WARNING!
Anyone posting a link to this page on any bbc blog or message board risks having their membership summarily terminated.
A friend writes,
Summing up re Tempero, I think that we have simply come across a typical scam on the public sector, all conducted in the name of "out-sourcing". Some smartarse sees a growing trend and persuades the public sector that it would be "cheaper" (cost-effective is the wording normally used) for them to contract it out. Smartarse then poaches insiders from the public sector client in order to gain information, embed loyalty.
In the case of Sparkie, it does seem to have worked like a dream. He'll be buying an airline and an island in the Caribbean soon !
A big BAD to the BBC though, to pretend to the public that the Moderators were BBC Moderators. A lot of people who were straightforwardly entering into debate with so-called reporters like Justin Webb have been seriously misled.
I'd just love to see the terms of that contract.
Sparkes on Facebook
Sparkes on video - What a Jerk!
Amusing stuff?
From Google, searching Tempero BBC:
Gives this
(sign in as vulcanthebold@yahoo.com Password vulcanized)
from which: (proving Sciurus' suspicions re EMI)
Dominic Sparkes
Managing Director, Founder. Tempero Interactive Community Management
Location
London, United Kingdom
Industry
Online Media
Current
* Managing Director, Founder at
Tempero
Past
* Head Of Production, Granada Interactive at
ITV
* Head of Production at Granada Interactive
* New Media Manager at
EMI Records
Education
* University of Westminster
* BRIT School
From the bbc
Jasmine Malik, who set up the firm, says she has never heard of Whatsmybrandname.com.
"Tempero is the Latin for moderation. We wanted something that was going to be a bit different, not gimmicky. It made the business seem more real than just something like Moderation Services Limited."
Jasmine Malik, Co-founder of Tempero
Linkedin Public Profile
(sign in as vulcanthebold@yahoo.com Password vulcanized)
And this:
And Peta Haigh:
Looks like she's really a "revolving door" type!:
Peta Haigh
Communities Producer, BBC Radio 2 & 6Music at BBC
Location
London, United Kingdom
Industry
Online Media
Current
* Communities Producer, BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music at
BBC
Past
* Account Director at Tempero.
* Senior Producer - BBC Online Communities & Social Media at
BBC
* Community Editor - h2g2 at The Digital Village - h2g2 - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Earth Edition
* Account Planner at Ayers Advertising Agency
* Account Planner at
BBDO
It isn't clear whether she now works for both the BBC and Tempero
Thank you all, it was just the best...
Happy 10th Birthday h2g2 - love from Peta - ex-h2g2 Community Editor
My name is Peta. I used to run the communities, blogs and message boards at the BBC.
I went away for a bit - but now I'm back! I'm currently hosting the 6 Music and radio 2 message boards.
I've worked within online communities since 1999, when I was the Community Editor of h2g2, way back in the days when Douglas was was still with us and h2g2 was Douglas's at The Digital Village. I've now gone on to join a Social Media company in London, working on lots of interesting and varied online projects; it had to be good to drag me away, h2g2 was the nicest job, ever...."
Look here:
Peta Haig' Plaxo profile
and then mid-right:
Her friend Nick Reynolds
And this from the turd:
A police paper on the need for moderation
Tempero wins moderation contracts for This Morning & I'm A Celeb...
Interactive Community Management company Tempero (www.tempero.co.uk), has won two new contracts to provide moderation services for two of Granada's highest rating shows.
Teempero press releases
News Releases
* Sony Community Marketing Manager moves to Tempero for Activision win
12 Aug 2009
* Tempero publishes Child Protection Online Best Practice Guide in conjunction with Econsultancy
07 Jul 2009
* Tempero wins three retail social media campaigns; Topshop, asos and Umbro
03 Apr 2009
* Tempero holding workshops at Social Networking World Forum
09 Mar 2009
* Children inform online moderation best practice
02 Dec 2008
And this:
"UK-based Tempero, a company that offers clients a range of social media management and moderation products has entered into a partnership with Crisp. Tempero, which counts the BBC, British Airways, Manchester United Football Club and MTV among its client list, will include Crisp's NetModerator software in its product suite. Tempero says it is Europe's "largest Social Media Management Company" and that it consults on the creation and moderation of branded communities for a number of blue chip clients, including Lloyds TSB, Unilever and Disney. MySpace, YouTube and Bebo are also listed in its client roster. Tempero specializes in creating and managing message boards, blogs, commenting fields, user-generated content such as audio, video, and images, as well as online events and chat rooms."
Crisp NetModerator To Be Deployed by Tempero
Partners
If we don't do it, we work closely with someone who can. Below are some of the great companies we partner with. If you'd like to know more or become one of the Tempero family please contact Dominic on 020 7636 1200.
