bit (BBC R&D & BBC Learning), not another BBC Micro Computer, not an Arduino. 31 partners including ARM & Samsung (Kitronik: bolt-on boards), the Micro:bit foundation

Duration: 10:01

Bill Thompson's talk: The BBC Computer Literacy Project Archive, history in an accessible way (David Allen & Steve Lowry (SL), Alex Mansfield), all CLP Programmes indexed & tagged and run the old BBC Micro Programs via an emulator (in CLAP). CLP Archive, two versions: Excel based and an online version (Andy Armstrong & Sam Urquhart). George Santayana's wisdom: 'Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it'

Duration: 05:38

Bill Thompson's talk: Thanks from Dr Stephen Fleming, EDSAC (Morris Wilkes), symbolic processing

Duration: 01:26

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 1: Is the Micro:bit as discoverable (as the BBC Micro) for every age, not just for children? (SL)

Duration: 03:03

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 2: The BBC Micro and the 80's Computer Literacy Project allowed personal accessibility into computing, and this does not seem the case, today, the 21st Century. What about a 2017 TV series for Computer Literacy? Complain!

Duration: 07:11

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 3: What will children invent with Micro:bit? Mr Robot used a Raspberry Pi! The Internet of Things (IoT)

Duration: 02:12

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 4: Why people need to know about digital technology. Auto-ordering printer ink, Donald Trump passport screening shape our lives

Duration: 02:31

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 5: BBC's Duty of Care to educate the entire audience via adequate Literacy. Weatherwatch and more

Duration: 01:28

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 6: Delivery of Micro:bit to year 11s in all schools that signed up for it, on sale to all now. Micro:bit has had a real positive effect on the number of young women thinking about studying computing

Duration: 03:05

Bill Thompson's talk: Discussion 7: Micro:bit making computing education easier

Duration: 00:32

Thanks by Dr Stephen Fleming for Bill Thompson's talk

Duration: 00:44