Posts in category Audio Show

Now in OPML: Women in Podcasting List

Nov22
2005 1 Comment Written by Amy Gahran

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…
READ MORE »

Posted in Resources, Voices: Blogs, etc.

How Not to Get Shafted by a Hosted Podcast Service

Nov19
2005 7 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

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…

Posted in Resources

Women in Podcasting: New List in the Works

Nov17
2005 Leave a Comment Written by Amy Gahran

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…

Posted in Net Effects on Society

My Updated Feed Lists

Oct30
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

As a service to my readers and others, I publish my list of feeds that I subscribe to, as well as my list of podcast subscriptions. I’ve just updated these files.

So if you’d like to see what I’m currently reading/listening to, download the following OPML files and import them into your feed reader or podcatcher…

Posted in Amy's Adventures, Feeds (RSS), Resources

Blogs and Feeds: What\’s in It for Science Writers and PIOs? (audio)

Oct25
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

On Saturday, Oct. 22, I was honored to be part of a panel at the 2005 conference of the National Association of Science Writers. This panel, “Blogs and RSS” was organized by my friend and feelow content strategist Merry Bruns. (Thanks a bunch, Merry!) My fellow panelists were:

Carl Zimmer, who writes the life sciences weblog Loom for Corante
Joel Shurkin, a longtime science journalist who recently began his personal weblogs Of Cabbages and Kings and Yussel

With permission from all panelists and NASW, I recorded that session and I’m now podcasting it as promised. Sorry it’s taken me a couple of days longer to post it than I’d planned, but my original recording wasn’t that great so I had to do a fair amount of editing to make it listenable.

LISTEN NOW! Right-click or click-and-hold that link to download the MP3 audio file. Its about 17.8 MB and runs about 80 minutes long.

You can download my handout, too. It’s a one-page pdf document.

Public information officers and PR people please note: Although this talk was geared mainly toward science journalists, much of what we had to say applies as much to (if not more to) public relations.

Show notes, including an important correction I need to make: I was wrong about how I described a tool for monitoring web site statistics…

Posted in Amy's Adventures, Feeds (RSS), Media Musings, Voices: Blogs, etc.

PR and Tech: My Talk (audio)

Oct19
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

I just got back from speaking at a half-day event offered by the Colorado Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. It was fun! PRSA pulled together a great program.

My talk was on: The Future of Technology: What PR Pros Need to Know. I published my handout for this yesterday (downloadable pdf).

LISTEN NOW! Right-click or click-and-hold to download the MP3 audio file. It’s about 10.3 MB, and runs about 45 minutes long.

SHOW NOTES: Here are a few items that might interest people who were at this event or who are catching it online…

Posted in Content Style & Business, Media Musings, Resources

What Sounds Interesting? Podcasting and Learning Styles

Oct10
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

Yesterday, while I was reorganizing my storage loft, I was catching up on listening to some podcasts. I realized something: One advantage of podcasting is that sometimes complex topics become more comprehensible and resonant when explained in a human voice, rather than by text.

One of the oft-cited disadvantages of podcasts is that you can’t really “skim” them – that is, it generally takes 30 minutes of your precious time to listen to a 30-minute podcast. And if you stop listening early, you may miss great stuff that came later in the show. Many people find this frustrating. Sometimes I find it frustrating, too.

However, the human voice can be incredibly powerful and effective – and sometimes this can offset the inconvenience of the time that listening requires. For me, this happens often enough that I keep finding podcasting a compelling medium, even though many individual shows or episodes don’t offer me much value. It’s the pearls that make it worthwhile.

Here are two such pearls I found yesterday…

Posted in Content Style & Business, Learning Online

My SEJ Workshop (audio)

Oct03
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

Here it is – audio from my standing-room-only workshop at the 2005 conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ).

LISTEN NOW! Right-click (or click and hold) that link to download the MP3 audio file. it’s about 17 MB and runs about one hour and 15 minutes long.
- Sorry, that link didn’t work when I first posted it. It’s fixed now.

Show notes…
READ MORE »

Posted in Amy's Adventures

Content Strategy for Weblogs: It\’s the Conversation, Stupid! (audio show)

Sep01
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

I’ve finally gotten around to preparing the audio I recorded from my Aug. 27 talk at the Da Vinci Institute’s excellent “Blogger Bootcamp” day-long seminar.

Here’s the audio from that talk:

LISTEN NOW! Right-click that link to download the MP3 audio file. It’s about 11 MB and runs about 48 minutes long.

Show notes…

Posted in Content Style & Business, Conversations

Yes, Podcasting Is Coming to Cell Phones

Aug31
2005 Written by Amy Gahran

When I talk about podcasting, people often ask me, “Is the audience for podcasting ever going to be substantial?”

Often I answer, “Do most people you know have cell phones?” Usually they nod enthusiastically. Then I explain how the coming generation of cell phones will include not only wireless internet connections, but MP3 players and tools for subscribing to, downloading, and storing podcasts.

Well, it’s happening…