Late last night my Twitter friend, @jewelsann announced that she'd just launched the Cantores Cleveland Web site. When I hear someone has launched a new site I typically pay it a visit to see how it turned out. There I discovered that Cantores Cleveland is a local vocal ensemble "devoted to providing an accessible, educational early music experience." Seeing that this was a music site I immediately looked for the audio to see how it was presented. Going to the "Listen" tab, I found a list of five .mp3 files including song titles, track length and file size.

And then I thought, "I wonder if they've considered podcasting." It struck me that podcasting a new song every week, month or other regular interval would be a good way to keep their fans engaged with their music. Or, because they have an educational mission, they could alternate music podcasts with discussion podcasts in which the singers tell stories and explain the history of the early music they perform.

There in the wee hours of the morning my brain had turned to thoughts of content marketing strategies. It was late, so rather than pursue these thoughts I dragged myself to bed, and awoke hours later…thinking about the ways one can use podcasts to provide rich educational content that engages listeners. And by listeners of course I mean our target audience, the people who will enroll in our educational programs, attend our events, support our cause or buy our products.

Podcasts are like product samples delivered regularly to your door.

As you know, the best way to know if you will like something is to try it before you buy it. That's why grocery stores continue to fire up their portable skillets and offer us toothpick-speared bites of low fat chicken sausage in the aisles. It's also why bands like Nine Inch Nails (NIN) give albums away online. In doing so they end up selling more, which in the case of NIN meant topping the Amazon sales charts for 2008.

There are many ways to give away product samples, both online and in the real world, but doing so via podcast gives us two advantages worth considering:

Repetition

Brand recognition is built through repeated exposure to a brand name, product or service. Years ago I had a boss who told me that it takes 16 impressions for a name to stick. (I don't know if 16 still holds true, but we'll stick with that for the point of argument.) In traditional marketing terms this means that each potential customer needs to see 16 ads, media mentions, direct mail pieces or some combination thereof. Online it could mean seeing 16 ads via Google, mentions on Digg or StumbleUpon, etc.

16 doesn't seem like much, but it can take a lot of time and money to get those first 16 exposures one needs to solidify brand recognition. And to maintain recognition one needs to ensure that such exposure continues into the future. Podcasts distributed on a regular periodic basis provide a venue for ongoing exposure.

Automatic Delivery

Some listeners will simply visit your site when they want to hear the latest news, tips, etc. But, if you get visitors to subscribe to your podcast, as I encourage you to subscribe to my blog, you can create a conduit that provides your audience with continual exposure to your brand via regular updates. Every time you produce a new podcast it will be downloaded automatically to iTunes or their podcatcher of choice, automatically reinforcing the connection you've built with the listeners most interested in your organization (a.k.a. your best customers.)

Podcasting Recipe: Inform and Entertain

As I've mentioned before goal driven content should drive technology, not vice versa. I'm not encouraging everyone to run out and start a podcast. For many of you a blog will provide the same advantages of repetition and automatic delivery.

But some of you, both in higher education and industry, have access to information and resources that would be well suited to an audio or video format. Every situation is different, so to illustrate my point here are some examples of podcasts that fill an audience need while also reinforcing branding and other marketing goals.

Boagworld

Boagworld is "the podcast for those involved in designing, developing and running Web sites." I also wrote about this in 2007 in my Boagworld podcast recommendation. As a Boagworld listener I gain new insights and ideas regarding my field of Web development. As a podcast producer, Paul Boag has built up brand name recognition and solidified his reputation as one of the leading Web designers in the world. This undoubtedly helps bring more business to his design firm, Headscape, and also leads to speaking engagements, book sales, and so forth.

Off the Shelf

Librarian Bill Claspy, of Case Western Reserve University's Kelvin Smith Library, created Off the Shelf to expose people to faculty authors from the university. In these half-hour podcasts, Claspy interviews authors about their latest books and their approach to writing so that we, the listeners, gain new insights into the topics within the books while also learning more about the writing process and the personalities behind their work. As an avid reader—who has read some of these author's works—I find it intriguing to hear the story behind the stories. As a writer, who has yet to get far on my first novel—though I can wax forth endlessly here—I also find it helpful to learn about their writing habits and what compels them to get the words from mind to computer.

Disclaimer: I discovered this podcast when I was still working at Case, have come to know some of the authors involved, and have had many e-mail discussions with Bill Claspy about the project. When I first discovered the site, I knew I'd subscribe, but I was also intrigued by the marketing possibilities.

