BBC Jam is offline, at least for now and probably for good (unless the Ofcom draft paper that I was given, proposing a "public service publisher" role comes to anything). This is apparently down to commercial interests whingeing to the EC about unfair competition, even though a review of impact of the service in this area was already scheduled for this year. Whingeing morons! I don't give a damn if the BBC is treading on the ground that others also want to tread on; their remit was restricted from the very start, and they offer to students what the commercial providers don't, and fully within the educational remit of the Beeb. They commissioned most content from independent producers anyway, and for the users they provided great value.
The relevance for this project comes in the threat that commercial enterprises seemingly pose if they can strike at any public-service activities with claims of un-competitive behaviour. Will museums become targets, too, if they undertake, say, educational activities that overlap with those that for-profit businesses are involved with? Might we invest in services only to find that they're illegal according to the EU? Where does public service go?
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