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Paul Figgiani on Media Project Management
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
In keeping with the topic that’s been on my brain (and will be the topic of my session at Podcast Expo in September), Paul Figgiani give us a little glimpse into his podcast workflow with this post at Podcast Academy blog called Media Project Management. Paul shows how he uses a master storage folder to organize his project components. A great way to keep your active project files at your finger tips during production.
I’m using a modified version of the Kinkless Desktop for my day-to-day work. My current podcasting workflow is automated and very focused and tuned to my specific needs, so I don’t have tons of files around, but if I’m editing video or working on another media project you can bet things get messy fast. Paul’s technique or the one from Kinkless Desktop work well to keep your files under control.
Both of these are Mac-specific, but could easily be adopted on any platform.
What’s up with podcasting?
I’ve been trawling the interwebs for news and tidbits on podcasting on almost a daily basis and, surpisingly, there’s been little to report. Granted, I don’t blog just anything in this space. For example, I’m not interested in sharing insider podcasting stories or naval-gazing blog entries that only a handful of people would get or care about. This website - and by extension this blog - are here to provide you with information about podcasting that will be helpful to you, and when I’m at my best, offer you some information you can act on and from which you can benefit. I want to help you learn more about podcasting and podcast better.
Lately there has been little to go around on the podcasting front. Why is that? Well, it’s not because podcasting is going away or that it’s even less important than it was one year ago. In fact, I’d say it’s more important. I think it’s just that the initial exicitement has changed from thoughtless excitement to implemented excitement and actual work. People are doing real things with podcasts. Companies are starting to get it. Businesses are being built with it, around it, on top of it.
The best industry is the one that doesn’t constantly talk about itself. We’re busy working.
Why should I listen to podcasts? Revisited
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Last week I gave an hour-long talk to a local group of professionals. I enjoyed myself a lot and received some nice emails in return. One of them, sent to me by Anne Jones was partciularly insightful. I’ve included most of the email here (with the writer’s permission):
I was especially interested in the question you cited from your wife, which was something like, “Why would I want to listen to a podcast?” and in its corollary question that was posed later by someone in the audience, which was something like “Why would I want to choose to present information about my product or service through a podcast?” Those questions got me to thinking about the history and nature of human communication and learning, and I had the following thoughts (I’m no anthropologist, but maybe some of my amateur views still are valid):
In ancient times, human beings probably learned through demonstrations and pictographs. Soon human beings developed spoken language, and for a number of eons, human beings most likely spread learning by telling stories. Eventually written languages were developed, and the oral traditions of teaching were augmented by written materials. However, at first, the materials required for writing were scarce and expensive, and only a few experts were able to create written records. A few more eras later, along came Gutenburg to invent the printing press, and suddenly, written learning was available to a much wider audience. This remained the situation for a few more hundred years. All during this time, the visual learning from written language became more widely available, but audial learning was still limited to one’s own tribe. Finally, in the Industrial Age, the telephone came along, followed soon after by television. These inventions began to magnify the potential for audial learning, but the media for distribution was still pretty limited (much like the hand-enscribed texts written by monks in the days before the printing press). Now that computers and the internet have finally expanded to the point that they are affordable by a fairly large population, we may now be able return to the days of greater audial learning, just like in the early tribal days, only now our tribes can be of our own choosing, rather than restricted to the ones we were born into. As I meditate on these thoughts, I think it’s quite possible that audial learning from human to human may very likely be a much richer learning experience than the textual experience in which one human writes text that is read from the impersonal medium of paper or computer screen by another human. This is probably the reason that traditional colleges and universities are still widely attended even though e-learning is fairly readily available. There are many mysteries of the human mind yet to be discovered!
In addition, of course, is the obvious fact that we can learn from listening to a podcast while we are multi-tasking at other more physical tasks, such as driving a car or scouring the bathtub, but it’s pretty hard to try to read while we’re doing those tasks!
The Day the Podcast Went Pro - Top Tech News
Friday, January 27, 2006
A decent rundown of the two paths of podcasting - the free and the paid. Paid content in podcasting is definitely coming.
To the listener, podcasts are essentially free, like many things on the Internet. But is the free nature of the podcast in jeopardy as businesses start to gain interest in its marketing potential?
