With all the changes going on inside the CBC this fall, it only makes sense that some changes occur at Inside the CBC.com as well!

When we launched blog a few years ago, the CBC was just putting its toe delicately into the blog world with a few shows publishing their own (at the time, unofficial) sites to engage more directly with its audience. Since then, the CBC has a channel on YouTube, dozens of fan pages and groups on Facebook, thousands of hours of free podcasts, blog commenting on CBCnews.ca articles, programs for sale in iTunes, blogs for many of our TV and radio shows, and more. Suffice to say, we have kind of dived in lately!

Actually, when this blog started, it was envisioned as a blog for employees to share news about our colleagues, staff changes, and happenings around the various centres. We just figured we’d leave the door open so you could see some of our own chatter.

Well, 1,532 articles and 8,841 comments later, it’s time to evolve again. Within the next week or two, I’ll be transitioning out of the blog editor’s chair to recover from a couple of major health setbacks and to work a bit on some outside projects. But I’m looking forward being back at CBC Radio helping produce the shows you love.

And that brings us to suggestions from you…

What should the future of Inside the CBC entain? What sort of content would you like to see? Should it be hosted interally only for staff to communicate with each other, or remain publicly accessful? Should there be a network of contributors with one editor? Or written by a single author? If you’re a CBC employee, what parts of this blog experiment have you found valuable? Or do you get your news from other sources?

We’d welcome your thoughts here or email kevin.payan@cbc.ca

And thanks for letting me share a part of your screen time the last couple of years.

Tod Maffin
CBC Vancouver

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	About This Blog	Posted at 4:31 am (08 Sep 2008)

Happy Monday, CBC fans and fellow comrades employees alike. It was a quiet week last week in the world of CBC news, but news is a-flowin’ a bit, so enjoy the ride.

I’ll be a little slow in replying to your emails as I’m out of town on a sabattical (think monk clothing, Tibetan bells, and hours pouring over LOLcats) but I’ll still be scouring the blogs and receiving tips from you on CBC news.

In just an interesting side note, I see that last week, the CRTC granted a former Vancouver radio personality a licence to operate a local radio station for the “Tri-Cities” region of greater Vancouver (Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Port Coquitlam). While it’s not CBC news per se, it’s interesting (and, I think, encouraging, to see the CRTC responding to regional growth). CBC Radio in Vancouver years ago led the way by launching a full news bureau in Surrey, a rapidly growing region of the area.

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	About This Blog, Vancouver	Posted at 2:15 pm (14 Jul 2008)

Owing to a pretty bad bike accident yesterday (thrown about six feet over my handlebars), it seems I’ve broken one or more bones in my left hand. So for the next day or two I’ll only be blogging stuff if it’s urgent or really big news. Comment moderation (which can be done with one hand) won’t be affected.

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	About This Blog	Posted at 11:00 am (11 Jun 2008)

UPDATE: Temporarily disabled until a software conflict with comments is sorted out. As one of the commenters noted, this site and every other web site still works on iPhones and iPod Touches… this enhancement simply makes it much more readable.

With the iPhone coming to Canada later this year, I’ve started a bit early and launched a special iPhone version of InsideTheCBC.com. Just visit the site with any iPhone or iPod Touch to get this special version.

(Programmed by Canadian firm BraveNewCode which is giving the theme away for free.)

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	About This Blog	Posted at 5:41 pm (29 Apr 2008)

About a dozen of you emailed to say you were having problems posting comments to the site. It must have been one of the, er, “enhancements” I made on the weekend.   Should be fixed now. Sorry about the inconvenience.

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	About This Blog, Asides	Posted at 5:35 pm (31 Mar 2008)

Over the weekend, I upgraded the blog software and added a few more features to make this site a bit easier to peruse:

• Commenter pictures: You can now have your photo (or almost any image representing yourself) beside any comments you make. Want to get started? Get your own “gravatar” here.
• Integrated Digg.com: Now, if you “digg” one of the stories here on the popular social news site, the famous little Digg button will automatically appear on the story. Here’s an example.
• Wider page: Now, there’s more width to the pages, so that should make reading a bit easier.
• Easier to use categories: Instead of one long list of categories to select from, the list (at the top of the grey sidebar on the right) only displays top-level categories at first. When you click one, it expands.
• More comments shown: Comment summaries shown in the sidebar now have more text to them and there are many more comments displayed.
• Tag cloud: It’s just getting started, but a “tag cloud” exists in the sidebar in case you prefer to do your browsing that way. (The bigger the word, the more posts are about that topic.)

