To keep the media conference posts rolling. . . I learned from Steve Garfield’s blog that BU is hosting a two-day podcasting conference on April 28 & 29.
Here’s the blurb:
“The Podcast Academy at Boston University is an opportunity to learn about this new mode of communication, with growth so explosive, that Podcast was selected as the word of the year!
The Podcast Academy will provide guidance on how to create, distribute and use podcasts. The Academy schedule offers basic “how to” classes for beginners as well as advanced classes for more seasoned professionals. Expert instructors will explain the mechanics of creating podcasts, getting and using the right equipment, coming up with a style for your podcast and then distributing it to the right audience.”
“We launched the Podcast Academy at the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference on Friday, November 11, 2005. Nearly 100 students attended from around the world. We’re releasing the audio recordings from this event over the next few weeks. The classes published so far are listed below.”
Ourmedia is looking for volunteers to help expand its new Digital Media Learning Center online.
Ourmedia writes, “In the coming months we’ll be building out a rich, up-to-date educational resource for everything you wanted to know about personal media. See below for some preliminary topics.
Please volunteer to help the project become more robust. Experts, educators, amateurs and others have agreed to contribute to this democratic knowledge database. All contributions will be shared under a Creative Commons license, and we hope that other sites will republish bits and pieces of this project.
We encourage video and audio submissions as well as text.
Here is an initial list of topics we’ll be tackling. Let us know if you’d like to contribute to an entry, or if you’d like to become a topic editor.”
Other topics include, “Oral histories”, “Digital animation & graphics”, “Games”, “The law and grassroots media”, “Marketing & distribution solutions”, “Free content repositories”, and “Education and training”.
Looks like a great online resource for all your media making needs and a great way to volunteer and contribute resources to the site. Check it out here.
Just checked the mediageek blog and learned that this year’s Allied Media Conference website is up and registration is open. I wish I had gone to last year’s conference, but instead ended up missing my college graduation to go to the Free Press conference.
Here’s the blurb from the AMC site:
“How can alternative media go beyond merely “speaking truth” and actually change the material conditions of our world? How do we construct popular media projects that effectively build grassroots power and advance social justice?
The Allied Media Conference 2006 will bring together some of the most innovative and visionary culture producers, media workers, artists and activists to probe these and other critical questions. Together, we will share skills and ideas and build new networks for action and support. With our tremendous collective skill, ingenuity, and vision, we can use media to build new forms of popular power for the 21st century.”There’s a day long “Symposium on Media Literacy in Education” and highlights from past AMC conferences.
On this year’s AMC conference mediageek writes, “last year I facilitated a session on blogging that I enjoyed and think went well. This year I think I’ll propose a similar session, but with an emphasis on aggregating more wisdom from bloggers about how to make this medium worth the time and effort. I’d also like to add podcasting to the mix.
I’m still mulling the possibilities–I’ve got until March 15 to decide. Your feedback is welcome.”
Lots of great conferences this summer, now I have to figure out which ones I can go to!
Registration is open for the Media Giraffe Conference at UMass Amherst June 29 - July 1. The purpose is to “unite media, political, education, technology sectors in charting the future of journalism”. I’ll be running one of the workshops for the “Educating Smart Media Consumers/Creators” Track titled “Morphing from music: iPods enter the classroom”. Here’s the workshop description:
“The how’s and why’s of sending downloadable audio files over the Internet — how is this being adopted by educators? How can a Internet news operations serve the need for classroom-ready podcasting material? Workshop leaders: Colin Rhinesmith, Action
Coalition for Media Education, Boston chapter (www.acmeboston.org)”
The overview of the conference from the Media Giraffe site:
“Hundreds of traditional and citizen journalists, political strategists, educators, bloggers, developers, technology and media researchers will convene June 29-July 1, 2006 at University of Massachusetts Amherst for the first Media Giraffe Project conference. The Media Giraffe Project, a non-partisan, interdisplinary research effort of the UMass journalism program, is hosting the roundtable summit and how-to sessions designed to:
Consider and recommend answers to changes to the financing and practice of journalism
Bridge the gap between new and traditional media
Show and consider the impact of new media technologies on journalism and the “public sphere”
Spotlight emerging business models
Create new networks of media innovators which bridge traditional carriers among journalism, education, politics and technology.
