March 17, 2006

Shownotes for Audio Learning Revolution Episode #016

Audio Learning Revolution Podcast for March 17th, 2006

March 16, 2006

Our Highest-Rated Podcast

I cruised into our podcast directory tonight and noticed that the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast is now our highest-rated podcast based on your ratings. I can’t think of a more deserving podcast as I’ve learned a ton from just about every episode and some of them (like the one with Trilogy Founder Joe Liemandt) have been downright amazing.

I just got down listening to the latest episode and it’s excellent. It’s a presentation by John Roos, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and it’s packed full of great advice for entrepreneurs. If you’re running a company or thinking of starting one in the future I’d highly recommend this podcast. It’s tough to get this type of insight into entrepreneurship anywhere else.

Oh, and before I forget, in other podcasting news, PaidContent.org reports that Podtech.net has received $5.5 million in funding. This is pretty significant news as it means that there will be a lot more cool stuff coming from John Furrier, the creator of the excellent Media InfoTalk Podcast. Kudos to John of closing this funding and we’ll be looking forward to (and reporting on!) what comes of the Podtech Network in the future.

March 15, 2006

Reading aloud for a living

Good article from the LA Times about audiobook narrators:

Reading aloud for a living

A couple of good passages:

A survey done by the trade association found the average listener earns 25 percent more than nonlisteners, has a higher level of education and is more likely to hold a professional or managerial position.

I’ve always known that audiobook listeners were smarter than the average folk.

With iTunes, Audible.com, Mediabay.com, Jiggerbug.com and other Web sites sending downloadable audiobooks through cyberspace, prices will inevitably go down.

What?! Where’s LearnOutLoud? 🙂 I guess I need to drop Mimi an e-mail…

March 13, 2006

French look to open iTunes to other music players

France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker’s popular iPod player.

Read more

The reason that stuff like this is important is that closed systems almost always stifle innovation. Currently you can only listen to songs (and audiobooks, podcasts, etc.) that you’ve put in iTunes if you have an iPod. By opening up iTunes to other devices there would likely be increased competition in the device player market which would lead to technological advances and drops in pricing.

Apple no doubt feels that by controlling both the software (iTunes) and the hardware (the iPod) that they can provide a superior user experience. To a certain extent that’s been true to date. If you’ve had a chance to compare the iPod/iTunes/Fairplay DRM package to the alternatives you’ll likely agree.

But to move forward these systems must become more open. I had a chance to watch a great presentation a week ago on the subject of the future of media and a great quote from Rob Lord was included:

“What if Internet Explorer only went to Microsoft’s site?”

If that was the case we would be back in the dark ages in terms of web development. Fortunately Microsoft allowed users of Internet Explorer to go other places besides microsoft.com. Let’s hope that Apple does something similar and opens up iTunes and the iPod to competing music and spoken word services and players. That’s something that would be in the best interest of everyone.

March 10, 2006

The Greatest Speeches of All Time

There’s something mighty powerful about listening to historic speeches. Whether you’re listening to FDR, JFK or MLK (or even someone whose name isn’t an acronym!), there’s a feeling of energy and perspective that simply can’t be duplicated. It’s one thing to read Winston Churchill or read about him. It’s another thing entirely to listen to him.

And there are many other benefits of listening to this type of stuff. You gain a better understanding of rhetoric. It’s a great way to brush up on our English if English is not your native lanugage. And it’s an incredible way to both be inspired and learn more about American and world history.

And you can do it all in your car on the way to work. 🙂

We’re proud to feature titles by companies such as Speechworks on LearnOutLoud and look forward to bringing more and more of this type of content in the future. A personal dream of mine is a service like Real Rhapsody or Yahoo! Music but for speeches like this where you could call up your favorite historical figure or inspirational leader and within seconds be listening to any of the speeches they’ve given. How cool would that be? Maybe we’ll just have to build that…

March 6, 2006

The Top 10 People Who Should Be Podcasting

Yup, there are a lot of cool people podcasting these days. But there are also a lot who haven’t started yet. I realize that a lot of people will never podcast for reasons ranging from a simple lack of time to the fact that a few words one way or another in a podcast could swing their companies’ stock prices pretty radically (e.g., Mr. Gates, Sergey and Larry). But I think there are a bunch of people who out there who could be persuaded into giving podcasting a try. Who knows, maybe if this article gets enough buzz one of them will give it a go. So without further ado, here’s my Wish List of the Top 10 People I’d Love to See Podcasting:

10. Steve Wozniak – One of the co-founders of Apple, Woz is always interesting to listen to. He’s been on This Week in Tech a couple of times and also has the proud distinction of being the subject of the most popular IT Conversations episode of all-time. Here’s one vote for Woz starting a mobile podcast that he’d record while in his Prius or on his Segway.

9. Mark Cuban – Blog Maverick, Cuban’s blog, is among my favorites. He’s got a great perspective on business, sports and entertainment. As those worlds converge at an accelerating pace Cuban’s dialogue becomes more and more relevant. He’s a busy guy these days but sticking a mic on him once a week to get his thoughts on the future of media, his advice on investing and entrepreneurship and the occasional rant about Phil Jackson would be pretty frickin’ sweet. While we’re waiting on the CubanCast check out his interview with John Furrier from the InfoTalk Podcast and his conversation with John Heilemann from the Web 2.0 Conference.

