There are many people, not least "the enigmatic RS" (see Real Reviews for his lighter work), who spend a lot of time pondering what's going on with blogs and podcasts and what it all means for the traditional media. There are also a lot of people pondering whether it's ever going to be possible to make a good living out of it.
One person who should know is Adam Curry, long-time broadcaster and podcast pioneer, and he's just devoted one of his Daily Source Code programmes (23 June) to a personal survey of how we got where we are and where we're likely to be going. It's a good listen, a fresh, largely unedited stream of consciousness by someone who's actually got something to say, taking you from the days of pirate radio, through do-it-yourself modems, to the current explosion in podcasts. I'll give you just one detail - you really should hear it for yourselves - but, bearing in mind he's probably one of the most successful podcasters, with 100,000 downloads per programme, it still costs him $350 an edition.
What he doesn't say is whether he's made any great efforts to commercialise it, either through advertising or subscription. I guess we're all used to having radio for free so any thought of subscription services probably won't get very far.
But then, that's not the point. The point is that, as long as you've got the patience of a saint to grapple with the technology, you can do it yourself and hopefully produce some content that's entertaining or useful to someone somewhere. It's a form of play (and, oh yes, I nearly forgot, and of communication) and not a means of making money. All of which tends to get lost in the debate, I think.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Just Warming Up.....
Gather the UK's having a spot of good weather. I know because most nights we watch the news on what we call the immigrants' channel or, to give it its proper title, the Special Broadcasting Service, which always ends with a global weather report, so you can see what the weather's doing where you used to live and decide whether it was a good idea to move or not.
It always starts in Australia, of course, then the globe swings east to New Zealand, and moves across Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America and finishes in North America. It also makes you realise how far away you are from home. The news reader, often Lee Lin Chin, with a staggeringly funky line in specs and hairdo's, picks out a few cities (somehow Asuncion always gets a mention, whoever's presenting). On the night that the outline of the UK was almost covered (it is very small) by the figure 32, Lee Lin dismissively intoned: "London - warm." If only she knew.
Anyway, I've also seem all the dire warnings about skin cancer, so remember what the kids are taught here: "slip, slop, slap - slip on your sunglasses, slop on the suncream, slap on a hat." Take care out there.
PS ...and just to show how different things are here...just watched the SBS evening news and the coverage of the elections in the Northern Territory. The Country Liberal Party did very badly and part of the blame is falling on their plan to hook the territory's electricity supply up to the national grid, a policy described by SBS's sound and sober political correspondent as "wacky."
It always starts in Australia, of course, then the globe swings east to New Zealand, and moves across Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America and finishes in North America. It also makes you realise how far away you are from home. The news reader, often Lee Lin Chin, with a staggeringly funky line in specs and hairdo's, picks out a few cities (somehow Asuncion always gets a mention, whoever's presenting). On the night that the outline of the UK was almost covered (it is very small) by the figure 32, Lee Lin dismissively intoned: "London - warm." If only she knew.
Anyway, I've also seem all the dire warnings about skin cancer, so remember what the kids are taught here: "slip, slop, slap - slip on your sunglasses, slop on the suncream, slap on a hat." Take care out there.
PS ...and just to show how different things are here...just watched the SBS evening news and the coverage of the elections in the Northern Territory. The Country Liberal Party did very badly and part of the blame is falling on their plan to hook the territory's electricity supply up to the national grid, a policy described by SBS's sound and sober political correspondent as "wacky."
Monday, June 13, 2005
Wrecks and Roos
It's a public holiday, so this morning we set out for a walk along Sandy Beach, over Bare Bluff, along Sandy Back Beach, Fiddeman's Beach, Emerald Beach and up on to Look At Me Now Point. The scenery becomes increasingly like Pembrokeshire, apart from the plaques commemorating shipwrecks, with considerable loss of life, and the colony of kangaroos on the point. It's the depths of winter, so shorts and t-shirt are fine.
Somehow, the thought of the trip to Canberra doesn't appeal after that. Although the clamour about Schapelle Corby (see below) seems to have died down, Parliament House seem to have almost daily deliveries of white powder, causing secuity alerts, presumably as some kind of reaction to the package that was sent to the Indonesian embassy. You'll be glad to hear that the loading bay staff who discover this stuff are offered counselling. It's not quite the image I had of Australians, I must admit.
