HI Billy, On Aug 22, 2011, at 11:09 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> Ernie : > Yeah, a Podcast would be a good idea. Is there any possibility of getting > some kind of grant for such a project ? Maybe, but acquiring a grant is arguably more expensive than running a podcast! A better route would be to find a sponsor, as many podcasts do. Though it is a bit tricky to figure out what marketable audience we could deliver... > Reason I ask is that there is a problem that cannot be overlooked. > Supposedly it could be done for "free" --but only on the assumption > that you or I take a great deal of time to learn the all nuts and bolts of > creating such a system, replete with secondary skills like how to > troubleshoot and maintain the system. That's a tall order. Not really, there's a lot of turnkey systems built around Skype or iChat plus GarageBand. High-quality editing (e.g., removing "um" and "er") would be expensive, but it isn't really necessary, as long as you have good microphone discipline. The main expense is getting good quality microphones. A third option would be to hook up with some existing podcasting network, e.g.: The Podcast Network The Education Podcast Network | A Landmark Project > The problem with a grant is finding some kind of set of objectives > which promise , well, objective results that can be of use to all kinds > of people. A worthy goal, of course, but where do we start ? > > A couple of ideas seem obvious, like conflict resolution and decision making, > but only with qualifications. After all, part of the purpose of RC is to > promote > better partisan ideas, not only better non-partisan ideas. Still, there ought > to > be some kind of approach that might qualify us for foundation support. The most plausible one to me is to simply do a Radical Centrist take on the news. There's lots of news items which receive ridiculously shallow analyses in the press. It wouldn't be hard to find something novel to say about each week's current events from an RC perspective. The hard part is doing the research and cross-linking to other commentators to keep it relevant. > Otherwise it would take time that I certainly don't have, just to learn > all the ins and outs of putting together everything needed to do > a professional level Podcast. Better ( in terms of quality ) > simply to hire a pro to do "the mechanics" part . The cost and expertise required for audio podcasting really is ridiculously low (video is another story, but not really that interesting). > Needless to say, if you have another idea, I'm open to suggestion. > Could be that I'm overlooking something , or somethingS. The main expense is sufficient cash flow to justify the research and preparation required. How many hours a week do you think you'd need to prepare a meaningful content for a (say) 5-15 minute podcast? Especially if I co-hosted it with you? > If this is viable we would need to kick some ideas around until > a really good design scheme comes into shape. Agree. > But to repeat the principle, each of us has important irons in the fire > that neither of us are about to drop. I have just learned about Rockefeller > Foundation funding of Kinsey, big time, for example. Yeah, I'm in no hurry either, but I want you to start *listening* to some podcasts so you get ideas about potential formats. -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
