One of the highlights for me at this past weekend’s Podcamp Toronto 2010 was Robin Browne’s session on Mobile Social Media (audio available here). To me, the impetus for the session, the way it came together, and the way it was conducted were indicative of what a Podcamp session was meant to be.

Robin put together the session because he didn’t see anyone else putting one on for this topic, and he wanted to learn more. He did not have a presentation planned, and crowd-sourced some tech assistance, and then facilitated a great discussion in the room. There were great questions and answers, and the discussion did not end at the formal end of the decision, and people in the room made new connections to explore this exciting field further.

Informal. Ad Hoc. Involvement. Enthusiasm.

Everything that makes up a great Podcamp presentation, and it certainly made this “old school” attendee happy to attend and participate!

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This week, I speak with Peter Muller of PRT Consulting about Personal Rapid Transit, an approach to solving some of the issues around traditional public transit that have hindered its more widespread acceptance.

Direct link to episode

This week’s music

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This week, I talk with Valerie Hunter, a veteran of both radio and podcasting about the changes in radio over the course of her career, and the future of radio, if it indeed has one.

Valerie’s Podcasts:

Movies for the Blind

Valerie in TO

No Mood Swing

Direct link to episode

This week’s music

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Here’s another instrumental I wrote for my On the Log podcast; I used a small part of it a while back in an episode, and I extended it over the last couple of days.

Picture yourself wake-boarding in the asteroid belt in the 60’s and you’ll see the mood I was going for. The song is called Space Surfer.

It’s Creative Commons as well.

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Here are three music snippets I’ve composed on recently. All are free to use under the Creative Commons licence (Attribution, Non-Commercial). All are meant as background music for video, podcasts, etc.

Around the Corner is a sort of generic pop sounding one, but with a slightly different chord progression than you’d normally expect in this kind of thing.

Strolling Through Scarborough is a little jazz ditty written originally for Mark Blevis for use in the Rock Stars of Reading video project for Just One More Book, and also since featured from time to time in Scarborough Dude’s extremely fine DicksnJane podcast.

The last piece Lullaby is a work in progress; the guitar part is done (and is what you get here, so it works as a three verse loop), and I have words written, but have yet to lay down a vocal track that I’m happy with. Someday soon, I hope.

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Thanks to Rob Lee (who recorded me), the audio from my Podcamp Montreal 2009 presentation Finding the Song: Editing an Interview As If It Were Music is now available for download below.

JohnMeadows_pcmtl09.mp3

Edit: Rob reminds me that we should also thank Sage and Todd Tyrtle for the use of their H4 to record this and other presentations!

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I am really looking forward to Podcamp Montreal next weekend (Sept. 19-20, 2009); after all, Montreal is my hometown (although I haven’t lived there since 1968).

I’m also excited to be a presenter, and the title of my presentation is “Finding the Song: Editing an Interview as if it were Music.”

In my presentation, I’ll be talking about how I edit interview speech, while trying to be faithful to the innate rhythm and musicality of human language. I will also have some “before and after” examples of clips from my podcast On the Log.

If you’re coming to Podcamp Montreal, I hope you’ll check out my session!

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“The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain”

Martin Luther wrote these words in the 1530’s. I ran across this quote yesterday and I was struck about how closely it sounds like some of the comments one hears today about blogging, social media and monetization.

And here’s another Plus c’est la change, plus c’est  la meme chose quote:

“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound.
Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book,
and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.”

Assyrian tablet, c. 2800 BCE

Technorati Tags: SocialMedia, MartinLuther

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One thing I want to do with my On the Log podcast this year is fewer sermon/rant episodes, and more episodes with guests. Here are some topics that I might have approached solo in 2008, but this year would like to involve show guests with:

• Digital Photo frames vs traditional photo albums
• Is there a technology no longer in use that you miss?
• Is there a techology you hate? Maybe one that makes life more complicated rather than easier?
• Do you miss lawn darts? Are we living in Nanny State?
• Will 2009 mortally mound the idea of recreational shopping?

If you an an opinion on any of these, or know someone who is just itching to comment, let me know!

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Every family that celebrates Christmas has stories about the holiday: Stories about family traditions, funny incidents etc. that collectively help form the sense of specialness about the occasion for the family.

Sadly, family history is fragile. Unless you’re famous or historically significant, biographers will not be lining up to write the story of your family. The result? Through the passing of generations, stories fade, and voices are eventually stilled. It can happen very quickly: I have family home movies of Christmas celebrations from the early 1960’s; these are silent movies, and there are many people I don’t recognize.

This Christmas, if you have a sound recorder, why not record some family stories? In particularly, why not record Christmas memories from more elderly members of your family? If you preserve family history in this way, future generations will thank you.

Recently, recordings of more than 90 years ago were discovered in England. Efforts are underway to locate the descendants of those whose voices are heard on these fragile cylinders. Imagine the excitement if these voices are reunited with their families! This is the kind of excitement we can all give to future generations.

Merry Christmas, and hit that record button!!!

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Recording, Family

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