Canuckflack

May I suggest a podcast Not one that arrives with any regularity, is informed by any editorial calendar or makes any effort to blather on about the benefits of social media?

No, I’m not talking about American Copywriter - but you should subscribe to that fantastic piece of work as well.

Instead, Stephen Fry seems to be applying his incredible range of interests and inspirations to a podcast - he’s up to episode 2 now. Here is his explanation why the podcast is only available on iTunes:

“… I am afraid that no host that we can find is capable of dealing with the 1 terabyte plus of traffic engendered without crashing. And so we turned to the might of Apple to help us out. The problem we always return to is bandwidth.

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. Who would not prefer to pootle along the country lanes in a flowered gypsy caravan, rather than blast down the motorway in a colossal juggernaut? Trouble is, when you’ve a certain number of deliveries to make a van just isn’t big enough. Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth.

I sound like a 30s schoolgirl with a lisp. Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. What is she saying? Something to do with sandwiches perhaps? Or bandits. Bandits eating sandwiches and wearing bandages? We’ll never know. …”

Fry has always wielded a wonderful vocabulary. Here are some excerpts from this one podcast:

• braying dukes and vomiting ladettes
• being designated fifty types of watery twat
• It’s lazy, easy and gives us a warm glow
• a great maggot in my brain
• this is not a Nick Hornby Man List
• my ability to froth, frolic and gibber in time to music

It’s well worth a listen, people.

Technorati Tags: Stephen Fry, American Copywriter, ladettes, british culture

“Aren’t you there to make sure the English language isn’t pissed on by your sub-editors? … Is it sinking into your thick skull, you high school dropout?” (SF Chronicle) 

The San Francisco Chronicle has begun to make selected voice mails from readers available as a podcast. The series is called Correct Me If I’m Wrong. (h/t to Romenesko)

This is quite original. The Chronicle is now reinterpreting materials produced as part of its everyday relationship with Chronicle readers, drawing upon now-conventional podcasting methods to generate additional media for Chron properties.

I wonder if callers are warned their recorded voice could be distributed online (I tried to check, but couldn’t find the “letters to the editor” phone number. Maybe it’s the Chron’s general exchange number.)

I’d argue, though, that most podcasters exercise some discretion when picking which comment or voice mail to replay - often dropping the rude, unintelligible or pedantic.

The Chron, on the other hand, tagged this first podcast under “Correct Me If I’m Wrong …” and “Comedy.”

I like it.

Technorati Tags: Correct Me If I’m Wrong, SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, letters to the editor

Could MP Garth Turner’s blogging habit have led to his suspension from the Conservative Party caucus? That’s one of the claims being made today - but it doesn’t jibe with his long-standing practice of speaking his mind. The blog was likely just one contributing factor.

“… [Conservative Party] Caucus chair Rahim Jaffer said Wednesday that Turner was suspended on recommendation of the party’s Ontario caucus. Jaffer said there were concerns regarding Turner, who has maintained a blog on his website since the federal election last January, over breeching caucus confidentiality.

“Go and read [the blog] and make up your own mind,” Turner said about the issue of caucus confidentiality.

At odds with party

Jaffer said Turner was also ousted in part for critical comments made about the party on the blog.” (CBC.CA)

Turner blogged about his suspension today - and has tallied 163 comments so far.

A taste from his blog, posted yesterday:

“…On the Hill, dudes, lock-ups are reserved for big news. They are also designed so that media flakes (are there any other kinds these days?) are forced to sit in a locked room for several hours reading actual documents, instead of just trolling for three-second sound bites. If it’s really important news, there are even sandwiches in there.” (garth.ca)

Speaking of synthesizing themes (see previous post), two new talks from TED 2004 are available for download as video and audio: Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Levitt.

I really think the WSJ’s piece on the new direction in BMW’s marketing campaign - “promoting a corporate culture of independence and innovation” - would have benefited from a discussion of BMW’s decision to sponsor the audio and video downloads of presentations at this spring’s TED conference.

After all, it’s not like several of the downloads have gone viral or anything.

Instead, they highlighted BMW’s involvement with a new PGA tournament. A good idea to target affluent boomers, but Buick, Cadillac or Toyota already have strong links with golf. What about focusing on the innovative aspects of their repositioning?

The WSJ article is subscription only, unfortunately.

If anything, David Kiley’s piece in BusinessWeek was more detailed.

Speedo’s enlisted Neville to produce the first in a series of podcasts featuring Olympic swimmers. As the father of two competitive swimmers, I can tell you they’ve nailed the format with this one. Interesting content, thumping bass-heavy intro music, it’s a podcast I’m loading onto my daughter’s iPod just in time for a meet this weekend.

My only suggestion for improvement may be the introduction of a second format: the current long-form traditional podcast for kids and adult swimmers with time and interest off the swim deck, and a more abrupt and motivational podcast for those moments between races on the deck.

This second format would break up the interview into shorter segments, interspersed with inspirational/deafening tunes. I’m thinking of something similar to the songs put together by Trek to build their Liquid brand of bikes.

