Podcasting Ideas

One of many things that came out of SXSW was that I should consider exploring the world of the podcasting.

It’s not something I’ve done before, mainly because I’m not a big listener of podcasts. I had concluded, as has my colleague Tom Scotney, that there was limited value in listening to an entire podcast on the off-chance that some of the content was worthwhile. Better to have text and scan through it, I thought.

But, since then, I’ve changed my mind somewhat. One reason is because I had forgotten that I am an avid listener to BBC Radio 4. Now, when I switch on Radio 4 I have no idea what I am going to be listening to, but I enjoy it because I know it will be pretty good quality. Why could this not apply to podcasts?

Secondly, I don’t have an iPod (I seriously want one!) – so I don’t download podcasts to listen to later, I have to listen to them pretty much then and there, or play them on my computer when I’m working (and not paying attention).

Thirdly, most of the podcasts I’ve come across don’t provide a detailed summary that would allow me to judge whether I wanted to listen or not. But this may have been resolved by Stef Lewandowski who has suggested using Viddler to annotate different parts of the podcast, as Dave Seah has done with his SXSW video.  This, combined with some form of executive summary, could make it easier to see “at a glance” whether the podcast is for you.

And the final reason I want to podcast is… people have told me to! There was a general consensus at SXSW that it would be a good way to ease myself into other forms of communicating over the web and I’m enthusiastic to give it a go.

For my journo-type work I have me a little Olympus WS-300M and, I have been told, that it would do the job for recording podcasts.  But I think I would need a microphone. The thing is, if I’m interviewing people would I want to have them on a clip mic, or would it be better to have a multidirectional mic so that it’s easier to hear me asking the questions. If so, I’d want something that didn’t pick up too much background noise.

As for my first podcast, well I haven’t asked anyone yet but I think it might be nice to interview some of the journalists at The Birmingham Post about how the move to digital has changed their working practices in recent years and how they think it will develop in the future. This would give me practice at interviewing, would have relevance to the sort of thing I blog about and might work as a slice of mass observational history. Thoughts?

Shuffleboard, beer, and breaking me in to SXSW

Deciding that there was no time to lose, three hardcore SXSWM-ers (Stef, Dom and myself) decided to hit the streets of Austin to see if we could hook up with fellow conference goers.

The place to be, apparently, is 6th Street…which is Austin’s version of Broad Street without the short skirts and bunny ears.

Our trip out didn’t start too well – I’m still trying to get to grips with the Nokia N95 and missed a few tweets about the various parties that were going on.

So we decided to walk 6th Street until we saw somewhere that looked interesting. We found Buffalo Billiards (the Nation’s best new pool hall, 1999), which after we blagged our way in without our SXSW entry passes, we found was hosting the first night party for SXSW Film. Free beer, darts, pool and shuffleboard – a fantastic game which I am average at (and that is good for me).

Thanks to Joe who we met at the bar for teaching us the rules and letting us beat him.

We met a couple of people in the film industry – mostly indies – and Stef hooked up with a friend from Google. Dom and I had an interesting chat about the future of newspapers – he has seen an article that points to news only being supportable through not-for-profit ventures in future. It’s an interesting idea – one that has crossed my mind as competition for advertising revenue appears to be increasing.

So, considering we had no idea how to spend the evening, I think we did pretty well.

Roll on tomorrow and official registration.

SXSWi… it all starts from here.

Wow! Well this has been a strange 48 hours.

Quick catch-up:

Having raced around London on Thursday evening to pick up a Nokia N95 to use in SXSW, I hot-footed it to the Media Guardian Awards with Stef and Pete who were picking up an award for Created in Birmingham.

Those who follow the above pair’s Twitter streams will know the evening was… well… eventful. Pete and Stef will have more to say on this than I as, I’m ashamed to say, I missed witnessing Pete’s “Jarvis Cocker” moment. But, considering how disappointed all the nominees from the blogging category were about their lack of recognition at the awards (and how much free alcohol was flowing), I suspect someone was going to do something.