Zippy Aima, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, is betting that the dollar signs might eventually win out over the get-it-for-free marketplace that currently exists.
“Having been in the market for about one year, podcasting is in its initial phase of acceptance. But it is becoming a fast-growing medium,” Aima said. “Hence, enterprises need to tap the potential of this technology, which will be generating revenues in the future.”
Well, yeah. Except that enterprises can also use this as a mechanism for advertising and brand reinforcement. I don’t think HP (as an example) would be particularly successful in getting people to pay for a podcast about HP computers or even about computing. But what a company like HP can do is leverage podcasting to enhance their brand or supplement their support services.
Now that being said, I think these are some fairly inaccurate statements in the article and by Bruce Chandley:
It is easy and inexpensive to make.
“People think it’s more complicated than it is,” said Chandley. The cost of engineering a podcast varies with the audio skill of the originator, he said. Typically, a newcomer can get started for under $500. The price tag climbs to $1,000 to $2,000 for broadcast-quality audio equipment.
It takes only moderate computing skill to convert a podcast program to a form that is downloadable and playable on iPods, Chandley said. “iPods are one of the easiest aggregates. It is very simple to do.”
No, actually creating a podcast is really difficult for most people and just saying it’s easy ain’t going to make it so. Maybe I should start getting permission to publish the emails I get from readers asking for assistance (which I gladly give, for free) with podcasting because all of the instructions people have found are insanely difficult to follow and poorly written. So, no, podcasting isn’t easy and people are correct in thinking it’s complicated.
Law.com deems 2005 ‘Year of the the Podcast’
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Yet another indicator that podcasting is (quickly) spreading its wings into non-technical arenas, Law.com’s Legal Technology section called 2005: Year of the Podcast.
Legal professionals now can find a range of high quality podcasts on a variety of topics. This column reviews 10 of them, but it is not a 10-best list. My purpose is to show a cross section of the podcasts being produced for and by lawyers. These 10 share the characteristics of quality and consistency, but there are other law-related podcasts out there equally deserving of your ear.
Even non-lawyers should check out the 10 podcasts reviewed, if only to experience a genre of podcasting that is unlike anything you’re used to. Some of them are aimed not just at other lawyers, like The Debt Podcast, which is a “series of podcasts aimed at helping debtors get back on their feet.”
Exciting to see lawyers using such an effective medium to communicate with citizens, potential clients and others in their community.
(Kevin O’Keefe (of LexBlog) and I wrote an article Podcasting for Marketing, for the Professional Marketing magazine, published in November 2005. Currently, there is not an online version available.)
OUP: ‘Podcast’ is word of the year
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Oxford University Press announced today that “podcast” is the word of the year.
So, where are we now?
- Podcasting still isn’t as simple as a Google search.
- We have a lot of evangelizing to do. We need to create avenues of access. Most people do not know what a podcast or how they can start listening. Don’t believe me? Pick someone random out on the street and ask them. And then tell them about podcasting and why they should listen to podcasts.
- While a few find it necessary to argue about the history of podcasting, some people are just putting their heads down and actually doing something that will help the community.
Podcasting your family story
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Anton Zuiker wrote about his next project over at his blog, mistersugar. Called Narratives of Your Life, Anton hopes to “use blogs and podcasts to share the stories of our elders.” But this isn’t just a project that involves him. In true Anton fashion he is trying to bring together the community and collaborate on a collective story with his North Carolina storyblogging (and podcasting) project. And what an excellent idea.
There is no better time of year than now to start recording stories from your family members. Sure, Thanksgiving is now over, but you should consider taking a portable recorder to your next family gathering and asking your family elders a few questions and let them tell their stories. It would certainly make for an interesting podcast for your family and even for perfect strangers.
By podcasting your family stories, you can share with relatives who live far away and reach out to those who are lost or still unknown. The holidays are special because of the family time and they’ll be even more special for future generations, if we record our history and share it with others.
NYT article on podcasting
Monday, October 31, 2005
Another article in the newspaper about podcasting. This time it seems we’re beyond the idea of this as brand new and now onto showing just what it takes to be a podcaster.
Unfortunately, the article completely misrepresents what it takes to create a podcast. Completely.
A picture is worth a thousand words
Head on over to the article and take a look at the nice shot of M. Geoghagen sitting at this podcast rig. If you were a non-technical reader of the paper, what would this say to you?
