Gates Mobcast Covered in NY Times, Wired

My new "open blog," The Gates @ Central Park got a nice boost in site traffic today because of references in today's New York Times and Wired magazine. Wired even featured some of the photos posted on the site. Hopefully the press will help send more contributors to the site as well. There are definitely more photos and emails posted to the site, though not much has happened in terms of podcasts. Hopefully that'll change in the coming days.... -ac

Podcasting, Mobcasting and Beercasting, Oh My!

Last night, a group of around 20 of us gathered at the Berkman Center to have an informal chat about podcasting in its various incarnations, including mobcasting and "beercasting." Lisa Williams facilitated the discussion, including showing off a rockin' little video about podcasting for beginners. Prior to the meeting, Lisa organized a del.icio.us reading list on articles and websites about podcasting.

Greg Narain of Beercasting.com joined us and talked about his amazing website, in which he engages people in conversations at bars, taping their discussions and publishing them as podcasts. The cool thing about it is that his software adds tons of metadata to each beercast, so you can sort through the content to find your favorite topics and speakers. Oh, and the marketing opportunies with bars and beer companies are endless. I then talked for a little bit about mobcasting and my new community blog for the upcoming Christo installation in Central Park. I recorded the session on my iPod; you can find it if you click the MP3 link on the Berkman Bloggers website.

After the meeting, we ventured through the slushy streets of Cambridge until we arrived at Cambridge Common, where Greg recorded a couple of beercasts. I participated in one beercast in which we talked about our favorite sounds from around the world; the conversation eventually metamorphosed into nostalgic travel stories from Turkey. Hopefully the beercast will be online soon; I'll post a link as soon as it's available... -ac

Andy's Remarks at the Berkman Conference

File this under "Better Late Than Never".... Here's a podcast of my remarks at the Berkman blogging conference. Since I was doing the talking I didn't get around to taping it myself, so I had to wait for the official audio archive from the conference so I could extract my remarks. Former CNN Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon introduces me; then I talk briefly about mobcasting and Creative Commons. The entire recording runs about 10 minutes, give or take.... -ac

Comedians Skewer Berkman Confab

The practical jokers at BetterBadNews.com have released a hilarious video lampooning the recent Berkman blogging conference. Among the the panelists are a stiff-shirt moderator, a tightly-wound Lenny Bruce fan and an elderly Jewish woman. Most of their roasting targets Dave Weinberger and mobcasting's very own Ethan Zuckerman; I manage to get off easy with only a thank-you from the pundit moderator for recording an absurd number of podcasts at the conference. Anyway, give it a look when you get a chance.... -ac

Poynter Article on Mobcasting and Journalism

Poynter Online columnist Chip Scanlan has published a story about mobcasting and its potential role as a tool for journalists, professional and otherwise. He describes mobcasting as "the digital equivalent of 'flooding the zone,' a sports term that competition-driven editors usurped to overwhelm a hot story with resources."

Some other quotes from the article:

Digital activist Andy Carvin, who came up with the idea, put it into practice last weekend at a conference of bloggers and mainstream journalists at Harvard when he and five others phoned in intermittent reports from the scene....

Listening to Carvin's reports from the Harvard conference, I found myself thinking back to the first government meetings I covered 30 years ago with pen and notebook. What would it have been like, for instance, to feed live reports on the zoning board's decisions without ever leaving my chair, or to transmit my interviews from news scenes without having to drive back to the newsroom and transcribe my notes?

Today's reporters -- and citizen journalists -- don't have to wonder.

Thanks to Chip for the nice write-up.... -andy