BBC Make it Digital season - Digital initiatives
The BBC has launched mixital, a new digital platform for teenagers to get creative with some of the BBC’s best-known brands, and Make it Digital Matchr in collaboration with Google and Tech Partnership, which aims to help audiences discover a range of digital career opportunities and learning resources.
Published: 8 September 2015
The BBC has launched mixital, a new digital platform for teenagers to get creative with some of the BBC’s best-known brands, and Make it Digital Matchr in collaboration with Google and Tech Partnership, which aims to help audiences discover a range of digital career opportunities and learning resources.
mixital
mixital launches as a beta version with four digital ‘maker kits’ from Strictly Come Dancing, BBC Introducing, Arts and the BBC’s classical music education initiative Ten Pieces, with content from EastEnders coming soon. Each kit puts a range of assets - like characters, sets, music, visual effects and sounds effects - into the hands of users, enabling them to create their own games, stories, music visualisations and more.
Users can share their digital creations, try, rate, comment, and even remix the work of others. They can also follow each other, so those with the most creative flair have the chance to build their reputations as digital makers. mixital will also showcase some of the best and most popular creations on the site.
No technical knowledge or downloads are required, all that’s needed is an imagination and a willingness to have a go. mixital Maker Kits coming soon and already live, include:
EastEnders Soap Factory – coming soon
EastEnders Soap Factory arrives on mixital soon, giving fans the chance to create their own animated comic-style stories, give their own take on how storylines might develop, and even create memes based on the show. Famous faces, such as Mick Carter, Dot Branning and Ian Beale, as well as iconic locations like Albert Square and The Queen Vic will all be available, alongside simple tools that let users choose camera angles, sound and special effects. Some special assets and scenarios from a big upcoming storyline will be available for fans to create with and remix too.
Strictly Come Dancing’s ‘Robo-Dancers’
Strictly Come Dancing’s ’Robo-Dancers’ allows you to create dance routines for up to five Strictly robots. Users can programme the bots to dance to Quickstep, Salsa and Show Dance in any way they want. Beginners can use the intuitive sliders to create their routines, while more advanced users and those wanting to learn more can access the underlying code make something truly special.
Music Visualisation ‘Viziis’
Three ‘Vizii’ Maker Kits are available from BBC Introducing, Arts and Ten Pieces, enabling users to create their own music visualisations. This Maker Kit enables users to pick out the beats, bars, bass and more, to make the visuals react in time to the music. Users can also add graphics, lyrics and special effects to create some truly stunning visuals.
The BBC Introducing Vizii allows people to use tracks and audio from up and coming bands; classical tracks from Bizet, Wagner and others in BBC Ten Pieces SuperConductor; and powerful spoken performances from some of Britain’s best poets in the BBC Arts Wordcraft Vizii.
Martin Wilson, Head of Product, BBC Digital, said: “We’ve seen the appetite of BBC audiences to get creative digitally with our best-loved brands, and mixital takes that idea to even more brands and even more people. It’s a completely new way for fans to engage with the BBC and to be creative. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.”
mixital builds on the concept and technology developed for the CBBC Technobabble Game Maker, which has seen 250,000 thousand creations since launching in December 2014. It’s designed to give audiences a completely new way of interacting with BBC brands, and to encourage more young people to have a go at creating something digitally. Nesta’s ‘Young Digital Makers’ report report highlighted a huge appetite in digital making, but a large gap between interest and action.
mixital was developed by the BBC, with insights from Mozilla, Nesta and FreeFormers, and technology from Code Club has been used to create Strictly Come Dancing’s ‘Robo-Dancers’.
Doctor Who Game Maker
Built using mixital technology, a Doctor Who Game Maker will allow fans to manipulate the universe of Doctor Who like never before and create and share their own adventures in time and space. Building on the success of the Doctor and the Dalek coding game, the Game Maker offers a huge range of heroes, monsters and worlds from the series to allow users to create their own unique games. The Doctor Who Game Maker will be live on 15th at bbc.co.uk/doctorwho.
BBC Make it Digital Matchr
The BBC, working alongside Google and the Tech Partnership, has also launched the BBC Make it Digital Matchr to help audiences discover a range of digital career opportunities.
Aimed primarily at 16 to 19 year olds, the interactive tool profiles users and uses the latest research to match them with the right resources, from the BBC and many other organisations, to help them develop their skills.
Users are asked how they would handle a range of situations involved in developing a fictional game – their answers reveal their natural strengths and inclinations, helping the BBC Make it Digital Matchr find suitable digital careers they may be interested in, and presenting them with resources to help set them on their way.
Eileen Naughton, UK Managing Director, Google: “As more of our lives are being transformed by technology, so too are the jobs of the future. And it’s not just at technology companies like Google. Nowadays digital skills are crucial for a whole range of industries - from design to medicine to music. We hope the Make it Digital Matchr, developed with the BBC and Tech Partnership, will inspire young people about the jobs of the future and the skills that will get them there.”
Phil Smith, Chief Executive, UK & Ireland, Cisco and Chair of the Tech Partnership, said: “Digital employment is growing strongly and there are so many worthwhile, enjoyable and rewarding career options. Make it Digital Matchr is a great way of inspiring young people and helping them develop and channel their digital skills, ready to take advantage of these opportunities.”
