WGBH INTERACTIVE
Raising the bar with PBS
 Let's face it, the current state of commercial television leaves a lot to be desired in terms of ideals. Situation comedies and dramas and made-for-tv movies generally donít inform or inspire people to any great degree, and much of the time the entertainment value itself is borderline.
One of the biggest problems is the inherently passive nature of the television medium… encouraging viewers to be viewers, not participants, in the television experience. This passivity often extends to the web experience as well, where content becomes television repackaged for internet delivery.
Public television breaks the rules of advertiser driven content because it is publicly funded, and not reliant on revenues from advertising. But this presents an enormous challenge, in that PBS must provide a quantity of entertainment that meets the needs and expectations of a very diverse range of peoples and cultures, with a production quality that meets or exceeds commercial standards.
WGBH is public television at its best, with a long successful history in public broadcasting. As their web site says, "Long before the days of cable TV and interactive media -- even before PBS and a coast-to-coast public radio system -- there was WGBH. As the broadcast landscape has changed, we've changed with it, breaking new ground each step of the way."
Some of the new ground that has been broken by WGBH has been in the realm of its strong web presence. Many of the creative people behind this huge online base of information work under the banner of WGBH Interactive. Among the 70 or so developers, designers, and editorial staff that make up the group is Jon Alper, Director of Technology, Research and Development
We had a chance recently to speak with Jon about WGBH Interactive…
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