December 6, 2005

Another re-design and a DRM primer

Just a day after we announce Audible’s new re-design I notice that Simply Audiobooks now has a brand new site and that they are selling downloadable audio books. There’s certainly a lot going on in the audio book space. This brings the number of major audio book sites that have undergone significant re-launches/site re-designs in the last couple of months to three: Audible.com, SoundsGood.com and Simply Audiobooks.

Simply Audiobooks is selling downloads using the Microsoft Digital Rights Management (DRM). Unfortuately this means that they won’t be compatible with the Apple iPod. Here’s a quick primer on audio book DRM (for those that care):

-Digital Rights Managements or DRM refers to the technology that makes it difficult to illegally copy or share an audio book. For instance, you might be able to listen to an audio book you’ve purchased on two different computers but not on three. That would be an example of DRM in action.

-Apple’s DRM is called FairPlay and they do not license it. The only company that can use Apple’s DRM for spoken word audio is Audible.com and that arrangement is in place through 2007. What this means is that if you are looking to purchase an audio book with DRM you must go through Audible. Of course if the audio book does not have DRM (e.g., an MP3 file purchased here at LearnOutLoud) then you can play it on the iPod with no problems.

-Microsoft’s DRM is called PlaysForSure. Anything you purchase with the Microsoft DRM attached does play for sure…unless you happen to have an Apple iPod. This is definitely a downside of the Microsoft DRM since 75%+ off all portable media devices are iPods. The companies utilizing the PlaysForSure DRM include SoundsGood.com, Simply Audiobooks and Jiggerbug.

-While DRM does offer protection to publishers and content producers it isn’t without its downside. There can be compatability issues and other usability problems such as not being able consume your legally downloaded content as you would like to. There’s also an additional cost to implementing DRM.

Anyway, I’ve probably told you more than you ever wanted to know about DRM so I’ll stop for now. If you’ve got any thoughts or questions about DRM let’s continue the discussion in the forums.

December 5, 2005

In Today’s Audio Learning News…

A few quick newsworthy audio learning-related items to pass along:

AmigoFish Launches – Dave Slusher has launched AmigoFish, a new service to help you find podcasts you’ll like based on your ratings of podcasts you’ve already listened to. It’s about time something like this came out. I’m very surprised that Slusher beat Yahoo, Odeo, Podcast Alley and others to the punch on this. I hope he does well with it. It’s definitely a much-needed service that becomes increasingly valuable as more people use it.

New Audible Re-Design – Audible.com has unveiled a fairly significant site re-design. I don’t what to make of the new look. I think I liked their old site better. It was more inviting. And adding to “Beta” moniker to their logo is just a bit too trendy. If you have a brand new service you’re launching telling everyone it’s still in Beta is kinda cool but I’m not sure you need to do this just because you’ve redesigned your site…

Bookchips to Be Available in Airports – Audiofy announced a deal with Airport Wireless Rental to make their Audiobook Chips available in airport stores. This makes a lot of sense as it’s a great way to business travels and others to grab portable audio to listen to while in the air. I think they’ll do real well with this.

Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast Launches – OK, one internal item of news. 🙂 Today we started sending out the Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast, a daily podcast of inspirational quotes and teaches. Check it out when you get a chance. We think you’ll dig it. To subscribe go to https://www.learnoutloud.com/wisdom or search the iTunes directory for “zaadz”.

OK, that’s the news and I am outta here!

December 2, 2005

E-Magazine #7 – December 2nd, 2005

Holiday Gift Ideas

Audio books make great holiday gifts! Rather than giving someone a book they may never read or another piece of clothing to stuff an already full closet, why not get them something you know they’ll use. Just about everyone has a good amount of time in their vehicle and a well-chosen audio book is an excellent way to help them enjoy that time.

We’ve combed the Catalog at LearnOutLoud (rapidly approaching 10,000 titles) to pick out a few titles that make great gift ideas. Here are some of our recommendations:

The Chronicles of Narnia CD Box Set – By now you’ve probably seen the commercial for Narnia, the new Walt Disney movie that will be released in a couple of weeks. This movie is based on the Chronicles of Narnia series of books by C. S. Lewis. This box set contains all seven unabridged recordings (31 discs in all!) at a very reasonable price.

Freakonomics – If you’re the type who views economics as a boring and stuffy subject, Steven Levitt’s bestseller Freakonomics will shatter those myths. Levitt offers an informative and enlightening look at society through the lens of an inquisitive economist. Highly listenable and a great gift for just about anyone on your list. Other similar titles include two from Malcolm Gladwell: Blink and The Tipping Point.

