The document describes the birth of the Newsroom of Things project at the BBC. It details how the Juicer tool was created to automatically tag BBC news content with linked data tags. This allowed the BBC to test using real news data without extensive manual tagging. Over time, the Juicer was improved and scaled up to include more data sources. It is now used to explore opportunities at the intersection of technology, journalism, and data through projects like analyzing media coverage of events. The document concludes by outlining some future directions for the Newsroom of Things, including expanding linked data workflows and exploring partnerships.

1. Powered by
Connected Studio
birth of The Newsroom of Things
(at BBC)
For HACKS HACKERS LONDON
Feb 2015 ##HHLDN
Matt Shearer
@BBC_News_Labs

2. TONIGHT:
• Some context
• Case study
• What’s next

3. A little about BBC News Labs

4. What do we do?
Technology
Journalism
● Incubate ideas in this space
● #newsHACK events
● Partnerships
● New Formats
Data

5. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
(for context)
sorry

6. You’ve seen this
ARRGHHHH VALUE
Near Term Long Term
THIS IS
WHAT
WE NEED
THIS IS THE
TENDENCY
EVEN IN
A LAB
ALWAYS
FOCUS
HERE

7. we go bananas
over “moments in time”
and then they are gone

8. So, my focus
ARRGHHHH VALUE
Near Term Long Term
ONLY
LOOK
HERE !
It drives
best
ROI
It opens
future
opportunities
It helps create
productive
teams 

9. THE CASE STUDY

10. BACK TO THE START
of linked data in BBC
NEWS

11. IT WAS SPRING 2012.
**EVERYONE**
was on 1 project

12. The OLYMPICS

13. From ~May 2012
“Do not release another
atom of code …
… in case you knock
over the Olympics.”

14. This was an
unprecedented
opportunity:
Let’s focus on something
Long Term & Important

15. “How might BBC News
use Linked Data
to connect and
contextualise
our News Stories?”

16. Answer: The Juicer
• before we change the Newsroom?
• and without the need for MAGIC DUST?
So – how do we explore this
1
Get
Content
2
Extract
Concepts
3
Match to
DBpedia
4
Annotate
Content
5
Push to
Triplestore
6
Expose
via
API

17. So, explain again,
what is
“THE JUICER”?

18. OK. In other words:
The Juicer automatically
tags News content with
Linked Data Tags

19. ...& it allows us to test ideas,
using real data,
without an army
of tagging experts.
(NB it is not as good as real humans, yet)

20. The Timeline of
The Birth of THINGS*
in BBC News
* “Things” being: Linked Data, real world concepts (or “tags”)
that are understandable by machines.

21. Window on the NEWSROOM
Production App
Journalists
doing Manual Tagging
Storyline
2013 2014 2015
Summer
Labs Added “Non BBC” Sources
Start
App prototype PAIN
Sources ++
YES!

R&D
DISCUSS
A LOT
FUNDING
CRISIS
Joined
Connected
Studio
What’s the
editorial
story L.D.
concept?
v1
Conceptual
Struggle
Sceptical
Of Linked
Data
explore
APP
“Yes – it
will work!”
Innovation
Support
Production
Scaling
Vote
2014
Used
Linked
Data
This saved
us!
Thanks
to Robin
JT
Joins
JUICER POC in
the Newsroom

22. And so “The Things”
were born in BBC News.
And launched to our users
via BBC mobile Apps

23. OK

24. What did we find?
1. A Prototype is worth 1000 meetings
2. There will be pain
3. Loose coupling of teams/services is key
4. Keep referring to point 1

25. Next time? How do we plan it?

26. The formula is
• Enthusiastic people
• Cross discipline
• Trust & space from your sponsors
• Be pourous – flux of collaboration

27. What we use the Juicer for now

28. We use it to explore opportunities in the
important intersection
Technology
Journalism
Data

29. Metajournalism:
Stories in the Data in the Stories

30. EU Vote (2014) Media coverage

31. Over time…

32. Co-occurence…

33. More co-occurence

34. More co-occurence

35. NB – the tag associations here
are “co-occurrences”, and so
there is no indication of what the
co-occurrence means.
i.e. It could be negative, positive,
or non associative.
All we know is that the terms
have co-occurred in News
Articles in our source set.

36. What’s happening right now?
We are scaling-up the sources

38. What’s next for the Newsroom of Things?
1. Extend linked data through other workflows
2. Explore wider opportunities with Partners

39. Elsewhere in BBC NEWS LABS

40. Pilots to reach new audiences

41. “Adaptive News”
(pan-dimensional responsiveness)
DisplaySpace
InteractionTypes
ConnectionSpeed
Dataalreadyconsumed
Location
Push/Pull
Likes/Dislikes
Mood(heartrate,EEG)
Timeofday/Routine
Timeavailable
Media–Video,Audio,Txt
LeanForward/SitBack
MySocialMediaPatterns

42. Immersive current affairs

43. Neurotech

44. #newsHACK events – rapid prototyping

45. Language Tech

46. Argument Mining

47. Partnerships

48. Thanks
@BBC_News_Labs
@completedespair
www.BBCNewsLabs.co.uk