Probing podcasting from the professionals

February 7th, 2005 No Comments

In previous Auricle articles I've alluded to the Internet and intranets as e-learning filling stations and, so, I thought it was time to engage with podcasting as one way of 'filling up'. For this article I was particularly interested in tracking down podcasts and raw MP3 files with high production values. I know, there's some real gems in amateur sites with access to limited production facilities or expertise, or in conference/presentation recordings, but some podcasts engage and involve because they have the listeners of the recording in mind and so 'speak' to their particular audience. Let's start with an operational definition

“A podcast is a talk or music radio show that's sent directly to an iPod or other digital music player through your computer. It's a new take on the growing technology called RSS that pushes text-based Web content to computers. But with podcasting, a listener subscribes to audio feeds.” Source: Jon Gordon, Future Tense.

When I was a long distance commuter by train, small light media player devices were certainly objects of desire, but unobtainable. Now I usually walk to work (~10 miles a day) and the small light media player device is ubiquitous; I use one daily to feed my brain with items of interest whilst my legs do the walking, e.g. science, technology, food policy, environment, health, social policy. Ever hungry for new sources of quality information I've now included podcasts in my diet. Below I summarize my tentative findings and reflections on finding material with the potential to permanently change how, and when, people listen and … sometimes … learn.

I found a good starting point for my explorations of podcasting was Wikipedia closely followed by the Digital Podcast Directory and the categories section of iPodder.org.

Then over to JD Lasica's Darknet site which I found a good way to get steeped in some of the 'darker' issues related to podcasting and the struggle to control what we see and hear and what we see/hear it on.

The focus of this article is tracking down sources of podcasts and raw MP3 files with high production values so with this in mind I found the Radio category of iPodder.org particularly helpful.

What was also suprising from researching this article was that, far from leading the curve, I now think that the BBC really needs to get their skates on and provide rather richer fare than just In Our Time (podcast URI).

Interestingly, within the BBC local network there seems to be some activity that perhaps merits more attention from BBC HQ.

For example, let's consider The Naked Scientist archive. The Naked Scientist site describes itself as:

“… a media-savvy group of physicians and researchers from Cambridge University who use radio, live lectures, and the Internet to strip science down to its bare essentials, and promote it to the general public. Their award winning BBC weekly radio program, The Naked Scientists, reaches a potential audience of 6 million listeners across the east of England, and also has an international following on the web.”

Now what's intriguing is that The Naked Scientist BBC radio show is being syndicated across local radio stations and so covers only some of England (not the UK), as a result it's been below the radar for most of us. But their archive is a potential goldmine of MP3 resources for those interested in science. But what have we here? No RSS … no podcasting. Come on folks you should be shouting this one from the rooftops!

The Naked Scientist example is perhaps the tip of an iceberg. How much other MP3 stuff with educational potential is hidden just because the developers don't use RSS or any other syndication solution, and don't seem to have grasped the potential of wrapping up their MP3s in the podcasting format?

Digital rights anxieties on the part of the broadcasters may be part of the problem and so they either do little to promote MP3 downloads or opt soley for a streaming solution. But here's the news folks …. anything that you stream or broadcast on the airways can already be captured, converted and downloaded and all you're doing therefore doing is inconveniencing your audience who have already bought into 'listen again' but don't want to be told by you when they can 'listen again'. Nevertheless, archiving MP3s costs and so some will undoubtedly argue that it's reasonable to place a charge on back copies.

So what's happening on the North American broadcast front? I was pleased to find that CBC Radio One offers their science and technology broadcast Quirks and Quarks in both MP3 and ogg vorbis downloads (are you listening BBC?).

Next up was TWIS (This Week in Science) which is a 1 hour weekly science/technology radio news show broadcast on KDVS 90.3 FM on Tuesdays 8:30-9:30AM PST. TWIS appears to stream their MP3 via mpU files but downloads are also possible (just look at the URI in the mpU file).

