In the back of my mind I was aiming at having Brainstorming done by Thanksgiving. Not that it's a Turkey Episode or anything. Just a convenient target.
Podcast 9 is written and partially recorded. Should have the Podcast and post production done by Thursday.
I always do the student maps and then the script. Had some difficulty deciding if I wanted 3 or 4 examples. I went with 3. The episode should time out to 20-21 minutes.
I'm learning a bit about feeds and interpretations. While Juice only showed the six MP3 files, when I tried to add the feed to PodcastAlley I got a lot of warnings. It was clear that it was trying to read each post as a separate podcast.
My brute force solution is to create another blog, PiqueroPod in Blogger. Then limit the entries to podcast announcements.
This seems to work. The new feed is here .
I will continue to post announcements of new podcasts both here and at PiqueroPod.
This is kind of neat. I'd found an article on How To Podcast. As part of the steps they mentioned setting up a feed at Feedburner.
Feedburner appears to be under Google now, so my Google account is adequate. And it integrates easily with Blogger.
I followed the Feedburner "How Tos" and created a feed for Piqueroblog. But more important, the RSS feed works in my "Juice" aggregator. The Aggregator is smart enough to pull out the MP3 links. The title is the blog post title, but the URL is the Internet Archive address for the file.
I've added the RSS subscription widget at the bottom of the right hand column.
You still need to get to the Supplementary Materials, however. They are also listed in the right hand column or you can bookmark the listing page for ready reference. I usually have that updated before I update the blog.
Had a few technical problems trying to get Podcast 6 up to the host. Found an alternate route (IE instead of Firefox).
So, the sixth of our podcast series is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #6. The student maps, a syllabus, and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .
The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 of Mind Manager installed, either the product or the trial version.
In this sixth episode I continue working with my meeting minutes and post processing.
In addition to building the next week’s agenda from the previous week’s meeting notes, we examine the “Outline View” for map editing.
I’m interested in your opinions. I’m also interested in what future topics would be of interest. We’re at the half-way point of the series, give or take an episode. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .
Got Pod#5 recorded. Still have to do post production on all the data and files. And I need to update the web pages. Run time is about 29 minutes. A bit longer than I like, but a lot of it is waiting for Export to run.
But, most important, I need to test it with a Ver 8 installation. I don’t want another surprise. I also want to test the pauses.
Exporting takes some processing time. I want to make the dead air seem reasonable in length. I don’t want the listener constantly stopping and starting.
Well, one lucky break and one not so lucky find. I was testing the Export to Mindjet Player function in Version 8. First time I’ve checked the podcast maps in Version 8. Oopps. The hyperlinks that had a file name like Pod#3 in the title didn’t work. Something about that "#" character.
I needed to update all the file name for student maps. What was in my favor is that I made a knowledge management map that was linked to all the files for each episode. So I knew which ones needed a name change.
Also in my favor, I haven’t really advertised the podcasts yet. I can change the Supplemental.zip files now and once people start downloading them the problem won’t be there.
I was waiting until I had 5 podcasts up so that a person could download a 30 day trial and learn something. Otherwise they would be listening to one or two podcasts and then waiting for me to post more. All the while watching the trial period run out.
Changes made. Files Replaced at the server. And, blog entries for Pod One through Four with an UPDATE Notice.
Starting to piece together Podcast #3. I’m not an audio engineer but I’m starting to hear distortion. Particularly when I combine music and voice.
What I think is happening is the sample rate for my MP3 components is too small for reuse. Storing it at 48 kbs sounds OK as an MP3, but then sweeping it in to reuse for the podcast gets a little fuzzy. I suspect it is like the echoes and ghosts you get on the four or fifth generation of a paper copy.
I re-recorded one of my voice overs and stored the whole works at 128 kbs, for the reuse MP3. Seems to have cleaned it up. But then I may have been hoarse when I recorded the original.
I’ve decided to go with Ourmedia as a hosting source. They are associated with the Internet Archive. There in lies my lesson learned today.
I figured out how I’ll modify my web pages to accommodate the podcasts. The one loose end was the hosting site for the much larger podcasts (around 9 to 12 MB).
Went to the library to take advantage of the WiFi connection. Uploaded Podcast#1 but it didn’t seem to store. Got an email that said it was given a name, but no result. Tried a smaller MP3 but had a similar result.
What I didn’t realise is that I need a password account for Internet Archive as well as Ourmedia.
Uploaded another test file from home after I established an account. Worked and appears on Ourmedia.
Next step is to sort out the Creative Commons license.
I also want to record a second podcast before posting the links.
I’ve got the first Podcast complete, I think. The MP3 is 25.8 MB and runs a little over 27.5 minutes. I have to resolve my hosting strategy before I publish it.
Actually, I need to finish at least two more. Then the audience, if any, can have more than one episode to base their opinion on.
It took about 12+ hours to produce, but a lot of that was learning the tools and scripting the episode. I’m using Mind Manager to map/write the script. I create topics and sub-topics, much like the paragraphs in the instructor manual. Then as I read them or decide to modify the description, I can move the topics around. I found I was more comfortable reading them like cue cards.
I’m surprised at how much space the audio takes. I suspect it is a function of how many mistakes I make. “Audacity” is probably saving everything so I can “undo” edits. There are two components. (1) The project, an “.aup” file and (2) a project_data subdirectory. The subdirectory has a bunch of audio files. For the podcast, the .aup was 50 KB. The sub-directory, however, contained 308 objects and consumed 297 MB of space.
I’m guessing that podcast #2 will have less editing since I have the music bumps, intro and outro segments done. Those reuseable segments should just drop in for future projects.
I took the time to think about reuse before I started. I’m keeping MP3 segments for future podcasts. I also started a Mind Manager Map for Knowledge Management (KM). I keep track of each component, by name, and hyperlink to the MP3. The KM map also records and links to any student maps.
Had the class and a constructive discussion about using MindManager for process definition and discussion. Once you get past the clockwise layout of most maps it gets easier.
I wanted to emphasize a couple of key points:
There is a lot of power to using a hierarchy of maps and taaking advantage of hyperlinks to other documents. That becomes second nature after a while. It getting started that is the challenge.
Just finished reading a blog post , by Guy Kawasaki, on how to use LinkedIn more effectively.
For example, the post notes that you can personalize your profile URL. This can put your name in the URL rather than a system generated name. Makes it easier to bubble to the surface on a search engine query.
It also pointed out using customized buttons to make it easier to find your profile.
I've added the button to the links section of the blog, down near the bottom. I suspect it works inline too. Like this:
LinkedIn is essentially a professional social network. I've received a couple of invites, so I decided to put my profile into the works. It doesn't cost anything to join, only if you want advanced features.
Spent this afternoon reworking a web page. Pointed out two important lessons, or at least reinforced something I already knew.
These become important considerations when you're 1100 miles from home and can't fire up the old laptop.
The site has evolved over the last 6 years. Some changes were experimental, but some were important at the moment. Then, having solved the project at hand, that section was left alone. You sometimes forget which files were the active versions. That's the case at hand. My "new laptop" version has files from 2004 but I made some additions in 2006.
What initiated this effort was the work about a month ago when I installed Google Analytics. I checked it yesterday and found that most search referrals are for "Brainstorming Examples" and the common entry is page PiqueroHome-181.The text on PH-181 is a little longer than I'd like. And, Brainstorming is only one example of many of the sample maps on the page.
I decided to rewrite the page and make sure the Brainstorming example was within the initial view. That's when I realized I didn't have the "master" of the current page.
Got it done. So if you're interested, here's the new page.