Constituencies from mainstream and alternative media rarely meet together, and when they do it is too often as adversaries. Yet new technologies are currently upending and interweaving the practice of journalism, politics and teaching.
“Democracy and Independence” — the first Media Giraffe Project Conference — is the crossover meeting place for leading thinkers on the impact of the Internet on media, education and politics — and the place to celebrate ‘above-the-crowd’ innovation.
To accomodate attendees from citizen journalism, media, politics, education and technology, a five-track event is scheduled, starting with a limited-enrollment roundtable summit, followed by a four-track conference.”
Visit the conference website for program, lodging and travel details, online registration and to download a printable program schedule.
“I enjoyed being surrounded by people excited to be sharing what they’re fighting for on a daily basis. It made me think about media as more than just a cool thing to teach people and more and more as a tool for giving a voice to a local community’s concerns and triumphs.”
On this episode of the ACMEBoston Podcast, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America speaks with local independent radio host John Grebe about current bills in Congress affecting the future of Public Access Television and the Internet.
We also hear from Jason Crow, Access Coordinator of Cambridge Community Television and Michael Eisenmenger of Manhattan Neighborhood Network about how pending legislation in Congress takes away local control of media and places more power in the hands of Big Cable and Telephone companies.
Click here to listen to the ACMEBoston Podcast for February 11, 2006.
Also discussed is the issue of Network Neutrality which Free Press, the national media reform organization, describes as “the guiding principle of the Internet that fosters open competition and innovation, while preserving the independence and accessibility of the World Wide Web” - Free Press, Net Freedom Now.
To take a closer look at these issues, we hear John Grebe’s interview from his program, “Sounds of Dissent” broadcast live on February 11, 2006. “Sounds of Dissent” on WZBC 90.3 FM in Newton, MA, covers current news and voices not often heard in the mainstream media.
In the fourth podcast of the Foo Casts series, “Pioneer Podcasters Share Insider Tips” from The O’Reilly Network, Jack Harrington, author of Podcasting Hacks speaks with Doug Kaye of ITConversations and James Polanco producer and founder of “Fake Science” about about different microphones choices and what to avoid when recording your podcast.
They talk about ribbon microphones and their advantages and limitations, including the fact that ribbons are extremely delicate microphones. What they failed to mention, however, is if you choose to use a ribbon mic you have to make sure that you DO NOT use phantom power (+48 volts). This can blow the ribbon and destroy your microphone.
Jack next asks the pros, “What’s the biggest audio error that a lot of people make and how to fix it?”
Doug Kaye lists his top three no-no’s:
#1 When your mic is too far from the speaker
#2 Bad levels
#3 Changing your tape in the middle of a recording
James Palonco adds that noise hums and bad editing can also ruin a recording, a pointer also mentioned by David Kaye in one of the ealier episodes.
Foo Casts from The O’Reilly Network has a terrific four part series titled “Pioneer Podcasters Share Insider Tips” on how to produce a better podcast. In this series, Jack Harrington, author of Podcasting Hacks speaks with Doug Kaye of ITConversations and James Polanco producer and founder of “Fake Science”.
For a good starter mic,, that will cost you around $100, they recommend either a Shure SM57 or a Behringer B1. They also talk about different compressors, equalizers, mixing boards, noise gates, equalizers, and other (both analog and digital) audio tools that can help you to cut down on unwanted room noise when recording your podcast.
Doug Kaye uses an Aphex Compellor, which he describes as “a combination of a leveler and a compressor” good for cutting out room noise that can include the sound of your computer’s fan.
