BBC Director General Mark Thompson on Jam, in October 2006

I came across this 11 October 2006 speech by Mark Thompson, BBC Director General. The speech ranges widely. This section on Jam, the BBC's online learning service, which the BBC will suspend tomorrow, with its challenging assertion by Stephen Heppell about the "lack of agility of the UK software industry", indicates just how much the BBC had staked on Jam.

"The third priority was education. I've already mentioned the massive investment we've made in specialist factual output – programmes like Planet Earth and Ancient Rome on TV alongside extensive commitments on both radio and the web. But the centrepiece is undoubtedly the Digital Curriculum, or BBC Jam as it is now called.

After a difficult and contentious birth, I believe this is shaping up to be one of the most important services the BBC has ever launched. Over the past seven years, the BBC's exam revision service Bitesize has grown to the point where it is used by nearly three-quarters of all students taking GCSEs.

In time Jam may enjoy a similar reach. Not just because of its imagination and flair, but because it has been designed wholly around children and can be used just as easily by students and parents at home as in the classroom.

Jam has already had other benefits too. Professor Stephen Heppell from Bournemouth University is a world class expert in online learning who has been working as an independent advisor to the BBC. This is what he has to say of the creative and technical process that has led to the launch of the service: 'what Jam now offers is a uniquely agile, really quite organic, large scale development model that is without equal anywhere in the world. My belief is that we will need to document and share this agility – apart from the Jam partners, the UK software industry lacks it and can learn so much from it. This is an unexpected contribution.'"

Note. Other posts about BBC Jam:

• 19 March 2007 - BBC Director General Mark Thompson on Jam, in October 2006.
• 17 March 2007 - BBC Jam. We need usage data.
• 14 March 2007 - BBC suspends Jam, its flagship online learning web site.