BBC Research & DevelopmentJul 31, 2023

Hello to our new followers, which, for the one and only time, is everyone...

We'll be verifying our account very soon, but in the meantime, our top level domain should hopefully help confirm our identity, and we've also written about why we're here on Mastodon, what was involved to get here, and the other BBC accounts you can follow.

Say hi, follow and give us a boost!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-07-mastodon-distributed-decentralised-fediverse-activitypub

The BBC on Mastodon: experimenting with distributed and decentralised social media

Trialling ActivityPub and the federated model for social media and it's possibilities for the BBC.

BBC R&D
Show threadMichael Veale
great to see @BBCRD and @BBCRadio4 etc on the fediverse...! although buying a gTLD is an expensive way to verify yourself (upward of $150k...)
Jul 31, 2023 at 3:26pmWeb
Show threadMichael VealeJul 31, 2023
@BBCRD @BBCRadio4 also exciting to see a new legal basis for Mastodon data protection — public task, based on the BBC's royal charter
Show threadAngela Glansbury 🚽Jul 31, 2023
@mikarv @BBCRD @BBCRadio4
wait, $150k, is this real?
Show threadChristian Kent   𝘊𝘒 :＼﹥Jul 31, 2023
@floppyplopper @mikarv @BBCRD @BBCRadio4 Peanuts for a country the size of the UK and it's a virtual real estate you should claim, especially in that industry.
Show threadMy name is Gloria ActuallyJul 31, 2023
@mikarv @floppyplopper you have to remember they got a shitton of money and get to depreciate it or write it off through accounting. It would be like us investing in a decent external hard drive or a good keyboard. Maybe not necessary but definitely a good idea.
Show threadAngela Glansbury 🚽Jul 31, 2023
@mikarv @BBCRD @BBCRadio4
ok, I just realised who else might be interested in buying dot bbc and on the face of it this is a really sensible use of money.
Show threadHaelwenn /элвэн/ Jul 31, 2023
@mikarv Erm, ccTLD are country-code TLDs, I don't think the BBC is a country. ^^
Show threadChris Silverman 🌻Jul 31, 2023
@lanodan @mikarv yeah, I was wondering if they meant a brand TLD, like .bbc. I can see how a brand TLD would cost $150k, especially if the primary users are large companies/orgs as they seem to be right now.
Show threadMichael VealeJul 31, 2023
@lanodan yep, i meant gTLD, my error, will edit
Show threaddragonfrogJul 31, 2023

@mikarv @BBCRD @BBCRadio4

For what it's worth, the .bbc TLD has existed since 2015. They don't seem to have made a lot of use of it...

https://icannwiki.org/.bbc

.bbc

.bbc is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The British Broadcasting Corporation is the TLD's manager. Nominet provides back-end technical support. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 21 March, 2015.

icannwiki
Show threadmdransfieldJul 31, 2023

@mikarv @BBCRD @BBCRadio4 Buying domain names for lots of money is something for which the BBC has previous.

https://www.theregister.com/2005/10/05/bbc_domain/

BBC blew $375k on bbc.com

And for what?

The Register
Show threadJames HarrisonAug 2, 2023
@mikarv @BBCRD @BBCRadio4 .bbc was bought ages ago when ICANN gTLDs first happened, because if you didn't buy it someone else could - so lots of gTLDs ended up being bought purely for brand protection. Makes sense to use it - the ICANN-required http://nic.bbc is all I knew existed on it thus far...
.BBC Domain