[MCN-L] Podcasting advice: strategy for making the most of online content
Stephanie, Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this. Very clear and very very helpful!! All the best, -- Tamsen Schwartzman Museum Media Manager The Museum at FIT, Room E116 Seventh Avenue at 27th Street New York, NY 10001 212~217~4547 ** 212~217~4561 fax www.fitnyc.edu/museum Visit our collections online at fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter @MuseumatFIT Closes April 10: American Beauty Closes May 11: Night Day Opens March 9: Scandal Sandals Lady Slippers: A History of Delman Shoes -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Stephanie Weaver Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 4:05 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Podcasting advice: strategy for making the most of online content Dear Lauren (and list), While I agree with Robin that setting up a YouTube channel is excellent, I would use it as an additional tool to spread the word about your podcasts. It's important to get the most bang for your buck out of your digital assets, so I recommend the following strategy: If you are in fact launching a podcast series-that is, you will be making and publishing regular episodes-then I would begin by registering and using a podcast service like Podbean (free for starter accounts, you might at some point have to pay for storage, but the costs are extremely low). Once you set up your Podbean account and upload one episode, you can then link to iTunes and set up your iTunes account. iTunes has the broadest reach for podcasts. There are other (many) podcast directories and you want to list your podcast with them. Once you publish your episode, the RSS feed automatically brings your podcast to these other directories. So once you do the work for the first one, your podcast then goes out to multiple channels automatically and is out there forever. For example, I have a podcast series (about 3 years now), with subscribers, and even though I don't produce many episodes (about one every other month), the reach is amazing... If you are not really launching a series, but will just be posting videos as you are able to complete them, then the YouTube channel is the way to go. You also should create accounts on Flickr, YahooVideo, and Vimeo and upload the content there. They each have different restrictions on length and numbers of videos you can upload in the month. You should also embed these videos in your website and Facebook Page, and Tweet links to them. If you are creating videos of lectures, then you could also consider becoming part of iTunes U, where many universities and museums are publishing content. http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/ For a long video (60 minutes) I'd recommend breaking it into 15-minute sections, both to reduce the size of the video and the download/ viewing time (many, many people still don't have great connection speed, and if something doesn't start immediately, they click away). And, make a short (1 minute) teaser sample which you can put out there to help people find them. All videos should be branded with titles and end titles, plus a copyright statement. Teasers should end with the URL to send them to the location they can view the full video. If you set up a YouTube channel, make sure you go through the process of applying for a nonprofit channel. You have to fill out an application (one long page) and they have to approve it, but there are many benefits to doing so, as they allow you to brand the page and you show up in the nonprofit directory (above the chaff), and you can tie it into fundraising/development directly from your page. I'd be happy to answer any more questions you might have off-list. Best, Stephanie Weaver Visitor experience consultant sweaver at experienceology.com experienceology(r): Because happy visitors return. San Diego, CA For information on our book, blog, podcast, upcoming classes, and e- news, visit www.experienceology.com or follow me on twitter.com/ experienceology. See samples of my classes here: www.youtube.com/experienceology . Watch the free archived version of my class on the visitor experience here: http://bit.ly/NlunE Next presentations: UCLA Extension: January 26, 2010 Orange County Public Libraries: February 3, 2010 Ass'n of Partners for Public Lands: February 7 8, 2010 Tijuana Estuary docent training: March 24, 2010 American Association of Museums: May 26, 2010 ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Podcasting advice
