Interview: John Linwood, chief technology officer, BBC

John Linwood: We see online, on-demand and interactive as opportunities to better engage with our audience

BBC CTO John Linwood has a lot on his plate at the moment. With the increasing use of digital production and data storage bringing with it larger network bandwidth and server demands, and the huge spike in viewer demand that the Olympics will create, he could be forgiven for taking his eye off other, less-pressing projects; but this could not be further from the truth.

In a widely reported Computing exclusive last week, Linwood revealed that the BBC is currently trialling tablet devices to enable staff to work remotely and more flexibly.

He argued that tablet devices, including the Apple iPad, could enable more paperless meetings at the BBC. Going paperless is part of an environmental drive, of which Linwood is a passionate advocate.

Sustainability
“We have a huge initiative called BBC Sustainability,” he says. “On the IT side we’re looking at server virtualisation, which could bring savings. We’re doing some trials in Birmingham on ‘cool lighting’, which uses LED and fluorescent lighting. We are also looking to roll out more laptops than desktops – all of this reduces our power footprint.”

New technology also means less equipment is required in the studio, which brings power and therefore carbon savings.

Linwood explains that the BBC has been looking at broadcast and studio equipment with a view to creating more centralised resources. As bandwidth has become cheaper and networks more stable, he says that it makes sense to consolidate systems into a central facility.

The broadcaster is also keen to reduce staff travel where possible. “We’re putting in more videoconferencing and looking at telepresence, and have increased our Wi-Fi footprint,” he says. “We are also looking at ways in which staff can connect to our services from outside without needing dongles, or having to go through lots of [security checks]. The idea is you can do your job from anywhere.”

Data security
However, enabling easier access to BBC services brings increased risk of malicious attack by cyber criminals. Linwood is confident that his organisation is doing everything necessary to protect itself from attack, but is acutely aware of how new innovations invariably spawn new threats.

“A lot more information these days is digital,” he explains. “Five years ago, most of your content would have been sitting on tape, now more of it is on digital files. This opens up concerns as to how you protect its integrity through the production chain.”

The nightmare scenario for the BBC is where someone manages to intercept a broadcast-ready file, replaces part of it in secret, and then the programme is broadcast complete with whatever content the intruder chose to insert.

“We ensure that when you send a file from A to B, there is a checksum at both ends to ensure that the same file arrived as was sent,” says Linwood. “Data loss protection enables you to monitor and check what is happening around the network, including the question: is data going where you wouldn’t expect? Are certain files being accessed at times you wouldn’t expect?”

There are two types of technology being explored by the BBC in this field. The first logs, reports and potentially blocks unauthorised use of data, but is invisible to the user. The second generates a pop-up window to warn staff that they are accessing a sensitive file, and that the activity has been logged. But it allows the activity to continue.

“It’s about driving user behaviour,” Linwood says. “You give people more autonomy, but let them know we’re aware of the activity.”

Linwood believes that technology needs to facilitate working lives, which requires a balance between security and flexibility.

“Staff need to be able to get their work done, security needs to be as invisible and unobtrusive as possible. The days of locking everything down and having a citadel approach are long gone.”

Social media
Social media and Web 2.0 has brought content production to the masses, with sites such as YouTube capable of making a nobody into a somebody overnight. However, Linwood sees this as an opportunity rather than competition.

“The BBC’s function is to inform, educate and entertain. In order to do that, we will use different channels to reach our audiences. We see online, on-demand and interactive as fantastic opportunities to better engage with our audience in ways we couldn’t have done before,” he says. “Previously, the best you could get in terms of audience response was phone- or write-in programmes. Now, with interactive television and the web, you know instantly what your audience thinks. So we can get user-generated content and comments, and we can see user behaviour.