This podcast serves many roles. On an individual basis it provides exposure to the authors, their publishers and their books. For those titles written for a mainstream audience this could garner more sales. The quality of the podcast also reflects well on the university, by showcasing the talented faculty available to students who enroll there, and by supporting the university brand through the repetition of the podcasts. It also serves students who may decide to apply to the school or enroll in an author's class based on what they've heard in the podcast. Thus, in just 30 minutes per episode, Off the Shelf, not only entertains, but also supports a multitude of listener and marketing goals.

Inside Colby: For Students, By Students

The student produced podcast, Inside Colby, offers informal discussions of campus life, programs, surveys, student projects, interviews and other topics offering insight into what life is like at Colby College. Inside Colby truly does what the name suggests, it provides a taste of the Colby experience while also exposing students to new campus opportunities.

While communicating with students is the primary mission, the podcast also serves a valuable marketing role. For prospective parents and students, Inside Colby, let's them know what to expect. It reveals the personality behind the Little Ivies reputation and the beautiful campus, showcasing everything from what students wear (casual-outdoorsy-preppy) to the wealth of activities they engage in—whether they're playing lacrosse, taking classes in the blacksmith shop or ghost hunting in the theater.

For alumni, such as yours truly, Inside Colby invokes nostalgia. As I listen to the students discuss the different personalities of the dining halls or hear an interview with a professor I had, I'm immediately transported back to Mayflower Hill, cross-country skiing in the arboretum and eating a Colby 8 (cheeseburger with fried egg) in the campus pub. While Colby's monthly newsletter, Out of the Blue keeps in me in touch with campus happenings, the student podcast puts me on campus—at least in my mind. And, as it should, it also reminds me that I should figure how much I can afford to give come June 3oth, the end of the fiscal year.

Why (or when to use) audio/video rather than text

Podcasts, as we've seen in the above examples come in many forms. The trick is having the resources and the personalities necessary to create an audio or video experience that surpasses what you could provide in text. Podcasts can offer information similar to text, but add a depth of experience that let's us feel we're part of a conversation. They can be informal discussions or instructional lectures, so long as they include content that somehow seems more fitting when heard or viewed than it would in print.

Boagworld, for example, is also a content rich Web site that would be a perfectly suitable resource unto itself. It features blog posts that cover material similar to the podcast (handy for reference) and a discussion forum. The podcast builds on this by offering an hour of entertaining commentary, tips and interviews with industry leaders that I can listen to at my convenience. While I may not have time to keep up with all my blog subscriptions, I can plug my iPod into the car and listen to the repartee between Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington so that I can keep learning while I'm away from my computer.

This portability in time and space is key. I'm an avid reader. My house is overflowing with books while my Google Reader account is hemorrhaging more blog entries than I can ever hope to keep up with. But when I'm not on my couch with a novel or my Macbook Pro, I can still ingest information by learning about the Library of Alexandria via the BBC or getting cooking tips from The Splendid Table.

If you can offer similar information, be it lectures from your academic department, or educational resources related to your products or services, you too can engage listeners—like me—with an interest in what you have to say.

A few more podcasts worth exploring

• The Moth Spellbinding Story Telling
• Messing About in Ships News and views of the maritime industry
• This Week in Tech Leo Laporte and friends discuss all things tech and usually something about Twitter
• Creative Xpert Interviews with designers
• City Club of Cleveland Forum for free speech

Help Heidi win a blog scholarship!

Read Learning for fun and adventure: online education comes in many flavors between March 18-30th, and click on the red "Edu Blogger Scholarship" image. Every click made during that time period brings me one step closer to the finals.

This article is my entry for the 2009 Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest. If you enjoyed this article please click through to the site, each visit from here brings me one step closer to the finals. Thanks!

I've always thought of life as a quest for knowledge. While that might sound like the remarks of an intellectual snob, I just happen to be inquisitive—nosy for knowledge, as it were. I like to know how things work and why, be these things gadgets, ideas or people. Naturally I learn a lot from books but in the past several years, the Internet has become my playground. If I need to know about an evolving Web technology, need a recipe for wonton soup or want to identify the vegetables I bought at the asian grocery I look it up online. Google and other search engines are great for that kind of thing.

But learning isn't always about finding an answer to a specific question. Sometimes it's about exploring questions you didn't know you had, or exposing yourself to new subjects you didn't have time for back in school. That's really the foundation of a liberal arts education. While in school you may focus on your major, but you are also required to study subjects in a variety of disciplines.

