Innovation Labs 2006 by Matt Cashmore on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Despite the trauma of looming job cuts, relocation and the demise of the Blue Peter garden at the BBC, there are pools of optimism springing up in the future media department.
Next month sees the start of the third annual Innovation Lab -one of the most vital projects the BBC creates and one that future media director Ashley Highfield has said the corporation will remain "completely committed to", according to BBC development producer Matt Cashmore.
The labs bring together BBC commissioners from different departments, who work with 40 small design, software and interactive companies on new technology projects for the corporation.
Innovation Labs begin on November 12 with a two-week tour of nine UK cities. Each roadshow explains the concept of the labs and outlines six briefs from news, audio and music, iTV, mobile, Nations & Regions and Vision.
Forty companies will be chosen from the applicants to take part in the intensive one-week development labs in March and April next year. This year's labs are open to companies based in Scotland, Wales and the West Midlands, and the north-east and north-west of England.
The BBC has to ensure that 30% of its commissioning budget is spent with external suppliers, and Innovation Labs make the process of pitching and composing project proposals a more collaborative process, according to Cashmore.
"It is really important to us on lots of different levels," he said.
"On a pure development, innovation level in the organisation, it forces commissioners to sit down and think, listen and talk through their briefs in a really constructive way, and think through those ideas with companies that offer different perspectives."
He described the project as "a great force for good" because of the knowledge transfer between these independent producers and the BBC.
"They can find a good way to work with the BBC early on. Rather than spending one hour in White City pitching cold, they can work with the commissioner directly in the lab to develop the idea earlier in the process.
"The commissioning process doesn't encourage new ideas, but Innovation Lab does."
Briefs include mobile tools that provide interactivity around mobile, improved formats for breaking news online and ways of visualising radio online and on mobiles.
The tour runs from November 12-23 and tours Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Swansea. Spaces are filling up fast...
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