Mobcasting

Demoing Utterz for NPR's Morning Edition!

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:56:00 -0500

Right now I'm recording a demo of Utterz with a producer from Morning Edition. We just posted question to Twitter - "What are you doing for New Years and what do you wish you were doing?" - and we're asking it on Utterz as well to see what kind of replies we get in the next 24 hours. Please keep your responses clean as we may use them on air. Thanks!

Mobile post sent by acarvin using Utterz. Replies. mp3

Immigrant Rights Podcast, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Mon, 1 May 2006 14:31:00 -0400

My second mobile phone podcast today, recorded during the immigrant rights march from Cambridge to Boston. -andy

Immigrant Rights Podcast, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Mon, 1 May 2006 12:50:00 -0400

Here's a podcast I recorded over the phone just prior to the immigrant rights rally at Harvard. -andy

Hurricane Katrina Mobcast Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 13:15:00 -0400

I've just launched an open blog and mobcast for people interested in following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:

http://katrina05.blogspot.com/

The blog is set up so that anyone can post a blog entry, podcast or photo to the site. I'm particularly hoping that residents of the Gulf Coast will be willing to call in and let people know how things are going for them. Similarly, anyone who would like to share ways to help out, or wishes to share their thoughts on the hurricane, may post as well.

Here's how to participate.

Post a blog entry:

Send an email to katrina2005.comments @ blogger.com. The title of your email will be the title of the blog entry, and the email body will be the blog entry body. If you don't want your contact information, you should remove your signature file. Attachments will not be posted.

Record a podcast:

Dial 1-415-856-0205
Enter login 515-515-5555
Enter PIN code 2005, then the # key
Record your message
Press the # key to save, then the 1 key to post

Post a photo:

The website is collecting photos from Flickr.com that are tagged with the word hurricanekatrina. Simply log on to Flickr (or create an account), upload photos, and use this tag. Photos appear in the right column of the blog's homepage.

I've also set up a "tag-o-rama" inside the right column of the blog. It displays links to relevant key words like hurricane, katrina and new orleans, linking to tagged content from Technorati (blogs), Flickr (photos) and del.icio.us (websites).

Please feel free to share this information with anyone who might be interested in participating. -andy

Launch of the Mobcasting Developers Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:09:00 -0400

Because of the positive feedback I've received around the creation of a low-cost, open source strategy for recording and receiving podcasts over mobile phones, I've set up a new email list and Web community for people interested in making this happen. There are already free tools like audioblogger and audlink that will let you post podcasts from your phone, but both require a long-distance phone call to the US, and neither let you listen to podcasts from your phone. I want to develop a tool that can be installed anywhere in the world, so all of this can be done on a local phone call.

To learn more about mobcasting, please visit this blog entry I wrote last January, entitled When Mobile Podcasting Leads to Mobcasting to see where this all got started.

The email list will be focused solely on this project; people who join the list should be interested in mobile phone podcasting and be willing to help us make this project happen.

To join the list, please send an email to mobcasting-subscribe [[at]] yahoogroups . com, with the spaces and brackets removed. Or, you can visit the Mobcasting list homepage.

Meanwhile, I've also created a DDN community that we can use as a workspace. The workspace has bulletin boards, document sharing and blog posting. Group members are welcome to post web resources, blog entries or files to this public page. We can also add news, events and feature stories to the site if they become useful at some point.

Looking forward to making this happen! -andy

Asterisk as a Mobcasting Tool?

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:08:00 -0400

Over the last few days I've been trying to learn more about various types of open source telephony software to see if any of them could be built upon as a mobcasting interface -- voicemail software that could allow someone to call a local telephone number and create, as well as listen to, podcasts. I've written a lot about my experiments with audlink.com and audioblogger.com as mobile podcasting tools, but they both require you to call a long telephone number in the US. Ideally, we really need to have a tool that could be installed at low cost on a local server, anywhere in the world, and allow people to make a telephone call to post or retrieve podcasts from it.

That's why I'm really curious about an open source software package called Asterisk.

Asterisk is a fully functional open source PBX system with VoIP capabilities. It supports voicemail, call directories, conference calls and many other features, and allows users to build new scripts to connect it with the Internet. It was primarily developed on GNU/Linux for x/86, but apparently runs on GNU/Linux for PPC along with OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and Mac OSX.

To be honest, I know almost nothing about PBX systems, so I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me evaluate it, and perhaps test it out. Participants in one of the Asterisk user forums seem to think it would be easy to set up a script to connect it with a blog, but from a technical point of view, this is way over my head. I'm hoping some of them might volunteer to help me, but we'll have to see how that goes.

