Dear Sir or Madam,

Please can I have:

(1) a list of all the companies who have attended a regional
Innovations Labs event since 2005

(2) a list of those companies who received a commission from the
BBC at the end of the event

(3) details of the time, budget, nature, and success of the
commissioned projects.

There have been approximately 4 regional events per year usually
involving 10 teams at a time. Only a small fraction of the
information requested is available at: http://open.bbc.co.uk/labs/

Yours faithfully,

Julian Todd.

Dear Mr Todd,

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, which was received on 10 June 2008. We shall deal
with your request as promptly as possible and, at the latest, within 20
working days. If you have any queries about your request please contact
us at the address below.

The reference number for your request is RFI20080627.

Kind regards.

The Information Policy and Compliance Team
BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, BBC White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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Dear Mr Todd

Please find attached the response to your request for information,
reference RFI20080627

<<RFI20080627 - final response.pdf>>
<<RFI20080627 - Innovation Labs Attendees.pdf>>

Yours sincerely
Rachel Hallett

BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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Dear Rachel Hallett,

I am replying to the response by L Stiller on 7 July to my FOI
request made on 10 June for details about the successful
commissions resulting from the Innovation Labs.

Many of the briefs and participations were for technical ideas that
would stretch the definition of the category "journalism, art and
literature" to encompass the entire IT field.

Although you do not offer an internal review on this point, I am
offering you one chance to clarify this matter before it is raised
with the Information Commissioner.

Although I do not need to tell you of the purpose of my request, I
can say that there are questions raised among some of those who
took part in the project as to whether *any* of the companies who
attended received a commission as a result of the experience. It
would be in the public interest for the BBC to come clean on the
question of success of the programme. This FOI request is its
opportunity to do so.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd.

Dear Mr Todd

The BBC maintains its position that commissions which arise from
Innovations Labs are related to the production of BBC content, and
therefore the information you have requested is not covered by the Act.

In relation to your question as to whether any of the attendees of the
programme have received a commission, whilst we will not go into details
we can assure you that a number of commissions have been made as a
result of the Labs. In general participation in the Labs is subject to
confidentiality clauses; however, you may be interested to read a blog
by an attendee who wrote about his experience of the Labs
http://numiko.com/blog/?p=27

Yours sincerely
Rachel Hallett

BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, 2nd Floor, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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