Hi Lauren, As far as creating audio and video podcasts with simple (very) and cheap technology, have a look at the Create Teach section of Smarthistory: http://www.smarthistory.org/create-your-own-content1.html There are a bunch of pages there on this topic - how education departments in small museums can create these materials, and distribute them. Hope it's helpful. Beth Harris -- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:32:34 -0500 From: Lauren Zalut Zalut at wagnerfreeinstitute.org Subject: [MCN-L] Podcasting Advice To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: 278835DC50C47F4CBE375BE3466D364FAF9A6A at ml330g3.main.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hi, I am new to the Museum Computer Network and I am looking for any advice regarding podcasting. I work for a small natural history museum with a very limited budget and we are looking to make podcasts of past museum lectures available to the public on our website. I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be required to post a podcast on our website? The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we established it was the possibility that the podcast could be downloaded from there. Is that really a viable option? We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have it up and running by the summer. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice, it would be very helpful to hear about others' experiences with podcasting in museums. Thank you in advance. Sincerely yours, Lauren Zalut Museum Educator and Communications Coordinator Wagner Free Institute of Science 1700 W. Montgomery Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19121 phone: (215) 763-6529 ext. 17 www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Become a fan of the Wagner on www.facebook.com! Follow us on www.twitter.com! -- ___ mcn-l mailing list mcn-l at mcn.edu http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l End of mcn-l Digest, Vol 40, Issue 13 * Robin White Owen M: 917/407-7641 T: 646/472-5145 robin at mediacombo.net www.mediacombo.net http://mediacomb.net/blog twitter.com/rocombo -- Message: 2 Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:22:44 -0500 From: Rich Cherry rche...@balboaparkonline.org Subject: [MCN-L] Going mobile: Planning for audience, content and technology in the Museum Feb 16, 17 in Sunny Balboa Park San Diego! To: Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: 0758790FE14FAD4FB84FE71572FD910C0282022E62 at MAILR005.mail.lan Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Dear colleagues, The past decade has seen a great increase in mobile options for museum interpretation: cell phone tours, podcasts, audio tours, text-message tours and audio, video and text Smartphone applications. Learn how to implement and leverage these technologies from mobile media experts Nancy Proctor and Titus Bicknell in a special 2-day seminar presented by the Balboa Park Online Collaborativehttp://www.bpoc.org/ and Balboa Park Learning Institute: Going mobile: Planning for audience, content and technology in the Museum featuring Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Titus Bicknell, Director, Information Technology, Experius LLC Tuesday, February 16 and Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum (2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101-1683) What This two-day seminar is for museum professionals who want to explore the value of mobile devices and portable computing for their institutions, patrons and learners with renowned leaders in the new media field. Attendees will learn how to evaluate technology platforms and options, create interpretive content and deploy systems for supporting them. Day 1 will emphasize content and strategy and Day 2 will focus on technology and strategy. Please visit http://www.bpoc.org/mobile for a detailed agenda and speaker biographies. Who This seminar is cross-disciplinary and appropriate for executive, content (education, marketing, etc.) and technical staff. We encourage people to attend in cross-functional teams. (Special group rates apply.) How much Special price! $45 for one day, $75 for both! Other cost and payment notes: * Tuition fees are waived for members of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative; registration is still required. * Please contact bpcp at bpcp.org for information on student discounts, group rates, or, hotel information. * Please pay on-site with cash or checks made payable to the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership; we are not able
[MCN-L] Podcasting advice
Lauren, You are welcome to try our free RSS podcast maker called FeedMe at: http://bit.ly/rss-feedme It offers password protected accounts, unlimited bandwidth, episodes and RSS feeds. Everyone that works on FeedMe is a volunteer so it is always free. We also worked with Creative Commons so you can embed CC licensing or Copyright in the media files http://creativecommons.org/tag/museumpods About 2000 organizations have signed up to use FeedMe ranging from radio stations, museums, educational institutions, and businesses -- but we designed it specifically for museums. We are starting to work with museums to develop more user friendly ways for people to access podcasts using QR code. Here is a short video on how it works: http://bit.ly/museum-qr FeedMe works well with this technology and might be something you should consider implementing in your podcast initiative. Please feel free to contact me directly...I will hook you up. Kurt Stuchell stuchell at museumpods.com http://museumpods.com - Original Message - From: Harris, Beth beth_har...