When the BBC launched their new iPlayer, there was an outcry
of opposition to the plans for it to be compatible only with the
Windows platform.
Now, Downing Street has officially come to the aid of the
16,000 people who signed an electronic petition online designed to
address the matter of inequality.
The UK government is reiterating conditions originally
stipulated by
the BBC Trust (a sort of internal watchdog of the media house) as
indeed mandatory, and that the BBC must provide solutions for the
minorities of the PC market. Mac OS X and various Linux systems of
course come immediately to mind.
While Windows clearly dominates the PC market, it’s
certainly not
the only operating system around.
Open Source Has A Niche
Open source offerings have their
niche, and even the proprietary system constructed by Apple, Inc has
its own circle of devoted consumers; a group, I might add, that is said
to be growing at quite a brisk pace as of late.
Thus it’s
only natural
for BBC viewers who’ve situated themselves in these various
“camps”
over the years of their respective development to want to experience
whatever new services the media company delivers.
It’s important to note that, even when discussing
cross-platform
compatibility today, technology enthusiasts don’t simply wish
to see
closed applications for operation on Windows, Mac, etc. Ever more
frequently, they demand truly open source solutions, regardless of
platform.
This is especially good for the consumer, because it means
that there ideally can be far fewer “barriers to
entry”, which can
allow for more speedy development, as opposed to the ever so slow
one-at-a-time, from-the-ground-up process many have come to tolerate
over the years.
Open Source Is The Solution
If the BBC’s to please all of the signatures on that
electronic
petition circulated throughout the UK, it’ll look seriously
at
producing solutions – for Windows, Mac, and Linux –
that wear the open
source tag on their sleeves.
Not only will it grant the BBC bonus
points among equal opportunity activists, it’ll likely save
the
company’s own developers a good deal of work later on down
the road.
And it wouldn’t hurt to have their software
solutions looked
at closely
by some independent experts scattered about the general populace,
either.
The company could glean quite a bit of useful information
from
such folk, many of which are very well seasoned in the assembly of high
quality code.
Paul Glazowski is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