Doing so not only broadens your horizons and makes you more interesting at cocktail parties, but it also gives you new perspectives about life, and teaches you different ways of thinking. As we learn about other disciplines we're exposed to new methodologies and approaches that can help us with problem solving and critical thinking—skills that we can apply to our own fields and to life in general. Learning logic and the scientific method can help us evaluate everything from political candidates to T. V. commercials. Exposure to the humanities gives us insight into the human experience and teaches us to be better communicators. All of it adds up to make us better at whatever we are trying to do.

With the resources available on the Internet, this liberal learning doesn't have to end at graduation. Universities publish a wealth of information online, whether it's MIT's Open Courseware or the myriad schools posting lectures on iTunes U. Now you and I can learn about almost any subject one can imagine, from academics and experts all around the globe. And it's all just a few clicks away, right here on the World Wide Web.

Brain food: video lectures, podcasts and related resources worth exploring

Countless resources are available, but here are a few of my favorite places guaranteed to expose you to a wealth of thoughts from leaders in their respective fields.

• BBC In Our Time
• Case Western Reserve University Year of Darwin and Evolution Lectures also available from iTunes U.
• iTunes U (opens in iTunes)
• The Long Now Foundation: Seminars in Long Term Thinking
• Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading
• UChannel: Access to a world of ideas
• University of Bath: Public Lecture Podcast
• WGBH Forum Network

Learning can be fun

While I've been waxing forth on why continued learning is good for you, and why I find it interesting, it can also be quite entertaining—as demonstrated in this video from MyGermanClass.com. Welcome to the world of Ubel Knubel and his freundin, Heidi.

Forthcoming: In a future entry I'll be write about the benefits of providing these types of educational resources on your own Web sites.

As many of you know, I have something of a podcast addiction. My iPod contains everything from the video mischief of Mr. Deity to the probing intellectual discussions of In Our Time—which returns from summer hiatus this week. I listen to these while walking about campus, driving around town or when trying to fall asleep at night. Alas some of these podcasts are ill-suited to the fight against insomnia. Instead of lulling me into slumber, they taunt me with ideas that I want to tinker with right away. One such Podcast is Boagworld, "the podcast for those involved in designing, developing and running Web sites."

Boagworld is the creation of Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington, co-founders (along with Chris Scott) of Headscape, a Web design firm in the U. K. According to their Web site, "Boagworld.com aims to educate you about the latest web innovations, teach you how to manage the development of your site and show you how to integrate your site into your broader business. Most of all it aims to put you in a position where you are not baffled by the techies who are building your site!"

Why you should listen to Boagworld

Two things struck me the first time I listened to Boagworld. 1) They're quite entertaining, and 2) They really know what they are talking about. As soon as I heard them referring to such tried and true resources as A List Apart and Case alumnus, Eric Meyer, I knew they were on the right track. A visit to their well-organized, standards-compliant site served to confirm that they practice what they preach.

The podcasts cover a nice cross-section of topics aimed towards designers, developers, marketers and anyone else who is involved in some aspect of an organizations Web presence. As the mission statements says, "This site/podcast exists to help you poor sods who have been lumbered with the job of managing the company's website. This responsibility is on top of your normal work and has been given to you despite the fact that you know little or nothing about the internet and building websites. It is for you that boagworld.com exists." (I told you they were entertaining.) Shows are 50-60 minutes in length and typically feature:

• Light hearted banter between Paul and Marcus as they share the week's Web-related news, tips, advice and recommendations
• Marcus's Bit, typically focusing on an issue related to Web project/client management or marketing
• Paul's Corner, covering a design or development subject, and
• Interviews with various experts, such as Patrick McNeil from Design Meltdown and Daniel Burka, the creative director at digg.com and/or book reviews

The order of the above may vary, but each week they cover a wide range of material on everything from css to social media.

Why you should read Boagworld

One of the problems with audio podcasts is keeping track of the names, links, books and other details mentioned throughout the show. This is not a problem with Boagworld as the accompanying Web site and blog includes summaries and/or transcripts of the shows including links to everything mentioned within. Rather than having to listen with pencil and paper at the ready, you can simply relax with the audio then go to the site later to follow-up on their recommendations. Archives are organized by date and subject as well as tagged by keyword, making the information easily accessible even if you can't remember which episode featured what. The blog allows listeners to leave comments about the shows and the site also features a discussion board for further interaction with the hosts and other Web developers around the world.

Why are you still reading this? Go give it a listen!

At this point in this entry I could prattle on with various details and examples, but as I'm recommending that you listen to Boagworld, perhaps it is time that I let you do just that.

Sandy Piderit recently posted her media consumption diet in an effort to share ideas and propagate the meme initiated by Jeremiah Owyang. As part of this effort, she tagged me to contribute.