So, for those of you who are interested in mobile phone podcasting, I'd love to get your thoughts on this, particularly if you know a lot about PBX systems, VoIP, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Fri, 20 May 2005 09:07:00 -0400

Gates Mobcast Covered in NY Times, Wired

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Wed, 9 Feb 2005 17:39:00 -0500

My new "open blog," The Gates @ Central Park got a nice boost in site traffic today because of references in today's New York Times and Wired magazine. Wired even featured some of the photos posted on the site. Hopefully the press will help send more contributors to the site as well. There are definitely more photos and emails posted to the site, though not much has happened in terms of podcasts. Hopefully that'll change in the coming days.... -ac

Podcasting, Mobcasting and Beercasting, Oh My!

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:44:00 -0500

Last night, a group of around 20 of us gathered at the Berkman Center to have an informal chat about podcasting in its various incarnations, including mobcasting and "beercasting." Lisa Williams facilitated the discussion, including showing off a rockin' little video about podcasting for beginners. Prior to the meeting, Lisa organized a del.icio.us reading list on articles and websites about podcasting.

Greg Narain of Beercasting.com joined us and talked about his amazing website, in which he engages people in conversations at bars, taping their discussions and publishing them as podcasts. The cool thing about it is that his software adds tons of metadata to each beercast, so you can sort through the content to find your favorite topics and speakers. Oh, and the marketing opportunies with bars and beer companies are endless. I then talked for a little bit about mobcasting and my new community blog for the upcoming Christo installation in Central Park. I recorded the session on my iPod; you can find it if you click the MP3 link on the Berkman Bloggers website.

After the meeting, we ventured through the slushy streets of Cambridge until we arrived at Cambridge Common, where Greg recorded a couple of beercasts. I participated in one beercast in which we talked about our favorite sounds from around the world; the conversation eventually metamorphosed into nostalgic travel stories from Turkey. Hopefully the beercast will be online soon; I'll post a link as soon as it's available... -ac

Andy's Remarks at the Berkman Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:39:00 -0500

File this under "Better Late Than Never".... Here's a podcast of my remarks at the Berkman blogging conference. Since I was doing the talking I didn't get around to taping it myself, so I had to wait for the official audio archive from the conference so I could extract my remarks. Former CNN Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon introduces me; then I talk briefly about mobcasting and Creative Commons. The entire recording runs about 10 minutes, give or take.... -ac

Comedians Skewer Berkman Confab

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Tue, 1 Feb 2005 19:41:00 -0500

The practical jokers at BetterBadNews.com have released a hilarious video lampooning the recent Berkman blogging conference. Among the the panelists are a stiff-shirt moderator, a tightly-wound Lenny Bruce fan and an elderly Jewish woman. Most of their roasting targets Dave Weinberger and mobcasting's very own Ethan Zuckerman; I manage to get off easy with only a thank-you from the pundit moderator for recording an absurd number of podcasts at the conference. Anyway, give it a look when you get a chance.... -ac

Poynter Article on Mobcasting and Journalism

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Tue, 1 Feb 2005 14:19:00 -0500

Poynter Online columnist Chip Scanlan has published a story about mobcasting and its potential role as a tool for journalists, professional and otherwise. He describes mobcasting as "the digital equivalent of 'flooding the zone,' a sports term that competition-driven editors usurped to overwhelm a hot story with resources."

Some other quotes from the article:

Digital activist Andy Carvin, who came up with the idea, put it into practice last weekend at a conference of bloggers and mainstream journalists at Harvard when he and five others phoned in intermittent reports from the scene....

Listening to Carvin's reports from the Harvard conference, I found myself thinking back to the first government meetings I covered 30 years ago with pen and notebook. What would it have been like, for instance, to feed live reports on the zoning board's decisions without ever leaving my chair, or to transmit my interviews from news scenes without having to drive back to the newsroom and transcribe my notes?

Today's reporters -- and citizen journalists -- don't have to wonder.

Thanks to Chip for the nice write-up.... -andy

New Mobcast: The Gates @ Central Park

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 17:40:00 -0500

In just two weeks, New York's Central Park will host "The Gates," a park-wide artwork created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Thousands of gates streamed with saffron-colored flags will line more than 20 miles of paths throughout the park.

Given that Christo's work always draws debate, The Gates seemed like a perfect opportunity for another mobcasting experiment. So I've created a new blog called The Gates @ Central Park. The site allows Central Park visitors to post their thoughts on The Gates either by email or by telephone. They can even post photos from Central Park by attaching them to their email. Once again, I'm using Blogger and Audioblogger to create the site, with Feedburner to create the RSS feed.

So if you're planning to be in New York City between February 12 and February 27, please go to Central Park and visit The Gates. Then post an email or a podcast to my website and let us know what you thought of the experience. -ac

TechTV Story on Mobcasting

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 15:50:00 -0500

It turns out that TechTV did a story yesterday on mobcasting. Here's a podcast posted by one of the correspondents for their show Screen Savers. They also link to the tutorial that I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Listening to his podcast, it seems they were discussing mobcasting in the more traditional "moble podcasting" sense rather than the "smart mob podcasting" sense, but hey, it's still fun listening to them hanging out on a corner in Hollywood jazzed about posting a mobile podcast.... -ac

Please Send Us Your Comments by Voicemail!

