It is a shame that BBC got wedged , any one have ifluence over them .. djf.. Re: "The Nature of Spac

[David Farber <>]

From: Mark Handley <M.Handley () cs ucl ac uk>
Organisation: University College London, CS Dept.
Phone: +44 71 380 7777 ext 3666
To: Van Jacobson <van () ee lbl gov>
cc: rem-conf () es net
Subject: Re: "The Nature of Space and Time" by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose


> Arrrrrrrgh!!!!  The greatest physicist since Newton giving live
> lectures to the world from Cambridge would have been a milestone
> event for the Mbone & the Internet!


That's what we thought too!


> What's the problem?  Is it
> something I can help fix?  Do you need equipment or is it one of
> those foul smelling "political" things?


Unfortuantely it's out of our hands.  Chris Cheney of Cambridge decided that
since they couldn't get the professional video feed from the BBC, they
didn't want to do it.  I think their problem was that it might be so high
profile that if they couldn't do it exactly right, they didn't want to do it
at all.


There may be some political stuff behind the scenes, but we were told it was
entirely due to not being able to get the professional video feed (and yes
we did offer to drive to Cambridge immediately with as many cameras as they
could possibly want!).  All the various links were already set up, with the
exception of the feed out of the room.


Mark


Posted-Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 05:53:46 -0400
To: Mark Handley <M.Handley () cs ucl ac uk>
Cc: rem-conf () es net
Subject: Re: "The Nature of Space and Time" by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 01:52:12 PDT
From: Van Jacobson <van () ee lbl gov>


How did the BBC get so confused?  Thanks to the MICE, Britain
already has a reputation for supplying high quality seminars to
the world.  This series would have made the UK preeminent and
set a set a standard that no one else could ever hope to match.
(Not to mention giving Cambridge a *major* "one-up" on London.)
Why would the BBC want to make England to look stupid & petty
rather than an enlightened leader of the intellectual and
technical world?  Particularly when all they have to do to be
international heroes is let someone run a short chunk of coax
from their mix board to a nearby sparcstation.


This would undoubtedly been the largest Mbone event ever and
probably the largest Internet event.  (We were already making
plans to bus science students up from Oakland so they could
watch.)  Though it's probably futile, I pray someone will see
reason before it's too late.


 - Van