Class Feedback

CLASS FEEDBACK

Today in class we read each other’s papers and got helpful feedback about what we need to do to get our papers up to par.  I have some issues with analysis and following the format for the paper.  Spelling was good, as was content, and length.  All my paper needs is some fine tuning.  The other papers I read were actually better than mine.  The students followed instructions better than I did.  Many of the things we talk about in class are cutting edge technology and I find it very interesting.  It wasn’t hard to be interested in the subject we were writing about.  But it will be a busy weekend for all of us as we whip our papers into shape.  (122)

Happy first day of autumn!

NevadaD

Podcast Notification

PODCAST  NOTIFICATION

Kinley Levack writes in Content News that Peas in a Podcast: LiveMessage Supports Podcasting Alerts.  This lengthy title heads a short article that discusses how alerts work with podcasts.  When a new blog or podcast starts; or a current blog or podcast has a new posting, this site notifies you according to the preferences listed with the service.  Alerts have been around for a long time says Mr. Levack, but previously the only way to receive alerts was through e-mail.  Now, alerts can be delivered to cell phones, pda’s, and right to your desktop.  Another good feature of the alerts is that the subscriber is anonymous, they are just a long number.  (118)
This article is located at www.econtentmag.com.

Toolbar for Blogging

Some people don’t know about the Word toolbar.  I think this link will work in my blog.  I went to Microsoft’s website and this is where the link from Microsoft takes me.

http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword-office.html

Good Luck!!  And have fun!!

Storm Clouds

STORM  CLOUDS

    Storm Clouds Gather Over Podcasting proclaims Michelle Kessler from USA Today written on August 4, 2005.  Ms. Kessler is really concerned about copyright issues.  She covers streaming video over the Internet which is really live broadcasting and is covered under traditional radio licenses.  Streaming content, since it isn’t recorded, is not as easy to pirate as podcasts.  She goes on to say that radio station in Seattle invited 14 unsigned or small label bands from the Seattle area to contribute songs to a podcast.  The station and the bands signed a contract and the podcast was a hit.  Now the radio stations are waiting for the major labels to sign on to this idea.  Some people worry that it will take years for the contracts to be worked out and this would keep podcasting from reaching its full potential.  (139)

21st Century Entertainment

From the Contra Costa Times on August 7, 2005, came the headline; Radio just got a lot more portable.  Tony Hicks writes; “Podcasting can be to radio what blogging is to books”.  Then he says if you can digest that sentence you are certified to go forward into the 21st century of entertainment.  Mr. Hicks seems to think the learning curve just got a little steeper as the latest innovation in media takes off.  He discusses the pros and cons of the “little guy” to be heard.  No more pushing media to the masses, this revolution lets everyone hear everyone else.  Tony Hicks quotes Stephen Page of Infinity Broadcasting out of San Francisco as saying “There have already been three waves of podcasters.  The first wave was techies eager to see what they could do.  Then came the former DJ’s …disgruntled over the limitations of mainstream radio.  Now….here come the ‘Mom and Pop’ DJ’s doing just about everything under the sun.”  Mr. Hicks says also that the lawyers are just waiting to see what lawsuits are in the making.  Mr. Hicks also did a podcast from Fresno.  Go Bulldogs! (189)

Podcasts and Radio Ads

        Will Podcasts kill the radio ads?  This headline appeared in the business section of the Sunday Times, London edition, on August 7th, 2005, written by Paul Durman.  He states that Adam Curry who made the first podcast last year in August is known as the Podfather.  After that first podcast it did not take long for there to be hundreds of amateur talk shows springing up all over the world, including; America, Japan, and Britain.  Mr. Durman starts out writing about how easy it is to skip over commercials in video recordings and the worries of the commercial broadcasters that people will soon learn how to edit commercials out of podcasts.  Some people see podcasting as the end of advertising on the radio, while other people believe it opens up new opportunities for advertising.  Then Mr. Durman switches from radio ads to the ban of music on podcasts because of copyright infringements.  He claims that Apple helped bring podcasting into the mainstream.  However, Apple is also instrumental protect the rights of the recording artists and the record companies.  One alternative is to limit the number of times a song could be played in a podcast.  I know this can be done; I have trial games that have a limited amount of time for the trial.  Apple needs to keep on the right side of the law in this matter or they will go down in history as something worse than Napster.  (241)    

Profits in Podcasting

              Finding Profits in Podcasting from Emerging Technology, page  47, dated August 29th 2005, and written by Laurie Sullivan.  According to Ms. Sullivan podcasting has jumped onto the leading edge of pop culture, and quickly too.  She goes on to say that Apple’s launching of the free software iTunes, had a lot to do with how quickly podcasting was propelled into the mainstream.  Ms.Sullivan also talks about all the different businesses that are podcasting such as; Oracle, IBM, Purina, Absolut Spirits Company, KFI radio in Los Angeles, Purdue University and NASA.  Paying for podcasting with advertising now rears its ugly head.  Who is willing to buy spots on a podcast?  How would a podcaster keep track of how many times a podcast was downloaded?  The Yankee Group suggests that podcasters will charge $15 for 1000 clicks or downloads.  In a European study done by Forrester Research 46% of 16- and 17-year-olds would consider paying for podcasts while only 33% of the teens surveyed said that they would accept advertising as a necessary evil to subsidize podcasting.  An alternative to advertising could be banner ads on the websites where people download podcasts.
          These thoughts had occurred to me also while I was reading about the new wave of podcasting that might the place of radio.  Market researchers have ways of pinpointing the audience of a radio station.  Some of the ways to find out if anyone is listening to a radio station include; call in contests, call in talk shows, mentioning to a business that you heard about them on the radio, and public response to a radio station’s live broadcast at a fair or a car dealership.  But how would a podcaster find out who was listening so that ads could be targeted towards the listener?  When it first started the Internet was free from ads, but as time went on, advertisers found ways to reach prospective buyers.  Much of this is experimentation to see what works.  If podcasting is to have a future, it must have advertising, there is no such thing as “free.”  (344)    

