Tag: blogsndogs

This post has snowballed a bit over the past week, so its kinda like a podcasting mish mash now. The latest news is the arrival of my new gear, which I will be using for a couple of upcoming projects in ’06. I searched around alot to find the right setup at the right price, but settled for getting what could be easily shipped into this country, and took paypal. The Classroom Studio Bundle from M-Audio, (so legitimately named) is a perfect solution for me, by far outdoing what I thought I was going to be able to afford. It is unusual that the product bundle is no longer listed on their website. I used Bart’s article at the PeachPit as my main source source of information. I tried others, but always came back to his high recomendation for the mobile-pre usb. Hopefully it works out for me.

This will be my last post referring to the BlogsnDogs conference I attended. Sweet memories of ice, snow, blogs and dog shit are still fresh in my mind. I put together a page of feeds and my brief notes on a wiki page. Although podcasting has been on the radar for awhile now, this conference was my first experience seeing it up close and in person, asnd in the hands of veterans in the medium, it was quite impressive. Kris and Roland are particularly active in this area, and set up their portable studio, or whip out their mic’s at a moments notice. Their mixer setup allows for many people to participate in the production which is nice, and the one thing I will not be able to do.

Now for the rant. Why podcasting? Can’t we call it something else? I mean, essentially its an audio blog. In the case of video ,the term ‘vlog‘ is being promoted not videocasting. I know ‘alog’ is not going to work but lets think about it a bit ok? I also loooathe the reference to ‘ipods’. (even tho you will have to tear my shuffle from my cold dead hand) Obviously people can listen to them on an ipod, but honestly, they really have nothing to do with it, except they play audio. I will be trying to think about it and make some actual suggestions instead of just whining about it, but I just really think it should change. Any ideas?
(I’ll soon be opening up comments to make feedback less painful)

Apparently everyone and everything will soon be as findable as an”I’m feeling lucky” link on google, or so says peter m., the author of ambient findability. I have not been able to the put this book down, I must have read it 2 or 3 times already in the past two weeks. It brings together so many of the topics and trends I have been tracking as part of my graduate research. It’s been out for a couple of months now (damned if I know why it took ME so long to find it) so I will post a few links to some exerpts (A.L.A.) and interviews (boxes & arrows, business week,)that I thought added some insight. (all came up in the first google search). Yesterday, David W. noted that the bibliography has been indexed in delicious by Livia L. making the references for the book all findable from one place, a tag. sweet.

The only problem with the book as far as I can tell is that its totally not true. One of many examples. I was away last week at a stellar conference in Banff, and I was hoping to take some time to hook up with my old school chum Jeff Macleod. He used to work at Burntsand in Calgary, but I heard rumours he may have moved over to RedDot or something. Anyway, our relationship, like so many, was close but infrequent. We HAD managed to stay in touch though for the past 15 years, even if we only spoke once every couple of years. So, I cant find his number anymore, and fire off a few emails to the last known email addy at burntsand. no reply. I go to the company websites to see if he is still listed, nothing there. Thats when the googling kicks in, and I figure this guy will be easy peasy to find, as he is in the tech biz and all, buuut his name unfortunately is a little too common and there is some hockey player that dominates the results. So I try 411, and call every J. macleod in the book. I get a tip from the conference to use zoominfo and still, nothing! Where are you Jeff Macleod?

Hopefully this post will somehow find him instead, and we can be reunited, cause if he IS still living in Cowtown he has become completely UNFINDABLE. peace.

The third and final day of dogsnblogs, and there is no slowing down. I have posted a wiki page trying to gather as many of the feeds together as possible, as well as some quick notes of the presentations as I have taken them. I’ll be trying to flesh that out for the last post. Overall, this workshop has been exceptional. The talented faculty really know what they are talking about, and clearly live and breath this stuff. Today, Darren and Lee did a great presentation on communities, summing up alot of the issues in terms of private sector online community design (read. NOT ‘community of practice’). Lee highlights some key points; strategy as in have one, culture as in a common purpose, people as in who its about, means as in to an end, and service as in that is what you are providing. I got to ask him later about that, “of practice” part of community,and it didnt make much sense to him either. But then, he is in the business of bringing people together online, not contemplating bringing them together.

He made a great post awhile back on the difference between message boards and weblogs that deserves a link.

The latest project for him and his partner Sachi, is a travel website documenting their next year as they tour the better part of the world! You can check on their progress, and share any travel experiences you care to. They are heading out in just a few short days. Good luck guys, we’ll be watching. =>