Then over to Air America's Ecotalk (podcast URI) where one item put a different spin on why the Indian Ocean tsunami was so devastating in some parts of the region. It seems that removing mangrove swamps and replacing them with shrimp farms was perhaps a bad idea.

Science Friday's site is interesting, but here we have the classic example of the free stream … but pay for the MP3 download.

NASA has also entered the podcasting arena with their Science@NASA feature story podcasts (podcast URI) with the goal of helping … ” the public understand how exciting NASA research is and to help NASA scientists fulfill their outreach responsibilities”. The audio files can also be streamed or downloaded manually via the home page of the Science@NASA web site.

So is any of this podcasting stuff being taken seriously enough in education?

Way back in 2004 Duke University certainly thought so. If you missed this or want a reminder then last July the NPR site offered us the audio article New Freshman Requirement: The iPod.

MP3 searches also reveal that UC Davis School of Medicine are also offering pathophysiology lectures on MP3 but since their resources are password protected you'll have to take my word for it.

The business opportunity of distributing via MP3 has not been missed by some. For example the American Academy of Family Physicians would like interested parties to part with ~ USD 800-950 for the MP3 version of the Family Medicine Board Review … but there again it is worth 62.5 prescribed credits. It's pretty cool you actually gain merit from just listening … with only a postest to make sure you were really listening … or at least that short term memory is functioning… but that's OK the're professionals:)

Continuing the commercial theme, North American medicine appears to be a really rich source of MP3s. Here's CMEonly.com who offer “Continuing Education solutions for the time starved proessional.”

Over at the Audio Digest Foundation Mammon is less obvious; they offer a free MP3 of their lecture of the month.

Perhaps the most intriguing, but at the same time almost anarchistic, podcast is Adam Curry's Daily Source Code (podcast URI). The Daily Source Code website is here. Adam Curry was an MTV video jock some 10 years ago but has now become one of the key catalysts and exponents of the new podcast art. Although American, he produces his daily podcast from his home in Guildford, Surrey, UK and claims some 50,000 listeners. Daily Source Code is unpredictable and sometimes almost content free (and not for the sensitive), but then again some gem of a listener contribution sometimes pops up. For example, Daily Source Code introduced me to Soundseeing Tours via podcast. Soundseeing Tours surely have some broader potential beyond being a form of travel guide, particularly if they could be synchronized with, say, an image blog in an effective way. What Adam Curry demonstrates, however, is that production values matter. Daily Source Code may be low on content at times but Adam is always having a conversation with, and always engages with, his audience.

Another area of interest for me is audiobooks. For example Apple's iTunes download service claims to have ~9000 audiobook titles and rising. Alternatively, Audible.com or Audible.co.uk specialize in this area.

To me, the trend seems pretty clear. The growing success of personal media recorders and players is because end-users like downloads because it enables them to time shift and organize their listening or viewing to suit their leisure or work schedule. They purchase devices like personal media recorders and players because it puts themselves back in the driving seat. Meanwhile the broadcasters and distributors either try to limit opportunity for download by investing heavily in streaming solutions or attempt to wrap up their artefacts/resources in management systems that locks them to devices/specific users. As a consequence, the increasingly knowledgable and sophisticated end-users will seek sources or resources that offer a less restrictive path.

Many of the technical and technological limitations of small format devices are being conquered, and, so, it's perfectly feasible that within the next 5 years there will be converged multifunction devices which offer a satisfactory, if not excellent, viewing/listening of ebooks, web sites, music, speech and communication via phone, instant messaging and email, plus acting as a source for digital projection. Such devices will be as valuable as standalone arteracts as they will be for their connectivity. Proprietary formats and digital rights management systems will serve only to reduce the likelihood of those particular multifunction devices succeeding in the marketplace.

Before I sign off, it's perhaps noticeable that in this little sojourn I found it more profitable to think MP3 rather than podcast; this perhaps shows that there's more missionary work to do 🙂

To finish off here's some more podcast or MP3 download URIs I've found interesting and informative (sometimes) and, yes, some of them are even conference proceedings or presentations:)

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