Over in Umair Haque's comments

Phil,

That article is *phenomenal*, and doubly so if you factor in the date. Amazing stuff, will link to it latre tonight.

Do you work at the Beeb?

A : No, I'm British, and that article originally appeared only in the short-lived British edition of Wired. I was always surprised it didn't get more widely known though.

Actually, I did once do a summer-internment kind of job in PC support at the Beeb when I was an undergrad. My boss was, I believe, Tim Berners-Lee's brother (which didn't mean anything at the time because the web hadn't been invented)

Didn't like it much. Horrible, bureaucratic organization, filled with people who were very talented, but way over-qualified for their menial jobs, but there because this was, like, the BBC and hoped to get somewhere better. Lot of people got bitter and twisted waiting for their big break while upgrading WordStar.

Of course, as a consumer, I *love* the BBC and everything it stands for (tax-funded, advert free media with a public service mandate). And I'm pretty sure they have cool people there on their web stuff now.