Somehow, the thought of the trip to Canberra doesn't appeal after that. Although the clamour about Schapelle Corby (see below) seems to have died down, Parliament House seem to have almost daily deliveries of white powder, causing secuity alerts, presumably as some kind of reaction to the package that was sent to the Indonesian embassy. You'll be glad to hear that the loading bay staff who discover this stuff are offered counselling. It's not quite the image I had of Australians, I must admit.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Beauty and The Beast
I expect it’s hardly raised a ripple in the UK but down here, the country’s been convulsed by the case of Schapelle Corby. You don’t know who she is, do you? Well, she’s a young, beautiful (by common consent) beauty student who has just started a 20-year jail sentence in Bali after being found guilty of trying to smuggle 4.1kg of cannabis in her body-board bag.
Schapelle Corby
So much is fact. Nothing else is. The reaction to the sentence was in some cases hysterical and there have calls for a boycott of Bali as a holiday destination (Bali is to Australia what Majorca is to the UK), attempts to claw back donations to the tsunami relief fund, and suspicious white powder was sent to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, setting off a major security alert.
Why so much fuss? Well, the pictures have been riveting. The attractive Aussie girl next door in a scrum of Indonesian policemen, or weeping in the courtroom, pressing her hand to her forehead in her shock and grief etc etc. It’s hard to see anyone making such a meal of it if the defendant had been a middle aged man and, indeed, no one is making the slightest fuss about the 40-odd other Australians facing drugs charges elsewhere in South East Asia.
There’s also (and this is an opinion frequently expressed by Australians) latent racism. Turn a place into a holiday destination and it loses some of its foreign-ness, it’s colonised, and you can forget that you're abroad where different attitudes and customs apply. Until something like this happens. Then it’s foreign again and corrupt and contemptible.
There’s been much confusion about how the Australians could react so generously to the tsunami appeal and then react so extremely to this trial and verdict. The easy answer is that the people who donated their money to the Boxing Day victims are not the same people who calling for boycotts etc now. Well, the ones who want their money back clearly are the same, but you know what I mean. The fact is that many have clearly decided that she’s innocent and a victim of a corrupt and inadequate judicial system.
Anyway, whatever the rights and wrongs of it, it’s rare that one sees the Prime Minister, John Howard, looking rattled but he certainly did last night when the Indonesian Embassy was being evacuated. And his line of not interfering in the judicial system of another country clearly doesn’t stand up for many weighed against the weeping beauty student in the hands of foreign devils.
And I’m sure it’s not the same people castigating John Howard for not doing enough that are currently on holiday in Bali and taking photographs of the jail where she is held or writing the spoof adverts mentioned in the Daily Telegraph, one of her main supporters, for the Schapelle Lawn Mower (holds 4.1kg of grass) or the Schapelle Beauty Treatment (takes twenty years off your life).
Schapelle Corby
So much is fact. Nothing else is. The reaction to the sentence was in some cases hysterical and there have calls for a boycott of Bali as a holiday destination (Bali is to Australia what Majorca is to the UK), attempts to claw back donations to the tsunami relief fund, and suspicious white powder was sent to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, setting off a major security alert.
Why so much fuss? Well, the pictures have been riveting. The attractive Aussie girl next door in a scrum of Indonesian policemen, or weeping in the courtroom, pressing her hand to her forehead in her shock and grief etc etc. It’s hard to see anyone making such a meal of it if the defendant had been a middle aged man and, indeed, no one is making the slightest fuss about the 40-odd other Australians facing drugs charges elsewhere in South East Asia.
There’s also (and this is an opinion frequently expressed by Australians) latent racism. Turn a place into a holiday destination and it loses some of its foreign-ness, it’s colonised, and you can forget that you're abroad where different attitudes and customs apply. Until something like this happens. Then it’s foreign again and corrupt and contemptible.
There’s been much confusion about how the Australians could react so generously to the tsunami appeal and then react so extremely to this trial and verdict. The easy answer is that the people who donated their money to the Boxing Day victims are not the same people who calling for boycotts etc now. Well, the ones who want their money back clearly are the same, but you know what I mean. The fact is that many have clearly decided that she’s innocent and a victim of a corrupt and inadequate judicial system.
Anyway, whatever the rights and wrongs of it, it’s rare that one sees the Prime Minister, John Howard, looking rattled but he certainly did last night when the Indonesian Embassy was being evacuated. And his line of not interfering in the judicial system of another country clearly doesn’t stand up for many weighed against the weeping beauty student in the hands of foreign devils.
And I’m sure it’s not the same people castigating John Howard for not doing enough that are currently on holiday in Bali and taking photographs of the jail where she is held or writing the spoof adverts mentioned in the Daily Telegraph, one of her main supporters, for the Schapelle Lawn Mower (holds 4.1kg of grass) or the Schapelle Beauty Treatment (takes twenty years off your life).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
