The Professor's Notes

In this podcast, I interview Chris Brogan, one of the original creators of the first PodCamp in Boston. We talked about how podcasting works, and what our favorite podcasts are. In fact, we both have enjoyed Teaching for the Future with Dave LaMorte. Chris mentions the “Something to be Desired” online TV show produced in Piitsburgh, and politely gives a plug for The Father Son Chats.

We talk about Chris’ social media group, Grasshoppers that is there to answer the question “How can I be helpful?”

How can podcasting be useful for students, or educators? We talk about that as well.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I mentioned that I enjoyed the presentation by Alex. After his presentation, he asked if he could interview me about my experiences at PodCamp as part of his documenting the weekend. I, of course, agreed!

Go watch it at Alex’s Site!

Enjoy, and be sure to visit his site for other interviews from the weekend.

Yes! Old media coverage of the New Media! (Well, they covered it in print–and used their own new media to post it on their websites!)

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (This one includes a cool photo of Chris Brogan, and Andrew)

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette

After lunch (Pizza… and good pizza at that) the local PixelCorps representative Alex Landefeld led a discussion…

What is Pixel Corps?

pixel Corps is a community of video and audio producers, helping each other, and working together to collaborate in not only training and education but also the practical aspects of production and even with jobs!

Generally, the discussion centered around how Pixel Corps works with digital effects, to include greenscreening and rotoscoping.  As an example, they talked about Ryan vs Dorkman (a grassroots video with light saber effects.)

Tommy Vallier from Talkshoe is giving a presentation on how to get started with TalkShoe.

What is TalkShoe? Enables anyone to create, join or listen to LIVE, Interactive, podcasts… (and is a local Pittsburgh PA Company!) For those that listen to the most popular podcaster today (Leo Laporte) he uses this for many of his podcasts, most noteably, Net@Night with Amber McArthur.

• Podcast
• live audio streaming
• live chat
• takes CALLS

Who is using TalkShoe? Talkcasters. I mentioned Leo and Net@Night (id 3185), but also

• Geeza (live commentary DVD viewing… Wow!) (talkshoe ID 8230)
• Scott and Kris – The Power Hour, they are comics writers (talkshoe id 5809)
• Bill Alexander – The NETIO Show (id 1832) He broadcasted last night at the restaurant!
• Cliff Ravenscraft – GSPN.tv (is 5138)
• Adam Christianson – The Maccast (id 17436)
• The Grasshoppers (id 43023) Chris Brogan runs this one! People helping people! How cool!)
• Tech Podcasts Roundtable (id 3254)

So why do TalkShoe he asks?

• Connect with audience
• Format change
• meet people with common interests (miniatures? Doll Houses?)
• form friendships
• content that lasts
• build communities
• have fun!

HOW do we do this?

• Sign up (user ID, Pin, and install the software)
• Click “Create” button…
• Call In to the show…
  • With Skype (using skypeOut)
  • VOIP (SJ Phone, Gizmo Project)
  • ShoePhone (Talkshoe’s built in VOIP)
  • POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service!)
• Click on Record.

It’s that simple.

How much does it cost?

$0.00 (And that is in Canadian dollars… the conversion to Euros is… 0.00)

In FACT they PAY you–$50 for the first 10 episodes, and pay per download after that. How cool is THAT?

NEXT RELEASE: Codename: “Tokyo” ETA 10 Sept 07

===================================

How cool is this? My son and I are thinking it might be a great way to make our football conversations a bit more interactive, and get more people involved. Really helps us connect with the audience. That CAN’T be a bad thing!

How can I use this in education? Imagine a “virtual study group” hosted through podcast–where students can call in and ask questions, and the professor can answer.

How about a call in show to leaders in Supply Chain? Wouldn’t you love a chance to pick the brains of the movers in logistics and supply chain?

Again, how cool…

Great discussion about hosting, backing up data, and who is and is not a good service provider.

Points of Interest:

• WordPress is great
• PodPress is a great add in for WordPress (we use both of those here.)
• I mentioned 1and1.com as our provider, but some people have had customer service issues

More later

The first session was with Chris Brogan, the original creator of the first PodCamp in Boston. He talked about tips for presenting.

My favorite points?

• Big Pictures, few Words
• The presentation is about You, and the Audience
• It’s NOT the slides/deck
• PowerPoint is NOT MS WORD

Oh, and one more thing–while he is from Boston, he is a big PENN STATE FAN! And he would love a PSU t-shirt, for those that want to send him one!

It’s started, and we are here! (and it’s going LIVE today!) My Son and I arrived last evening to the optional “mixer” and got a chance to meet many of the podcasters here in Pittsburgh, but in addition, we met photoshop experts, other media creators, bloggers, vloggers, and the general digital community from Pittsburgh.

My son got to meet others who are interested in many of the same things he is (football, photoshop, and podcasting) and is enjoying sharing about our blog and what we are doing.

I think we may even take the Zoom H4 with us and record some conversations with other podcasters. Stick around, you might here something you like!

If you get a chance, visit their site, join the virtual camp, and if you are from Pittsburgh, COME ON DOWN!

Thanks go to the folks at the applephoneshow.com for a great find! I have been asked if I know of a program that would convert text files, or better yet PDF files, to speech. Unfortunately, my answer was always “no.”

Until today.

While perusing the latest musings of the iPhone Fanboys/girls, I came across this post. It provided the link that I had been waiting for! At nextup.com you can download “TextAloud,” a windows program that will not only read text files to you, but can also save them as either wav files or mp3 files. Just think–you can now take your articles with you and listen to them while doing those other routine parts of life that take so much time away.

I have already downloaded the demo version, and tested it out. I find it to be a rather quick conversion (but not instantaneous–hey, this is tough work!) and there are several options that allow the user to configure the playback in a way that fits how they would want to listen. For instance, you can configure the time for the program to pause between sentences, and paragraphs. You can select from two voices (male and female) in the demo version, and once purchased, have the option for other (apparently “better”) voices.

So how do I envision using this?

• Listen to academic articles during my long drives
• Provide audio versions of my own articles for students, available as podcasts
• convert quotes from documents for reference during my podcasts so listeners don’t have to listen to my voice

So, dear readers, how do you think YOU might use this?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download