The builders have been busy at Bush House. A new reception area now leads straight into the buzzing corridors of the BBC's new media department. No longer do visitors have to traverse the musty corridors of the World Service to get into the heartland of the corporation's digital future. And the physical transformation outside heralds significant changes within.
At the height of the dot.com bubble it became de rigueur among even the most staid businesses to add an e to the front of your name or an i to the end in an effort to look as though you were part of the cutting edge of the digital age. Now the BBC has got in on the act, rebranding all its online, digital text and interactive television properties as BBCi.
"The i stands for interactive but it also stands for innovation," proclaims Katherine Everett, the BBC's controller of new media, appointed earlier this year to oversee the rebranding effort. Formerly controller of the digital channel BBC Choice and then head of interactive TV, she is friendly yet businesslike in her demeanour. Not for her the outrageous proclamations of a dot.com chief or the profile-heightening outbursts of some of her contemporaries - new media or old, this is still the BBC, after all.
Users can now see the fruits of her labours. The main BBC site which, despite housing fantastic content, always looked a little shoddy and was hard to get around, has a new look, promising better design and easier navigation. There are also plans to beef up the community side, by placing greater emphasis on chat, message boards and user interaction. To tie in with the launch of impressive new interactive television initiatives, its onscreen services have also been given a makeover with digital viewers able to call up the BBCi navigation bar from any BBC channel.
"It's introducing the idea of a gateway, when you see those four letters together you know you're at a gateway to great interactive content whatever platform you're on," explains Everett, emphasising a cross-platform approach that takes in computers, mobile phones and PDAs, and interactive digital television across Sky, ITV Digital and the cable companies. Not only is this approach desirable in an age when we want our content wherever we are, it's essential for a BBC desperate to prove that it is spending our licence fees in a democratic fashion.
Not a fan of technology for its own sake, Everett is keen to stress that the new logo represents much more than a simple repackaging of existing services. Slipping momentarily into the kind of spiel of which director-general Greg Dyke is fond, she says: "It's also about a new state of mind internally. It's about a state of mind that's much more audience-focused. We've got all this great content but we've got to make it easier for audiences to find and interact with."
She is particularly proud of the new search function. "It was something of a mess in the past," she admits. "The search team have done a brilliant job in building an engine that provides users with a real guide to the subject they are searching for."
One could argue that, given the BBC's head start in the digital arena and the not insubstantial sums of cash spent on it, these issues should have been addressed before now. "We know we've got masses of content and lots of it can't easily be found," says Everett. "The site has grown organically with lots of areas that have developed at different times. The time has come to bring a bit of rigour. What the BBC needs is a single interactive brand that stands as a beacon of trust and quality."
This outward-facing restructure has been accompanied by a rejig of the new media department, putting Everett in day-to-day control of not only the online side of things but also interactive TV and the "imagineering" department, which focuses on research and development. This restructure has been under way since outspoken director of new media Ashley Highfield arrived from Flextech last year. A long time was spent discussing it, says Everett. The result is a senior management team with a cross-platform view, while retaining heads of interactive TV and PC internet to champion those particular audiences.
"What I and others are aiming for is a world where producers have an idea that has a different life on different platforms, rather than a world where ideas are primarily for television with bits added on," says Everett. "That's why one of the roles of new media is to do as little as possible and to be a facilitator for content ideas." Another important remit is to take viewers beyond the programming content, she says. "Walking With Dinosaurs has been off-air for a while but the site has become probably the leading resource in the world for prehistoric study."
The issue of repurposing content is a thorny one. One criticism continually levelled at the BBC's new media operation, even by those who work there, is that it is on the Chris Moyles side of flabby. The Radio 1 website and the BBC.co.uk entertainment news will work independently on similar content, for example. Or there will be a reticence to share content between the various sites. "That was true in the past and things have changed absolutely dramatically in the last year," counters Everett. "Even I'm surprised how much people are aware of duplication now and if there is any we discuss it. Often there's a good reason for it - during the Edinburgh Festival, the Radio 3 site and the local Edinburgh site both covered it but from completely different perspectives."
Over the past five years, the BBC has spent a fortune building what is generally agreed to be one of the finest websites in the world. Reaching 35% of the UK's web population in any given month, it provokes both envy and criticism from the commercial competition. They have long derided the fact that the BBC has spent so much public money building up a service that covers some of the same ground as commercial competitors. This view is given added poignancy by the fact that its strongest proponent, British Internet Publishers Association chairman and former Sportal boss Rob Hersov, has just seen his dot.com dream crumble.
It's an argument Everett has obviously heard before. "I was comparing our news site to Guardian Unlimited and CNN the other day and they're completely different," she says. "We have been careful to avoid copycat services that could easily be replicated elsewhere. On the other hand, there are people who want to come to a trusted UK content provider, particularly people with families."
Everett's answer doesn't deviate much from the party line but remains pretty persuasive. "We are there to offer a great interactive experience and to innovate," she adds. "Particularly now in a difficult economic market. The BBC owes it to its licence payers to try new things. We have an obligation to experiment with this technology and come up with great services."
Flush with its relaunch, the success of its interactive Wimbledon service and lauded for the Bafta Interactive Award-winning Walking With Beasts even before it's been broadcast, BBCi is in rude health. The contrast with a moribund commercial sector couldn't be more striking. But ironically, in these difficult times, the virtues of the BBC's huge investment in new media will perhaps become clear to even its harshest critics.