Crisp Press Release
"Crisp, the online user-protection specialist, has confirmed a new partnership with the UK’s leading social media management and moderation experts, Tempero.
Tempero moderate millions of messages every month in over 10 languages across user generated content platforms such as message boards, blogs, commenting, social networking sites and reviews.
...
"We are extremely pleased to be working with Crisp in offering this technology to our clients as the continued development of quality and efficiency in our moderation services is paramount," added Dominic.
...In urgent cases, moderators can be alerted in real-time and can put an immediate block on the accounts of rule breakers.
...
NetModerator’s fast and automated examination of online chat content provides a more refined approach than existing keyword-matching techniques. Crisp allows moderators to get an immediate understanding of which users are breaking website rules so that judgements and action can be taken quickly and efficiently.
...
Andrew added, "Operators that employ NetModerator alongside Tempero’s professional human moderators will be clearly declaring that the safety of their users is their primary concern.""
I shall look into Crisp
Crisp Thinking Group Ltd
Angel's Wing
Whitehouse Street
Leeds
LS10 1AD
United Kingdom
Tel: 0044 (0) 113 242 1165
Fax: 0044 (0) 113 298 7317
Crisp Thinking (UK) Ltd
Angel's Wing
Whitehouse Street
Leeds
LS10 1AD
United Kingdom
Tel: 0044 (0) 113 242 1165
Fax: 0044 (0) 113 298 7317
partnerships@crispthinking.com
Crisp Thinking (U.S.) Inc.
12725 SW Millikan Way
Suite 300
Beaverton
Oregon OR 97005
U.S.A.
Tel: (001) 678 733 2725
Fax: (001) 770 206 2291
partnerships@crispthinking.com
AND
Name & Registered Office:
CRISP THINKING (UK) LIMITED
ANGEL'S WING, WHITEHOUSE STREET
HUNSLET
LEEDS
LS10 1AD
Company No. 06442193
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 30/11/2007
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Company Type: Private Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC(03)):
7221 - Software publishing
Accounting Reference Date: 31/12
Last Accounts Made Up To: (NO ACCOUNTS FILED)
Next Accounts Due: 30/09/2009
Last Return Made Up To: 30/11/2008
Next Return Due: 28/12/2009
Last Members List: 30/11/2008
Previous Names:
No previous name information has been recorded over the last 20 years.
Branch Details
There are no branches associated with this company.
Oversea Company Info
There are no Oversea Details associated with this company.
Members list
Crisp Thinking(uk) members
Crisp Thinking accounts 2007
The revolving door:
"Robin Hamman has over ten years experience devising, implementing and managing social media projects, particularly within the Broadcasting and Media sector.
Before joining Headshift as a Senior Social Media Consultant, Robin was a Senior Producer/Journalist with responsibility for the BBC's Blogs and a wide range of other social media projects. Robin was also previously an Executive Producer at Granada (ITV)..."
more about robin hamman
Career and Highlights
* Head of BBC Blogs Network, 2006 to present
o Launch of over 50+ blogs during second phase expansion of the BBC's blogging efforts
o Creation and delivery of various workshops and training courses for a wide range of BBC people
o Spread awareness of blogging to hundreds of members of staff through speaking engagements and "leading by doing"
* Executive Producer (Co-Head of Communities), Granada Media, 1999 – 2001
o Roll-out and management of message boards and chat for Wellbeing TV (whilst at Granada)
o Co-Management (with Jasmine Malik who later founded Tempero Moderation) of community services and teams at Granada Broadband
o Sold community strategy, build and management services to 3rd party clients including the British Council, Department for Education and Skills, Nationawide Building Society, Liverpool and Arsenal Football Clubs and others
* Communities Evangelist, TalkCast Corporation, 1999
o Developed various SMS based community propositions for mobile phones
o Assisted in launch of Texer, the UK's first SMS chat service, and numerous message boards
* Community Producer, BBC Online 1998-99
o Co-Developed (with Lizzie Jackson) the BBC's discussion moderation and hosting policies and training, both of which are still used today
o Worked to roll out message boards on Howerd 1, the BBC's first in-house message board platform
o Purchase, integration and roll out of the BBC chat service
pointsaspew discussion
Guardian article
More Guardian
Mashable Media blogs
Mashable searched
Crisp Press release
From a POV discussion
I've taken a small rest with debating with Nick (I'm the one of the two of us debating), more to ease the pain of my head banging against a brick wall.
He's probably not aware of his MO, but it's to constantly avoid the question, then keep changing the parameters for debate - I and others attempt to discuss, he hides behind and ever changing criteria for discussion.
This week he said he won't respond to 'statements of opinion', so he got questions. He then said he wouldn't answer questions he's answered before, fine I said, link us to your previous answer or cut and paste what you said, no says Nick (he might as well have said "it's my football" and run off in a huff).