@moma.org To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 7:10 AM Subject: [MCN-L] Podcasting advice Hi Lauren, As far as creating audio and video podcasts with simple (very) and cheap technology, have a look at the Create Teach section of Smarthistory: http://www.smarthistory.org/create-your-own-content1.html There are a bunch of pages there on this topic - how education departments in small museums can create these materials, and distribute them. Hope it's helpful. Beth Harris -- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:32:34 -0500 From: Lauren Zalut Zalut at wagnerfreeinstitute.org Subject: [MCN-L] Podcasting Advice To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: 278835DC50C47F4CBE375BE3466D364FAF9A6A at ml330g3.main.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hi, I am new to the Museum Computer Network and I am looking for any advice regarding podcasting. I work for a small natural history museum with a very limited budget and we are looking to make podcasts of past museum lectures available to the public on our website. I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be required to post a podcast on our website? The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we established it was the possibility that the podcast could be downloaded from there. Is that really a viable option? We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have it up and running by the summer. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice, it would be very helpful to hear about others' experiences with podcasting in museums. Thank you in advance. Sincerely yours, Lauren Zalut Museum Educator and Communications Coordinator Wagner Free Institute of Science 1700 W. Montgomery Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19121 phone: (215) 763-6529 ext. 17 www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Become a fan of the Wagner on www.facebook.com! Follow us on www.twitter.com! -- ___ mcn-l mailing list mcn-l at mcn.edu http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l End of mcn-l Digest, Vol 40, Issue 13 * Robin White Owen M: 917/407-7641 T: 646/472-5145 robin at mediacombo.net www.mediacombo.net http://mediacomb.net/blog twitter.com/rocombo -- Message: 2 Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:22:44 -0500 From: Rich Cherry rcherry at balboaparkonline.org Subject: [MCN-L] Going mobile: Planning for audience, content and technology in the Museum Feb 16, 17 in Sunny Balboa Park San Diego! To: Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: 0758790FE14FAD4FB84FE71572FD910C0282022E62 at MAILR005.mail.lan Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Dear colleagues, The past decade has seen a great increase in mobile options for museum interpretation: cell phone tours, podcasts, audio tours, text-message tours and audio, video and text Smartphone applications. Learn how to implement and leverage these technologies from mobile media experts Nancy Proctor and Titus Bicknell in a special 2-day seminar presented by the Balboa Park Online Collaborativehttp://www.bpoc.org/ and Balboa Park Learning Institute: Going mobile: Planning for audience, content and technology in the Museum featuring Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Titus Bicknell, Director, Information Technology, Experius LLC Tuesday, February 16 and Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum (2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101-1683) What This two
[MCN-L] Podcasting advice: strategy for making the most of online content
Dear Lauren (and list), While I agree with Robin that setting up a YouTube channel is excellent, I would use it as an additional tool to spread the word about your podcasts. It's important to get the most bang for your buck out of your digital assets, so I recommend the following strategy: If you are in fact launching a podcast series?that is, you will be making and publishing regular episodes?then I would begin by registering and using a podcast service like Podbean (free for starter accounts, you might at some point have to pay for storage, but the costs are extremely low). Once you set up your Podbean account and upload one episode, you can then link to iTunes and set up your iTunes account. iTunes has the broadest reach for podcasts. There are other (many) podcast directories and you want to list your podcast with them. Once you publish your episode, the RSS feed automatically brings your podcast to these other directories. So once you do the work for the first one, your podcast then goes out to multiple channels automatically and is out there forever. For example, I have a podcast series (about 3 years now), with subscribers, and even though I don't produce many episodes (about one every other month), the reach is amazing... If you are not really launching a series, but will just be posting videos as you are able to complete them, then the YouTube channel is the way to go. You also should create accounts on Flickr, YahooVideo, and Vimeo and upload the content there. They each have different restrictions on length and numbers of videos you can upload in the