Podcast People

          Invasion Of The Podcast People by Peter Lewis, published in Time magazine, July 25, 2005 is my next article.  Mr. Lewis recalls the days of staying up late and listening to Wolfman Jack who was broadcasting from across the Mexican border.  Wolfman Jack was a dangerous and exotic deejay, playing daring music, according to Mr. Lewis.  He goes on to say that you can hear anything you want to hear any time you want to hear it; from Japanese punk music to learning how to speak “Kanien’keha”, the language spoken by the Mohawk nation.
          Although there are around 7000 podcasters Mr. Lewis expects the number to climb.  He even expects the radio stations themselves to engage in podcasting as well as broadcasting.  Mr. Lewis predicts that radio will never be the same.  He also devotes a few paragraphs on how to receive and transmit podcasts.
           Several other respected magazines have articles about podcasting.  John P. Quain and Marc Silver wrote in U.S. News and World Report that millions of listeners are enjoying podcasting.  And Heather Green wrote in Business Week that there is an iTunes top 100 list of podcasts and the film critics Ebert & Roeper are number two on the list.  Ms. Green goes on to say that podcasting is very easy to do and she expects the number of people podcasting and listening to explode.  (227)  

Podcasting Power

  Podcasting Power for the People!  shouts the NewsHour EXTRA with Jim Lehrer headline, from February 23, 2005.  The news about podcasting seems to have hit in February and August of 2005, this is one of the earlier articles.  According to Liz Harper, who wrote this article, though the medium is only six months old there are over 3,000 podcasts worldwide.  Ms. Harper simply goes over how podcasting works, that its name comes from blending “broadcasting” and “IPod.”  (77)

Podcasting Expansion

      The next article is from The Western Mail dated July 28, 2005, entitled Is Podcasting The Future Of Broadcasting?  The author of this article seems to think that podcasting will take the world by storm and radio will never be the same and I agree.  When television became popular, I am sure the radio companies were fearful for their livelihoods.  But radio survived and changed with the times.  The same thing will happen here, radio might not survive in the form we are familiar with now, but broadcasting without video will survive.  With widespread media coverage many people have heard the word “podcasting” but few actually know what the word means.    
Podcasting technology has taken off at light speed.  “National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the British Broadcasting Corporation have begun to podcast some shows.  Even some corporations such as Heineken and General Motors have created their own podcasts to attract consumers.” (from howstuffworks.com)
     Podcasting is very easy to do, fairly inexpensive to produce and receive, and it is convenient to use because a person is not tied to a radio at a particular time to listen to a program.  There is a common theme throughout all the articles I have read and that is how easy it is to engage in this newest of fads.  (218)
    

IPods Debut

      The first early article entitled New IPods Debut and a Marketing Medium, Too, was dated February 23, 2005.  This article came from Information Week and was written by Thomas Claburn.  He gives plenty of details about how a podcast works, who developed it, and the companies involved with podcasting.  He says that Apple’s portable audio devices have created a whole new channel for audio content delivery known as “podcasting.”  Another phenomenon of podcasting is the alert service, called “LiveMessage”, that tells listeners when a new podcast has been released.  MessageCast Inc, is a software company that makes real-time messaging tools.  Royal Farros, CEO of MessageCast says "…podcasting is the audio extension of TiVo.  But, podcasting is even more important than TiVo because there was no equivalent service before it.”  I am not surprised that there are completely unheard of communication mediums popping up technology is advancing at an incredible pace.  Another interesting idea for making podcasting profitable was presented in this article; the concept of “advertorials” which are 10 to 45 minute interviews with product vendors.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  (183)

How Stuff Works

        Good Evening.   I have been exploring the world of “PodCasting” this last two weeks and I think I will start with the article from “How Stuff Works” at www.computer.howstuffworks.com by Stephanie Watson.  There is so much information on this website I spent an entire night surfing links.  I am having a problem with information overload.  There is so much information out there it is difficult to keep on track and only read ten articles about one subject.  According to this article podcasting began last year and was developed by Adam Curry.  I am amazed at how quickly the information about it spread from coast to coast and around the world.  It really brought home to me the power of the press and how quickly is disseminates information.
       I did not make the connection to Tivo until Stephanie Watson brought it to my attention.  I have learned more about podcasting, blogging, and mp3 files than I will ever be able to use.  I have step by step directions for how to record a podcast and how to listen to a podcast.  You need a recorder to record your podcast and then you have to post it on a podcast site.  To listen to a podcast you have to download free software.  Some of the programs for this are "FeedForAll", "AudioBlogger", "ReplayRadio", and "Primetime Podcast Receiver."
        Stephanie Watson tells us that so far podcasting if free from any regulations or fees and that means that anything goes on pod radio.  (248)