He closed the 'numbers' blog as he said persons unnamed (always a cop out) were disrupting the boards and blogs. Simple, delete a disruptive poster's post or put them in pre-mod, closing a blog altogether is avoiding debate.
What is there is the BBC's blogisphere to disrupt? It's not like it gets the number of posts the BBC Television board gets, it's the online version of a tumbleweed infested ghost town. How many people are interested in this:
Interesting Stuff 2009-07-24: BBC Trust publishes additional information on Project Canvas
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/...
so far...
four posts (one moderated).
The blogs are a comfort blanket for BBC's management, to dip their toe in the water and run away. Blogs are not the future, they are a step backwards, the author controls debate, on a messageboard thread, it cannot be closed by the thread started (unless they are a host of course).
Danielle nager's blog (www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/...) will have to get some serious traffic to compete with the DOG's thread on here:
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb...
1236 posts so far. Why does she engage there when there is a debate going on here - which has shown far more interest in the subject than the traffic on her blog.
I'm sorry to see people go, but I think that's exactly what they want, in the end BBC staff will speak unto BBC staff.
If only the BBC gave the same effort to the boards than the new net toys they are so fond of, if only they learnt how to communicate, rather than discover new ways of communicating (mostly to each other - perhaps we should all stand outside the BBC and wave and say "Remember us?").
A long post I know, what the hell.
Next post Message 144 - posted by z (U9984902) , 2 Weeks Ago
A long post I know, what the hell
I hope you haven't started yet!
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2...
The BBC does seem to ahve made a conscious effort to walk away from the world and difficult issues.
It also seems determined to miss the point of the internet in this area that we are talking about.
One possibility in the link above.
Why would the worlds largest news and current affairs organisation try to deprive the people who pay for it of the opportunity to express their views, by circumscribing all avenues that offer meaningful free speech.
Sure, you can try and talk about anything over there in The Bull at the Archers - fictional twaddle. Why don't we govern the country from a fictional pub? Its good enough for the BBC. Maybe they are doing it already.
We have our lads getting killed in a non fictional war in Iraq. Here - no proper debate.
MPs expenses and the need for a complete change of the way we govern this country? Nope - not worth debating.
The MPs have all gone off on holiday and when they comne back they will get a pay rise and it will be business as usual. I expect the trough is being painted while they are away.
Why don't I type a note on these and other issues and shove it up my own backside? It will surely have more impact on the world than posting it in The Bull.
Yep, just done it, and yep - more impact.
Pull up a fictional bar stool and have a fictional pint on the BBC's all too real expenses gravy train (£85,000 at Wimbledon in 2008 and that is the BBC Trust, you know, they are the ones who are supposed to be on our side).
That link chronicles two and a half years of trying to get the BBC to answer one simple question and it ain't over yet.
The blogs are just another bit of control freakery, but I doubt if it stems from the people we talk to here. Either that or there is no management at all at the BeeB.
There is a need for an FAQ to deal with endlessly repetitive enquiries that don't require personal attention, but blogs are plainly not for people of independent mind who want to interact discussing serious matters.
Linking to:
Message 1 - posted by z (U9984902) , Oct 12, 2008
Some time ago I became interested in why the BBC had curtailed freedom of speech on their message boards. Some of the better boards, such as The Great Debate were closed down and posting hours were restricted to curtail the international flavour. As you may be aware, more recently the Today boards were first emasculated, and then closed down, and now if you want to raise an issue the only place to do it appears to be in 'The Bull' on the Archers board. I am not sure that the fictitious pub for the fictitious country folk is the best place for the BBC to host serious debate. It trivialises the whole idea before it has started.
This all happened just after the BBC were kicked into touch by the Blair government, using the Hutton report. You may recall that people were asking for an explanation as to why the Blair government had gone to war on a false prospectus (arguably a crime in international law), so Tony Blair decided to head off criticism of himself by the device of a completely irrelevant enquiry into the death of a government scientist. He asked his old flatmate Charlie Faulkener to write to Brian Hutton, to set up the charade...and the rest is history...the BBC got a really good kicking over a trivial error and has never recovered.
In effect the boards, where a sensible international debate on the failure of the British and American governments, had been taking place, were closed down, and replaced with emasculated shadows which were heavily circumscribed and in the case of Today before closure, content was subject to censorship prior to appearing on the board.
Due to all that, I wrote to the BBC and asked them under Freedom of Information to let me have any information which would reveal whether or not they had been got at by the government. They refused my request citing their 'Schedule 1 Derogation' which enables them to conceal information relating to Art, Literature and Journalism'.
It didn't seem to me that messageboards fitted in any way into any of these categories, much as we might like to see our efforts as Art or Literature or Journalism.