month. You should also embed these videos in your website and Facebook Page, and Tweet links to them. If you are creating videos of lectures, then you could also consider becoming part of iTunes U, where many universities and museums are publishing content. http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/ For a long video (60 minutes) I'd recommend breaking it into 15-minute sections, both to reduce the size of the video and the download/ viewing time (many, many people still don't have great connection speed, and if something doesn't start immediately, they click away). And, make a short (1 minute) teaser sample which you can put out there to help people find them. All videos should be branded with titles and end titles, plus a copyright statement. Teasers should end with the URL to send them to the location they can view the full video. If you set up a YouTube channel, make sure you go through the process of applying for a nonprofit channel. You have to fill out an application (one long page) and they have to approve it, but there are many benefits to doing so, as they allow you to brand the page and you show up in the nonprofit directory (above the chaff), and you can tie it into fundraising/development directly from your page. I'd be happy to answer any more questions you might have off-list. Best, Stephanie Weaver Visitor experience consultant sweaver at experienceology.com experienceology?: Because happy visitors return. San Diego, CA For information on our book, blog, podcast, upcoming classes, and e- news, visit www.experienceology.com or follow me on twitter.com/ experienceology. See samples of my classes here: www.youtube.com/experienceology . Watch the free archived version of my class on the visitor experience here: http://bit.ly/NlunE Next presentations: UCLA Extension: January 26, 2010 Orange County Public Libraries: February 3, 2010 Ass'n of Partners for Public Lands: February 7 8, 2010 Tijuana Estuary docent training: March 24, 2010 American Association of Museums: May 26, 2010
[MCN-L] Podcasting Advice
Good Morning Amy, On 1/19/09 3:05 PM, MuseumPods museumpods at gmail.com wrote: Lauren, You're welcome to use FeedMe http://texas.museumpods.com for your podcast. Just upload the files and the RSS feed is generated with unlimited bandwidth and it is iTunes ready. I must tell you a 60 minute podcast is pretty long. You can archive the lectures as episodes in the RSS feed for people to use. It won't cost you anything. Email me if you have any questions. Kurt Stuchell stuchell at museumpods.com http://museumpods.com - Original Message - From: Lauren Zalut za...@wagnerfreeinstitute.org To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 2:32 PM Subject: [MCN-L] Podcasting Advice Hi, I am new to the Museum Computer Network and I am looking for any advice regarding podcasting. I work for a small natural history museum with a very limited budget and we are looking to make podcasts of past museum lectures available to the public on our website. I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be required to post a podcast on our website? The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we established it was the possibility that the podcast could be downloaded from there. Is that really a viable option? We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have it up and running by the summer. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice, it would be very helpful to hear about others' experiences with podcasting in museums. Thank you in advance. Sincerely yours, Lauren Zalut Museum Educator and Communications Coordinator Wagner Free Institute of Science 1700 W. Montgomery Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19121 phone: (215) 763-6529 ext. 17 www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Become a fan of the Wagner on www.facebook.com! Follow us on www.twitter.com! ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Podcasting Advice
Hi, I am new to the Museum Computer Network and I am looking for any advice regarding podcasting. I work for a small natural history museum with a very limited budget and we are looking to make podcasts of past museum lectures available to the public on our website. I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be required to post a podcast on our website? The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we established it was the possibility that the podcast could be downloaded from there. Is that really a viable option? We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have it up and running by the summer. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice, it would be very helpful to hear about others' experiences with podcasting in museums. Thank you in advance. Sincerely yours, Lauren Zalut Museum Educator and Communications Coordinator Wagner Free Institute of Science 1700 W. Montgomery Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19121 phone: (215) 763-6529 ext. 17 www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Become a fan of the Wagner on www.facebook.com! Follow us on www.twitter.com!
