One of the things I’ve been pondering with respect to my OU/BBC programmes currently on iPlayer demo and OU/BBC co-pros upcoming on iPlayer (code) is how to start linking effectively across from programmes to Open University educational resources.

Chatting with KMi’s Mathieu d’Aquin a few days ago, he mentioned KMi were looking at ways of automating the creation of relevant semantic linkage that could be used to provide linkage between BBC programmes and OU content and maybe feed into the the BBC’s dynamic semantic publishing workflow.

In the context of OU and BBC programmes, one high level hook is the course code. Although I don’t think these feeds are widely promoted as a live service yet, I did see a preview(?) of an OU/BBC co-pro series feed that includes linkage options such as related course code (one only? Or does the schema allow for more than one linked course?) and OU nominated academic (one only? Or does the schema allow for more than one linked academic? More than one), as well as some subject terms and the sponsoring Faculty:

  <item>
    <title><![CDATA[OU on the BBC: Symphony]]></title>
    <link>http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-the-bbc-history-the-symphony</link>
    <description><![CDATA[Explore the secrets of the symphony, the highest form of expression of Western classical music]]></description>
    <image title="The Berrill Building">http://www.open.edu/openlearn/files/ole/ole_images/general_images/ou_ats.jpg</image>
    <bbc_programme_page_code>b016vgw7</bbc_programme_page_code>
    <ou_faculty_reference>Music Department</ou_faculty_reference>
    <ou_course_code>A179</ou_course_code>
    <nominated_academic_oucu></nominated_academic_oucu>
    <transmissions>
        <transmission>
            <showdate>21:00:00 24/11/2011</showdate>
            <location><![CDATA[BBC Four]]></location>
            <weblink></weblink>
        </transmission>
        <transmission>
            <showdate>19:30:00 16/03/2012</showdate>
            <location><![CDATA[BBC Four]]></location>
            <weblink></weblink>
        </transmission>
        <transmission>
            <showdate>03:00:00 17/03/2012</showdate>
            <location><![CDATA[BBC Four]]></location>
            <weblink></weblink>
        </transmission>
        <transmission>
            <showdate>19:30:00 23/03/2012</showdate>
            <location><![CDATA[BBC Four]]></location>
            <weblink></weblink>
        </transmission>
        <transmission>
            <showdate>03:00:00 24/03/2012</showdate>
            <location><![CDATA[BBC Four]]></location>
            <weblink></weblink>
        </transmission>
    </transmissions>
     <comments>http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-the-bbc-history-the-symphony#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on">What's On</category>
 <category domain="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/tags/bbc-four">BBC Four</category>
 <category domain="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/tags/music">music</category>
 <category domain="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/tags/symphony">symphony</category>
 <pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:38:03 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mc23488</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">147728 at http://www.open.edu/openlearn</guid>
  </item>

I’m not sure what the guid is? Nor do there seem to be slots for links to related OpenLearn resources other than the top link element? However, the course code does provide a way into course related educational resources via data.open.ac.uk, the nominated academic link may provide a route to associated research interests (for example, via ORO, the OU open research repository), the BBC programme code provides a route in to the BBC programme metadata, and the category tags may provide other linkage somewhere depending on what vocabulary gets used for specifying categories!

I guess I need to build myself a little demo to se what we can do with a fed of this sort..?!;-)

I’m not sure if plans are similarly afoot to publish BBC programme metadata actual the actual programme instance (“episode”) level? It’s good to see that the OpenLearn What’s On feed has been tidied up little to include title elements, although it’s still tricky to work out what the feed is actually of?

For example, here’s the feed I saw a few days ago:

 <item>
    <title><![CDATA[OU on the BBC: Divine Women  - 9:00pm 25/04/2012 - BBC Two and BBC HD]]></title>
    <link>http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-the-bbc-divine-women</link>
    <description><![CDATA[Historian Bettany Hughes reveals the hidden history of women in religion, from dominatrix goddesses to feisty political operators and warrior empresses&nbsp;]]></description>
    <location><![CDATA[BBC Two and BBC HD]]></location>
	<image title="The Berrill Building">http://www.open.edu/openlearn/files/ole/ole_images/general_images/ou_ats.jpg</image>
    <showdate>21:00:00 25/04/2012</showdate>
     <pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:19:10 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>sb26296</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">151446 at http://www.open.edu/openlearn</guid>
  </item>

It contains an upcoming show date for programmes that will be broadcast over the next week or so, and a link to a related page on OpenLearn for the episode, although no direct information about the BBC programme code for each item to be broadcast.

In the meantime, why not see what OU/BBC co-pros are currently available on iPlayer?

Or for a bitesize videos, how about this extensive range of clips from OU/BBC co-pros?

Enjoy! :-)