Podcasting and Videocasting Bootcamp
April 19, 2007
David Free and
David Lee King
Podcasting 101
Videocasting 101
Let's Make Stuff
Part I - Podcasting
Podcast = audio broadcast over Internet, can be listened to on MP3 player, can be subscribed to for updates.
Essential = RSS capability to subscribe to content. Don't have to subscribe, can listen directly online. Don't have to have personal digital media player. Can use computer, etc.
"MP3 + iPod/RSS = Podcast " --Aaron Schmidt
Pew Demographics - 2006 podcast usage -about 12% of total internet users listening to podcasts. 30% of 18-24yo own MP3 player. 54% of 12-17yo! (TEMPO survey, July 2006)
Only getting more widespread. Many of your teen and pre-teen users will be used to podcasts.
Examples: Lost tv show, NPR shows, etc.
Juice - free online podcatcher program. Paste RSS feeds into there or add from site, will put it all in one area.
ipodder.sourceforge.net
Bloglines - can use to subscribe to podcasts! (I didn't know this!)
Tons of podcast search sites - Podcast Pickle -
www.podcastpickle.com is one. Search by topic, browse, groupings, etc.
podCast411 Directory of Directories -
www.podcast411.com/page2.html
Above useful if you are creating and want to advertise what you're doing.
Podzinger -
www.podzinger.com - mostly you can't skim through a podcast. This site does pretty good job of searching content of podcasts! (audio and video) Possible good reference tool. (Cool!)
iTunes -
www.apple.com/itunes - for now, it's one of the best sites.
Q about iTunes permissions if you're creating content. (university podcasts)
Library uses for podcasts:
-library instruction (BI, tours, etc.) - (SJCPL doing tours via podcasts)
-online archives
-speakers
-lectures, booktalks
-interviews -
**make sure you get permission! Signed, written release - make sure they own the copyright to that material. Be specific on release as to how being used.
Podcasting could extend value of the programming you're doing by making it available to wider audience.
UVA Health Sciences Library - www.healthsystem.virginia.edu - series
www.priztkermilitarylibrary.org/podcasts/index.jsp - military talks on podcast
they do featured podcast of the month
Q: are any libraries putting podcasts in catalog? A: not sure, good idea!
Princeton NJ PL Poetry podcasts -
pplpoetpodcast.wordpress.com
Orange Co FL -
www.ocls.info/podcast - children's storytime broadcasts
Cheshire PL Podcast -
www.cheshirelib.org/teens/cplpodcast.htm - They are actually having their teens create the podcasts.
Q: Orange Co doing mp3 and windows media - do both? A: David F. does mp3 only.
Promote Your services, resources - Marketing!
DF: GPC Decatur Campus Library -
www.gpc.edu/~declib/podcasts.htm
Q: Do you track usage? A: he started with paid commercial online service, now doing in-house. commercial service gave good stats. He recommends keeping on local server, but do your best to get stats. Most web stats software systems will track by file hit, type of file. GPC getting 100-150 hits per episode. Events get more traffic. Podcasts may be either news item about the event, or the event itself (if permission is given).
Dowling College LIb - www.dowling.edu/library/newsblog/podcasts.asp - not just college, but also local community events. Quite good. Model is like This American Life.
Instruction:
-tours
-library instruction sessions
-technical training
-internal training, too!
Academic libs in particular looking at podcasting for library and general instruction. May not do whole lesson, but may do overview. Make sure not missing things because of lack of visual clues. For online-only classes, can 'humanize' experience.
www.library.ohiou.edu/podcasts/?page_id=14 - Ohio Univ Alden Library Audio Tour - they have in Swahili and Japanese, as well.
Worcester Polytechnic Inst Library Audio To Go - www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Borrowing/Podcasts - she has good voice for podcasting.
Lansing (IL) PL - how to use Yahoo Mail - www.lansing.lib.il.us/podcast_directory.htm - might be better visually, but can be an augmenting tool.
If you're going to do it, have a plan!
Moraine Valley Comm College Library - www2.morainevalley.edu/default.asp?SiteId=10&PageId=1496 - tied in to their mission
7 Steps to Podcast Heaven
-Recording/Editing - just need $20 microphone. Can go up to $100 Blue Snowball (holy grail of podcasting microphones). Most of rest of needs are free.