It would serve as a motivational or “psych” podcast for swimmers killing time on the deck. Who knows, it could also be loaded with short video clips of important moments from the careers of Speedo’s Olympic swimmers.

The opportunity exists to reach out to a younger crowd - the ones I know drive purchasing behaviour at meets and throughout the season.

Voice. It’s a concept we normally associate with identity, opinion, the differentiation of personalities. Charlton Heston is the voice of authority. Dr. Ruth represents compassion. Will Rogers was your wise old uncle. Morton Downey Jr. was your crazy old uncle. David Leisure is your insincere cousin, ready to sell you a lemon and an extended warranty.

Today, it may be voice that keeps podcasting from being overtaken by the corporate training and outreach department. Is podcasting an opportunity to distribute repurposed content? Is it another vehicle for one-way communication? Is the podcast destined to become the medium of choice for, in effect, bootlegged academic presentations and the mutterings of beat columnists? There’s a battle developing between ideas and flair, between content and presentation, between spit and polish.

Obviously, voice is an essential part of podcasting. Rough, hesitant, noisy, easily distracted voice - as listeners we will tolerate ambiguity, trains of thought that miss the station and poor audio quality in the pursuit of original and incisive analysis. In some ways, we imply authenticity and authority from the unprofessional tics found in podcasts today.

Podcasters who came from the world of blogging understand this. They’re struggling with format issues: do they need intros and outros? Are professionally voiced interstitials necessary to keep the listener engaged? How do they handle audio comments to the podcast? What is the relationship between their podcast, their blog, and do the two actually align? Why must I sell my soul to the machine that is iTunes?

A column from Poynter made me pause, however. Chip Scanlon interviewed Tom Opdyke, the morning metro editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the narrator of the paper’s “Through Hell and High Water” series on the aftermath of Katrina.

Opdyke is both a journalist, a professional narrator/voiceover specialist and a dramatist. He discussed how he prepared for a dramatic spoken presentation of the AJC’s original printed word - not what I would consider an original podcast.

Scanlon characterized podcasts more bluntly, and more commercially. In the end, he also seems to have overlooked the value that podcasts can bring to a developing story: first, the capacity to deliver real voices from the scene, to share true emotion from an event’s actual participants. Second, the ability to reflect reader’s reaction. Third, and most importantly, an opportunity for a print medium to break out of its constrained frame of reference.

“For news consumers who like nothing better than a good listen, and for newspapers who desperately want to hold onto their business, podcasts offer a note of hope. Combining the power of audio with the freedom to choose when to tune in, podcasting — think of it as TiVo for the ears — they offer an alternative way for consumers to get their news and information on a schedule, through a medium of their choice.

In print newsrooms, where audio is limited to the quiet mumbles of reporters reading their stories, a new skill set is becoming increasingly necessary: The ability to voice a story with the same competence of a skilled broadcast journalist. ” (Poynter)

A skilled broadcast journalist, as well all know, does not hold much currency with the digerati anymore. Scripted news is as scripted news does.

I’d like to see news outlets make a dedicated effort to developing a real dialogue with the readers - and not just the eight guys who write to the op/ed section three times a week. A “community advisory board” doesn’t cut it either.

I’m probably not giving Scanlon enough benefit of the doubt. He’s a blogger, and he has discussed the reader reaction that can be generated by effective spoken presentation of articles.

But where’s the connection for other readers? How can we tell that a story has resonated with others? In some ways, I feel like this sort of podcast should be delivered in RealPlayer: they represent the same sort of thinking about control, presentation and risk avoidance that we first saw in 1997 and 1998.

The Prime Minister of Canada is podcasting, after a fashion, as Joe points out. This puts our Conservative government out ahead of its peers in Old Blighty, who have only made one attempt in the format. It was a funny and imaginative attempt, however.

In June, comedian Eddie Izzard accompanied PM Blair on a trip to the European Council meeting in Brussels. His ersatz podcast is missing the formal professional elements Joe suggests are necessary in a Prime Ministerial podcast (summary, professional intro, formal host), but it does attempt to cast an amusing light on the complexities of the UK’s relationship with the European Union (hint: many Brits don’t understand it).

Neville and Stuart first had comments on Izzard’s podcast. I have to agree with Neville that the attempt didn’t come across as a stellar piece of public information or public policy analysis, but it is one of several steps taken by the government to make information about the EU more accessible to the average Briton.

More impressive is the effort of the US Embassy in London to move its public diplomacy efforts into podcasting. There are now 18 podcasts available on differing themes, issued quite regularly. The material may be skewed towards US interests (naturally) but it does make public the work of accredited and visiting US officials in the UK.

(Back during the Canadian election, mynameisKate discussed the social media initiatives of the Conservative Party of Canada in greater detail at onedegree.ca)

As agencies and consultants rush to establish their online bona fides and publicize their new social media practices, some cautionary words about the behaviour that undermined previous management fads - and the consultancies that tried to capitalize upon them. A study of the 1990s hype behind TQM reveals that inexperienced and bombastic consultants drove experimentation and implementation in the field, but eventually abandoned the specialty, to be replaced by the technical and management experts that had originally championed the idea.