Titles that are religious or spiritual in nature and that make great gifts include Joel Osteen’s popular new audio book Your Best Life Now, Eckhart Tolle’s classic The Power of Now and the The King James Bible read by James Earl Jones (we like to refer to this one as the “King James Earl Jones” Bible!).

Finally, a great audio book that just about everyone will enjoy is David McCullough’s “Biography of a Year” 1776. It’s also available in an abridged version here. If you’re interested in getting a little taste of 1776 for free, check out the free WGBH production of David McCullough’s presentation Biography of a Year: 1776.

That’s just a small sampling of what’s available. We have over 2,000 titles discounted 20-40% off. Visit our On Sale Section to find that perfect holiday gift.

We’ve Been Dugg and Delicious’zed…

It was a pretty exciting week here at LearnOutLoud headquarters. We ended up on the front page of technology news site Digg.com which led to prominent placement on social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and Furl and brief write-ups on Lifehacker (don’t worry, it’s a site about personal productivity, not hacking…) and Yahoo! News. We experienced traffic levels that were almost 10 times the norm which explains a bit of the sluggishness that you may have noticed.

Welcome to all of the new people who visited and those of you who subscribed to our newsletter and are reading it for the first time. It’s great to have you onboard at the start of the Audio Learning Revolution!

Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast To Launch Monday

On Monday we’ll be launching the Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast, a daily podcast consisting of inspirational quotes from philosophers, psychologists, spiritual teachers and optimal living gurus along with related commentary. The Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast is hosted by Brian Johnson, Philosopher & CEO of Zaadz, Inc. It’s a great podcast to subscribe to and listen to first thing in the morning or on your way to work. Some of the individuals profiled in the first month of the Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast include Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Martin Seligman, Socrates and Marianne Williamson.

We’ve had a chance to preview the first month’s worth of episodes of the Daily Wisdom Podcast here and you’re in for a treat. We’ve reviewed thousands of podcasts and we haven’t come across anything like what Brian has put together. To subscribe to the Zaadz Daily Wisdom Podcast go to https://www.learnoutloud.com/wisdom or search the iTunes Directory for “zaadz”. While you’re at it head on over to zaadz.com and check out their hot new site.

Announcing the Winner of the Nano Contest

We’re proud to announce the winner of our Nano contest which is Brad Rhoads of Winfield, IL. Brad won by linking to us from his blog here. Congrats Brad!

Titles Under $10

A few titles under $10 from our Sale Section:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (CD for $9.80, Cassette for $9.10)
Acres of Diamonds (Digital Download for $2.98)
The Magic Story (Digital Download for $1.98)
Unlimited Power (CD or Cassette for $9.80)

Latest Resources, Articles and Blog Posts

Resources:

• 
  Sounds True Publisher Page

Articles:

• 
  Recording a Lecture or Seminar

BlogOutLoud.com:

• How to Become an Audio Learning Junkie, Part One
• Bono Out Loud
• Wiki Out Loud: Wikipedia Entries on Audio
• The “Tepping” Point Part One and The “Tepping” Point Part Two

Visit our blog at:
www.BlogOutLoud.com.

Register and
participate in the
LearnOutLoud.com Forums.

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays everyone! Cherish the time you
have with your friends and family. Count your
blessings. Remember the important things (hint:
it’s not stuff…) this time of year.

Best wishes,

The LearnOutLoud.com Staff

December 1, 2005

Audio and Video Learning Around the World

So I popped on in to Google Analytics tonight to check on our stats and found the map of our vistitors fascinating. Each of the dots on the map represents a city from where at least 30 people came to our site in the last week. Where did we receive the most visits from? Taipei. 710 visits this week. Gives me chills just thinking about people in China firing up their web browser and listening to audio and video learning content, improving their English skills, etc.

I exchanged e-mails today with a sweet lady from China who explained to me how grateful she was to have found LearnOutLoud.com. Here’s a bit of what she said:

maybe its main idea is not to practise one’s listening, but obviously it’s a big potential benifit to english learner, especially who want to improve their listening.