Can record skype calls (www.skype.com) - PowerGrammo (www.powergrammo.com) is plug-in (free) for Skype to record.
Audacity - audacity.sourceforge.net - FREE! Very good software. For PC's or Mac.
Garageband - www.apple.com/ilife/garageband - Mac program.
-Listening - listen to it before you post, make sure it's good.
-Hosting - save it somewhere locally if you can, you keep control.
Places online - blip.tv has audio portion, ourmedia.com
Using commercial site can be useful for people finding you. If at all possible, host locally.
-Posting
-Feeding - can do podcast blog, RSS feeds, if have blog, post links to files.
Feedburner -
feeds.feedburner.com/gpclibraryradio (GPC's version) - makes your feed look a little bit better! So if they click on your feed, they don't get the XML nonsense, but a sensible page.
-Promoting - want people to watch. Promote in institution, online, email blast, flyers, etc. You can add your stuff to iTunes (you sign away some options) - easy.
-Evaluate/Repeat - not a one-time process. It is an investment of time - be sure why you're doing that.
8 Things I Learned About Podcasting (David Free)
-make sure it feeds
-promote, then promote more
-keep it short
-use music sparingly! - Creative Commons site has good section to find copyright-free music. WordSafe Music Network. If there's no creative commons license, you'll have to get permission. CCMixter.
-multiple voices rock
-podcast events.
-consider your web presence
-listen to your listeners.
davidfree.pbwiki.com/cil07
(David Free got me to do an audio podcast on my CIL experience. Fun!)
He showed us how to use
Audacity to edit a recorded digital audio. Has an 'undo' feature (yay!). Looks incredibly easy to use! Save project to begin with. Then make an MP3 out of it. Export As MP3. Can tag it when exporting!
With online hosting sites, should be an upload process (like a PDF or similar). He used blip.tv, signed in, went to Upload. Give title, description, browse for file. Can choose Creative Commons license or choose standard all rights reserved. Though blip.tv is primarily video site (free account required), it's also good for audio.
Part II - Videocasting
Video - Show, Don't Tell - davidleeking.com - for Video Blogging Week (he looks like David Byrne!)
davidleeking.com/etc = David's video blog
He posts most of his video on his vblog. Some he puts on his regular blog, if library or libtech related.
RocketBoom - 3 minute daily video blog in NYC - wide range of info. news, quirky internet culture. Created with "consumer-level video camera, two lights and a map!" No promotion, all word of mouth. Low distribution costs, bidirectional discussion. David K. got a mention on rocketboom last year. Over 400,000 viewers/day in less than 2 years. On TiVo and iTunes. Have multi-languages (rocketboom.jp) - have 100% creative control of their commercials.
RocketBoom 2.0 - spinoff (disagreement between originators). (Amanda UnBoomed)
What is VideoBlogging?
Terms: video podcast, videoblog, vlog, v-log, vodcast, videocast. He calls it video blogging.
Is Not:
-digital versions of tv shows
-streaming video - that's so last century!
-not from mainstream media.
Videoblogging = Video on a Blog - it's just content.
Like on any blog, commenting is possible. Two-way interaction. Some people leave video comments on other people's video blogs.
Why is it getting big?
-storage, bandwidth, fast web
-took off in 2005+
-cheap easy mobile video
-video ipods
-ppl discovering great uses that are 'just right' for video
Examples: drum lessons, shortcuts for Treo, library content
How do you find them?
Search engines - bloglines, google,
blinkx ("largest and most advanced video search engine")
Vlog directories - vlogdir, mefeedia (web-based aggregator for video content), iTunes
Search some video sites - youtube, blip.tv
What you need:
-computer
-need the web (broadband)
-a video player (all three): windows media player, quicktime, flash - do need all three, because not streamlined to one type. If have to choose, stick to QuickTime, maybe Flash. (For linux audience, flash is best)
-a video aggregator would be nice: fireant, itunes, mefeedia
To create:
-need computer w/firewire or usb 2.0 input;
-external hard drive - couple hundred GB should do it so you can edit, render.
-need video camera - mini-DV camcorders; cheapie web cam and mic; mobile phone (moblogging) Hint: some laptops have built-in video cameras and mics (new Macs).