Fifteen years ago, these management fad “fashion surfers” wore power suits, sometimes had a preference for tasselled loafers, carried a Filofax and had never heard of flavoured vodka. They can’t be as easily identified nowadays. Maybe t-shirts from Threadless under the Banana Republic shirts? Suits from H&M? Two MacBooks (white and black) in their carry-on?

What’s certain is that a basic knowledge of design, information management and CSS has never before been leveraged as quickly and as widely. And with as much targeted online promotional copy. In 1995, the competence of your team was demonstrated by the sales of your business book. Today, by the size of your download. (A hint: the more pictures and graphs, the better)

Coverage today in the WSJ, but more details are available from the Academy of Management news release.

” … As a new management approach gains in popularity, large numbers of generalist consultants, expert at recognizing burgeoning opportunities, jump in to advise firms on implementing the new method, even though these generalists may have little knowledge of its intricacies.

This influx of “fashion surfers,” as one scholar called them, produces many program failures, and the practice that not long before was widely viewed as a virtual panacea gets a bad name. This in turn results in diminished demand, and consultation about the practice becomes mainly the province of experts and specialists, much as it was before the boom set in.

In the words of the study’s authors, Robert J. David of McGill University and David Strang of Cornell University, “These supply-side dynamics…help explain why fashion booms are so fragile.” They also “suggest that fashionable practices can return to their technical roots once the hype is over.” (AOM news release)

There’s the rub for actual bloggers, podcasters and online innovators: if you continue to build expertise in the field, your practice will likely survive.

Original pointer from Business Innovation Insider.

Technorati: hype fad

Ricky Gervais may very well be the first true crossover MSM star.

His record-breaking series of podcasts sponsored by Guardian Unlimited is coming to an end, and he has let slip that a further series of the show will be available on iTunes and Audible - at $6.95 for “at least four episodes”.

After all, co-stars Ricky and Steve are famous, and Karl Pilkington needs the money. Not a lot - he just needs “something more than nothing.”

The Guinness Book of World Records came round last week to take the trio’s pictures. Makes sense, since their podcasts averaged over 250,000 downloads a week DURING THEIR FIRST MONTH.

Still, at that price it’ll be interesting to see by how large a proportion his listener numbers will drop.

I continue to be shocked at how backward North America remains when it comes to ancillary revenues for artists. In Britain, the BBC has struck a royalty deal with the Writers’ Guild for ring tones or voice clips delivered to mobile phones served by Orange.

5.6% of the sales price (which can go up to 3.5 pounds) will be hived off for the artists - which means Gervais stands to make up to 15p for each sale of clips from his work on “The Office.”

Well, if Michele Rahal is pushing the podcast of Race Day on Fox - even if he can’t quite explain how the process works - then the technology really has hit the mainstream.

I mean, a fifty year-old former racecar driver (and experienced marketer), pushing podcasting to an audience of race fans?

And I don’t mean the usual suspects cleanly edited by business-minded professionals: I mean the quirky and the amusing, the slightly odd and the informative. Something that stretches your normal listening habits.

Being old enough to remember a time before the ‘net (the 80s), I’ve developed two strategies for finding new and interesting radio programming:

The Random Radio Dial: For some reason, I am frequently awake at 4 or 5 in the morning. If the sky is clear and distant weather patterns are relatively stable, I can pick up distant radio stations on my AM dial. That means hours listening to Curtis and Kuby on WABC, Todd Wright AllNight on ESPN Chicago, even the monotonous WSB newsradio in Atlanta.

This strategy has some fundamental weaknesses, however. You can break the knob on the radio trying to dial in a long distance mono broadcast. The quality of AM radio today is a real damper as well. Why do all newscasters sound like they graduated from the Generic MidWestern White Guy School of Broadcasting, and why are they all reading the same AP morning hilites package? Also, relying on solar flares and rain patterns in the Carolinas is no way to program your audio habits.

The University/College Radio Station: The low power solution to the media oligopoly choking local radio markets. Sure, if you live more than ten blocks from campus, you may have to extend your radio antenna - out onto the roof and down the rain gutter. Then there are the endless requests for “listener support” and more volunteer help.

Oh - and the hosts are uniformly loopy. They may be experts in their field, but they drink coffee between sentences, make impromptu decisions to play the entire B side of Zappa’s Sheik Yerbouti to cover a run to McDonald’s - and then eat their Big Mac while conducting a phone interview with an agricultural reform activist speaking from a payphone in Poughkeepsie.

And who has the time to continually mark up the broadcast schedule (printed on thin newsprint in the back of the local alternative monthly) to reflect all the guest hosts, schedule changes, show cancellations (after one too many lengthy and beer-induced dead air episodes) and special benefit concerts?

Trying to reproduce this random subscription pattern has taxed my ipodder software - and transferred about 300 meg of lame programming to my hard drive. Thankfully, the pool of podcasts is still shallow enough that a tiptoe through Google is all it really takes - for now.