Saturday, December 13, 2003

Great science fiction radio plays, open licensed and free for downloading Great science fiction radio plays, open licensed and free for downloading. My pal hugh Spenser is a hell of a science fiction writer, and he's got a passion for the golden age of science fiction radio dramas. He wrote a six-part series of radio plays about the early days of science fiction fandom, which were produced by the wonderful Shoestring Theater and aired last summer on NPR. Hugh and Shoestring have released all six epiisodes as MP3s under a Creative Commons license that allows for the noncommercial redistribution -- give them a listen, they're way boss. Amazing Struggles Episode 1, 28.8MB MP3 Link Amazing Struggles Episode 2, 29MB MP3 Link Amazing Struggles Episode 3, 29.4MB MP3 Link Astonishing Failures Episode 1, 30.1MB MP3 Link Astonishing Failures Episode 2, 31.2MB MP3 Link Astonishing Failures Episode 3, 30MB MP3 Link [Boing Boing Blog] 5:01:34 PM  comment []    trackback []     Doc Searls Weblog: Listen up    Grant Henninger: Another online radio show, distributed through RSS.   Vincent Outlaw has done exactly what I'm trying to do with Radio/">TestRadio, only with a real radio show. What Vincent Outlaw says is:   Subscribe to the weblog's RSS feed with an enclosure enabled RSS reader, and you get the material I used during my live broadcast last Sunday, November 30, 2003. It's a start in that direction. One thing missing is the scripting, much like an MP3 playlist (or SMIL) to then replay the RSS enclosures as a continuous stream...A SHOW!   The use of enclosures makes it even nicer, it automatically downloads the MP3s. Something that doesn't happen with TestRadio. 1:46:47 PM  comment []    trackback []     Where are all the "Push To Talk Audioblogging" desktop applications? Audioblogging needs simple "Push to Talk" rich client applications.  Ones that work on the desktop.  Ones from each Operating System.  Maybe even a web browser based one. "Push To Talk" for audioblogging reminds me of Dave's Edit this Page use in Manila for weblogging back in the day. Why don't we have "Push To Talk" for Audioblogging on the desktop already?  It makes no sense. I don't want to use my phone to audioblog when I'm already using my notebook for another task.  PTTA would work great with PDAs also. "Push To Talk Audioblogging " would cost no more than 2 clicks.  Done!!  You talk about simple.  One button to start recording labeled "Push to Talk" and another button labeled "Stop and Publish" to publish the file to the web.  There could also be a couple of extra buttons "Stop" and "Publish" that would give you the option to do the process in 3 clicks. If we had PTTA deskop Apps,  it would be the simpliest way to audioblog from the desktop today.  10:51:14 AM  comment []    trackback []     Another threat to the Net... Good point and I totally agree.  But I ask again, where's the plan to share the costs of the plant and the last mile or replace it with something that is free and reliable.  I just see the plan today to take the goods(cash cow) that pays(tax, call it what you like) for the plant and last mile.  At this stage of the transformation the last mile is mainly physical and must remain reliable.  That my friends is not free and does not currently(today, not 10 years from now) have a reliable free replacement I know of.  If it did, it would already be in place. "regulatory dispensation to dominate broadband and voice over IP" is wrong, along with bullying and slamming but someone needs to show us the options that have been hopefully thought out that will replace what we have and make better sense for all in the future.  Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places for the plan. Werblog: Another threat to the Net.... ...is creeping re-centralization and control of bottlenecks by a few gatekeepers.  We're seeing this in broadband, where the phone and cable companies that own the physical infrastructure of the last mile want regulatory dispensation to dominate broadband and voice over IP.  6:11:48 AM  comment []    trackback []     Meta-Music for the Masses? The Motley Fool: Meta-Music for the Masses?. Record and software industries take yet another swipe at file swapping. 6:09:07 AM  comment []    trackback []     Mobile webcasting redux John makes some great observations on video and audioblogging at future conferences.  This will take sometime as conference organizers are just getting used to seeing cameras and text blogging.  It will also be a little harder for the conferences to adapt to help the mediablogger.  But it can be done as I will suggest below(it may also create a new business for someone).  When we text blog, we use our ears that are supplied information by the room's PA system.  When we snap photos, we position ourselves for the best shot, capture the moment and return to listening to the speaker or setting up the next shot.  With video and audio there is minumum quality stardard that must be acheived usually for a sustained period of time.  With the rooms in their present design (designed for listening and viewing) this is much harder to acheive for the majority of the audiences without help.  I have experimented with audioblogging live from my seat at BloggerCon and the quality of the files I produced were poor using off the shelf audio products.  Mainly because there were to many factors out of my control(like the quy next to me who kept kicking the mic stand..pop..pop).  I wonder if conference organizers will find the need to publish blogging exceptable use policies written and available before signup.  I'm sure there is a way for a creative conference organizer or someone to make a business here.   One thing they could do is offer high quality wireless audio (I made this suggestion to Bob Doyle and others during BloggerCon)and multiple video feeds(say one for computer presentation, another for speaker, maybe another for the audience) in the rooms.  This would not change the design of the rooms but would allow the audience to record and media blog from their seats.  Conference organizers should be experimenting, leading and encouraging these new styles of live media publishing.  The company that embraces these new technologies and issues first could pave the way for the future in this space.  Jon's Radio: Mobile webcasting redux. The XML 2003 conference was the first I've attended with an iSight camera, and with a plan to use it. Part one of the plan was to try bouncing a live stream off my home server, just as a test, but I was too busy to try that. Part two was to use video quotes in the blog entries I posted. This worked fairly well, though in the future I'll want a more time-efficient tool for capturing clips than QuickTime Pro. ...  