[MCN-L] Podcasting Advice
Space is dirt cheap these days, so I'm not sure I buy the idea that there is no room for an occasional podcast. To the best of my knowledge, however, you =could= use MySpace as a place to upload the podcasts, and they could be downloaded from there. I do not know what limits might exist space-wise. I could have sworn that several museums are using MySpace though, so someone will likely chime in soon. My sense is that an okay mp3 averages about 1MB/minute, with considerable variance depending on the quality settings. In theory, any mp3 can just be linked from your webpage or blog and that will be treated as a podcast. In reality, mp3 doesn't stream well, and the experience of listening via Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or Quicktime can be distracting. We use a modified version of one of the flash media players that we found on one of the opensource sites, and that gives us some control over look and feel (no weird backgrounds, no ads). Years ago it was important to use a streaming server such as Apple's Darwin, or the Real's Helix server. If you use a reasonable flash player, the user experience should be quite good, and barring a circumstance where you get lots of simultaneous hits, there should be no bandwidth issues, nor any other issues that would merit maintaining the separate server. If you had a lot of media files, or if they were very popular, chewing up lots of bandwidth, that would/could change, though. ari On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Lauren Zalut Zalut at wagnerfreeinstitute.org wrote: Hi, I am new to the Museum Computer Network and I am looking for any advice regarding podcasting. I work for a small natural history museum with a very limited budget and we are looking to make podcasts of past museum lectures available to the public on our website. I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be required to post a podcast on our website? The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we established it was the possibility that the podcast could be downloaded from there. Is that really a viable option? We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have it up and running by the summer. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice, it would be very helpful to hear about others' experiences with podcasting in museums. Thank you in advance. Sincerely yours, Lauren Zalut Museum Educator and Communications Coordinator Wagner Free Institute of Science 1700 W. Montgomery Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19121 phone: (215) 763-6529 ext. 17 www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org Become a fan of the Wagner on www.facebook.com! Follow us on www.twitter.com! ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Podcasting Advice
I have been told by senior staff that we do not have enough space on our website, I wonder if anyone knows how much space a 60 minute podcast would take up. Also, what kind of technology would be required to post a podcast on our website? Both Kurt and Avi have given some good answers; I'll chime in with a little more. Doing a quick round of snooping, it looks like you have about 10gb of disk space with your hosted web account. (I'm making some assumptions, but it looks like the IP address for your website is owned by web.com and their hosting plans based off their sitebuilder tool each have 10gb of disk space. See http://www.web.com/Hosting/SiteBuilder.aspx#compareHosting and click on hosting features) For what you're trying to do, 10gb is a fairly good chunk of space. Looking at the sizes of a half-dozen podcasts I have on my computer, that are all 45-55 minutes long, they're about 25-35mb (podcasts from NPR that are mostly talk). Based on that math, and not knowing what else is part of your site, you could potentially put 250+ podcasts on your site. (That being said, Kurt's made a great offer that potentially solves your problem without doing much additional work). The other part to consider is what you actually want to deliver. If you really just want to be able to play audio from your website, or let someone download the audio file, then Ari's advice is pretty good. If you want to make a true 'podcast' that other software will recognize (such as iTunes) and treat as a podcast rather than just another audio mp3 file, then you'll want to create an rss feed for the series (you *are* going to do more than one, right?). There are a variety of tools that will help you package up your audio as a true podcast -- if you want to head down this path, contact me offline and let me know if you're using windows or a mac and I can point you in a few directions. The museum has a myspace profile, and part of the reason we established it was the possibility that the podcast could be downloaded from there. You can certainly do that, although it looks like people are generally just hosting audio files rather than true podcasts. One thing you'll want to be mindful of, no matter where you decide to upload your files, is making sure that the site's terms and conditions let you retain ownership and copyright to the files you're uploading. With Myspace, you're in the clear - http://www1.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.terms and scroll down to section 6, Proprietary Rights on Content We do have a completely edited podcast ready to go and hope to have it up and running by the summer. If you've already done the hard part -- getting it ready to go -- get it out there. You'll get quicker feedback about what you're doing right (and wrong) and keep learning as you actually go through the process. Nothing says that you can't try to host in more than one place - the museum's website, Kurt's offer of Museumpods, and Myspace. I'm wiling to bet that they serve generally different audiences but in each case, you'll learn something. Don't aim for this summer. Aim for February to get it going. ;) -bw. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bruce Wyman, Director of Technology Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204 office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002 bwyman at denverartmuseum.org
