To make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

Some statistics, as of today:

• Total number of projects: 3113
• Number of completed projects: 2556
• Number of completed non-English projects: 364
• Total number of languages: 29
• Number of languages with a completed work: 26
• Number of completed solo projects: 1214
• Number of readers: 3094
• …who have completed something: 2867

Total recorded time in all rss-ified works: 49596721 seconds, or 574 days, 0 hours, 52 minutes, and 1 seconds. Total of 50774 sections.

If you have a soft spot in your heart for LibriVox, perhaps you might consider leaving a little message on the blog, or the forum.

Or even better, perhaps you might help us record a few chapters of public domain texts? …

LISTEN HERE: Media Hacks: Episode 5

But Mitch one-upped that idea, and asked some more smart digital people to join us for an every-so-often podcast. So, together with the three Montreal amigos, Chris Brogan, CC Chapman, Chris Penn will help round out the podcast sixsome. We’re calling it:

(No url yet, but it’s coming I think).

Here is the first episode (mp3), featuring Julien, Chris Brogan, and Mitch, but not: CC, Chris Penn, and me. [Note: it's intro'd as Six Pixels of Separation, but it'll have it's own, er, branding soon. Also Note: Julien swears like a drunken sailor, which is why we love him].

[photo by CC]

I’ve always felt that audio is the most intimate communication medium, and in the session yesterday I wanted to explore the idea of intimacy further. In particular, I wonder how we can build and use technology to help people become more closely connected with the things that are important to them, rather than just feeding more information faster and better. Much of my experience of technology seems to detract from my life rather than add to it (though of course I get great value too). I’m a slave to my computer and the web, and so much of it is distraction from things I find important.

That is why I like podcasts – because they let me get *away* from technology, and into a place where I can be more intimately connected with ideas and thoughts and emotions. Good podcasts (and good radio and good audiobooks) make me think in ways that I can’t when I am sitting in front of the computer, checking RSS feeds and answering emails. They’re also great when cooking, or driving long distances.

With LibriVox, I think, we’ve used technology to help people find this intimacy, by helping volunteers read texts that are important to them in a closer and deeper way. That people like me get to listen occasionally is a wonderful side-benefit.

In discussing the “intimacy of audio,” I played a really moving piece from Scarborough Dude’s Dicksnjanes podcast, about the death of a young boy from the neighbourhood. Here’s the excerpt (mp3-slightly edited). And here is the full episode.

We had a great talk afterwards, with comments from CC Chapman, Mitch Joel, Julien, Steph, Yanik, Patrick, and a host of other people whose names and/or URLs I don’t know (if you were one, please let me know).

There are a few other bits of audio that have really moved me, and that I thought of playing for the gang, but didn’t:

• Julien Smith on what it’s like to have epilepsy
• Phil Collins on loss and art on This American Life [mp3 link]
• The Emigrant’s Lament, read by Peter Yearsley for LibriVox [mp3 link]

(Though my podcasting listening habits tend more to public radio/professional stuff, three out of four of the most moving audio bits I’ve heard were from DIY podcasts – not surprising, I guess, but significant).

In preparation for the presentation, I asked for some suggestions from the LibriVox community of the most moving bits of audio from that collection, which I didn’t have the chance to play. Here are some of the suggestions:

• Ezwa reading Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved” letter Section 4 [mp3 link].
• Karen reading St Crispian’s Day from Henry V [mp3 link]
• Clarica’s reading of the poem A Woman in Hospital from The Verse-Book of a Homely Woman, Section 9 [mp3 link]
• Deny Sayers reading The Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
• Holy Sonnets read by Earthcalling.

Any other suggestions for audio tearjerkers on the web?

I wonder what it is about audio that can deliver such intimacy in ways that text and video can’t? Why is the Scarbdude piece so moving? And, how can “we” do more to help make technology address our need for intimacy – creating it, connecting with it – rather than just flooding us with more information and efficient ways to organize things?

*And by the way, a huge congrats to Michelle, Sylvain, Laurent, Laurent, Julien, Bob, Jean-François, Harold and Mitch for putting together what everyone I talked to says was the best podcamp they’ve attended.

I’m a very minor closet Phil Collins fan (Against All Odds and In the Air Tonight), but even if you HATE Phil Collins, check out this piece with him on the show.

It’s extraordinary audio. It starts with a silly premise, heartbroken girl wants to talk to Phil about heartbreak, then weaves its way from mildly cringe-inducing humour into something else altogether. By the end, all sorts of barriers have come down, and its turned into one of the most personal and moving interviews about loss and art I’ve ever heard.

Download or listen to it quickly: TAL’s podcasts are up for a week only, and this came out last week sometime.

[LINK]

And here’s a different view about why “good” public broadcasting is important: with the web, and podcasts, the CBC becomes a calling card for Canada. Ditto Deutsche-Welle for Germany and ARN for Australia etc. The broadcaster becomes a marketing tool and a builder of prestige. This is becoming more important in the networked world, where – for many of my peers, for instance – we can be anywhere in the world to do the work we do. Ditto businesses, scientists, writers and other “elites.” We want them here, in Canada, in Montreal, because really smart people make a country more vibrant and innovative.

I believe that a strong public broadcaster with excellent, thought-provoking content, helps build Canada’s image in the world.

While this isn’t all a public broadcaster should do, this is a new kind of rationale, I believe, brought on by the web; and one that might be more compelling to the business-only decision-making that runs our governments these days.

Note, this applies as well to universities: all universities should put a chunk of their marketing budget towards producing a weekly, high-quality podcast that interviews professors doing exciting research (whether in arts, humanities, or sciences and professional disciplines). I’m thinking of a weekly podcast with content as varied and wonderful as the TEDTalks. That is the gold standard for thought-provoking web content … and should be emulated by anyone who wants to build an image as a place of exciting innovation.

I was just talking with Mitch and Julien about this at lunch the other day; and commented on Mat’s blog to this effect.

So join us on November 29th starting at 19:30. Here’s the address :

* Sergent Recruteur
* 4801 St-Laurent blvd, Montreal
* 514.287.1412

I’m going to try to make it, but I am training back from Ottawa that day.

Thanks for organizing this, to: Sylvain and Bob.

Check out: historyzine.com … or:
* Subscribe by RSS
* Subscribe in iTunes

Here is the about:

Welcome to Culture.ca’s cultural podcast listing. This unique collection, curated with the expertise of the National Arts Centre, brings together Canadian audio and video podcasts that reflect Canada’s vibrant arts and culture scene. We collect podcasts produced by Canadians in French, English, and other languages on a variety of cultural topics.

We strive to be a complete collection, and if you feel your podcast qualifies for inclusion, please let us know through our submit form.

Big thanks to Chris (the programming maestro), Marie-Eve (the graphic wrangler with the eyes of gold), and Madeline (the html artiste/pound-IE-into-submissioner).

More projects to come soon! Stay tuned…

2007 10 11 01citoyennumnerique-ballado
2007 10 11 02citoyennumnerique-ballado
2007 10 11 03citoyennumnerique-ballado

the main librivox part is 03, at minute: 15:15ish. the rest is about podcasting, podcasting in quebec, digital music downloads etc … i make a couple of comments in those parts but not much.

other participants are my montreal podmates: bob goyetche & sylvain grand’maison, as well as journalist Tristan Péloquin.