As always, please keep the suggestions coming!

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	About This Blog, Asides	Posted at 1:08 pm (31 Mar 2008)

Thanks everyone for your kind emails about my neck injury. Initial thoughts are it’s related to (a) the way I sleep — on my stomach, and (b) strain from not being very ergonomic with my computer use. Thanks to the wonder of Tylenol 3s and Robax, I’m doing much betterrrrrrr……. zzzzzzzzzzz

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	About This Blog, Asides	Posted at 1:44 pm (26 Feb 2008)

Those management appointment notices, corporate news releases, and policy announcements that flow into your Groupwise will be cut by about 80% when the CBC’s new intranet launches shortly.

Two years in the making, the new intranet — named iO! — will feature “role-based personalization.” This means that the site will automatically detect what media- or business-line you work in and which region you’re in. Relevant information will then bubble up to the front page.

Here is your first glimpse at the CBC’s new employee intranet which will launch soon — really soon {ahem} .

“I’m hoping there’s a big dropoff [when it launches] on emails from English services, corporate communications, French communications,” said CBC communications executive Kevin Payan told InsideTheCBC.com. “We want to take stuff out of Groupwise, start using the portal, and reinvigorate what’s going on with a fresh tone and fresh style, as opposed to the traditional executive memo.”

The CBC has hired an editorial director for the intranet who will re-write, in a more “human” tone, news releases and policy announcements from the CBC.

In time, individual users will be able to customize the page at a much more granular level.
“It’ll help you get through the reams of information coming into Groupwise mailboxes right now. You’ll get to pick what bubbles up,” said Angela Wissink, director of CBC portal services.

As well, the site will have some limited feedback ability. Employees will be encouraged to email in comments and feedback, and the intranet’s editorial director will republish a summary of comments received.

In time, the portal may supplant this blog, but for now InsideTheCBC.com will stay as is, says CBC’s vice-president of communications, Bill Chambers. “The blog is free-flowing, agenda-free. It’s as broadly based as the CBC. I see the portal and the blog as complimentary.” Stories from the blog will appear on the front page of iO!

When it launches, iO! will become the default page on all CBC web browsers (which, sadly, still languish at IE6).

(Incidentally, although the site is an intranet, in CBC-language it will be referred to as a “portal.” Because that’s the way we roll.)

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	About This Blog, iO! intranet	Posted at 2:26 pm (18 Feb 2008)

The Net Pub Eng folks at CBC have used the rant about Prime Picks in Prime Picks itself.

Touché.

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	About This Blog	Posted at 6:28 pm (06 Feb 2008)

Hey all, Paul Gorbould here – I’ll be filling in for Tod for the next couple of weeks while he takes a well-deserved health break, so please bear with me while I adjust the seat and mirrors, and do send me any comments or story suggestions you might have. Thanks!

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	About This Blog, Asides	Posted at 1:06 pm (21 Nov 2007)

There was a delay last week in getting news up to this site owing to a technical problem. Oh, hell, okay… my notebook computer got stolen. Er, well, or maybe I left it in a cab. Anyone, thanks to Visa, I have a shiny new computer {sigh}, so we return to regularly scheduled blogging.

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	About This Blog	Posted at 2:17 pm (05 Nov 2007)

Starting today, I’m going to change a little bit of the editorial focus of this blog. I’ve had lots of feedback from within and outside CBC and people seem to want more about the people and events at the Corp, and less acting as a news aggregator of stories about the CBC.

As a result, there will be fewer (but, hopefully, more interesting!) posts here.

I’d love to know your feedback on story selection over the next few weeks.

However, I know many of you really like having a place that aggregates stories about the CBC so I’ll be ramping up posting links to stories elsewhere in the “Elsewhere” section of the sidebar.

