Inside View from Ireland

Of the podcasts left standing

LOOKING BACK AT FIVE YEARS of podcasts that I've collected, only a few of the original posse remain in my weekly playlists. I started thinking about the audio tapestry in my life after Conn O Muineachain tweeted that he was listening to some of my students on a recent Educast episode. Students put Adam Curry's Daily Source Code into that episode. The Daily Source Code paused in mid-February this year and I miss it. I got bored with Dawn and Drew more than two years ago and tuned themout. But I miss Steve and Jessie nattering on from Dublin. Brian Greene has slipped over to Blip.fm while Dean Whitbread, England's first podcaster, holds the line. I started paying for some enhanced podcast services while learning how to produce password-protected audio inside the creative multimedia programme at Tipperary Institute. Those enhanced podcasts have chapter headings and that makes it relatively easy to punch forward in the content, landing at electronic markers where new topics get discussed.

Because I grew up with a radio constantly playing in the house, I'll always hold a special place for audio in my personal life. I walk around with our little girl, often with a single earbud plugged in, listening to For Immediate Release, This Week in Tech, The Aloud Series from Los Angeles Public Library, This American Life, or some Deep House sessions by Steffen Coonan. I'm well overdue for ripping decades of cassettes and CDs onto my well-worn iPod.

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Learning from Media Virgins

TUESDAYS MEAN FOUR HOURS of contact time with a very creative group of multimedia students and today's session resulted in one of the highest-energy podcasts ever to land in my Dropbox. Several different groups of students recorded segments separately, then dropped them into a post-production process connected to a dropbox in the cloud. Even though that 50 GB of swap space has resulted in a few errors (i.e., some working files were inadvertently deleted by classmates who didn't realise the difference between "cutting" and "copying" files), using a community workspace properly is one of the most critical skillsets we can teach at third level in Ireland. The artwork (at left) appeared from several cameras and Flickr photo collections, most of the images sourced on the same day the recordings were made. A big thanks to Liam Burke, denise cox, and Mike Maunsell for setting aside time to talk. Although some of the recording levels reveal weaknesses in technique (and some problems with older cables), the overall process and hour-long audio result [53 MB MP3 file] is better than most community radio segments broadcast in Ireland today. Drop over to Media Virgins.com for more details and to see elements of the creative process on screen.

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Artwork by Ben Hennessy. Podcast produced on the southern campus of Tipperary Institute.

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Sony ICD MX-20 Mobile Recording Gear

I HAVE THREE digital dictaphones, all of them from Sony. They have served me well on four continents, in the rain and in the hazardous environments of loud and noisy pubs. On some occasions, they have recorded where they shouldn't have been, but their work has enhanced my work and my quality of life. I know there are better mobile recording solutions available, but I like my Sony ICD MX-20 recorders. This short clip tells our creative multimedia students how to use the little devices for best effect.

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Previously: "Best dictaphone" explained as an MP3 [1 MB 96 kbps file].

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On the Phone with Euan and Co

EVERY WEEK, AROUND 9AM ON WEDNESDAYS, I join Krishna De and Ken McGuire to chat about things on the social media landscape in Ireland. It's not all social media and it's not just the three of us. Like today, I used my desktop Cisco phone to connect both Euan Semple and Roseanne Smith into the conversation. And then as the 52-minute call [36 MB MP3 file] developed, Ray rang in from Los Angeles. I'm learning a lot about trying to record a compelling conference call, especially in the area of getting decent audio. We're not producing a clean original file and as a result, some of my respected critics have tuned out of the show. They "tried listening" to a few episodes and then couldn't be bothered. Hearing their concerns has increased the standing of TWiT with Leo Laporte in my mind. Leo starts with good pipes from all his guests and has a way of modulating individual voices as he records his shows. The highest technology we have with Podcamp Ireland is a conference phone hooked into Blogtalk Radio. From the sound of things we've done, it might be time to move into an Irish phone conference call-in number, if only to reduce the latency and echo inherent when using the US VOIP dial-in number. After I listen to the enclosed MP3 file, I'll produce some show notes about the content. And I might even produce a four-minute audio version in 3GP format for mobile phones. In the meantime, I'd really appreciate your feedback on the value of recording a telephone conversation as a podcast with pointers to comments about Barcamp Cork, the New Media New Audience conference and a PRII social media workshop that I hope contains elements relevant to the social media classroom.

