Still catching up with my podcasts after a two week holiday. This one I had to mention here.
Although I still admire the design of Apple hardware, this rant of Shel Holtz at time codes 21:00 – 31:18 (full item) in my favourite podcast For Immediate Release, episode 158, makes me think more than twice about actually buying.
Have fun! Hard core Apple fans: you are warned!
Technorati tags: Apple, For Immediate Release, Shel Holtz
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[1] | 
posted Aug 27, 10:29 pm on Aug 27, 2006 |
category: Customer experience
/ Podcasts
When I came home from work late in the afternoon today, the first thing I did was putting on my PC and activating Second Life.
What’s so special one might ask? Well this morning I listened to my favourite podcast For Immediate Release and Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz, the two presenters of the show, told that they would be on Podcast Island on 6 pm CET (teleport to the Podcast Island location via this link).
Well, I was there and so was Jangles Junot (Neville Hobson) and some other person called Juicer Mitch Till, whom I have not identified by his Real Life name. During the 10 minutes I was active, we were missing Shel Witte (Shel Holtz), but still exchanged some words (via the chatting function) which was a very nice experience. We even learned a couple of extra movements from “Juicer” who suddenly started to dance. There are some real trendy moves programmed for your Second Life bodies! There is so much to learn yet in Second Life.
By the way, even under water you can find some nice scenery and objects, as I learned when I steered my Avatar (Marcel Goodfellow) in the wrong direction. That giant Octopus gave me the creeps!
What was very exciting also was that Jangles Junot and I even discussed meeting in Real Life in the near future and I am really looking forward to such an event. Maybe we can arrange a Dutch FIR Community Meeting in Amsterdam?
Technorati tags: Second Life, For Immediate Release, Social software, Web2.0, Web 2.0
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[4] | posted Jun 30, 10:31 pm on Jun 30, 2006 |
category: Second Life
/ Podcasts
Sometimes you come across a few things that are really nice to listen to or very interesting.
One of those things was the interview with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on FLOSS (podcasts on Open Source), where he talked about the Wikipedia history, the software behind it, some current incidents and discussions and especially the art of managing a big community.
The other is not one but many: the podcasts from the Blogs & Social Media Forum held in London on the 17th of May 2006. A colleague of mine visited the conference and shared some nice links to the podcast today. By the way, through Technorati I found out that these podcasts actually were already available much earlier at a site called Information Overlord.
What I am mostly looking forward to is the keynote speech of JP Rangaswami of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which I wrote about in this post.
Technorati tags: Podcast, Wiki, Wikipedia
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| posted Jun 6, 09:42 pm on Jun 06, 2006 |
category: Podcasts
/ Social software
Via my favourite podcast FIR I recently discovered another great one: Accident Hash by C.C. Chapman.
C.C. is quite a celebrity in the podcasting world. In his podcast he just plays the coolest music.
In Accident Hash # 141 I actually found out C.C. is very well connected to the Lascivious Biddies as well. Very nice!
Check it out!
Technorati tags: Accident hash, Lascivious Biddies, Podcast
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[2] | posted May 25, 10:47 pm on May 25, 2006 |
category: Podcasts
/ Music
Via Edukast.nl I found this nice video of one of my favourite bands, The Lascivious Biddies.
Technorati tag: Lascivious Biddies
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| posted May 16, 10:12 pm on May 16, 2006 |
category: Music
/ Podcasts
Over at For Immediate Release for a couple of shows now a recurring great feature has been the implictions for future workplace communication of the current communication tools being used by kids. The main focus is on e-mail versus instant messaging, while the great popularity of the apparently addictive social network environment like MySpace was also discussed.
In show 132 of FIR Shel Holtz, one of the two presentors, introducted his daughter Rachel to get some first hand information on the subject. It was a very nice little interview, if you want to learn what kids are doing online these days.
As it appeared:
- IM and MySpace are hot
- e-mail and phone are not
It was the directness of communication as well as the fact that it is easier less emotional (tone of voice) to say things that made IM a top tool over e-mail and phone (“takes too long!”). These kids want quick communication!
At the end of the interview Shel asked Rachel about her thoughts on workplace communication, assuming having only phone or email available. She replied she would be frustrated for waiting for an e-mail answer.
