Archive for the ‘Podcasting’ Category
About that … August 5th, 2007
You have almost certainly noticed a decreased number of posts being posted to this blog in the last couple months. We have unfortunately been completely bogged down with a number of existing work projects and the end result has been far fewer posts than we had hoped. For my part my wife and I have a little one on the way so I have pretty much had my head down and have been focussed on my work to prepare for the little one’s arrival in November. This has meant a teensy bit of a decrease in the frequency of posts to this blog (and just about all my other blogs with the exceptions of my Twitter and Jaiku posts) as well as a delay in a couple podcast episodes I have in the queue.
Victoire and I are working to block off more time to post more to this blog and I am working on getting those podcast episodes out (apologies to everyone waiting for them) as soon as possible. I apologise for these interruptions! Thank you for coming back from time to time and for not deleting us from your feeds!
Paul
Posted in Blogging, Podcasting | Comments (1)
chilipod 1-12: Interview with Nina, Sarah and Isobel from 1-2-3 Listen 2 Me July 21st, 2007
In this episode of chilipod I continue the series of podcasts where I interview local podcasters about their podcasts. In this next interview of the series I chat to Nina, Sarah and Isobel from the wonderful podcast for kids called 1-2-3 Listen 2 Me. At one point the girls talk about the fun they had with the “camel spider” episode. It is a fun episode so be sure to check it out and the follow up episode.
If you would like to get in touch with Isobel and the girls you can reach them using a new K7 Voice Message number +1 (206) 203-0906 in the US or on Skype at the_123listen2me_girls. There is also a voice message number on Skype at +1 (650) 452-6166. Their email address is 123listen2me@gmail.com.
You may notice a change in the quality of this episode of chilipod. I have published this episode in mono to reduce the file size for download purposes. Let us know what you think?
As always, this episode is available in two formats:
- Enhanced chilipod (AAC/iTunes format); and
- Normal chilipod (mp3 format).
The music we have used in this episode (and which we may use in future episodes) is a track called YFM Late Remix by a crowd known as Deep Fried. The track has been published on the ccMixter:sa site under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Technorati Tags:
podcast, 1-2-3 listen 2 me, sarah, nina, isobel, kids, south africa, interview, chilipod
Posted in People, Podcasting, Podcasts, chilipod | Comments (0)
Announcing chilivents May 28th, 2007
Today we are launching our chilivents podcast through which we will publish events that are recorded and published as a podcast. Our first event series is the WebPR+ conference held in March this year in Fourways, Johannesburg. If you would like to subscribe to chilivents you can do so by subscribing to the feed which is feeds.feedburner.com/chilivents.
Podcasting offers a number of benefits to business that go beyond events podcasting. I recently gave some input on how podcasts can add some value. I thought it might be appropriate to repeat my comments here:
… the other hand the prevalence of devices capable of playing podcast episodes (which are typically mp3-formatted audio files) presents a sizable potential market for podcasts if sufficient provision is made to deliver those podcasts to those handsets. That being said, podcasts are hardly a magic bullet and will not make other marketing channels redundant or solve all the challenges marketeers face. Podcasts have their place, as with any other marketing channel, and it is a matter of using podcasts appropriately.
Where I see value in podcasts for businesses is in its use in the enterprise as a communications tool. Podcasts could be used as a substitute for certain content on an intranet for employees who spend their time on the road. They could be used to communicate with other stakeholders, generally speaking, by presenting an alternative to text based communications routinely sent out by email or posted on a web site. An example could be statements, interviews, discussions and presentations given by individuals within an organisation and which could be made available to an audience outside the organisation which would not ordinarily have benefitted from these statemetns, interviews, discussions and presentations.
Another use for podcasts is to record and distribute presentations given at conferences to interested parties who would not have attended the conference before for a number of reasons. We are about to publish a series of posts from the WebPR+ conference held earlier this year for the benefit of attendees and people who may be interested in future conferences of a similar nature. This is a model that has been adopted by American podcast networks like GigaVox Media and Podtech.net and I believe a podcast of a conference provides a way for interested people to benefit from the information contained in the presentations, find out more about the conference itself and perhaps make the decision to attend a subsequent conference because those people have had an opportunity, through the podcast, to see the value in the conference.
So if you would like to explore the possibilities in your organisation, let us know. We will be more than happy to chat to you about a few options.
Technorati Tags:
podcasting, corporate communications, events podcasting, chilivents, feed
Posted in Events, Podcasting, Podcasts, Sharing | Comments (0)
chilipod special edition 1: SA Rocks podcast May 21st, 2007
We have a special edition of chilipod for you today. We had an opportunity to interview Nic Haralambous about the upcoming SA Rocks podcast due to be released before our scheduled release of chilipod 1-8. This is the first of a series of interviews with South African podcasters and hopefully the start of many interesting interviews with interesting people.
If there is anyone you would like to hear from in a chilipod interview or if you have something you’d like to share then feel free to contact us and let us know.
As always, this episode is available in two formats:
- Enhanced chilipod (AAC/iTunes format); and
- Normal chilipod (mp3 format).