The potential for audio and video learning and podcasting is amazing. It can open up new worlds for people in places like China. And there will be an incredible demand for ESL and other english language programs in these countries. Likewise there will be a lot of demand for programs to learn languages like Mandarin. A prime example of this is the fact that the third most popular podcast on Yahoo’s podcast directory is ChinesePod, a podcast out of Shanghai that teaches Mandarin Chinese through daily audio lessons.

The most apropros sign might have been the title that my new friend in China originally e-mailed me about. What was it?

The World is Flat

Yes, indeed it is.

November 30, 2005

Podcast History

I decided to take a hand at recording my own Wikipedia entry today. The results, for better or worse, can be found here with my rendition of Wikipedia’s entry for Podcasting. I was astonished to see how much the definition and history of podcasting had expanded over the past few weeks (then again, just look at how much Wikipedia itself has grown in the last year). I keep up with podcasting’s development on a daily basis so I have an incremental knowledge of what’s happening and what might happen. When you actually step back and take stock of what’s changed in this sphere over the last few months, you see the incredible strides the medium has made.

Personally speaking, I’ve never had such direct access to an emerging technology much less known at the moment that I was actually taking a small part in its development. Thanks to podcasting I basically got a crash course in how the internet of the 21st century works. We started doing our own shows at LearnOutLoud last February and that seems like a million years ago now. Back then we didn’t know if anyone was listening to these things or if this whole medium had any legs at all. Now even my mother knows what a podcast is, and she’s beginning to think about trading her walkman in for an iPod nano. I still can’t predict the future of the art much less tell you what the present state of it is at any given instance. If anything I’ve come to know that technology is no longer a static thing (if indeed it ever was) and I’ve become accustomed to this constant flux.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my reading for you. It has really placed the recent past into perspective for me and I think it serves perfectly as a podcast definition. It is also a valuable primer for all of the new listeners that join the podcasting community on a regular basis. With podcasting, the history books are being re-written every single day, and every moment of this is recorded by people like you and me.

November 29, 2005

…and Furled…and Lifehacked…and Yahoo’ed!

It’s been a bit of a wild last 30 hours or so. First the front page of Digg. Then the front page for del.icio.us where we still are over 30 hours later (I have no idea how that works). Furl kicked in a little bit. Then we thought the coast was clear.

Then around 1 PM PST today we got posted on the front page of a very cool blog called Lifehacker. (Apparently it’s very popular as well.) Then, to double our pleasure (or pain depending on how the server is acting at that minute) we see that Lifehacker’s article is syndicated to Yahoo! News. So in the span of 24 hours we go from nothing to getting posted on five of the biggest websites on the Net. Crazy…

Anyway, just two reasons for posting this. First, to explain why the site has been sluggish and apologize for any less-than-stellar experience that you have had with the site. We think we’re in the clear now publicity-wise although the way the last couple of days have gone I wouldn’t be surprised if Oprah gave me a call later tonight. 😉

Second, to say that this is all really cool. It’s fun to see all the support for what we’re doing and I hope that many of the thousands of people who’ve been introduced to the site in the last couple of days will return soon and often. It’s also really cool to me personally that maybe, just maybe, for a few of you who visited this might have been a spark to figure out what this whole “audio learning” thing is all about. If all of the Diggs, Furls, del.icio.us bookmarks, etc. cause one new person to view their commute tomorrow as “prime learning time” then for me the headache of trying to keep up a server over the last 30 straight hours that I’ve been awake has been well, well worth it. 🙂

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

(Updated 11/30/05 – Had the wrong URL for Furl…)

November 28, 2005

We’ve been dugg! (and del.icio.us’zed…)

If you’ve been on the site at all today you’ve probably noticed that it’s a bit sluggish (or downright inaccessible). This was due to a huge influx of new visitors that happened when we made the homepage over at Digg.com. We made the homepage around 10 AM PST today and within an hour we were the victim of the “Digg Effect” (something so common that it even has its own Wikipedia entry).

We’ve been working hard to get the site up and it looks like most of the site is functioning properly (albeit a bit sluggishly) with the exception of the Free Audio and Video Directory which we’ve replaced with a static page until things stabilize. It also didn’t help that in addition to being “buried” (the alternative moniker to the Digg Effect) we also have been on the popular list over at del.icio.us for a good chunk of the day.

Anyway, thanks to all the new folks for stopping by. We hope to have the site fully operational soon so you can see all we have to offer. In the meantime, bookmark us (or bookmark us in the del.icio.us), sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our blog or podcast so we can keep in touch with you. Apologies to all of you for the inconvenience.

