#27 Podcasting

I'm comfortable with podcasting technology and of making my blog's feed podcast-ready. I developed and hosted a podcasting program for teens at the Library last fall; of course, although it is realitively straight-forward and simple, the teens seemed to think it was "too hard." Mastery in a few minutes seems to have been the attendees' expectation. I've made podcasts in the past and, while I feel it could potentially be an awesome service, I do not feel I have the "stage" presence necessary to provide an exciting podcast or one worth the time of prospective users - just like some audiobooks are better than others based on the reader, some individuals are better at projecting excitement and at engaging with a distant audience.

I think what some people don't seem to realize is that having a successful podcast is extremely dependent on a vast amount of organization, planning, preperation, and patience in editing, as well as just having a basic knowledge of the technology. Knowing the technology is available and knowing how to mobilize it does not make a good podcast or one that people are willing to hear however often the podcasts are posted. I believe that is why so many of the most successful podcasts are coming from independent, alternative, as well as mainstream media sources; people who have a knowledge of how to put together a "package" seem to have had more business in terms of downloads. Just my two cents :)

#26 Online Music Creation and Re-Mixing

Online music mixing sites and freely downloadable recording softwares can be really fun to play with and, without doubt, totally awesome for those who want to make their own music or recordings but have no interest in shilling out hundreds of dollars for pricey software packages. For Teen Tech Week some of the teens and I played around with several online drum machines, Splice Music, and Tony-B - and I have to say, even though several of them were often frustrated with how complex the online music mixing sites turned out to be, I was excited to see them expanding their knowledge of online tools and using their creativity to enhance their web presence (such as uploading their tunes to their MySpace pages, rather than illegally using some horrible sounding version of the new, hit song). As I mentioned in my previous post, it seems our notion of collaborative art has been developing with exciting new possiblities for the future. Relationships and new networks based on collaborative creativity bring a new dimension to to the term "world music."

#25 Argh! Piracy!

Yes, I still use CDs and I often burn my own mix CDs for the car. I even (gasp!) burn an entire album onto a CD-R so that my original purchased copy can be retained snuggly at home in its appropriate case, not having to face the risk of scratching and my own clumsiness. I guess since I was in high school and beginning college I've been fairly comfortable with burning music (as well as other files) onto CD; I've never found it too much of a challenge, but keeping all of my music files organized and appropriately labeled has sometimes been annoying.

I personally think the "music business," and the Recording Industry Association of America in particular, needs to get with the times. As a librarian I believe in giving credit where credit is due and certainly want to protect the rights of intellectual property holders; but, I also believe that our understanding of ownership (especially diffuse ownership in the age of the web) and the processes of recording human creativity and ingenuity have totally changed over time. I find the RIAA's position to often protect the recording industry and record labels over the rights of artists and musicians; it isn't a surprise that several artists (notably Radiohead and Trent Reznor) are circumventing recording labels entirely and making money from their craft by mobilizing online distribution of music and music-associated paraphernalia (such as t-shirts, collectible sets, booklets, etc.). I'm certainly not a pirate - but I understand that until the recording industry can learn to better compete with, challenge, or make use of (often illegal) online music distribution, that the debate (and alleged problems) will not cease.

#24: The hills are alive

I've been a fan of online radio for a few years now (including, but not limited to, pandora...which I approve of theoretically more than in any sort of practical application), most especially news radio. My experience of downloading music has been rather limited. I've downloaded from iTunes (incredibly disappointing selection) and I've indirectly enjoyed the benefits of free and legal music downloads via my husband, but I'm just not very interested in downloading digital music. Most of the time (although certainly not always), the sound of compressed audio is annoying to me. I guess I'm a little bit of an audio snob.

#23: I Made It...and other fabulous things

I can't believe it is finally here! I cannot believe I am writing my twenty-third iHCPL response! First, I particularly enjoyed: making my avatar, spending more time cataloging my books through LibraryThing, blogging about all of my investigations, discovering all the fabulous e-Audiobooks HCPL has available, getting some training credit to play around with Flickr and YouTube, registering my own del.icio.us account, and playing with image generators and editors. I don't know particularly if iHCPL has modified my path of life-long learning (as many of the exercises involved using services and technologies with which I was already familiar and sometimes frequently used); but it has made me hopeful that I can stay in touch with new and emergent technologies throughout my career. Since the Children's Department here at Freeman has been discussing setting up a blog, we in the YA department have also considered doing something similar as a way to get the teens involved in the planning of programs, voting for what movies or anime they might want to watch for movie nights or our future anime club, giving us feedback on programs they have attended, highlighting new materials, and eliciting book, movie, music, etc. reviews from our teen patrons. I know that this is not the end of the road, by any means, and I look forward to spending more time discovering new resources on my own, in collaboration with friends and coworkers and our patrons, and hopefully to share my knowledge and experience to positively influence interactions with library patrons.

#22: Downloading the Motherload

While I spend time looking for e-audiobooks and e-books for patrons who come to the reference desk, I've never had the time or thought to look for myself...so it was an eye-opening and infinitely enjoyable experience to find so many young adult authors with e-audiobooks available through HCPL (Jerry Spinelli, Stephanie Meyer, Christopher Paolini, Eoin Colfer, and Walter Dean Myers...and more!! oh my!!)!!

Although LibriVox was certainly cool, I thought Wowio was amazing! So many comics and manga available to download for free! Wowio also seemed a little more aesthetically flashy than LibriVox (at least to me); but I can see myself recommending either.

#21: Podcasting Your Heart Out

I looked at both Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com and added the podcast "This Week in Houston," where local citizen/journalists describe upcoming events in the Bayou City. Because I'm still relatively new to the area, I thought it might be fun to hear about some of the great events, attractions, and individuals that make Houston a fabulous place to live. Of course...I'm one of only two subscribers...but I'm sure the word will spread (as I am doing right now!).

I think podcasts can be really fun. I have friends who have made crafty or d.i.y. podcasts and I can definitely see the usefulness of podcasting as an alternative media source and for community information/community building. I fairly recently taught a Teen Podcasting, 101, class and made a brief podcast from home (using audacity to record; iTunes to export as MP3; feedburner to make my blog's rss feed podcast-ready; and uploading my audiofile to OurMedia) as a demonstration. We only had two teens show up and they seemed a little peeved that there were so many steps to the process; but, nevertheless, once you kind of understand the process, it can be really easy and rewarding.