On 7 March, Mark Thompson launched the Creative Future project, a major piece of work that will address the needs of our audiences as we enter the second phase of the digital revolution.

It will come up with an editorial strategy for the coming decade and turn the ideas we set out in Building public value into reality. Mark and Alan Yentob will sponsor the project and are expecting a report at December 2005's Creative Board.

Alongside Charter Renewal and our internal transformation plans, Creative Future will probably be the most important piece of work we'll do this year. Mark Thompson wants everyone in the BBC to have a chance to feed into the thinking somewhere, though the project will work on a regular basis with about 80 people. More about that soon.

Susan Spindler and Richard Halton will lead the project. Susan has worked in drama and science and was the first leader of Making it Happen. Susan has also been appointed deputy director of DEC and will divide her time equally between the division and the project. Richard is Television's controller of strategy and has played a major role in developing the BBC's digital TV portfolio and interactive services.