Then, after an hour’s sleep in a Travel Inn, we trudged bleary eyed (and sore of head) over to Gatwick for the flight to Houston, Texas. Quick change in Houston onto a flight to Austin (including a very nice chat with the immigration officer who was amused when I defined my profession as “being a geek” – he even told me a Star Trek joke).

Nowwe’re in the Fairfield Inn, Austin which has free wifi (why can’t UK hotels do this?!) and waiting for the other three SXSWM-ers to arrive.

Here are the obligatory shots of the view from my room:

and…

Stef, being the dynamic and frankly enviably capable person that he is, has already organised for the SXSWM-ers to meet a fantastic array of people here, including Phil Campbell, the guys from Viddler and Shawn Morton from Profilactic. I am so excited about this!

Right, got less than ten minutes to grab a shower before we’re off to check out the parties. Remember to visit the SXSWM website to tell us what to do. And, if you’re in Austin – get in touch!

Help! I’m going to SXSW!

I’ve been putting off this blog post, due to the fact that what I am about to do is simultaneously awesome and terrifying!

I am one of the lucky, lucky West Midland digital media bods to be going to the SXSW Interactive festivial in Austin, Texas. We fly out this Friday and I know it’s going to be brilliant!

The group of five six, all covering different sections of the West Midland media industry, are going courtesy of Digital Central. The thinking behind the project is explained more in depth by Stef Lewandowski, who also went it SXSWi last year.

I’m looking forward to it (does it show?) but I can’t do it without you. This thing is SO BIG, I don’t know what to see, where to go, or what parties to drink at to make the most of my time there! So if you are someone with a passing interest in the future of journalism on the web (and I suspect if you’re reading this blog then you are), then I beg of you: Pop over to www.sxswm.com (where all of us will be streaming our feeds over the next week) and ask me to do stuff!

I will, of course, be tweeting the whole affair like a good’un and blogging too. I might even try a few other communication channels (if plans to get my mitts on a Nokia N95 pay off). One way of another, if you ask me to do something, I will feed back to you about it. So please, check out SXSWM and send me to some good stuff.

Answers: Trevor Beattie

Well! That was a treat!

The title of Trevor’s talk for the evening as “What is the Big Idea?”. His answer? In advertising there is no big idea, just lots of little ideas that can contribute to a big idea.

It was a talk full of laughs and interesting takes on the advertising industry. It felt like a collection of some of his favourite pictures and videos that he had put together into a presentation while on the train up from London (which he claimed it was).

I’d been warned that he might be a difficult person to interview, but he was warm, lively, open and unprententious. I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a fiery Irish temper under it all somewhere, but I saw none of it.

I’ve got to save the bulk of what he said for a article for The Post next week. But Stef (who seems to be in a pre-emptive mood) has posted a summary of the answer to his question here and below are answers to the other questions.

But first, a special mention for Jon Bounds and Birmingham: It’s Not Shit, which – unprompted – Trevor bought up during the interview.

He got introduced to the site by another guy from Birmingham who works at his agency BMB and he thinks it’s a great site! He knows all about why it was set up (failed Capital of Culture bid which Trevor worked on). He is a regular reader and a very proud Brummie.

Bounder’s Answer:

“Of course you can advertise a city, don’t be daft. That’s a silly thing to say. Next question!

“But seriously, you can, but its not up to me to do it – it’s up to everyone and we have to be more arrogant about Birmingham. I can keep shouting the message, but everyone else needs to be doing it too.”

Prem1um’s Answer: I’m afraid I got your question a bit mixed up and asked for the first four, which were: balti, race, humour and Balsall Heath (where he was born).

“I am very proud of Balsall Heath – 56 Brighton Road was where I grew up. Everyone in my business knows where I come from.

“All these cities that talk about multiculturalism. Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool – they’re not multicultural. London is now, but Birmingham invented it.

“When I was growing up in Balsall Heath in the 1970s it was just the way it was. On my road there was my family of Irish Brummies, then next door there was Halal butcher Brummie, across the road there were Jamaican Brummies and a bit further down there was some Pakistani Brummies. That’s how I grew up.”