Site: Desert Island Discs

by Matt on 03 August 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs

The longest running music radio show now has a great website.

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From the podcast

Pros

Buried treasure

The concept is legendary. The show is exemplary. It’s been an institution for decades. Now the website does it justice too.

If by some reason you don’t know what it’s all about, ask your parents. Or grandparents, it’s been around since 1942. Essentially it’s a show where people pick their favourite eight tracks whilst being gently interviewed about their (usually fascinating) lives. The secret is in the amazing guest list.

There is a mega archive here: all 2863 guests have a page with their choices listed and about 550 have audio (full programmes back to 1998 at the mo) with more on the way. This is exactly the kind of thing the BBC should be doing: exposing the incredible archive for all to enjoy. If this can be done for more amazing programming then talk about value for money on the license fee…

This website is a victory for simply and intuitively linking data together. It’s a lesson in how it should be done: give every guest it’s own destination and then allow exploration of the interesting links between them. Want to search by occupation? Want to find people by year? Want to see which other guests chose this artist? Even want to see who chose a similar luxury - yep you can even do that. This is the power of meta data in action.

I’ve spent hours with these on in the background while I work, it really is a treasure trove.

Cons

Stranded

You could argue about the omissions of your favourite personalities and it’s a shame not all the audio is there (it never will be as some of the tapes are long gone) but there’s plenty to be getting on with. In fact you should test yourself and listen to people you wouldn’t otherwise: they’re bound to be fascinating. Although I rinsed the comedians section pretty early on.

Allowing people to build on top of this would be ace too: Spotify playlists for each person anyone? Combine people together to choose your ultimate dinner party line-up maybe? Just think…

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