phyllostachys 66: Minute Tech 51 Show Transcript

51 - What's the Best Communications Medium?

Good morning, this is Alex Landefeld with episode 51 of the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Saturday & Sunday, December 15th and 16th, 2007

On this tech podcast about the broader meanings of technology, we'll mention:

- David Letterman seeks relief;
- What's the Best Communications Medium?
- Recent Shows of VentureVoice and The Engaging Brand.

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Minute Tech podcast is brought to you in part by:

Larry Tolbert's Sunday Morning Taiji - learning tai chi and qi gong 9:30 am every Sunday morning at the Dunamis Baptist Church, in Wilkinsburg, PA. "Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji" - e-mail leonardtolbert-[at]-hotmail-[dot]-com for more info.

And:

Ravelings, by Carol. Pittsburgh-region classes in needle-craft - encompassing crochet, embroidery, knitting, & tatting, as well as an associated lace collection. For more information, contact Carol at carolb207-[at]-alltel-[dot]-net.

Tech News:

Bill Carter and Michael Cieply report via the New York Times today that David Letterman is seeking a deal with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) that would allow his show, and his show alone, to get off the tarmac and start flying again. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show on Comedy Central is seeking the same sort of deal. Apparently the East and West portions of the WGA are encouraging individual employers to deal with it, directly, rather than the big conglomerate studios who have always in the past dominated these negotiations...the like of GE, News Corp, Walt Disney and others. This could be interesting...

LiveScience.com reports on some very interesting stories:

Via the SciTech pages of FoxNews.com comes the story about how a thin spot in the Earth's crust may be allowing a hotspot of magma from Earth's mantle to heat the underside of Greenland's ice-sheets. If this interpretation of data collected is accurate, it could point to other non-human reasons for melting of the ice in Northern Latitudes.

From LiveScience.com's website, one interesting story is about some surprising finds pointing to advanced levels of glass-making skills present in Egyptian society about the time of Tutankhamun's predecessor, Akhenaten...around 1350 BC. Previously, glass found in the Nile valley civilizations was thought to have been produced elsewhere, but archaeologists recent rebuilt a 3000-year-old kiln that could have been used to produce glass. The archaeologist then fired the kiln and produced a credible glass ingot from local sand.

Tech Question: What's the Best Communications Medium?

Pittsburgh's local members of the online film-making and educational guild Pixelcorps.com had their December meeting yesterday at the Carnegie Science Center. The presentation given by Alex Lindsay, a founder of Pixelcorps, was an overview of the "podcast" film-making that Pixelcorps is involved in.

Interesting, when I think "podcast" I think of the simple form of audio presentation that you're listening to now. But wait. What are you watching on that little iPod Nano?

So, while it's relatively easy for me to produce this show, it may not be the best way to get information across to the masses. Think of the difference between television and radio. Which do you think provides better information? Right - television...which is why it has created such huge global industry.

Therefore Pixelcorps.com is building a corps of global technology workers who can provide expertise for writing, producing, crafting and distributing podcast video.

There are blossoming online "networks" of programming, i.e., episodic content that is pre-recorded for entertainment and education. In addition to their various audio and video podcast shows, Pixelcorps has produced the following shows:

- "PixelPerfect" on Revision3.com
- "Food Science" and "Cocktails on the Fly" on www.onnetworks.com;

So, our topics this week will be focused on the Question stated above, What's the Best Communications Medium.

Many, many people are thinking quickly and hard about how to take advantage of the coming need for communication content....are you among them?

Podcasting - Blogging News:

Gregory Galant is back with an new "Venture Voice" interview, this time with Tom Perkins, of the Kleiner Perkins venture capital company. Perkins has published his autobiography, or memoir, "Valley Boy: the Education of Tom Perkins". Galant takes us, with his questions of Perkins, the book and Perkins life in general, on a very interesting trip through a fascinating slice of technology, business and Silicon Valley.

VV Show #47: http://www.venturevoice.com/

Two of Anna Farmery's most recent shows, #'s 128 and 129 of The Engaging Brand were next on my iPod Shuffle yesterday morning. The interview podcasts were, respectively, "Lessons form Non Profit for Business" and "Sound as Part of Your Brand Strategy". Once again, I've gotta listen to these again...

In 128, Anna interviews Beth Kanter, of social media blog beth.typepad.com about some of the amazing things that non-profits do for new media...to get the word out. The important thing here: nonprofits focus on getting to your emotions...whereas for-profits may focus too much of winning you over via the finance of a proposal. Much we can learn from that!

In 129, the brains of Ronna Porter and Micheal Spencer of Sound-strategies.co.uk talk about how sound can be used as part of your branding strategy. "Are you tuned in to sound" - this is the first thing you see on their website - sound...and these days the infrequent absence of sound...is around us everyday, every way. How can you use sound most effectively in your branding? Can you think of jingles or simple sounds that reverberate through your consciousness. An example was the sound associated with Churchill's V for Victory...this simple set of sounds was echo'd by Japanese school children...and yet we primarily think of the V!


Thats all for today on Minute Tech podcast.
you can reach me at minutetech@gmail.com -
and my blog is at minutetech.blogspot.com

"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji"

- David Letterman seeks relief;
- What's the Best Communications Medium?
- Recent Shows of VentureVoice and The Engaging Brand.

Go to the Minute Tech iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

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