Naming the series - the quest for a title continues...
Post categories: announcements
| 13:45 UK time, Wednesday, 2 December 2009
First off - a big thank you for all your title suggestions for the series. The response has been fantastic.
This said, unfortunately we don't yet have a definitive answer on our title - we remain, as Stephen Fry, bemoaned 'title-less'. Ìý
We've been inundated with suggestions (many of which you can find on the previous blog posts on the #bbcnamestorm) and here the team have been toiling with terms, scouring thesauruses (thesauri?), mixing metaphors and collecting clichés. But theÌýExecutive Producer and Commissioning Editor of the series still don't feel any suggestions either from both the production team and the web quite grab them enough.
Here are the shortlists we compiled of your ideas and ours. None of these are firm 'no's; the intention remains to take a shortlist of six names to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two, and they will choose at least three of these from the longlist of your suggested names. But the suggestions so far have generated pithy comments from the powers that be - provided inÌýparentheses beside them.
We're hoping this might help stir up one last burst of inspiration for a series title. If not, the six names will be taken forward from our existing lists.
Shortlist of suggestions from the web:Ìý
The World Mind (nice but a bit too narrow - suggests content of our fourth programme)Ìý
The Age of Dreams (is it, really though?)Ìý
The End of Distance ('Death of Distance' is snappier but Frances Cairncross got there first)Ìý
The Links That Bind Us (aren't 'links' a bit of a techie turn-off?)Ìý
Let there Be Links (ditto with added biblical feel)Ìý
Shift: the new digital paradigm Ìý(quite Gladwell-esque but what does 'shift' mean/say?)Ìý
Click: And the World Shrank (a bit narrow)Ìý
Onrush (like the made-up word but it could be a documentary on cocaine)Ìý
2010: A Web Odyssey (means we can't broadcast it in 2011)Ìý
A brain the size of a planet (nice Hitchhikers' allusion but all a bit programme four)Ìý
all together now (are we?)Ìý
Civilisation + (like the computer game?)Ìý
Around the world in 80 nanoseconds (very nice but doesn't quite roll off the tongue for the next-day-at-the-watercooler chat)
How the world was shrunk (all very honey I shrank the web)Ìý
Unbound: the World Connected (not bad, just a bit bondage)Ìý
1% useful (the series producer was tickled by this one but felt on balance that it slightly undermined the series mission)
Production Team suggestions:Ìý
Digital Revolution (yes, we've grown to like it but nobody up top does)Ìý
Only Connect (EM Forster would be proud - we're still turnign this one over)Ìý
.Revolution (the dot is putting oldies off)Ìý
How the Web was Spun (Stephen Fry liked the double pun but it sounds too historical)Ìý
The Electric Enlightenment (but the web is so much more than electricity- sounds like we'll be featuing Faraday)Ìý
Civilization Rebooted (that game again...)Ìý
Clickstream (geek speak)Ìý
Generation Web (programme four subtitle?)Ìý
Unleashed: How the Web Transformed the World (walkies!)Ìý
Reach: How the Web Changed the World ('Reach' could be a deoderant or toothpaste, not unique to web)Ìý
We still feel the word' revolution' is important - as that's the concept the series interrogates again and again. Continual revolution, constant revolution, irrversible revolution...Ìý
If you have any further ideas - find yourself inspired with a title for our series in the next few days - please do tell us! Either here on the blog, or via Twitter to . Your input and interest are hugely appreciated.
Comment number 1.
At 4th Dec 2009, wisepacket wrote:I agree with the oldies about the dot, it sounds a bit millennial (and not in a good way!).
It's important that the programme's title is appropriate to its overall tone. Are puns in keeping with the style and voice that's emerged over the course of the production? If not they're probably best avoided.
One possible approach to naming could be to take a leaf out of natural history's book ("Blue Planet", "Planet Earth", "Life") and go for something pithy like "Connected World" or something. But would that sort of title say enough about the programme's topic to the casual browser of an EPG? Would its grandiosity be inappropriate to the programme's tone? Quite possibly...
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Comment number 2.
At 4th Dec 2009, Pam Smith wrote:I'd thought of 'only connect' before I got to it in the list - because essentially that's what the Web is about - it started off IRRC as a means for academics to collaborate so has always been essentially about connecting.
I wouldn't go for the distance or shrinking world idea personally because
a) I think it is as much about different time relationships as distance - it's not just about being able to communicate across distance but also across time zones and different schedules - emails and some social networking (not Twitter because it moves too fast) mean you can have a meaningful dialogue without not just without having to be all in the same place but also without having to all engage at the same time. There's a different quality to emailing from writing letters that makes it very immediate even when there's a gap between reading and writing.
b) I'd also veer away from the 'global' idea because it is in danger of making the series appear culturo-ethnocentric - it would assume that everyone in the world is experiencing the Internet in the same way, but that is unlikely to be true.
Just my 4.8p worth!
Pam
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Comment number 3.
At 4th Dec 2009, EnglishFolkfan wrote:Evolutionary Web
because it continues to evolve and the programmes will be showing how it has evolved thus far.
Revolutionary Web
because it was in the beginning is now and shall continue to be.
The Web Odyssey or A Web Odyssey
drop the date but still keep the Adams link
Open Web
(can be said either as explanation or as a command)
in that it was conceived as being open and the programmes will be opening up the mysteries, histories and controversies. Also allows for the 4 individual programme titles to tag on and reflect their part.
If Revolution is insisted upon, but is too clunky: Open Web Revolution
I fear the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ will be screening this around the world therefore not having Web in the title (unless each programme subtitle includes it) will cause problems. As has been said before the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Nature Dept does very well to go for short snappy titles that are (imho) universally understood Planet Earth, Life, Autumnwatch ~ thinks:
Webwatch .........lol
Ok: off to cogitate and perhaps evolve a more revolutionary solution!
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Comment number 4.
At 4th Dec 2009, SheffTim wrote:I still think Digital Revolution is apt.
Otherwise if you want a ‘does what it says on the tin’ approach:
The Web @ 20
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Comment number 5.
At 9th Dec 2009, Richard wrote:How about - from here to Internet 'e'......ok maybe not. Muhammad Ali gave a speach at Harvard Univeristy and his end line was - "Me,We" ....thats probably a bit short. Last go - "a platform to the future" ....actually one last one - "electrified lives"
Done
Richard
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