Work

Stuff about working for a living.

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6 May 2008: It launched! Or did It? I dunno. I wasn’t actually around…: Well it’s 6 May 2008 and that can only mean one thing. Yep, it’s the day after May Day. And of course it’s the launch of Freesat and the formal launch of Phase 1 of BBCi on Freesat. That is, baring any last minute technical issues or problems.
30 November 2007: Salford: It was June 2004 when the BBC’s move of several departments from London to the north west was first announced. The department I worked for (and still work for) was one of those highlighted.
16 November 2007: A day in the work-life of Andrew Paul Bowden: If you’ve ever wondered quite what a Senior Development Producer working on interactive TV products gets up to for a living, now is time to find out. And if you’ve never wondered, now is the time to find out. Below is how one day panned out.
27 September 2007: Beaming signals into your home: The last few days at work have been a bit frantic, as I’ve been busy rushing around trying to get up to speed with a great big huge monster of a project, whilst at the same time trying to ease the handover of another great big huge monster of a project onto someone else.
20 April 2007: An Award Winning BBCi: Tthis week, BBCi won the International Interactive Emmy award for Best Interactive Television Service. Woo!
21 January 2007: Your Place of Work, Live on TV: I have to say, I am getting just a little fed up of seeing the offices I work in, on TV.
4 January 2007: Cakes, Stars and Specifications: I’m currently sat at my desk at home staring at pictures of cakes and stars. There’s a reason for this. And it’s to do with work.
2 December 2006: Keeping your staff, the post work drinks way: Last night after work we had one of those rare moments - and end of year review, followed, of course, by some celebratory drinks.
13 November 2006: To plan or not to plan: Today was my first day back in work after a week off. A week that included (in part) relaxing on the Isle of Wight, following by sitting around the house for a few days doing very little. Ah, lovely. So after all that tranquility, what did I return to? The delights of an all day planning meeting…
26 September 2006: Spot the difference: Today was another big day in BBCi land thanks to the latest launch from one of the projects I work on. Although you probably won’t notice any difference…
6 May 2006: Work-Blog-Thing: In accordance with the the new BBC ‘Guidelines on Employees Personal Weblogs and Webspaces’, I am hereby informing you that I, Andrew Paul Bowden, have a personal website that includes a weblog.
4 March 2006: Desk Swap: I recently moved desks at work, which has had some unual implications.
17 January 2006: Job Stuff: It’s good (although slightly embarassing!) to hear praise for ones work, but there’s ultimately something more important to me about getting through the interview last week, for it was the final vindication for a decision I made three years ago.
12 January 2006: New Business Card Needed: In my desk draw at work is a box full of about 400 business cards which I got given not long after I became an assistant producer.
31 October 2005: Buzz Off: As you may or may not have heard, the BBC Broadcast has renamed itself. It’s done this cos it’s not part of the BBC, being now owned as it is, by an Australian bank, who are of course an obvious owner for the company.
15 October 2005: Your Leave Request: Wow. Either someone has decided I can take 17 months off work, and only decided to tell me 10 months in, or someone was testing a new system.
8 September 2005: Working At Home: I’m working at home today, which is something I don’t normally do as I find it rather boring being stuck in the house by myself, and I usually end up missing about 15 important files that I can’t access as I’m working via webmail alone.
5 September 2005: Today: Things that I have done today.
4 July 2005: Guidelines: Today I got my new copy of the BBC Editorial Guidelines. A hefty tome at 226 pages. There’s even half a page about interactive TV.
8 June 2005: No R and no D for me: Every year the BBC’s R&D department holds a host of open days in their lovely base in Kingswood Warren, to let people know what they get up to. And every year I get myself booked onto one of the open days. Every year I manage to miss them.
23 May 2005: Monday, part 2: Well the day got off to a good start when I woke up at 4am and my body completely refused to go back to sleep.
22 May 2005: Monday: This is why tomorrow is difficult.
26 April 2005: How to succeed in job interviews: What with redundancies and things, you may be surprised to find out that there aren’t that many promotion oppertunities for a hip, young, trendy dude like me (will you just stop laughing, PLEASE!)
9 April 2005: The Usability of Meeting Room Names: The usability of meeting room names is not something that has generally attracted much attention in this world, but perhaps it should if the BBC experience is anything to go by.
21 March 2005: Work, Job Cuts, etc: In case you’re wondering - and I’m sure someone will ask if I don’t mention it.
20 March 2005: Views and Windows: I went down to the fourth floor at work to have the old weekly line management chat, and well the view from their windows - superb.
17 March 2005: Coincidences in the Signed Department: The frankly spooky coincidence about signed TV programme listings.
9 March 2005: Boooooooooop: Due to industrial action, the author is currently waving pieces of paper around and thinking of interesting things to say. Normal programmes will resume shortly.
7 March 2005: Searching The Memories: Was it really 2001 that I spent months working away on the new, amazing BBCi web search?
