What’s happening with ABC Open, the brave new Auntie initiative, announced with a fanfare by managing director Mark Scott late last year and since attacked by Fairfax Media with the claim that it will undermine commercial regional media?

Well, it’s going slowly. And causing some resentment among existing hard-pressed ABC regional staff.

ABC Open is a key part of Auntie’s demonstration of new media savvy — the idea of the national broadcaster as an organisation with porous boundaries. The idea is to hire producers to work with regional communities to create their own content.

As Scott said when it was announced: “These skilled producers will … provide [community members] with the training and knowledge to fully embrace the opportunities of web 2.0 tools. We see this as a vital role of the ABC: building new relationships with our audiences and seeking new opportunities for collaboration and conversation. Educating Australians to create their own media will in turn benefit other media organisations around the country as more and more people learn the skills to be able to engage using digital media.”

A fine mission for a national broadcaster, one might think. And a fitting use of government money earmarked for the regions.

But the word from regional ABC offices is that there is a gap between the vision and the likely reality, and resentments are building among existing ABC staff.

Two months after the launch, not a single local producer has yet been hired, and none of the regional stations expected to host an ABC Open producer has been informed. Yet the recruits are expected to start work in June.

One source puts it like this:

“These people come highly paid, most will be on a starting salary in advance of the current cross media  reporters. This has caused huge angst as these new ABC Open people will bring no equipment with them and be expected to share cross media cameras, recorders, etc. In many cases ABC regional stations simply do not have enough room or resources for additional staff. There’s been no idea of how this project will run, who will report to who in terms of line management and upward referral. The rumble is multi-platform (Linda Bracken) will have total control which leaves Local Radio managers out of the loop in terms of how to deal with the inevitable day to day issues and spats but with no ultimate responsibility — a disaster waiting to happen. So much for Mark Scott wanting to rid himself of the “silo structure” — here’s a new one just started!”

So what’s the story?

As the Twitter feed on the ABC Open home site reveals a shortlist has been compiled from 530 applicants for the jobs. And there is a great deal of excitement among the digerati who threw their hats in to the ring — many of whom clearly come from what might be described as non-traditional backgrounds.

In an interview earlier this week, the head of multi-platform and content development for ABC Radio, Linda Bracken, confirmed that she was the boss of ABC Open.

She also confirmed that the process had been slower than she would have liked. The project, she said, was a victim of its own success. The ABC was overwhelmed with applications from the “pro-active and engaging” recruitment process, run partly through social media. “It’s been very full on and intense.”

She said that the first 12 producers would be in place by the end of June, with another 18 to follow quickly afterwards, and a total of 50 in place within three years.

And where will they be based? It depends in part, she said, on who gets the jobs. The ABC is looking for people with digital production skills who are also already living in the relevant communities.

As for the desks and equipment, each producer would be provided with his or her own “kit” including a video camera, sound recorder and portable computer. They will be “self sufficient”.

But they will still be given a desk — and she acknowledged that there isn’t enough in some regional ABC offices — part of a larger problem she says will have to be solved.

As for resentments and lines of authority, ABC regional offices already contain staff working for different masters, she said — ABC Rural, ABC news and even ABC TV in some cases. There is no reason it shouldn’t be manageable.

Very few of the applicants for the positions have worked for the ABC before. Many come from community media and are what might be described as web 2.0 enthusiasts.

Bracken described the combination of skills required as being “a little bit geeky” but with people skills.

A rare combination, she acknowledged.

How it will go down with the hard-working, traditionally minded nuts-and-bolts staff already in the regions remains to be seen.

It seems that amid all the intensity and enthusiasm for the wonderful world of new media awesomeness, there have been a few breakdowns in communications.

Ironic, really.