Sunday, November 16, 2008

Podcasting is NOT Dead

poddead
I just need to rant for a second... I am sick and tired of people claiming that podcasting is dead. The truth is that it is far from it. While the names and flavors may change, podcasting is alive and well. Here’s what I have spent the past week doing.

I spoke in New York City for 3 days at the
. I was joined by great podcasters like
of
,
and
from
, and
from
. We had healthy crowds with great questions. There were also big companies there, like TiVo and HP, as well as representation from several universities. I also had some great meetings with Apple and
... two great companies with cool things coming.

While I was gone, my crew was helping Community Health Charities create a series of podcasts to help raise awareness about health issues in the workplace. We had participation of major non-profit groups like the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and the American Cancer Society. The non-profit world is abuzz about podcasting.

I then returned for an open house at
, my company. We invited people from the Washington, DC community for free seminars. Our podcasting seminar was standing room only with nearly 40 people in the room. Nearly all those people stayed to learn creative approaches for creating web video as well. Some of you will think 40 people is small... we only invited 100 people to the event... 40% came just to this one seminar.

I then gave up a few hours this weekend to join Paul Vogelzang and we spoke together and
. The room was packed with educators, communications professionals, and non-profit agencies. I met people wanting to inspire students and reach out to others for education and political action.

Speaking of political action... I’m pretty pleased that we have a new president who “gets” podcasting. This is especially good since I live in DC and work for a company that is an authorized GSA vendor to give the government podcasting services.

What the “get-rich-quick” people seem to forget is that technology takes time. For example,
. It was invented in 1997. That took 13 years! Podcasting is already a part of 18% of Americans life... we are right on track and continuing to grow fast. The key to success, matching content, to an audience, with consistent releases and good quality.

It looks like we will have secured sponsorship for four of the seven shows we produce by year’s end. I’ve also been fortunate to help great companies like
and
expand their reach with quality content. Our
is selling well and the
is about to add its 150th member.

Lets just say I’m looking forward to the new year.
If you need a little ammunition for your defense of podcasting, download and
.... then pass it on.



Adding Captions to Flash Video

flash
Looking to make your web video more accessible? Then be sure to check out this
on adding open captions to Flash video. If you are doing video work for the government, then this is often an absolute must.

“The really great thing about this feature, from our perspective as designers and developers, is how simple it is to accomplish and manage. If the timing is out or a caption is wrong, you simply change a few words or numbers in the XML file.”


This tutorial makes it really easy and I suggest you check it out.



Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Lighting Diagrams with Omnigraffle

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington as he explains the importance of lighting diagrams and shows you how to make them with
.





Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Hoodman Makes Great Camera Accessories

Richard Harrington takes a look at a wide variety of video accessories in the Hoodman (
) booth at Photoshop World '08.