podcasting -- another way to distribute content

If any non-profits are interested in putting a PSA up on the Dailysonic podcast (Dailysonic.com) please email me (adam@dailysonic.com). I'm willing to produce and insert PSAs for certain non-profits. Dailysonic has lots of kind hearted listeners. The show itself discusses hip culture, lifestyle, music, humor, etc.

-Adam

I went to www.podcasters.org but it is down.

I will wait a few hours.

I have a podcast that I've created for nonprofit professionals, volunteers, and "do-gooders" called the 501c3Cast. We are featuring interviews, stories, and links that are helpful for 501c3 organizations and the people who work for them. Check it out at:

www.501c3Cast.com

Or you can subscribe to the feed at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/501c3cast

I'm also looking for contributors or other ideas, if you are interested, let me know!

Adam,

That's great of you to offer to host PSAs for nonprofit on your show. You all do a good job over there and I enjoy the show. Thanks!

Clement
Techoup Stock

I've been wondering about removing barriers to podcasting for nonprofits in countries without much infrastructure, like Cambodia. A few other folks have been thinking about this too. Thoughts, advice, ideas?


Removing Barriers to Podcasting

Andy Carvin's thoughts about podcasting in third world

We have a couple of projects going on at the Walker Art Center that are audio based. We started off wanting to make audio tours freely available to all of our patrons and we were unhappy with most of our commercial options. We were also concerned that if we used podcasts we would either limit ourselves to patrons who had iPods and who planned ahead to load the files or we would have stock the audio players ourselves. Stocking the players would mean we would have staff overhead/expense of checking ipods out keeping them updated not to mention the expense of buying the ipods. So we opted for cell phones.

In some ways this may help with your question about podcasting without electricity. Of course that's an extreme you can't play any audio with out electricity or batteries but cell phones are one of the worlds most ubiquitous technologies. Although most people in the world do not have cell phones I think it's safe to say that generally people will have access to a cell phone years before they will get access to an ipod+computer+high speed internet.

Of course there is not a cell-casting movement and listening to your cell phone for long periods of time without talking could seem strange with out a headset but there could be some potential there especially with the adoption of faster cell service by many countries.

Art on Call
Art on Call Homepage
or phone number: 612.374.8200

And after we saw how popular podcasting was getting we packaged the same audio up as podcast (on that same page). We are hoping that offering the content up to multiple playing devices will help get it heard more.

Also we've been using podcasts with some success on mnartists.org just by making and "audio only" feed in our existing RSS implementation. This is a pilot of a larger concept for the site but there is a sponsored project on the site called Radio mnartists that was a good opportunity for a podcast because it offered regularly updated audio content.

The project page is at:
Radio mnartists

and the podcast feed is at:
Radio mnartists Podcast

We implemented the same RSS/podcast feeds for individual artists on mnartists.org but have had a very limited adoption of that so far.

Hi Eric,

Thanks for sharing the information about your project! I love what the Walker is doing.

You are so right on about cell phones! The protocol for multimedia files on cell phones is available in Cambodia, and although those phones and the service are slightly more expensive, it has enabled a few Cambodian bloggers to make short audio posts. In fact, I got my first Cambodian language lesson that way!

Andy has been exploring the idea of using an opensource pbx server software to create a locally run server folks could do that. There is a yahoo group talking about this called mobcasting.

Podcasting is not elitist and is highly accessible, except for those with hearing disabilities. A podcast can be played on most PCs, PDAs or (yes) iPods. For those without machines many public libraries have access to the Internet and publicly available computers. Here at my organization (PALINET) we are offering podcasts (see a sample at http://www.palinet.org/rss/ir/) with a great response from our member library organizations. Granted, not everyone will take advantage of podcasts, but it is clearly another way to reach our constituents.

I wonder. Take clumps of audio available via RSS and come up with a name to have a fad? Here we go again?

RSS isn't push, its pull. Your RSS client has to go out and fetch. The big deal is that it is a bit more organized than a full web page, simplified, and summarized. Less bandwidth and more control make it somewhat more useful than full feeds I think.

Audio has a few cases where it is useful but it is much less dense than text (bigger download), can't be easily scanned, indexed, or searched, and is slower to consume by a factor of five or more (depending upon reading skills). Retention via hearing is often quite a bit less than by reading as well.

The whole Ipod thing is another clue that fashion is a significant part of this. But it also says that audio is useful for partial attention scenarios such as when driving or exercising (or attending meetings :-) where you can listen while doing something else with hands and feet and eyes.

The use of RSS implies something that has daily or more frequent updates. Most NPO's in my experience are hard put to get monthly content updates on their website.

It seems like this is another buzzword driven case where careful attention to needs and appropriate technology might well be a caution to heed.

So, what am I missing? I see all the buzz about podcasts and wonder what on earth is the big deal.

bryanl,

I'm obviously bias because I'm an avid podcast listener and I produce one myself, but I don't think podcasting is just an nifty name for a passing fad. I agree, there is nothing particularly amazing about the delivery of audio content through an RSS feed, but like so many other widely adopted technologies, it's the synchronicity of several factors that make a strong argument for podcasting as a medium. In addition to RSS and mp3 files consider:

- the greater penetration of broadband Internet access allowing individuals to download large files easily.

- the simplification of tools required to produce rich, high quality content. Just 10 years ago an entire studio would be required to produce the content that some independent podcasters are creating today.

- the general dissatisfaction that many people have with the news and entertainment content being produced by the "popular" media today.

- better social networks and search engines to allow people to find niche markets and content.

As you point out, podcasting is not a medium that will replace all others, but it can serve an important role in helping nonprofits tell their stories and communicate with their constituents. I also encourage you to broaden your perspective on RSS as a tool for "daily" content. It's developing into a much bigger tool than just delivering news feeds to aggregators.

Corey,
I've listened to several of your pod casts. They are great! I posted the show you did with TechSoup.

Keep up the good podcasts.

One of our most innovative members is Peter Gray of East Lothian Museums Service. One of their sites is called Preston Grange, it covers a large area and contains a range of industrial monuments (http://tour.prestongrange.org/).


One of the ideas that Peter has used is a mobile phone audio tour where at preset information posts visitors can use there own mobile phone to access an audio tour giving information on what they are seeing. For the museum it is great... a new communication channel that is cheap to run, and avoids all the overheads of hiring out players on site. Peter is also working on a downloadable version for folk with mp3 players (fewer right now than mobile phones in the UK).

Most people I know in the museum / heritage sector look at this and think 'what a neat idea and so simple'. Technology needs smart creative people to make best use of it.

Peter Cheer
IT Officer Scottish Museums Council

I would like to respond to the comment about podcasting is not for the hearing impaired. I disagree. My company has been suppling transcripts of podcasts so that the hearing impaired have the option of reading the podcast and learning as much as hearing people do. My hope is that more podcasters will start having their podcast transcribed so that this technology will be available to the hearing impaired as well.

Pamela Akkerman
Pam@WebExecutiveAssistant.com

That is an interesting idea...using podcasting for an accessibility tool, to share with the hearing impaired. Thanks for sharing!