7 March 2005: A Day At Work: Don’t you just love those days when you’re in the middle of writing a long, pretty tedious document that you just want to get out of the bloomin’ way, and then the shared drive where the file sits, dies. In fact it’s the shared drive with all your documents on it, meaning there’s actually very little work you can do?
26 February 2005: The Commute: There’s more to life than travelling to work…
21 February 2005: First Day In The Broadcasting Centre: I’m now working in a building that can - in theory - broadcast 500 TV stations at once. But the light switch doesn’t work.
18 February 2005: So Long, Bush House: Five years after I first set foot in the place and I’ve just left Bush House for the final time.
3 February 2005: Electrical Borgness: I keep feeling I should take a picture of my desk at work for prosperity. I think it’s becoming a piece of art. Perhaps it’s the way that it’s filling up with an ever increasing plethora of set top boxes.
13 January 2005: The Oh Bollocks Moment: It’s depressingly predictable I know, but there comes a point in every project where you get the "Oh… bollocks!" moment. The moment where you look at it and some blindingly obvious problem that only a simpleton would have missed, rears its ugly head.
12 January 2005: Work and blogging: On the day that we found out about the first UK blogger to be sacked by his employer (well that we know about anyway) it’s fittingly appropiate that the hot topic on part of the BBC’s internal message boards was guidelines for BBC staff who blog about work stuff.
10 January 2005: Just Another Drone: In a few weeks time I will sadly no longer be making the trog to work up to the delightful Bush House. For us in New Media, this delightful location in the heart of London’s west end will just be a distant memory, for we’re moving to the less glamorous White City.
7 December 2004: BBC New Media and Manchester: Oh course you can never say never. Who knows what the future may hold - especially in five years time. But there are times you have to think about that future. And right now, it doesn’t matter what the BBC says or does. I don’t want to go back to Manchester.
25 October 2004: Bush House - a life in broadcasting: I love Bush House and I will miss it when we leave.
11 September 2004: Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off To QA We Go: After many months of work, one of my big projects finally got submitted to the Quality Assurance (QA) team yesterday. It’s slightly late but it’s finally met a major milestone in the project.
26 July 2004: Headache Inducing: This is the tale of Project Duck and how it interacts with Project Hen. Oh and with Project Heron. And Project Albatross. And all this relates to Project Robin too. Oh and have I mentioned Project Sparrow yet?
16 July 2004: Confidence and Paranoia: Normally work away days fit into two categories - dull and tedious, or arty-farty with stupid exercises crap. But sometimes they have their uses…
8 July 2004: Surreal Day: Today has been a little… odd.
29 April 2004: Internal Project Names Unleased To The World: Don’t you just love it when internal project names end up on big documents that are released to the public?
2 April 2004: Top Grades.: The news that Michael Grade will be the next chairman of the BBC was (as has been reported by the media) welcomed by most of the staff at the BBC.
1 February 2004: Advert from the staff of the BBC.: It was perhaps the biggest example of the BBC staff ‘making it happen’. A full page advert in the Daily Telegraph yesterday paying tribute to the work done by Greg Dyke, and asserting their belief that the BBC should continue to be independent, and continue to be an independent organisation that best serves the public who pay for it.
30 January 2004: Greg.: Many people will have seen the staff response to the resignation of Greg Dyke as Director General of the BBC. I like many people were completely gutted by his decision, but he made it and I respect that and his reasons for doing so
12 January 2004: Work Woe.: Ever had one of those days where you reach a moment realise that whilst you’ve spent months planning on something working in one way, but right at the last minute, you realise that actually you may be required to implement a completely contradictorary and incompatable way instead?
3 December 2003: Fire! Fire!: Fire! Fire! Just a quick example of my skill of shouting that there is a fire, for today I became a fire warden.
24 November 2003: The Day The Network Died.: I hate feeling unproductive at work, and yet for seemingly the third working day running, that’s exactly how I feel.
20 November 2003: Odd.: This morning on my desk was a piece of small brown card that said in small dark brown letters "Nothing is ever perfect".
20 November 2003: Cake for Sale: Should you be in Bush House in London this Friday, there will be a cake stall for Children In Need.
28 October 2003: Page Not Found.: One of my last tasks as a Client Side Developer at the BBC has now snook online.
2 October 2003: The Death of the Technical.: Today I struggled with some HTML. Does this set a worrying path to technical oblivion?
23 September 2003: All Day In The Company of Set Top Boxes.: Deep in the delves of Bush House is a room full of set top boxes. They are there for speed testing…. And it’s fun testing. Oh yes.
14 August 2003: A Day Of Lasts.: The end of an era. After three and a half years, I’m no longer a Client Side Developer… Bye bye my old friend Mr HTML….
24 July 2003: The End of Job Void.: Having only had two permanent jobs in my entire life, I’d forgotten about that strange period of time as you begin to wind down in your current role and prepare yourself for the new one.
18 July 2003: New Job Alert!: I’ve got a new job! Wahoo!!!!
23 April 2003: The Wierdness of New Offices: New offices and not enough space. Anyone for a game of tennis?

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