• If you read this by visiting here directly, it’s over there on the right in the grey box under “Elsewhere.”
• If you read this through an RSS feed, you’ll get these links once daily.

Here are some recent stories posted to the Elsewhere section:

• Emmy-winning producers to create show for MySpace

  MySpace social networking site has a deal to obtain exclusive rights to TV series Quarterlife, which it describes as the first “network quality” program to be shown exclusively on the internet.

• Multi-Platform Variations on Gould Airs on CBC

  Streaming video, multi-media presentations, live relays between venues and other media platforms will be used to celebrate the life, legacy and lasting inspiration of music virtuoso Glenn Gould with Variations on Gould a 10-day radio festival…

• Drabinsky looks to elevate reality TV

  Some critics believe that our national broadcaster shouldn’t even go near reality shows. Triple Sensation is only the latest in a series from the Ceeb that also includes the successful Dragon’s Den, the forthcoming No Opportunity Wasted…

• Canadian TV could face American invasion

  There was a lot of gnashing of teeth among Canadian television honchos yesterday. A few garments may even have been rent. The cause of all this angst was a report that calls for changes that could shake the Canadian TV business to the core…

• Net radio pact may be near

  Listening to radio over the Internet is easier than ever, as high-speed connections proliferate and online offerings become more sophisticated. Now the legal aspects may be falling into place too.

• Change rules to promote Canadian drama, CRTC told

  Two prominent communications lawyers asked to review broadcast policies for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission say the rules should be changed to promote more Canadian drama on prime-time TV.

• Media merger wave has passed, Corus chief says

  The wave of consolidation that has washed over the media industry in the past year – with more than $5-billion worth of deals in the broadcast sector alone – is starting to subside, executives say.

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	About This Blog	Posted at 7:47 am (14 Sep 2007)

Just a reminder that there’s a new section on this blog that captures additional stories about the CBC and related broadcasting/journalism news. It’s over there on the right in the grey sidebar, under the “Elsewhere” heading.

Don’t forget, if you’re using the CBC’s web browser (Internet Explorer 6), you can make InsideCBC.com your home page by clicking this button:

• CBC ordered to turn over transcript in nose ring hearing

  The CBC has been ordered by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal to hand over an interview with Benita Singh, one of two Indo-Canadians who filed human rights complaints against Starbucks after being fired for refusing to remove a nose ring.

• New Heritage minister inherits a full plate

  Verner’s file is bulging with priorities. Oda made two major commitments when she came into the job in February, 2006: a CBC mandate review, and a long-overdue update of copyright legislation. She accomplished neither.

• CBC to air Diana doc without controversial photos

  A documentary depicting the final hours in the life of the Princess of Wales that raised outrage when it was shown in Britain will air on CBC, but without the photographs that caused such controversy.

• CanWest completes acquisition of Alliance Atlantis

  Alliance Atlantis’ broadcasting, entertainment and motion picture distribution businesses were reorganized and split into separate groups that will each be operated on a stand-alone basis, with other assets of Alliance Atlantis to be held separately.

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	About This Blog	Posted at 11:54 am (16 Aug 2007)

Sometimes, there are lots of great stories about the broadcasting business that just aren’t quite right for a full story on this blog — either they’re not 100% relevant to CBC or they’re too short or whatever.

So I’ve now started a “linkblog” in the right-column called “A Little Somethin’ Extra” to collect those stories that I think might pique your interest. (I’m open to better ideas for a name!)

It’s over here ———->

You can also subscribe to its feed if you like.

Update: Internet Explorer screws it up, so I’ve taken it off the page for now. The feed still works.

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	About This Blog	Posted at 12:56 pm (23 Jul 2007)

My thanks to Paul Gorbould from CBC Archives for doing a bang-up job as usual as understudy. I noticed that Paul’s style of blogging is really fun to read — he tends to do fewer stories but spends more time putting his opinion or anecdotes into the postings. It got me wondering if maybe he’s onto something.

So…

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	About This Blog	Posted at 12:17 am (22 Jul 2007)