8. Margaret Cho – She has a blog, a My Space site and even a line of belly-dancing clothes. What more could the Notorious C.H.O. want? A podcast, that’s what. Give her an open mic and an RSS feed and just see what happens. I have no doubt that it would be interesting and most likely offensive to at least half of the people listening…

7. Tom Peters – Crazy passionate. That’s the best phrase I could think of describe Tom Peters. He’s been a blogger for a while now but to really experience Peters you need to listen to him. Give an ear to a bit of Re-Imagine! and tell me if this guy isn’t on fire. He’s always on the road giving speeches and presentations. Someone needs to start recording some of them and putting them out there for the rest of the world to hear. Pretty please…

6. The Dalai Lama – The Dalai Lama is the author of dozens of books, many of which have been published on audio and which he has personally narrated. Belief Net has a number of “mini-dharma” talks available but it would be cool to see an audio and/or video podcast feed. No doubt thousands or even millions of people around the world would tune in.

5. Jason Calacanis – I had a chance to see Jason offer up a rant last weekend at BarCampLosAngeles. I love hearing him speak. He’s definitely one of the most opinionated guys out there but he’s on the mark at least 98% of the time. Check out his interview on the Web 2.0 Show for a glimpse into what a CalacanisCast might sound like. No dull moments guaranteed!

4. Guy Kawasaki – The managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and another high-profile author who just started blogging. Based on the volume of his posts Guy either has some time on his hands or types very, very fast. Personally, I can’t keep up. Now if he’d make some of those articles available on audio it might give a guy a fighting chance! Watch his presentation here to the UCLA Anderson School or listen to a chapter from The Art of the Start and see if this isn’t a guy who would be a good entrant into the Podosphere.

3. Andrew Sullivan – Gay? Conservative? Practicing Roman Catholic? Intriguing. I’ve been following Andrew’s blog The Daily Dish off and on for the last couple of years. It’s one of those that I’d like to have the time to digest but never quite get around to. Now if he podcasted it would be totally different. I could listen during my daily jog, when I’m driving around, etc. I’ve never heard him speak but if his podcast would be even half as interesting as his blog it would be worth the subscription.

2. Seth Godin – The author of Permission Marketing, Purple Cow and most recently All Marketers Are Liars has one of the most popular blogs going. He’s an innovate thinker and a dynamic speaker (Godin recently was chosen as on of “21 Speakers for the Next Century” by Successful Meetings Magazine). Check out the recent talk he gave to Google to get a sense of what a Godin podcast might sound like. I’d certainly subscribe.

1. Bill Clinton – He has some spare time on his hands these days right? Well actually he has been quite busy doing a lot of work with his foundation and with former President George Bush raising money for last year’s tsunami and hurricane victims. Even though he is retired from office it would be interesting to see him follow in the footsteps of other political figures like John Edwards and Barack Obama and put out a podcast. For an example of what it might sound like check out an interview of Clinton from this year’s World Economic Forum. It would definitely be interesting to more stuff like that.

Of course one-person podcasts don’t seem to end up working out that well. So perhaps (and I know I’m reaching now) some of these people could team up. A Cuban/Calacanis podcast? (Cuban invested in Weblogs, Inc., the company Jason recently sold to AOL.) How about Godin and Peters? (That would be some good brain candy.) Or maybe we could use the husband-wife formula that worked so well for Dawn and Drew and get Hillary and Bill to podcast together? On second thought…

March 5, 2006

World Economic Forum Podcast and Webcast

Another cool offering: The World Economic Forum that happened in January in Davos, Switzerland is available to watch or listen to online. Some of the people who spoke or were panel members include:

Larry Summers
Michael Dell
Bono
Thomas Friedman
Bill Gates
Bill Clinton

Some heavy hitters huh? Kind of like an international version of the TED Conference.

One of the best things about the Forum is that the audio and video downloads are being made possible by an innovative new company called Red Swoosh. The company has an application that offers legal P2P services to media companies and organizations. I had a chance to chat with the founder Travis Kalanick today at BarCampLosAngeles and see him do a demo. I was very impressed with the technology. You’ll be hearing a lot more about his company in the future.

If you’re looking to feed your head with some good stuff head on over to the World Economic Forum website, download the Red Swoosh client and check out some good stuff.

March 5, 2006

“All Marketers are Liars” – Seth Godin speaks at Google

Cool. We need more of this type of stuff available online. 🙂

“All Marketers are Liars” – Seth Godin speaks at Google

March 3, 2006

Most Teaching Company Lectures on Download

I was visiting the Teaching Company site and most of their courses are now on audio download. When purchased the courses are available for download on both MP3 and bookmarkable MPEG-4 files which is good for people that don’t have an iPod. Also their downloads are contained in a download library so you can always go back and download again if need be. The prices of their downloads are about equal to the price of audio cassettes, which is reasonable if they’re discounted. Here’s the Teaching Company courses on our site updated with the ones that are now available on audio download:

https://www.learnoutloud.com/teachingcompany

March 2, 2006

ITunes Fails to Meet Free University Ideal

Here’s my first gripe: Podcasting is based on open — HTTP, RSS — and vendor-neutral MP3 Latest News about MP3 standards. However, Apple’s iTunes U is, quite unnecessarily, a walled garden. Among mainstream programs, only the iTunes client can download the talks. Among mainstream players, only iTunes, QuickTime and the iPod can play them.

I couldn’t agree more with you Mr. Udell.

ITunes Fails to Meet Free University Ideal