AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Click radio celebrates 10 years on air with the help of a live studio audience
BBC World Service
This week Click - the BBC World Service's weekly technology programme - marks its 10th anniversary. Bill Thompson reflects on a decade of the internet on the radio.
During June and July 2001, I helped some friends in the BBC's radio science unit with 'Go Digital', a new technology programme that had been commissioned by the BBC World Service for their English language service, where it would sit with programmes on health and science as part of the broader non-news coverage.
Working with Tracey Logan, the presenter, we made some pilot programmes that were not intended to be broadcast. Fine-tuning the balance of packages, presenter introductions and conversation with the 'studio expert' or 'presenter's friend' who was supposed to turn up each week and offer commentary, background information and - where necessary - a translation of any obscure technical terminology from the interviews and reports that made up the bulk of the show.
It was a role I described as 'Well, Tracey', since after each interview or pre-recorded package she would turn to me and I'd go 'Well, Tracey', and say something I hoped was helpful.
The show was first broadcast in August 2001 and I agreed to take part in the first four or five programmes, while things bedded in, but it was made clear that once Tracey had found her feet there would be a different guest each week to provide some variety and ensure that the commentary wasn't limited to one person's perspective.
Go Digital was well-received, and celebrates its 10th anniversary this week with a special live broadcast from the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House. Gareth Mitchell took over as presenter in 2004, it was renamed 'Digital Planet' in 2005 and became 'Click' (the radio version of the TV programme) earlier this year.
It has changed time slot and duration, had many wonderful producers (including some who may not have understood anything about computing or technology but tried very hard), moved from its original home in the basement of Bush House, and travelled the world from Nairobi to Venice.
A decade in digital
Much has changed since 2001. When we launched there was no Facebook, no YouTube and no Twitter, while Google was only three years old. The Code Red worm was attacking computers running Microsoft's IIS Web Server, and I was using a Sony Vaio laptop with 128 megabytes of memory and a massive 20 gigabyte hard drive. My mobile phone was a phone, although it did send and receive text messages.
Over the years we have covered the technology landscape, from AI to Zero-day vulnerabilities, with a lot of attention paid to progress outside the developed economies, and a constant focus on people rather than the computers, phones or networks.
The pace of change means that we are never short of topics - whether it's the use of social media to provoke political change, the challenges to our ideas of privacy, or the importance of digitally transmitted information services in transforming the lives of the world's poor and deprived.
In 2009 Click reported on the digital divides affecting Kenya's economyIt's a testament to the BBC World Service that the programme has remained a key part of the science offering, and that talking about digital technology is still seen as worth doing, but that may be because we're not really a technology programme at all.
Tracey, Gareth and I have always been more interested in the people than the technology, and we try hard to avoid simply holding up shiny toys and going 'ooh' and 'aah', even though I'm an avowed technophile.
And now we're in the midst of a revolution in human capabilities caused by the emergence of a new class of intelligence-amplifying tools - that will be as profound in their impact as the invention of stone tools, fire or print proved to be.
A smartphone and Google-equipped teenager today, able to tap into much of the world's knowledge and their entire social network without a thought, is a very different person to me at 18, and they are going to build a different world to live in.
I hope that we get to report on it, for at least a little while longer.
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