Davey Winder
Friday, 27 June 2008 20:17
Business IT -
Networking
Page 1 of 3
UK hackers showcase mashing skills by mixing things up at the BBC. With a brief to 'make something cool' more than fifty hackers did just that.
Once a year the BBC hosts an event called
Mashed
which is put together by the programmers and developers within the
aptly named BBC Backstage team. Following a mantra of 'use our stuff to
build your stuff' the Backstage boys and girls have been an integral
part of the UK mashing scene for many years now.
Over the weekend they gathered at Alexandra
Palace in North London, a highly iconic location because it was from
'Ally Pally' that the very first BBC TV broadcasts were made way back
in 1936. With them were some of the most innovative and creative web
developers from around the UK.
They call themselves hackers, but don't spend their nights in a bedroom
trying to crack network passwords or steal your data. This is a more
contemporary definition of the hacker as someone who simply uses their
skills to extract more functionality than was ever intended from a
piece of original software or hardware.
Call them what you will, they had one thing in common: they were all here to get mashed.
Sticking with the English lesson for a moment, this is not the kind of
getting mashed that happens most Friday and Saturday nights at the
local bar. In fact, you are far more likely to see these people
drinking Jolt Cola and Red Bull than a pint of lager followed by a
whiskey chaser.
Mashing in this context involves taking a number of existing web
applications and services, throwing in a handful of development tools,
and trying to come up with something new using them. Think mixing BBC
traffic news data with Google Maps to create a live map showing traffic
jam hot spots and you've got your head around a mashup.
Make something cool, they said. Make something cool, they did. And then some.
So what did they make? Find out on the next page...
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