Now I understand that for some kind of work communication you really want to “do things quickly”, but there are other kinds of communication too, of the type that does not require the instant reaction. For instance when doing projects I often pro-actively ask people questions I have, the answers to which I plan to use for a report due in the week after. Some questions really require the other person to think things over. IM is not really suited for that, especially not when you are “killing” people’s attention to the specific work the are doing.
Of course, before drawing conclusions too fast, we must recognise that kids may be doing other sorts of communication than people in the workplace. All in all, I think the “New Work Force Entrants” will bring in the IM tools, but find it suits only for a very specific set of communication tasks and they may need to use e-mail for a lot of other tasks.
Technorati tag(s): For Immediate Release, Social software
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| posted May 7, 10:11 pm on May 07, 2006 |
category: Social software
/ Podcasts
A week ago the site of The Conversations Network was launched. This network, which provides podcasts of conference presentations and interviews, is a brand new initiative from the people behind IT Conversations.
I have been listening to the IT Conversations podcasts now for almost a year and I have really enjoyed it. Of course, not everything suites my taste, but sometimes I am very surprised and challenged to continue listening to a show that I would not have given attention to based on its title alone.
There have been some great podcasts presented through the main “channel” (IT Conversations). One of my personal favourites to date has been a presentation (or actually “performance”) by Paul Graham. You really got to check this out. And, as a bonus, here’s another even more hilarious one from Ze Frank.
Maybe the personal taste thing mentioned above is exactly the reason for the idea to provide some new customer services, which are only for registered users, with fees starting at USD 50 per year (USD 25 for students). These services include:
- Personalized recommendations based on how you’ve rated programs you’ve already heard and the ratings of other members who like the same programs as you.
- Personal Program Queue: keeps track of what to listen to next and provides a personalized, prioritized RSS/Podcast feed.
- Write access to the forums
There are big plans for 2006 as well to expand the range of “channels” to other fields like Security, BioTech, Science, Nanotech, OpenSource, Future and Social Innovation.
Personally, I would like to hear presentations on e.g. “history” or “economics”. These can probably be found elsewhere, but having them in one place would be very nice.
A quick count of user list in the forum brings up a total of 600 names already listed at this moment, which sounds very promising. Real discussions have yet to start-off though.
OK, so I am still thinking about either subscribing or donating to The Conversations Network, because Doug Key and his team have really earned some support.
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| posted Jan 18, 11:35 pm on Jan 18, 2006 |
category: Podcasts
Three cheers for Shel and Neville down at For Immediate Release, the only podcast that keeps me busy for at least 2 to 3 hours a week.
On Thursday 5th January 2006 For Immediate Release (FIR) will reach the milestone episode nr. 100. Doing 2 shows a week, the happy event almost coincides with another: the 1 year anniversary.
I have been really enjoying FIR ever since discovering this podcast somewhere May/June 2005. FIR is about “communications, organisational communications, PR and the online world and it’s the place where all these things intersect or collide” to transcribe the usual show intro text line.
So, what do I like so much about this show?
Well first of all it’s the format. The show is all about two “streetwise” experts in their field, one from the US and one from the UK (living here in the Netherlands!), having a bi-weekly almost cosy conversation, which is just a good listen. Second comes the subject of choice for the show. Due to recent exciting developments in the online world, there is a wide range of topics to be discussed. To name a few: blogs and PR, podcasting within organisations, marketing via bloggers, crises communication, intranets, wiki’s.
Shel and Neville do offer a good choice of topics to discuss and are more than willing to share their opinions or offer their views.
Last but not least, I really need to mention the special correspondents and regular commentators to the show which offer new topics, reactions and opinions with a nice local flavour, being American, Australian, Canadian, German or English to name a few.
Isn’t there nothing wrong with the show? Well of course there is. Just like the pros stated above are quite subjective, I personally could mention a few cons as well, like the show getting a bit long once in a while or the topics sometimes being too “hard core PR” for my taste. But for me, these are minor issues. I really like the show, but you already should have guessed that!
To end this post in style, here’s a quote from Lee Hopkins, the “humble man” and special FIR correspondent from Australia. In FIR 99 Lee, smooth with words as ever, spoke of Shel and Neville as “the two who continue to amaze me with their commitment to this medium (podcasting: MdR) and their profession…”. I could not agree more!
Shel and Neville, thanks for the 100 shows so far. I am looking forward to the next hundred!
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| posted Jan 4, 11:19 pm on Jan 04, 2006 |
category: Podcasts
