BBC Janala

BBC World Service Trust is the BBC’s international charity. They use the creative power offered by media platforms to reduce poverty and promote human rights. One of the WST’s primary objectives is to strengthen the media in developing countries; they share BBC expertise with broadcast and production partners, delivering extensive training and change-management programmes, working to enhance local media, engage communities and create specifically tailored media programmes.

Box UK became involved in the Janala project when the BBC World Service Trust required development of an English-language learning site. The site needed to contain a variety of tasks and information, as well as interactive functionality to enhance the online learning experience.

The project was particularly challenging as the majority of users would be operating on lower specification hardware, including mobile phones. It was therefore necessary to create a site that could provide all essential functionality, yet still provide maximum accessibility.

Box UK provided the organisation with our in-house developed CMS Amaxus, which allows the site to be easily managed and updated by the client. Flash, MP3 and RSS feeds were integrated into the Janala site along with a bespoke media player and interactive functionality such as user membership, quizzes, polls and surveys to create an exciting multimedia learning environment.

To overcome the challenge of low-spec hardware, Box UK provided the option for users to choose between high and low bandwidth versions of the site.

The Janala website has proven hugely successful, and has provided English lessons to hundreds of thousands of users. The bandwidth switch and the cross-platform nature of the site ensure that the maximum amount of users can access the wide range of information available. We are extremely proud to have supported the BBC through the creation of this multimedia, multilingual site, which provides measurable help to so many people.