George Auckland is a UK television and digital media executive known for his long and successful career at the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. During his time as a BBC executive he worked on key educational landmarks in British interactive media, including the

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

computer and the BBC Networking Club. He also set up the BBC's first web production unit which was responsible for award-winning

websites A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education ...

, such as

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...

and

Bitesize BBC Bitesize, also abbreviated to ''Bitesize'', is the BBC's free online Study skills, study support resource for school-age people in the United Kingdom. It is designed to aid people in both schoolwork and, for older people, exams. History ...

, and produced many of the BBC's early TV programmes about

home computing Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Auckland graduated from

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

( Hatfield College) with a degree in

Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...

in 1969. Shortly after graduation he joined the BBC as a trainee in the Film Department. During the three-day week he had to get special permission to use electricity. He went on to develop a career as a TV producer, working on various programmes from ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

'' to award-winning adult education shows including Johnny Ball's ''Think of a Number''. In December 1989, he received a

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

award for ''Take Nobody's Word For It'' (

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...

episode) with Hendrik Ball, the award being in the 'adult/continuing education general audience (1988)' category. In spring 1996 Auckland helped create the BBC Education Website, and in 1999 he became head of a new department called Digital Media, which won the

, Educational Television, 1999 Judge's Award in (received in 2000) for BBC Education Online. Auckland was known at the BBC for his embrace of new technology; in 1996 he reportedly taught himself

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

in the span of 24 hours. Auckland ran the Innovations Unit within BBC Learning (formerly BBC Interactive Factual and Learning) until 31 March 2011, when he retired from the BBC after 41 and a half years of service. In 2007 he received the 2006 RTS Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTS Educational Awards. In 2015 George was awarded the President of the NHK Prize for his "outstanding contributions to lifelong learning both through TV and Online".

Domesday Reloaded

Auckland worked on Domesday Reloaded, which was focused on the preservation and conversion of the Domesday project, from 1 March 2011 to 31 March 2012. Auckland has previously given talks about this and the many

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

issues at the

Computer Conservation Society The Computer Conservation Society (CCS) is a British organisation, founded in 1989. It is under the joint umbrella of the British Computer Society (BCS), the London Science Museum and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Overview The ...

.Computer Conservation Societ
The BBC Domesday Book Project and its Legacy, 2009
(Retrieved 12 April 2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auckland, George BBC executives Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British television producers Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham