[Sussex] A SLUG Podcast - Another Way to Promote the Club

[Steve Dobson]

Nik

On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 09:12:43PM +0100, Nicholas Butler wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-10-04 at 17:22 +0100, Steve Dobson wrote:
> > Last week Nik showed me some of the podcasts that he downloaded.  I knew
> id like to go on the record as saying that im not responsible for
> everything ... those podcasts were just something I accidentally clicked
> on and I didnt know that they contained that sort of content.. really I
> was shocked !

Is that Teflon I see on your shoulders? :-)

> Anyway ... im not sure the video content could be categorised as Podcast
> but it does begin to show a trend in IP TV... but I digress

If TV is just radio with picture why can't podcasts include video too?

> ive snipped the long post and can break it down in to the basic "hey
> everybody lets go make a play"

Doing anything takes a plan - even if the plan is to have no plan?!?!
I don't want to plan the thing to death, but I do want a plan.  Some
idea of what we want to do and a basic idea of the steps needed to do
it.

If we're going to tell people how to install Knoppix then just "doing
it" will not help anyone.  Look at our talks, the talks work because 
the audience is part of the dynamic of it.  If everyone gets up and
leaves then talk over.

A show is not the same.  Look at those old Blue Peter make-em bits.
They knew each stage they were going to do and what they wanted
to show at each stage.  That is all I'm asking for here.

> As with many things in the line of geekdom we can drown them all out in
> the organising to death of an idea. personally id like to see a Ipod , a
> microphone and a few geeks just chatting just so we can all hear what we
> sound like.

Well I was told the other day the IPods didn't record.

We could do our own version of TWiT (http://thisweekinteck.com) but what
would we bring to that format that was different.  Do we need to do
anything different?

Personally I don't want to do a copy of TWiT.  TWiT works because it is
a group of geeks talking about geeky things - that's cool to other geeks
(and wannabe geeks) to listen to, but it excludes non-geeks from 
participating.  That is my big objection to it.

The one area that we can to better in is educational show, because that
is a big part of what SLUG is all about.  People who know stuff telling
people who don't about it.  If someone can come up with a Linux related
HOWTO that would be okay with out screen shots, fixing computer shots,
and visuals generally then I would be the first to say lets do that
first.

> Recently I set up Audacity with a 9 pound (value) microphone from
> staples to record a board meeting for a client. The result was encoded
> to MP3 and was of sufficient quality to listen to. This enabled the
> discussion to be minuted better at a later date. Overall the effort
> involved was far far less than the value of the results and goes to
> demonstrate something i've always come to believe. Just do it. Yes we
> can all sit around and "plan" and "reduce risk" and "consider options"
> but guys every one of those succesful pod shows and broadcasts are done
> by people whom went out and "did it" then worked on it.

I bet that some people were sitting closer to the microphone than others,
and some people talked louder than others.  Therefore I bet that some people
sounded far away WHILE OTHERS WERE SHOUTING INTO THE MIC.

As I said a little planning can go a long way.  Colin has access to a 
mixing desk, so we can do a sound check and balance all the microphones,
just like the professionals do.

Or maybe we should all go out and buy a USB microphone.  I believe that
Audacity can record on multiple channels.  We can then balance all the
channels in post-production - which is explained on "Systm 4 - Podcasting"
before we upload the MP3 to the net.

> my point: 
> 
> Dont over plan and under produce.

I would like to add: have an idea of what you want to do and how to do
it before you start.  Preparation is key to a successful project.

-- 
Swap read error.  You lose your mind.
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