12 ideas for blog posts (and a couple more)

Photo by Steve Bridger used under creative commons license

I’m picking up on a blog post from Paul Bradshaw who has suggested 12 ideas for getting started with blogging.

“I’m currently writing a chapter on blogging for a book on online journalism.  It includes 12 typical blog post types to kickstart ideas.  Here are the examples I came up with…”

 

It can be useful for first time bloggers to hear what other people are doing, this is the original list of ideas (plus a couple of suggested tweaks):

1. Respond to something else on the web
2. Suggest an idea
3. Interview someone
4. Blog an event
5. Ask a question
6. Pick a fight (and respond constructively of course)
7. Reflect on something
8. Do something visual
9. Review something
10. Make a list
11. Write a how to
12. Let someone else post
13. Add glossaries or jargon busters
14. Find, analyse and explain data
15. Hold a themed photo contest and produce a slideshow with commentary

Some of these are easier than others but I’m going to give them a go anyway.  Will keep you posted.

Podcasting is taking over my life

I don’t know when it started happening but my life is being taken over with podcasts.  At the moment it’s just the constant downloading and loading of new podcasts as they pop in to my bloglines account, soon I fear that it will be the compulsion to start recording my own!

It started quite gently with ocassionally downloading a podcast about knitting (BritKnitCast), then the BBC started to make the Archers available as a podcast, then I discovered F1 pod casts, then other BBC downloads, free london walks …. aaaaagh, it’s too much!

I seem to spend half my life downloading the latest episodes so that I can listen to them on the train, life in the morning seems unbearable now without the latest happenings of Ambridge filling my head.

Even though my life seems to have been taken over with podcasts, I love it!  I love the fact that anyone can create one on whatever subject is passionate to them.  Someone can record something and then an hour later it’s online for anyone to hear.  This morning I was listening to Stephen Fry’s podgram, his ramblings on whatever pops into his head – marvelous!  Once I week I can be seen howling with laughter on south west trains listening to the Adam and Joe show.

Podcasting is not just for comedians or radio shows, the voluntary sector can create high impact resources with relatively little effort.  Podcasts are an easy way to connect supporters to your cause, communicate with your funders or record the outcomes of an event.  sounddelivery have recently created a series of podcasts for the Guardian website for mental health action week http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/audio/2008/mar/26/society.guardian their website also has links to other organisations who are giving it a go http://www.sounddelivery.org.uk/about-sounddelivery.php - why not have a listen.

You don’t have to invest in expensive equipment to jump on the podcasting bandwagon, Michele Martin has talked recently about using your mobile phone to create recordings using Gcast.  It seems quite an easy process as Michele recounts:

1. Created my account, which includes adding my cell phone number and a pin number.
2. Called the G-cast number.
3. Easy instructions walked me through recording my podcast. I was able to listen to it and then decide to upload or delete.
4. When I was ready to upload, I just hit the # key.
5. Within a few minutes, my  podcast showed up at my Gcast podcast home.  

So why not give it a go and let me know what you come up with, then I can download it and listen to it on my way in to work!!!

My first podcast!

I’m so excited about creating my first podcast, well technically it wasn’t a podcast, just an audio file.  To make it a podcast I would need to attach an RSS feed to it so that people can subscribe … but it was the first step.

I attended some training this week which ran through what makes a great podcast/audio recording, how to go about interviewing people and how to edit the material you get.

We listened to some great examples of recordings people had made and it’s so much more powerful to hear someone talking than reading through a written report or letter.  There’s a huge amount of potential for voluntary and community groups and for relatively little money.

It was pretty scary being let loose on the London public, some people REALLY don’t want to be interviewed!

I think we all came away with really good stuff and I can’t wait to get cracking on ICT Hub resources and give them the audio treatment.

[That's so weird - someone on radio 4 just said "podcast" in my ear]

The ICT management guide has landed

I’m so relieved that the “Guide to managing ICT in the voluntary community sector” has finally landed on ICT Hub desks.

It’s taken us a long time to get here but it’s finally finished and it looks beautiful.  I keep on wanting to touch it, the cover has a lovely texture.

The guides are free and you can find out more on the ICT Hub website www.icthub.org.uk/publications

I have skyped!

I’m so excited, I had my first skype phone call last night.  After hanging up on the person calling because I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, I sent an instant message to them to check they were actually trying to call me and then called them back.  I couldn’t believe it (I’m easily amused!) the sound quality was amazing, I was using quite a basic Logitech microphone that plugs straight in and is ready to use.  The only complaint that when I went to use headphones (so that my boyfriend didn’t have to put up with hearing my ramblings) the conversation got a bit echo-y.

For those who haven’t heard of Skype or VOIP or internet telephony, this is basically making phone calls over the internet.  VOIP (voice over internet protocol) is the generic term for it and Skype is one of the products that you can use.  I used Skype because it was already loaded on to my computer.

If you are making a VOIP call to someone else who has the same programme installed then the calls are free.  You can also call normal phones using the programme (such as Skype) but you have to pay for them, normally at a lower cost than a BT phone call.  You can find out more about VOIP on the Knowledgebase website http://www.icthubknowledgebase.org.uk/voip.

I am in love with Skype but I only know one other person using it so need to do a bit of encouraging amongst my friends!