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The Cisco 7910 phone shown in the photo has a three-year service life when used every day.

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Mobile Earbuds

IN MY WORLD, if it syncs to my phone, it's going to get done. That means music I want to buy (after scraping it via line-out of my laptop), podcasts that educate, and calendar items that point to best use of my time. It's dead easy to download music onto my Nokia E90 over my O2-Ireland 3G connection, across the room with Bluetooth, or through simple drag-and-drop onto the phone or memory card. While I don't think the iPod is going to an early grave, when the recession bites, some people are going to see more value in buying a phone that can double as their entertainment device instead of buying a dedicated music player. I personally like SonyEricsson's music phones because they give me the best control of the bass line along with proper rich media streaming capability and the best Bluetooth earbuds in the business. But I like the podcatcher on my Nokia E90 better than the SonyEricsson one. After more than three years of messing around with RSS feeds, I can control my audio programming better than iTunes can manage it for me. I don't know if I represent any significant factor in the way music will be distributed in the next decade. However, I see creative multimedia college students making some decisions where they are actively tuning out the national broadcaster. Their habits will profoundly affect radio.  I wonder if the "New Media New Audience" conference in Dublin has scope to address this issue. I'm carrying a new media distribution device in my coat pocket when attending the talks. I'm keen to chat with anyone who shares my concerns about the way my mobile earbuds may portend a change in how we consume media.

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Irish Arts Council Conference on "New Media, New Audience?"

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Doing it Live

WE HAVE AN OLD DV CAMERA and a trustworthy piece of Webcam DV software that allows us to record with a Canon XM1 instead of a Creative webcam. The difference in quality is amazing. At community events like Podcamp Ireland, the DV cam will offer a "Podcamp Live" dimension to the proceedings. We're testing the deployment of the camera now in various settings, hoping that our creative multimedia students can develop the skill sets required to sling it around with a boom mic and guerilla lighting. Being able to retrofit an old handycam into the role of a webcam is very important when lifestreaming family events. You need high quality screen resolution to ensure your video minutes are good enough for the 42" screen in sitting rooms a generation from now.

Eirepreneur Pronunciation

FRESH TO THE CHALLENGE of some confused voices in Silicon Valley, several creative multimedia students set aside a few minutes to help those searching for a way to correctly say "eirepreneur".

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Apologies to James Corbett in advance. (Slim MP3 audio also available.)

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Arcade Fire Eurovision

THE ARCADE FIRE and Eurovision? Who would have thought? At some concerts, the Arcade Fire cover a song that Serge Gainsbourg wrote for popular French yé-yé singer France Gall, which she performed at a Eurovision concert way back in 1965. We're setting up Podcamp Ireland's venues and loving it in our earbuds.

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The Arcade Fire -- " The Arcade Fire - Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son (France Gall)

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FireAnt

IF YOU PLAN to carry your favourite video clips along with you, then you should look at what FireAnt can do. The FireAnt software folds into Odeo and will be part of Odeo's next generation audio, video, mobile device support, and media search technology. Odeo plans to launch a public beta in December 2007. Originally created for the emerging videoblogging community, the FireAnt desktop media player supports all popular media formats including Quicktime, Windows Media, Flash, Real, MPEG-4, DivX, and MP3. It also enables the synchronization of downloaded media to portable devices – including Apple’s iPod, Sony PSP, Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen, Archos and mobile phones. I like the FireAnt desktop video experience, not because of its limited range of Irish content, but because it connects easily to my portable media devices.

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OpenCoffee Operativity

ANOTHER OpenCoffee SESSION in Limerick and it attracted six entrepreneurs from the Shannon Region for lively cross-talk about making web pages talk, podcasting (that's Conn in the photo), rebranding an opera career (that's Nyle Wolfe without the mic), clever management of energy and tourist-to-tourist marketing. We captured some of the conversation in this half-hour [26.5 MB 96 kbps MP3 file] conversation, most recorded with a Sony ICD MX-20 in the lobby of The Clarion Hotel, Steamboat Quay, Limerick, Ireland. Shownotes follow at podcasting.ie when database connectivity returns.

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The Oxford English Dictionary defines "operativity" as "the condition of being operative" but in the context of today's OpenCoffee meet-up, the word takes on an added dimension.

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