The music we have used in this episode (and which we may use in future episodes) is a track called YFM Late Remix by a crowd known as Deep Fried. The track has been published on the ccMixter:sa site under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Technorati Tags:
sa rocks, podcast, nic haralambous, interview, special edition
Posted in People, Podcasting, Podcasts, chilipod | Comments (0)
chilipod episode 7: Podcasting to your employees May 20th, 2007
In this week’s episode we include extracts from a talk given by Shel Holz at the Podcast Academy in September 2006. The talk was released under a Creative Commons Sampling 1.0 license. As you will hear from these extracts and, even more so from the full talk, there are a number of ways podcasts can be used as effective tools to communicate information to employees.
Just as we have preferences for how and when we consume our content, so to will your employees so it makes sense to give them information in a format that works best for them. This episode is really intended to be an introduction to how you can incorporate podcasts into your company’s communication strategy.
There is just as much scope to make use of podcasts as general communications tools for other stakeholders like investors, customers and the press. Feel free to drop us a line if you would like to explore some of the possibilities that may be appropriate for your business.
As always, this episode is available in two formats:
- Enhanced chilipod (AAC/iTunes format); and
- Normal chilipod (mp3 format).
The music we have used in this episode (and which we may use in future episodes) is a track called YFM Late Remix by a crowd known as Deep Fried. The track has been published on the ccMixter:sa site under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Technorati Tags:
shel holz, podcast to your employees, employees, podcasting, corporate communications, podcast academy, creative commons sampling license
Posted in Podcasting, Podcasts, Useful stuff, chilipod | Comments (0)
Guy Kawasaki on blog evangelism May 3rd, 2007
I am just watching/listening to a video podcast interview with Guy Kawasaki on Marketing Voices:
The interview covers Guy’s thoughts on his success as a blogger and what he considers important when it comes to blogging. He is a fantastic guy to watch and listen to and has some great, sensible advice for bloggers and I particularly enjoyed his comments about people who suggest link exchanges with him. He basically tells those people that if they consider his blog worthwhile then they could link and similarly if he considers their blogs worthwhile he may link. He isn’t going to just link because you want to swap links.
When it comes to evangelizing a blog, he said that it is pretty easy to evangelize a blog that is a great blog with great content, a good purpose and high entertainment value. Rather than trying to kick a dead horse, publish good content and keep it coming. There are a couple blogs which seem to thrive on trashy content and they may be great from an entertainment perspective but they are really not going to add any real value to anyone. I guess it is a bit like this whole thing with bad boys and good guys. Girls date bad boys and have a great time doing it but they aren’t going to take the bad boys home to meet mom. When they settle down, they will probably go for the good guy.
I may have mentioned the Marketing Voices podcast before and I would just like to reiterate what a great podcast it is. Jennifer Jones has some really great interviews with a variety of interesting people. It is worthwhile subscribing to and listening to it regularly.
Technorati Tags:
guy kawasaki, jennifer jones, marketing voices, podcast, evangelism, blogging, evangelizing blogs
Posted in Blogging, People, Podcasting | Comments (0)
Tyler Reed - podcasting proud April 12th, 2007
Tyler Reed, who recenly joined (yesterday in fact!) the podcaster in-crowd, has another achievement to be proud of… That of winning first place in the Apple ipodcast Comedy & Standup Category (Week 3) with his podcast, Jannie’s GPS System!
Well done Tyler! We can’t wait to hear more of it!
Posted in Fun, General, People, Podcasting, Podcasts | Comments (3)
Tips on podcasting with a Windows machine March 27th, 2007
I was asked how to prepare a podcast. The person who asked me the question runs a Windows machine so I put a few thoughts down and then realised they could be useful to other people so here are my thoughts on how to publish a podcast. The tips are aimed at a Windows user and if you are a Mac user the one main change I would make is to use Garageband for your recordings because it integrates into iTunes. You would then need to convert the audio file you import into Garageband into an mp3 file which, as I mention in the post, is a more universal format.
To start, you need a decent recording and to make a decent recording, you need a decent microphone. I have a Logitech desktop microphone that didn’t cost that much although I think a decent quality headset - the air traffic controller kind - is a good investment because you could use it for something like Skype as well as recording a podcast. I have seen some nice ones for a few hundred bucks - the more you spend the better the headset will be (usually). A voice recorder will work too. The main thing is to get a clear sound and the file you need should ultimately be an mp3 file. You need software to capture the recording and on a Windows machine. Audacity is really good and free. Audacity can import files if you record them on a voice recorder and transfer to your PC (they will probably be in wav format if you do this) and the software can then export the recording as an mp3. Alternatively you can record directly into Audacity through your microphone or headset and then export the file (the recording will be in Audacity’s file format) to mp3 which is the most universal file format.
It is a good idea to prepare a script for your shows because it keeps you on track and you may tend to make fewer mistakes (which means less editing).
You then need somewhere to put the recordings and make it into a podcast and I recommend Libsyn. They charge for disk space and not bandwidth (which is fantastic) and their prices are pretty cheap. They effectively create a blog for the podcast geared for podcasting so you basically upload your episode to their servers (they will have guides to show you how to do this) as a post on the site. The content of the post will be your show notes. The feed from that Libsyn site will be your podcast feed which you can also run through Feedburner to give you statistics on your subscribers.