I think it would convey the idea that it takes an expensive audio setup in order to create a podcast. But that’s simply not true. Not even close to being true, in fact. Even the article headline is misleading: “From your Living Room to the Word, via Podcast.” I don’t know about you, but my living room doesn’t look like that. In fact, my office where I do my podcast doesn’t even look like that.
It’s not that I’m against what the headline implies. I’m not. I just think the content of the article should represent that instead of glorifying the audiophile gearhead angle of podcasting (which is the radio gearhead angle refactored). If we want to reach more people with podcasts  both listening and receiving  then (for the thousandth time) we need to move away from the notion that creating podcasts is a difficult technical task. It’s not.
I recorded a quick rant on my Audio Grab Bag podcast about this and came to a simple conclusion. The tools are out there for easy in-browser podcast recording. Why aren’t you pushing those as viable means of recording a podcast? I realize that people have invested a lot of time and money in writing and promoting books that deal with the technical side of podcasting, but the tools are there. ClickCaster, Audioblog, Podomatic and Odeo.
If we really believe in promoting podcasting for everyone, then we’d be doing it in large readership articles like those in the New York Times.
Why should I listen to podcasts?
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Maybe a question you’ve been asked before. I know I have been. If podcasting is going to really take off, not just in the geekdom but mainstream, people need to have reasons. Why should I listen to podcasts?
In my last entry on podcasting, I talked about what I call the “push and pull” of podcasting, the idea that there’s more ease of use in the receiving and listening end of podcasting than there is in the production. The real problem is still in the “push,” as I wrote, but let’s not forget that we need to evangelize the “pull,” too.
The first problem with answering the question in the title is that trying to convince someone to listen to podcasts is like trying to convince them to watch television. It’s really just pointless, unless you give it context.
The problem with geeks (myself included) is that the first reasons we grab for are the technical or the coolness factor. Bzzzz. Wrong answer. The best way to explain why someone should listen to podcasts is to give them examples of podcasts that fit their interests. You should use 90% content and 10% concept when selling the idea of podcasts. The 10% will be the idea that you can listen at your leisure (on a run, at the gym, in the car) and the other automation capabilities of some podcatchers; in other words how easy it is. The 90% percent, of course, will be the actual podcasts. But take care to pick podcasts that fit the person.
For example, my wife is a non-technical person, who only uses the computer to visit websites and check email. She gazes at me in bewilderment as I spend hours and hours hovered behind the computer. She’s the perfect example for my attempt to answer the question.
She’s employed in the airline industry, enjoys traveling and is European. Let’s see what I can find in the podcasting directories for her. I’ll come up with a short list of quality podcasts that she will enjoy, and hopefully convince her that podcasts are useful and worth the little effort it takes to download and move to her iPod.
Travel Commons
Travel talk with a road warrior business man from the hotel bathroom. Interesting insight into the life of a traveler.Travel with Rick Steves
One hour podcast of PBS travel guru Rick Steve’s call-in radio show.Fly with me
An inside look into the airline industry from a pilot of a major US carrier.Freitag Nacht News
Short comedy news podcast from RTL, a German television channel (in German).
This looks like a good start. Four podcasts is a nice starting point; it’s enough to listen to but not overwhelm. My next step is to subscribe to these in iTunes and set it up to automatically sync new, unplayed podcasts.
If all goes well, she’ll enjoy the podcasts and the medium will be useful to her. We’ll see!
A Note on Podcasting and Enclosures
Friday, April 01, 2005
Hi. This is a public service announcement.
I think that if you offer a podcast-only feed, then that is the only place that you should be including your podcast audio file as an enclosure. Not all clients are able to handle duplicate files yet, and even then, I still think it’s wasteful to include the same podcast in multiple feeds from the same site. And I don’t think we should rely on client applications to clean up after poor habits.
If you look at my Elements entries, you will notice that I only include a link to the mp3 and do not include it as an enclosure. Why? Very simple. I use this weblog as a bootstrap for my podcast, not as a delivery mechanism. If you want to get the podcast, then please subscribe to the Elements feed.
Enclosing files in feeds that I, as a reader of your site, don’t expect to be in the feed is pretty annoying and awfully wasteful - of my time, and your bandwidth.
But maybe it’s just me.
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