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Table of contents
How podcasting will save the world.
me: Hugh McGuire librivox.org
Audio quiz:
Which of these is a professional audio book recording?
Slide 5
Answer:
None of them.
(of course).
you don’t have to be a professional to be …
damn good.
LibriVox is part of podcasting
which is part of something much bigger
the “open movement” (?), or …
our evolutionary advantage
cheetah = fast runner, sharp teeth
camel = doesn’t get thirsty
baleen whale = good at eating plankton
fly = can fly
humans:
dull teeth
slow runner
can’t eat plankton
gets thirsty
can fly (with assistance)
so what do we have going for us?
traditional answer: intelligence
what is intelligence?
proposal: ability to collect, analyze, and remember data…
and make decisions in consequence.
or, evidence-based thinking
(sometimes).
human evolutionary advantage: ability to manage data
data: temperature, time, distance, weight, speed, volume, etc…
also:
public domain texts
maps
photos
ice core measurements
traffic reports
epidemiological studies
canadian podcast buffet episode 26
etc…
data management: agriculture, cooking, clothing, building, laws, podcasting …
so what is an “evolutionary advantage?”
proposal: ability to solve problems …
… that could kill us all.
or, for brevity: ability to solve problems.
another theory:
societies are healthy and stable when they are best able to solve new problems
democracy
ideals: -free speech -free press -transparent gov’t -rule of law -public education -free market
the basis of democracy is to open data up to many people, and let them make decisions
so: democracy’s “success” is a function of access to data.
opening data to more people means …
more solved problems, means…
more stable, successful, healthy society.
fancy graphic:
gov’t<-policy->people
another quiz:
which has better information:
wikipedia or britannica ?
who has used britannica recently?
who has used wikipedia recently?
so, which is more useful: britannica or wikipedia?
while professionals might be better
amateurs might be more useful (sometimes)
gloomy proposition:
we have some really big problems facing the human race:
-climate change -peak oil -overpopulation -bird flus -AIDS -etc etc. …
traditional approach to many big problems (idealized):
people tell government to act
gov’t collects data
gov’t analyzes data
gov’t implements policies/laws to solve problems
gov’ts are the professionals
but we have seen with: open source free software distributed media blogs/podcasting wikipedia librivox etc…
that while professionals might be better
amateurs might be more useful
that is, give us the data, and let’s see if “we” can solve some problems.
old skool about tools: -free software -open source
old skool about info: -blogs -podcasting
old skool about property: -creative commons -public domain
new skool: use these tools, methodologies, and info distribution to: solve real problems
but: to solve problems, we need data.
return to podcasting:
podcasting is a great way to distribute “data”
which can help us solve problems
last podcast conference:
how do I …
monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize monetize my podcast?
there is nothing wrong with monetizing, but …
maybe it’s the wrong question.
maybe ask instead: how can podcasting (or my skills as a podcaster) help solve problems?
some examples: -jim milles’ law podcast -whittney hoffman’s “OBGYN to go”
will podcasting save the world?
probably not …
but it might help.
http://hughmcguire.net
Author:
Hugh McGuire
E-mail:
hugh@hughmcguire.net
Homepage:
http://hughmcguire.net/