(And if you’re not familiar with Digg.com or del.icio.us I would definitely recommend to go check them out. They’re two of the coolest sites on the Net!)

November 27, 2005

IT Conversations

I’ve been a big fan of IT Conversations ever since I started listening. I simply don’t think that there is anyone else out there producing audio content as consistently solid as what Doug Kaye and his legion of volunteers are doing. And what started out as a lot of conversations about technology has evolved into so much more. Here’s a recent sampling of episodes I enjoyed listening to:

Tim Zak’s interview with Ethan Zuckerman on the subject of Africa and social entrepreneurship from the Globeshakers Podcast
Moira Gunn’s interview with Dr. Andrew Weil on the subject of aging and longevity from the Tech Nation Podcast
John Battelle’s conversation with Vinod Khosla from the Web 2.0 Conference

This is just a sampling of some of the amazing stuff that’s out there. We’ve re-done our listing of the IT Conversations podcasts and added a simple re-direct for you to be able to find them:

https://www.learnoutloud.com/itconversations

You can find all of these programs at ITConversations.com as well. This is just our way of trying to give this wealth of amazing audio content some more exposure. Also, we’ve added in links for one-click subscriptions through iTunes and to product pages on Odeo and Yahoo! Podcasts to make it even easier for you.

Please don’t forget to support IT Conversations as it is a listener-supported non-profit. Here’s a link to go to if you would like to donate. Finally, check out Doug’s Conversations Network. I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record about this but I really feel that what he will be doing with this will change the world.

November 26, 2005

The “Tepping” Point Here at Home

On Wednesday I wrote an entry about The Tepping Point, a grossly simplified equation (Technology + Education = Productivity > Progress) that I fell underlies which economies become successful and which fall behind. I framed it in the context of Africa and Jeffrey Sach’s groundbreaking book The End of Poverty. However, the Tepping Point isn’t just a concept that it’s important for economic develpment abroad. It’s just as important right here in the U.S.

I’m reading the most recent issue of Fortune and I came back-to-back articles where the Tepping Point has direct relevance. The first (“Get a Life!“) describes the increasing desire of men to have better work/family/life balance. One of the main issues: Can people be as productive (or even more productive) while working 40-50 hour weeks as they are if they are working 60, 70 or even 80 hours a week? The second article (“It’s His Economy Now–And Yours” includes a couple of interesting charts that plot the growth of real GDP and real wages and salaries over the last five years. The take-away? While real GDP has been relatively strong (3-4% over the last couple of years), real wages and salaries have been falling for the last couple of years.

With a few blips on the radar the U.S. economy has been on relative easy streets for the last couple of decades. It’s easy to think that will continue indefinitely, especially when we’ve been in the midst of such a prolonged uptick. However, history is full of examples of countries that were on top and presumably invincible one year can find themselves in troubled waters only a few years after. One only needs to look to what’s happened in Japan over the last decade as evidence of that.

One again, let me offer a full disclaimer that I’m far from anything remotely resembling an economist but I get the general sense that there could be economic trouble ahead for the United States. Not in the sense of “Oh my gosh we’re going to have another Depression and everyone is going to be poor.” Rather a sense that although we will continue to do well and specific sectors might do very well that we’re going to face an intense challenge from China, India and other countries that are growing at a much faster rate than we are.

China’s economy is growing at a rate of 8% per year. Let me repeat that. China’s economy is growing at a rate of 8% per year. With that type of torrid growth rate we don’t need to look forward more than a couple of decades to a time when China, not the United States, will rule the world economically. After all, as I read in the early pages of The End of Poverty, it was a mere 1% difference in GDP growth rates between the U.S. and Africa between 1820 and 1998 that lead us becoming an economic power and Africa becoming an economic backwater.

OK, full disclaimer #2: I don’t care who wins. I love my country as much as anyone but I also don’t define myself by it. So I don’t write any of this in the interest of trying to imply that it’s bad if China or India or somebody else takes over the #1 spot in the world’s economy. Rather I want to see all nations and all individuals succeed to their best possible ability.

And that’s what I love about the Tepping Point. It’s the furthest thing from a zero-sum game that you can find. Technological development and educational advancement form a tide that lifts all boats. No one loses in a more educated society. That’s the beauty.

And to be honest, just as Africa has a long way to go in terms of education so do we here in the United States. Many K-12 schools are in a lot of trouble as over-worked teachers struggle to deal with larger class sizes and fewer resources. Colleges and universities are still world leaders but many American students are falling behind their often harder-working foreign classmates.