-need video editing software
Free and Cheap: apple's iMovie (free w/Mac); Windows Movie Maker; Avid Free DV; Quicktime Pro
Pricey and Powerful: Adobe's Video Suite; Final Cut Pro
-need a blog - any will do; enclosures for rss 2.0 feed (adds direct link to file for download); feedburner is easy and free.
-an idea!
Storage and Access
-these things can be large files - 25MB sometimes
Two options:
1 - store it yourself - server packed with memory, possibly a media server - Quicktime/WMV type thing. Software has some good compression options. iMovie - no.
2 - let someone else store them
Ourmedia, blip.tv, internet archive, google video, others.
LITA Blog uses podpress (part of wordpress suite) to embed, store, manage.
Blip.tv (and to some extent YouTube) give you some code for embedding in blog. In blip.tv either copy and paste code or use "post to blog" option (also youtube).
YouTube
-very popular right now
-they'll store for you
-they'll keep stats
-they'll allow comments on each video
-all they won't do is allow people to download them (so can't take with them)
-figure out if that's a problem or not
What Can Libraries Do With Videoblogging?
-one participant today did viral campaign for library. NJ State Library. They made it by taking library into local library and asked them to tell their 'library story'. They won an InfoTubey!
-"If Barbie Had a Book Club" - Topeka and Shawnee County PL - as part of their Papercuts blog. Embedded. You have to link back, or they won't see it! Some libraries forget to link back.
-Allen County PL - "A Day in Allen County Blooper"
-Orange County FL LSys - whole programs. Rather long. Better to do shorter snippets?
-Clark County Public Library - kids doing films (spiderman, etc.) - some libraries having contests for kids. Lending out cameras or creating spaces.
Traditional ideas:
-book talk
-BI
-PR for the library
-Showing off exhibits
-Interviews
-film your events
-tutorials - searching catalog (screen capture)
More interesting ideas:
-cultural memory project
-local news - happy news from around your branch
-collaborative - PLCMC's ImaginOn - kids making vids
-environmental - discuss environmental isues and nature (invite the zookeeper)
-behind the scenes - what goes on the library
Slightly whacked-out ideas:
-travel - videoblog local attractions; anyone going out of the country?
-political - invite local candidates in to discuss something
-hobbies/lifestyles - lifestyles and hobbies (patrons, staff, prominent citizens) in a TV Mag format.
More Info: books, etc. on videoblogging; groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging
conferences: vloggercon, etc. (Podcasting: Podcamp) South by Southwest interactive.
Q: rule of thumb for # of minutes of pod/videocast and how big file will be?
A: DF: he encodes at 96kb/sec for podcasts (audio). Makes manageable size. DK: Video is more gray. Try this site for tutorials:
Freevlog.com Depends on kind of audio with the video, quality you want, etc. DF uses liberated syndication site for info. (libsyn)
Q: how much time are you spending doing this? A: DF - 5-10 times length of final product at beginning, but goes down once you get used to it. It IS time-consuming. DK: Double that for video.
We then did video of my buddy Ruth (Skokie PL) doing her now-famous straw whistle talent, including an instructional and participatory portion.
DK using Sanyo Xacti camera, uses SD card. Takes video, puts card in card reader, pulls video to hard drive. 1GB card will keep 1-1.5hrs of video on it (DK). Is in MP4 format. Use freeware MP4CamtoAVI Easy Converter to change to AVI for editing (because he's using Windows machine to edit). Can do more than one file at a time. Easy! Drag and drop two AVI files into Windows Movie Maker software. (DK: his version of WMM is very buggy, save often!). WMM comes standard with XP. Drag it onto your timeline. Then do editing. If need to remove, split clip into two in order to delete a portion. Hint: keep video as short as possible to keep audience attention. Can merge files (we had demo and instruction on two different videos). Hint: with video, be aware of where lights are (our instruction section was darker, cuz he was facing sunlight out door). Videoediting takes longer than audio, generally. Tools - titles and credits - add title/tags. Can change text font and color at this point; title animation. Check Your Work! AVI file is huge - best to translate to .mov file, which is much compressed. Open AVI file with QuickTime Player - File - Export - Save as Quick Time Movie (.mov). Options - compression H.264 (good one), high quality, frame rate 15fr/sec. Sound 22000KHz (CD quality is 44000, but it's okay). Makes it into YouTube-type size for web. Went from 288MB to 14MB - AVI to Quicktime.