Another way to use Libsyn is to just upload to their servers and publish the podcast posts to your blog under a specific category (you can use the specific category feed which you can route through Feedburner and then give out the Feedburner feed as the podcast feed). People can then get your posts (which will include the podcast posts) in your main feed and subscribe to your podcast feed in iTunes to capture the episode straightaway. Depending on how people access their feeds, they may just see that there is an audio file in the podcast posts and can choose whether to download it as a separate audio file as opposed to it being downloaded automatically in iTunes or their podcast software. The first method means the podcast is totally separate and runs through Libsyn (their blog, by the way, seems to run a version of WordPress) and the second method means everything runs through your existing blog and it is just a matter of using the podcast category feed as your podcast feed that people can subscribe to separately if they want to.
Of course this explanation assumes you have a blog already. You can create a separate blog for the podcast (Amplitude is a good example of this) and use the blog’s main feed as a podcast feed. I still recommend routing the feed through Feedburner so you know how many people listen to your podcast and if you decide to move the podcast somewhere, the feed stays the same (Feedburner feeds are containers for the source feed so if you change the source feed it doesn’t change the Feedburner feed - kinda like having one post box even though you may move homes).
Once you have all that sorted out you can also start including audio files (music is a nice addition but make sure it is licensed for your podcast so take a look at “podsafe” music or Creative Commons music files). This methodology also works if you want to create a video podcast. To do that you need to record your video and then publish it in the same way. You obviously wouldn’t use Audacity for the video recording and, depending on your camera, you could probably just save the video recording to your computer and then upload to Libsyn. Another option for a video show is to use YouTube to publish your video blog. People would need to then access your video podcast through YouTube although you can also publish the video on your blog as well.
I hope these tips are helpful if you are looking to start podcasting. Let me know if there is anything I missed or glossed over!
A podcast can be a great tool for business too. We have a few ideas about podcasting for business and would be happy to chat to you about that. Just give us a shout!
Technorati Tags:
creative commons, podcasting, audacity, garageband, how to podcast, libsyn
Posted in Podcasting, Podcasts, Tools, Tutorials | Comments (0)
Mail & Guardian’s new daily podcast March 26th, 2007
Mail & Guardian has just launched a new daily podcast called the Lunchtime News Wrap. So what is this podcast all about:
The M&G Online provides a short midday podcast of the main news stories of the day, Monday to Friday, covering local, international, business, sport and Africa news.
The episodes are pretty short (around 2 to 3 minutes and under 1MB) are basically an audio equivalent of the SABC’s News in 60 seconds. So these are great little episodes you can download around lunchtime or so and quickly catch up on the day’s news. The first episode is available for download. You can also subscribe to the feed.
I just listened to the first episode and it is a great idea although the sound quality could be better. I guess there is a tension between a small download and better audio quality (which means bigger file sizes). In terms of content you have everything from news to sport to weather for the day. This is a great idea and blurs the lines between regular broadcast radio and time-shifted audio shows.
Technorati Tags:
mail & guardian, podcast, lunctime wrap, daily news, broadcast radio
Posted in Media, Podcasting, Podcasts, Useful stuff | Comments (2)
iPodcast competition update 2 - suggested changes to rules March 20th, 2007
As I mentioned yesterday, I was invited to submit a set of proposed changes to the rules for the iPodcast competition to Apple SA. I have emailed a proposed set of changes which I prepared in consultation with Heather Ford of iCommons and Andrew Rens of Creative Commons. You can view the pdf version here. I have also posted images of the pages below.
As far as the formatting is concerned, the portions in bubbles on the right were are proposed deletions and the underlined sections in the text are proposed insertions. As you can see, we proposed that a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 license be applied to entries that win prizes with a grant of a non-exclusive commercial right to the sponsors to use the materials for promotional purposes. This means that copyright remains vested in the creators of the content who simply give the Sponsors permission to use it.
Creative Commons licenses are designed to enable content creators license certain uses of their content without having to give it all away. There are a number of options available and I think this is a good opportunity to promote the use of these licenses.
Pages 1 and 2:
Pages 3 and 4:
Page 5:
I will post updates when I hear from Apple SA.
Update: I received a response from Apple SA to my email immediately after I published this post to say that they agree to all the proposed changes and the edited rules will be in place in about 30 minutes at http://getpodcasting.co.za/rules.htm. When I spoke to Steven yesterday he told me that Apple is committed to promoting podcasting in SA and is excited about working with local podcasters. I think their swift response to concerns about their rules demonstrates this. I am far more comfortable with the competition now and I encourage local podcasters to take another look at the competition and enter their podcasts.
Update 2: I have been checking back from time to time and it looks like the rules have been removed altogether and there are no links on the front page for the rules. I guess there are no rules? Unlikely but just bear this in mind when you enter …
Tags: ipodcast competition, apple sa, creative commons, icommons, heather ford, andrew rens
Posted in Podcasting, Sharing | Comments (0)