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 16:48:00 -0500

If you'd like to comment on our podcasts from the Berkman blogging conference, or if you'd like to make a comment about the conference itself, we'd love to hear from you. Please call 1-206-888-2762 and leave us a message. We'll post the most interesting ones as podcasts here on the blog. Please be sure to state your name and organization, if relevant, and try to keep it to less than three minutes. Thanks! -ac

Andy's Final Podcast of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 15:00:00 -0500

Final comments from Andy before heading out to beat the blizzard.

Andy Gives a Post-Lunch Update

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:07:00 -0500

A short podcast from me following lunch, as Dave Winer moderates the public session.

Jon Garfunkel

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 13:55:00 -0500

Jon Garfunkel of Civilities.net talks during the public session of the Berkman conference. Here's a link to a commentary Jon posted last night after the first day of the conference. -ac

Dan Gillmor Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:25:00 -0500

Dan Gillmor talks about his decision to leave the San Jose Mercury News and become a full-time advocate for citizen journalism.

Jimmy Wales Podcast on WikiNews

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:24:00 -0500

Here's a podcast of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales talking about WikiNews.

Podcast of Brendan Greeley's Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:20:00 -0500

Here's a podcast of Brendan Greeley's presentation on podcasting and public broadcasting. I would have put it up sooner but he played a Garrison Keiller clip that explicitly stated "no rebroadcasts or else" so I edited it out.

Public Broadcasting Meets Podcasting

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:08:00 -0500

Brendan Greeley of Public Radio Exchange kicked off the morning session at the Berkman blogging conference by giving a presentation on the convergence of podcasting with public broadcasting.

Podcasting was Dave Winer's idea, he explained: to add new code to RSS feeds so that they could help Internet users subscribe to audio blogs and have those blogs downloaded directly to their MP3 player.

"I think that public radio and the people producing podcasts are heading in the same direction," he said. Public radio people know how to make quality programming, but are just learning about the role the Internet can play as a dissemination tool. Podcasters are still learning how to create quality programming. "You can still hear podcasters sometimes say 'Is this thing on?'"

Everyone in public radio talks about "new voices," Brendan noted. Everybody agrees the notion of new voices is a good idea, he said, but the system is stacked against it.

Public radio has grown since 9/11 because it engenders trust. "Though it's used by some farmers to keep their cows mellow."

"When what you do has been mocked in a skit on Saturday Night Live, it's time to set down and think about what you do."

Public radio is similar to blogging in the sense that it has a community of people who feel they have a vested interest around it.

He played an example of an experimental show by Garrison Keillor on Public Radio Exchange. He started with a warning from Keillor saying that you can't republish or rebroadcast, then a conversation about the band Evanescence and their annoying "quasi-Christian" sound. The program was a flop. No one ran it. Critics said the people in the program weren't experts or known quantities, which was seen as counter to public broadcasting culture.

Now they're podcasting - "Zero barrier to entry." The quality of software available for free now makes it possible to record podcasts with excellent production value -- no studio investments required.

He talked about Adam Curry, who co-founded podcasting with Dave Winer. Listening to Adam, he'll talk for a while then walk away from the mic to let his dogs out of the house or talk with his plumber in Dutch. Greeley said that he sees this as more authentic in many ways, because Adam and other podcasters seem like real people. He also played the Tap Dancer Podcast News, a woman tapdancing to a piano while talking about the latest political headlines, and a clip from the Dawn and Drew show.

It might seem easy for journalists to dismiss programming like this, he said, but then again, Howard Stern became a huge media personality because his audience saw him as authentic, as a real person.

So where do public radio and podcasting meet? Podcasting will lower the barriers to entry into public radio, as more podcasters find their voice. "It's possible now to start producing a podcast... and when there's enough demand, you can present yourself to a broadcaster, and say, 'I come with this audience.'"

Robert Cox and Brooks Jackson

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 09:06:00 -0500

Robert Cox and Brooks Jackson chat prior to the start of the Berkman blogging conference's "podcasting breakfast."

Andy's Saturday Morning Welcome Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 08:40:00 -0500

A quick hello from Andy as Brendan gets ready to host the "podcasting breakfast" here at the Berkman blogging conference.

How Blogging is Changing Journalism's Business Model

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Carvin) — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:53:00 -0500

Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine is moderating a group discussion about the effects of blogging on journalism as an industry, including ethical issues, journalistic standards and law. Here's a podcast from the first part of the session. It's just over 20 minutes long.