Monthly Archives: November 2005

Audio Show 1 Comment

Women in Podcasting: 40 New Shows Listed

Now that I’ve relaunched the Women in Podcasting list as an OPML outline (which is much, much easier to maintain), I can finally start catching up on my considerable backlog of suggested shows.

I’ve just added about 40 new shows to the list. These are all currently active podcasts that are hosted or co-hosted by women. This brings the current total of active podcasts and videologs on this list to about 120 shows.

SEE THE LIST! Remember, it’s a rendered OPML file, not a regular web page. Just click on any “+” sign to view the contents of that item.

I’ve also included updates to a few shows that were listed previously.

More about this ongoing project…
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Audio Show, Resources, Voices: Blogs, etc. 1 Comment

Now in OPML: Women in Podcasting List

OK, feast your eyes. I’ve finished a first draft of the Women in Podcasting List, reworked as an OPML outline so it’s easier to maintain (and share maintenance duties).

HERE’S THE LIST! Click that link to check it out via the free service OPML Manager.

IMPORTANT: How to navigate this list. It’s a rendered OPML file, which is a bit different from an ordinary web page. Visually, this list looks like a series of nested outline items. (You’ll probably see a folder icon displayed to the left of each item.) Wherever you see a “+” mark next to an item, click on that to expand the view to see what’s inside. Similarly, a “-” mark indicates that you can collapse that item, or that the item cannot be expanded further.

NOTE: This is only a first draft! It’s not completely how I want it yet, but it’s a start. I’ll be working on it more later.

Here are a few important caveats to bear in mind about this first draft…
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Audio Show, Resources 7 Comments

How Not to Get Shafted by a Hosted Podcast Service

It’s every podcaster’s nightmare: You create a podcast, produce episodes, build a loyal audience… then suddenly, without warning, your hosting service folds. Not only can your listeners not find you – you can’t even access your own content!

Sadly, it happens. It happened recently to the customers of Purecast. But it doesn’t have to happen to you.

Over at Multidimensional Me today, Koan Bremner has published a thorough, plain-language tutorial every current or would-be podcaster should read. See “Learning the Lessons of Purecast.

Here’s what she covers…

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Resources 7 Comments

My Furl Archive and Firefox Search

UPDATE DEC. 20: Ask, and you shall receive. An enterprising Contentious reader built exactly what I wanted. Now you can use it too…

I dearly love the free Firefox web browser – especially all the cool add-ons people have developed for it (since it’s open source). Lately I’ve been having fun adding new search engines to the search field in the toolbar. Several good search engines are included with the browser – but if you want more, there are plenty of Firefox search plugins to choose from.

For instance, with the right search plugin installed I can search my del.icio.us page of recommended reading links right from my web browser, without having to go to del.icio.us first.

Alas, I can’t yet do that with my Furl archive – where searchability is more important to me, after all. Maybe some dashing developer will make this little wish of mine come true (hint hint).

Here’s what I’d love to see…

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Content Style & Business, Conversations, Media Musings 1 Comment

How Newsworthy Are Personnel Announcements?

Yesterday, McBru Blog (a weblog published by the advertising/PR firm McClenahan Bruer Communications), offered an intriguing and potentially instructive post.

In “We Know What Readers Like,” “Jeff H” wrote:

“The thinking, among journalists, is that nobody in readerland gives a care about the fact that you’ve brought on a new vice president of customer-facing solutions. Or so we thought.”

According to Jeff H, that newsletter issue included several types of items. (He didn’t say, but I’m guessing the e-mail newsletter offered teaser or summary items, each with a link to the complete piece on the web.) In this issue were announcements of a white paper, recent media coverage, and “a little news release about a couple people who had joined our client’s advisory board.”

Surprisingly (well, at least to me :-) ), the advisory board announcement attracted the highest clickthrough rate for that newsletter.

This is indeed an interesting result. I left the following comment on McBru blog, in order to try to put this result into context…

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Audio Show, Net Effects on Society Leave a comment

Women in Podcasting: New List in the Works

UPDATE NOV. 21: I’ve just published a first draft of the revised list in OPML format. More info, including a link to the list at its new location…

Lately my Women in Podcasting list has been getting a fair amount of attention. (Thanks, Lisa Stone!) However, I’m a little embarrassed because I haven’t had time to update that list in several months.

However, I have a plan to revive it, update it, and get other people involved. Honestly, I could use some help with this project. I just don’t have enough time to do it all myself.

Here’s what I plan to do. Let me know what you think and if you can help…

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Content Style & Business, Media Musings, Net Effects on Society, Resources 4 Comments

How to Upload a File to Google Base?

Well, it’s for real: Yesterday (Nov. 15) Google launched its much-rumored service, Google Base.

Basically (pun intended ;-) ), you can publish virtually any file you want to the web by uploading it to Google’s servers and adding descriptive tags. This makes your file and whatever it contains as findable as anything on a regular web site – except now you don’t have to have a web site in order to publish to the web.

Pretty cool, especially for people who don’t want to mess with servers, hosting, and HTML. Also, for folks in the media business who rely on classified advertising for revenue, it’s pretty scary. As if Craigslist wasn’t enough free competition…

I just signed up for Google Base (it’s free, of course), and I’ll be playing around with it to see what it does. Usually, Google is known for its ease of use. But I must admit, I found myself unable to figure out the most basic task: How do I upload a single file to Google Base?…

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Amy's Adventures, Content Style & Business, Voices: Blogs, etc.

Tips for Serious Blogs (Professional or Organizational)

Tomorrow at 11:30 AM MST I’ll be giving a short talk at a meeting of the Boulder Press Club. This will be held at the Broker Inn in Boulder, CO. (If you’d like to attend, see the end of this message.)

My topic is: What Writers Really Need to Know About Weblogs. Actually, I’d originally aimed it at journalists, until I learned that most of the BPC’s members are not journalists, but rather writers and editors of various persuasions. I will be recording this talk, and if the audio quality is good enough I’ll podcast it.

I’ll only have about 1/2 hour so I plan to give a very general overview. However, my talk will include the following list of tips for “serious” (professional, corporate, or organizational) weblogs – as opposed to personal or hobby blogs…

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