And adult education? Well the most telling sign for me of the state of adult education is when I tell people that I have a company that sells audio and video educational products. The immediate assumption by the vast majority of people is that we offer products for children. It takes many people a surprisingly long time to get the fact that we’re trying to educate people who’ve already finished “their education” (as defined by that high school/college/graduate diploma).

Sure, a lot of people are good at learning what they need to know for work. Which is fine until you switch positions or careers and realize that this often means developing a whole new skill set. Or until you’re forced to deal with the fact that innovation is moving at break-neck speeds and that the knowledge you have today is increasingly likely to become obsolete a couple of years from now. Or until you wake up and realize that 1.3 billion Chinese people are now a prime player in the global economy and that many of those people want your jobs and are very qualified to take them.

But by then it might be too late. That’s what we want to help prevent here at LearnOutLoud. We want you to start Learning Out Loud before you find yourself in a position of learning too late.

November 23, 2005

The “Tepping” Point and The End of Poverty

Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but our time.

If that doesn’t send chills down your spine I’m not sure what will. It’s in the introduction of Jeffrey Sachs’ revolutionary new book The End of Poverty (Note: I just put up a free video lecture from Sachs here). I’m about 35 pages into this and it’s an incredible combination of history and economics lessons and a call to action that we actually have the ability to put an end to extreme poverty including the continent that suffers the worst from its economic situation: Africa.

Helping Africa has long been a personal passion of mine and I fully expect to devote significant chunks of my life to doing what I can to improve the situation over there. It’s no doubt a complex and daunting challenge to even make a dent in what often seems to be an overwhelming set of challenges. But I don’t think we have a choice. If we believe in equality and justice then I think we must help.

As I was reading The End of Poverty I developed a (very) minor thesis which I’ll call The TEPPing Point (apologies to Malcolm Gladwell). What is the TEPPing Point? It’s a simple equation:

Technology + Education = Productivity > Progress

The combination of an improved technological infrastructure and increased access to education will lead to higher productivity. At the end of the day higher productivity means higher wages and ultimately economic progress. Sachs offer some illuminating points early in the book when he talks about how just a couple of centuries ago Africa wasn’t all that far behind the rest of the world economically. However for the last couple of decades the rest of the world has advanced at a quicker rate leaving Africa in the dust. That’s the main reason (I am likely oversimplifying here) behind why we see extreme levels of wealth in North America, Europe and Asia while most people in Africa live on a few dollars a day or less.

Why am I talking about this here on LearnOutLoud? Well, for starters we’re doing our best to work on the “E” of the TEPPing Point. We feel that by enabling and encouraging audio and video education both here and abroad that we’re doing our part (albeit perhaps a small part at this stage) to raise productivity and economic progress.

Consider this. I formed a bit of this theory while listening to a great interview on the IT Conversations Globeshakers podcast. In it, Tim Zak interviews technologist Ethan Zuckerman and asks the question “Why Should We Care About Africa?” A couple of years ago I would have had no way to access that conversation. Today it’s as easy as plugging into an RSS feed and listening to it on my iPod. That’s the kind of thing we want to enable on a wide-scale. Globeshaking indeed…

As far as technology is concerned some amazing strides are being made. In the interview Zuckerman talks about the incredible impact that the sub-$100 laptop that Nicholas Negroponte and others at MIT are developing will have (for a collection of links on this click here). He also relayed a story about how parents in Ghana (where Zuckerman has spent a good deal of time) will save money for months so that their children can spend time at cyber cafes in the hopes that the technical skills they’ll pick up will help them to have a brighter economic future. (Note: When thinking about things to be thankful for tomorrow perhaps adding easy Internet access is something we should all be adding to our list?)

Indeed, I can feel a TEPPing Point coming. Things are accelerating at such a tremendous rate. If we (I speak collectively here) can bring technology and education to developing and impoverished countries without exploiting those countries in the process then we will change the world. When a kid growing up in Ghana can watch lectures from Stanford on his sub-$100 laptop or listen to foreign language training courses on her sub-$20 iPod then we will change the world. When the quality of a child’s education no longer depends on an accident of latitude and longitude then we will change the world.

And I can’t think of anything I would rather be thankful for in another decade or two than a world in which no one has to go to bed hungry or die from diseases that are ridiculously easy to prevent.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at LearnOutLoud.com to all of you around the world.