Analysis Web 2.0 Tools - Podcast Audio

My analysis of creating and uploading an initial podcast as a neophyte was a time consuming event. I began by attempting to create an iMovie video/audio podcast experience only to discover that most host sites preferred mpeg file formats over the mov file format of quick time. This could be based upon my Macintosh which is ancient and prehistoric in computer terms with a 1.8 GHz Power PC G5 running Mac OS X version 10.3.9 and 512MB of RAM. It was originally acquired in 2004 in its heyday by an acquaintance of mine.

The iMovie route video/audio recording experience was a relatively painless process. The pain occurred when I attempted to upload the file to last.fm, splashcast.net, and other hosting services. The next attempt I downloaded and install Audacity and LameLib, which again was a relatively painless process to record an audio track. The access to splashcast.net did not work well with the Mac computer so I ported the Mac files to a PC running Windows OS and the upload to splashcast.net without any issues. This was successful but did not achieve my desired outcome. Finally, I uploaded a single image to splashcast.net and recorded a background audio to the image. This method proved to achieve the desired result. The embedded html code from splashcast.net was copied to my blog site to complete the task event.

I believe the linkage of podcast to blog site will be easier in the near future based upon Dr. Rheingold’s social networking work by directly editing and recording video and audio podcast on the blog site itself.

Second Life - Doctorate Residency in Virtual Reality

After our discussion on Second Life (SL) this evening (Aug 19, 2008 6:00pm MDT) regarding Web 2.0 Tools such as 1 minute podcasts to distribute a thought provoking idea or question via a blog RSS feed, I thought that SL would be a great venue to provide a virtual Doctorate residency. Now at the end of my Doctorate coursework where our cohort traveled three times year to Colorado Springs and now the cohorts travel twice a year. First, I believe the virtual reality world of SL would augment the residencies by providing access and participation through the interface. Second, access to the residencies through SL would accommodate the students who are experiencing life, work and financial issues when scheduled to attend.

I acknowledge that the logistics, quality equipment and technical specifications must meet the SL minimum requirements for the end user but must exceed the SL requirements at the delivery point. Furthermore, each session would need to be recorded and archived for replay and review. I would suggest a pilot residency as early as January 2009 for the DCS/EIS cohorts to entail one session, possibly a Thursday session for those cohorts not required to be onsite. Additionally, the SL venue could provide another future forum method for presenting a Doctorate Candidates’ Dissertation Defense.

What do you think?