5:57:11 AM  comment []    trackback []     Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": Holiday gizmo-shopping Boing Boing Blog: Xeni on NPR's "Day to Day": Holiday gizmo-shopping. On today's edition of the NPR radio program "Day to Day," host Alex Chadwick and I talk tips about which of this holiday season's crop of electronic gadgets will make great gifts. This week: Words of advice when shopping for portable DVD players, mobile MP3 players, and universal remotes. In next week's show, more gadget fun. Link, audio stream will be available after 12PM Pacific. 5:52:59 AM  comment []    trackback []     Email and Voicemail Working Together MarketingWonk : Email and Voicemail Working Together. Thinmail has brought a new twist to email and may change the face of email marketing by combining email with voicemail. Paul Gilster, a writer for the Raleigh News & Observer, describes this technology and some potential workforce management uses, but marketers may be able to leverage this technology better to deliver more targeted messages. Marketers can tap internal and external databases of phone numbers and geo-target by area code or by exhange. Leslie Laredo comments. [summary] 5:49:19 AM  comment []    trackback []     Radio 2.0 I like to respond to this part of Ralph Brandi's comments: Doc uses his musings to exercise one of his recurring hobby horses, the idea that the net is Radio's natural habitat and that old school radio is a dinosaur. It's an intriguing thought, but I can think of at least one major problem with it, at least in the short- and medium-term. Net radio doesn't scale well. The sunk costs that you need to spend to get started may be low, but every single listener you get costs you money. Become successful with a mass audience and it may kill you Net radio doesn't scale well Today I would agree.  But I also believe if we got really creative as a group(network) we could make something good work.  Sure 30 minute MP3 files have a problem scaling today.  I'm not talking about 30 minute files to start.  I'm not sure if I'm alone in saying I don't have the 30 minutes of attention to give any one person these days.  But what if we were to use small audio messages to start(in the short and medium-term as you stated).  I much rather listen to 6 people summarize is less than 5 minutes for me the information I'm interested in(like blog posts).  We could have others in the network help distribute the small files and if someone is really successful in the mass (which to me is not everyone's goal) find a way for all to cash in a little.  Scaling would happen naturally as creativety and technology conditions progressed. Radio 2.0. Ralph Brandi sez: Doc uses his musings to exercise one of his recurring hobby horses, the idea that the net is Radio's natural habitat and that old school radio is a dinosaur. It's an intriguing thought, but I can think of at least one major problem with it, at least in the short- and medium-term. Net radio doesn't scale well. The sunk costs that you need to spend to get started may be low, but every single listener you get costs you money. Become successful with a mass audience and it may kill you, just as a web site can be killed by the costs involved in being Slashdotted (and I know about this one first hand). Traditional radio, on the other hand, costs a lot to get started in (land, transmitter, antenna towers, etc.), plus some ongoing costs like electricity for the transmitter, but once you're on the air, your costs are fixed. It doesn't matter whether you have one listener or one million. If you can manage to cover your fixed costs (something that most radio stations manage one way or another), you can grow as large as possible within your service area without incurring extra costs. That's something that's not possible for net radio, and may never be possible (unless bandwidth becomes too cheap to meter, which I don't think will ever happen; it's possible to disagree on this count, which is why I say this argument holds in the short- and medium-term rather than forever). Net radio is a neat idea, and I love the possibility of having a virtually unlimited number of stations, not to mention stations that target audiences solely by interest rather than by geography, but I don't see it taking over from traditional radio any time soon. The economics dictate otherwise. I think it's much more likely that the current situation will continue, where traditionally-delivered radio dominates mass audience programming, while net radio evolves to serve small niche audiences that don't cost too much to support. Well, if you read what I say closely, you'll see that I'm not talking about the immediate execution of Radio As Usual. I am saying that in the long term Internet radio will be far more market-friendly, simply because many more people will find many more ways to get into the supply side of the the business. Amazing things happen when Demand gets the power to Supply. In the meantime, we need to think (here comes another hobby horse) in terms of AND logic here. Not OR. Conventional radio will persist for a long time. So will conventional TV, for that matter. But at some point a thousand niches become more interesting than a shrinking mass market. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 5:39:00 AM  comment []    trackback []     Push-to-talk (PTT) I want Push-to-talk (PTT) audioblogging.  It would simply be push one key on the cell and talk. No audio attendant to menu through.  Your audioblog would publish the audio messages instantaneously.  A different key for each posting category.  Best of all no toll charges to think or worry about.  I also like the PTT network to work with the reverse, receiving short audio messages.  It should be able to aggregate short audio messages that I would find interesting from the web to my cell phone.  That's the cellphone "audiblogging router" I want for Christmas.  Smart Mobs: Push-to-talk (PTT). "KOLKATA: Time: 00:00 hours; Date: December 31, 2004; Location: a discotheque. Time to type in short message services (SMS) and send New Year wishes. But unlike the previous years, it is a different way of wishing the near and dear ones. Instead of typing, the revellers at the disco are sending voice messages that are delivered on a real-time basis to the recipient(s). Welcome to the world of push-to-talk (PTT) where the old ways of typing and sending short messages will become obsolete. It's simply just push a key on the cell and talk. The recipient gets the message instantaneously". Push-to-talk (PTT): growing market, advantages PTT Group Calling more on the PTT push in Forbes 5:34:35 AM  comment []    trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Harold Gilchrist. Last update: 1/1/2004; 7:38:41 AM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.