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]

BritKnitCast

I am really getting in to this pod casting business.  I’ve discovered the BritKnitCast http://britknitcast.libsyn.com/ - joining my new found love of all things audio with that of knitting!  It was the ideal calming influence as I battled with the stuffy tube to get to work this morning.  I can’t wait to listen to the next episode on my way home.

For those of you new to pod casting, they are kind of like audio blogs.  You subscribe to a particular pod cast (which can be about anything - someone’s interest, the news, a comedy show, a chat show, football analysis …) and when a new one is put online, the feed gets sent to you.  You can also dip in and directly download pod casts from a website.  This is how they’re described at podcast.com

A “podcast” is a buzzword to describe a very simple concept: an audio or video file available on the Internet for you to listen to and/or watch. A podcast can also refer to a series of audio or video files (a podcast show, similar to a TV or radio show), and when using the word podcast most people refer to the entire series and not just one show.

Since setting out to engage with different aspects of new media, pod casts have been one of the things that has interested me the most.  I’ve particularly enjoyed carrying about the free london walks on my mp3 player and also various programmes on BBC Radio 4.

I’ve booked to go on one of sounddelivery’s pod casting courses in September, maybe I’ll find my niche and start creating my own pod casts!

I’d love to hear what pod casts other people subscribe to?

The world’s gone pet crazy

The web seems to have been going pet crazy which I find rather amusing.

I’ve been enjoying reading Beth Kanter’s posts about her (dead) dog Sadie who has her own Facebook - http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2007/07/cats-vs-dogs-on.html

Beth has also been collecting some internet dog cartoons – http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2007/06/variations-on-t.html

The fascination with pets has led Beth to some in depth analysis of dog and cat presence on the net:

• Flickr has 471, 092 photos tagged with dog compared with Dogbook’s 167,713 people who have the app on their profile.  I don’t have comparison of the same time period.
• Flickr has 553, 576 photos tagged with cat compared Catbook’s 77,808 people who have the app on their profile.  Again, I don’t have comparison of the same time period.
• Dogs are more popular on Facebook or the dog app could have been around longer.
• Cats are more popular on Flickr or people who upload dog photos are lazy taggers.

This morning I was alerted to the Blue Cross petcasts featuring famous pet owners talking about their beloved moggies – http://www.bluecross.org.uk/web/site/Podcasts/Podcasts.asp

What a great idea to get supporters and pet lovers engaged in their campaign using new media, it would be interesting to see what affect they’ve had on donations.