BBC Squeezes Joost CTO

By WebProNews Staff - Thu, 01/17/2008 - 19:38

Joost squeezed CTO out of his job

Dirk-Willem van Gulik departs video service startup Joost for the warm embrace of Auntie Beeb as BBC Future Media & Technology Chief Technical Architect.

Normally we see clever people leaving the staid establishment for the exciting run along the catastrophe curve that is life in a startup. Sometimes people run that path in reverse, leading to the news out of the BBC today.

Van Gulik may have been helped along that path by Joost. At NewTeeVee, the story goes that a Joost spokesperson said they fired their chief technical officer.

Whatever happened, van Gulik will be able to start quickly with his new BBC duties. He brings some nice geek credibility with him, as a member of the Apache Software Foundation. Membership in the prestigious open source group comes by invitation only.

Van Gulik will be responsible for the design and construction of the BBC's next generation back-end infrastructure to support all interactive services including bbc.co.uk, BBCi and BBC Mobile, the BBC said in their statement.

News Tags: Technology, Dirk-Willem van Gulik, Joost, BBC, Video

1 Comment

By Anon Y Moose (WPN reader) - Thu, 02/21/2008 - 12:37

Feeling sorry for the BBC

I’ve had dealings with van Gulik in the past, and I’ve got to say I’m not surprised they fired him, the guy is an arrogant, condescending jerk. In a 20 year career, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone I enjoyed working with less.

For example, in conversation he would pretty-much concoct terms and acronyms on the fly, and then act like you are a moron for not knowing what they mean. On later research you discover that Google has never heard these terms either.

He is the type of guy that non-technical people find convincing, and even if you are reasonably technical, it can take a while before you realize he is full of crap, but eventually you will.

I feel sorry for those at the BBC who must work with him now, but I have one tip - next time he casually throws out a term or acronym, Google it before you just assume that he is smarter than you.

(Yes, I’m posting anonymously because I’m a coward and its a small industry, but these words are true).