Accordingly I wrote to the Information Commissioner, as it happens in March 2007, requesting them to adjudicate whether or not messageboards were covered by the Schedule 1 Derogation.
ICO replied in April 2007 saying the matter was placed with a case officer, and promising a 'robust approach'.
Later in April 2007 they wrote again and said things to do with the BBC were on hold due to the Sugar V ICO case about the Balen report. This was just an excuse to delay. You may remember that the Balen report into the BBC's coverage of the Middle East was hidden from public view using the Schedule 1 Derogation. In fact there was an argument that it was commissioned for the purposes of journalism, and was covered; in any event the BBC spent �200,000 of the TV Taxpayers money in the courts and were successful at maintaining the secrecy over it.
It seems obvious that messageboards are not in the same league.
In December 2007 I complained to the ICO about the standard of their service, as they were doing nothing.
They responded in February 2008 saying they were now looking into it again.
In March 2008 the review finally 'started', after a delay of one year.
May 2008 ICO wrote saying they were awaiting a response from the BBC; they would write again in six weeks.
June 2008 ICO wrote again saying they were awaiting a response from the BBC and would write again in four weeks.
July 2008 ICO wrote again saying they were awaiting a response from the BBC and would write again in four weeks.
Early August 2008 ICO wrote again saying they were awaiting a response from the BBC and would write again in four weeks.
Late August 2008 I wrote to ICO asking at what point they would censure the BBC for non cooperation. (No response to that.)
October 2008 ICO wrote again saying they were awaiting a response from the BBC and would write again in six weeks.
The message that comes across is that the BBC sees the ICO as a toothless tiger, and just doesn't bother to address it's enquiries. Either that or they are all mates together.
It took the ICO a year to get going at all, using specious reasoning to 'justify' for the initial delay.
A further seven months have elapsed as the BBC continue to refuse to address the matter.
You could put all this down to the usual cynicism, and lack of committment associated with those who are consigned to work in public office for wages. (Perhaps we should call this 'financial regulator' syndrome after that august body of people currently in the news.)
On the other hand it is not entirely delusional, purely on the strength of the BBC's own behaviour, to imagine that the BBC has something they do not wish to communicate.
Incidentally the posting of this message is merely an exploratory attempt to see if internet messageboards can still have any meaningful role in national debate. I also use it to pay homage to those at the BBC who in the early days plainly thought it was a possibility on BBC boards and fostered the idea before it became apparent the concept had to be killed off as far as the BBC was concerned.
Message 185 - posted by Central Communities Team (U1097995) , Aug 11, 2008
We don't allow the details of the moderation company to be posted on the board. I'm sure you're all very pleasant people, but many of the people we deal with really aren't. Really, really aren't. And although both the BBC and the moderation company do all we can to protect employees, we aren't going to increase the risk to them by allowing users to post details of the moderation company and location.
Obviously, if you could find out who the moderation company is, and if you don't care about the moderators' physical well-being at all then you can post it elsewhere on the internet and we won't be able to do anything about it. But I would ask you not to, and we're certainly not going to make it easier for you.
In order to lessen your desire to see the mods come to physical harm, I should point out that the mods aren't responsible for banning members, replying to emails, failing nicknames or dictating policy (they are contracted to pass, fail or refer posts to a given set of BBC rules). This is all done by hosts or the Central Communities Team who work on moderation issues across all the boards and communities.
Also the mods can't victimise you or single you out for special treatment, because they don't see who's posting the message.
Paul - BBC Central Communities Team
Message 186 - posted by loudGeoffW (U11943874) , Aug 11, 2008
Hi Paul
I think the point here is that you are an supposedly accountable organisation. The link in the post modded above wasn't to the moderation company - it was to a BBC webpage listing contracted suppliers. Unless that page is password protected (ie for internal intranet use only) I assume there is no reason that that link should not be available to the licencepayers ie us and that it would be covered under the Freedom of Information act.
To be honest, I'm sure I don't really care who the moderating company actually is, anymore than who supplies your lightbulbs. We just want to prove to ourselves that for a public body, not a commercial organisation, you are open and fair with you dealings with external companies. Removing links to legitimate BBC pages really sends out the wrong message to the majority of posters.
And, from the end of that discussion:
posted by Central Communities Team (U1097995) , Aug 14, 2008
If anything I think the ones I agree with tend to get a harder time as I unconsciously try and bias the other way.
Yes we sometimes debate escalated posts and I have to remember to keep my voice down in case anyone thinks the post I'm arguing to leave up actually represents my views yikes
It could well be a better system to just snip a post (if it was coupled with Mozo's accept edit/delete post options) than to fail and send out a mail, and it's certainly something we'll consider along with the other options we've been assessing - thanks for your input, as they say in 'corporate world' (where you work until you go to media heaven) smiley