They also mention the importance of pre-production engineering, (i.e., planning the right microphone to use, how to get a high-quality recording, etc.) that can help save time in the editing and mixing phases of your podcast production.
In this episode the pros discuss different audio to digital interfaces to use for bringing your analog audio recording into your computer.
They also talk about running your audio through different mixing boards, including ones made by Mackie and Alesis. Once your audio is recorded into your computer, they recommend a variety of digital prouciton applications including SoundForge, N-Track Studio (Windows), and Audacity (for Mac).
In the third episode, different editing tricks are discussed that can help you to create a smoother sounding prodcast. Kaye talks about “being careful not to over edit”. Over editing can “take the soul out of the person talking”, so he says “keep it to a minimum”.
Kaye also recommends, a really important point, when making a cut to your waveform make sure you cut right before the start of the syllable. This is a trick that I always use that involves zooming in very close to the start of the syllable’s waveform and making the cut. This can reduce awkward, unnatural spacing and sounds within a person’s phrase or sentence.
They also talk about microphone recording techniques including being aware of different microphone pick-up patterns and being careful to pay attention to the distance of your speaker to your microphone. Omni-directional microphones are good for picking up ambient room sounds (or groups of speakers) and cardiod mics are more often used for directional recording, or recording single speakers.
This series is a really great overview of how to get started with recording and podcasting and doesn’t take a lot of time to listen to. I’m looking forward to hearing the fourth-part in the series.
Holmes talked about how “Internet video making it easier for people to express themselves visually” using apps like DTV.
Broadcast machine is great for publishing video because it creates an RSS feed for sharing people’s videos. It can also stream Bit Torrent video that allows people to watch very large files without waiting long periods to download.
DTV is desktop app, written in python, that makes it easy to watch RSS channels. The Channels are organized by category, which Holmes said was “modeled on the iTunes Music Store“.
I was excited to see that DTV comes installed with a Media Rights pre-installed Channel. As you download new videos through DTV they appear next to the “New Videos” button. You can also watch DTV videos in full screen mode.
Video Bomb is a new application PCF is developing that Holmes described as “something like del.icio.us for video”.
How to use DTV
If you have a website and want to broadcast your channel, first upload the DTV install package to your site. Next use your admin base to create a Channel to which you can post your videos. When you submit your Channel to the DTV guide your videos will then show up in the DTV channel guide.
Holmes said that an easy way to use DTV to broadcast your Channel is to upload your videos to a site like Our Media which will create an RSS feed for your videos. Then you can take the Our Media RSS feed for your videos and subscribe to the feed and view it through DTV.
Broadcast Machine also allows people to make a password protected feed, which Holmes said could also let people make money off their Channels by having visitors subscribe and pay for access to their Channels.
Organizational Background
When asked about how Participatory Culture Foundation got started, Holmes described that “a few them had been working together on copyright and the music industry’s all downhill battle”. Their interest in copyright and the music industry got them familiar with Bit Torrent and RSS, as “good investments” for social activists. PCF started about a year ago.
Broadcast Machine now has over 100 channels, with over 10,000 downloads.
DTV: Participatory Media, Education, and Society
There are also a few channels on DTV that are doing screen casts which can instruct people about, for example, how to do something on a computer. This concept then lead to a discussion about how new media applications like DTV allows people to provide online educational and medical teaching tools. Teachers are sharing educational channels online and are work collaboratively through new media tools like DTV.
The evening’s discussion encouraged critical thinking and raised some important questions about how individuals and groups have and will continue to harness the power of participatory media for positive social change.
To keep the media conference posts rolling. . . I learned from Steve Garfield’s blog that BU is hosting a two-day podcasting conference on April 28 & 29.
Just checked the mediageek 
Registration is open for the Media Giraffe 
Steve Garfield of 
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In the fourth podcast of the 
Holmes Wilson from the 