On first glance this seems more off-topic than my usual ramblings. But, as media producers, I think it serves us well to reflect on our own consumption habits. If we can achieve self-awareness regarding the ways we taste and digest information, we can be better prepared to serve information to others. With this in mind, I'll also tag Kevin Adams, Mano Singham, Jeremy Smith, Aaron Shaffer, Jason Stuart and anyone else who would like to perpetuate the meme.

Here goes:

E-mail

I've been using e-mail, when available, since 1983. I took to it immediately, because I could share my ideas when they came to me, and my friends could respond at their convenience. This was much easier than passing notes via friends or using the postal service. The same is true for work. If you have a Web-related question, I may be able to answer it off the top of my head, but in many cases I'll need to view your Web site, examine the code, or do some additional research. Your detailed e-mail message gives me the information I need to ponder the question, and my e-mail response allows me to include detailed instructions, examples of code and Web links—without making you take rushed notes while we're on the phone.

In terms of using e-mail to access media, I am subscribed to a few listservs, but they only generate 1-2 messages per week.

Web

The first time I saw the Web, it was through a text-only browser. Content ran along the lines of "These are my favorite Star Trek episodes." Now of course you can find just about anything. When I search on a topic and can't find something—not even in Wikipedia—that is when I'm surprised.

As a consumer, I usually use the Web to search out specific information via Google, though I will skim local sources such as Cleveland.com and CoolCleveland. For World News I like the BBC, but if I need to know more about a given topic I'll usually search out additional sources so I can get multiple viewpoints. For example, after 9/11 and in the time leading up to our invasion of Iraq, I collected a variety of sites relating to the Middle East. I also consume a lot of information via podcasts. While these are distributed on the Web, I'll discuss those separately.

• Firefox is my browser of choice, but I also use Mozilla, Opera, Safari, Camino, various versions of Explorer and sometimes Linx to check sites on PC and Mac.
• Bookmarks: Firefox and my own intranet pages. In the early days bookmarking tools were pretty weak so I started compiling my own pages of links that I could categorize for my own reference. I just never lost the habit.
• Aggregator/blog search: Bloglines, Technorati, Planet Case.
• Wiki: Wikipedia and Case Wiki. Every month or two I'll go through a phase where I add things to the Case Wiki. This phase usually ends, not because I'm finished, but because something else has taken a higher priority. Then more weeks pass until I get back to it. I'd like to spend more time with this and encourage all of you (Case Western Reserve folks) to do so as well. If we each feed it a little bit, eventually it will grow into a big healthy Wiki.
• Groups: I'm not really active in many online groups, though I skim the Case Forums at least once a week. I used to read Usenet quite a bit, but the Web development newsgroups are pretty bogged down with spammers, newbies and people who know much less about the topic than they think (though there are also some very knowledgeable posters). I still like to check in once in awhile to see what sorts of problems people encounter and how they solve them. It's a good way to learn about best (and worst) practices. Much of what was once discussed on Usenet is now discussed in Web based discussion boards and blogs, though active groups such as rec.autos.makers.vw.watercooled and of course, cwru.net.outages, can provide some very useful information.
• Blog Platform: Blog@Case (MoveableType)
• IM - I don't use instant messaging either online or via phone. When I have to communicate in real time I prefer to do it in person.

Music

When I was a child, stations like WMMS and M105 used to play "Album Oriented Rock." This meant that they played songs other than the "hits" and introduced us to new bands. Later on, listening to a mix of commercial radio, WRUW, WCSB and having my own alternative show on WMHB gave me easy access to new music. Alas commercial radio doesn't work like that anymore and one needs to take a more proactive approach to finding new music. My taste leans to alternative ranging from Goth to Trip Hop, though sometimes my mood may lean towards lounge or Brazilian. I listen to college stations and Internet radio stations such as Soma FM's Indie Pop Rocks. I do Amazon and iTunes searches of bands that I like—so I can see what others are buying. In a similar vein I also like search engines such as LivePlasma (formerly Music Plasma, but now it will search movies too).

If I like a particular Indie band, I find I can sometimes find other good recommendations by visiting the site of their record label or distributor to see what other bands they carry. Or I'll read reviewers I trust. Finding music is like going on a scavenger hunt. My quest is to find the next album that I'll be compelled to play over and over again. Yet, until I find it, I don't know if I'll hear about it from a friend, track it down on the German alternative charts, hear it online or read about it on a blog.

TV

I don't have cable. I like CSI, Crossing Jordan (though it seems to be running out of steam) Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, Law and Order, Numbers, House, Bones, This Old House, Nova and the other science shows on PBS (learned cool things about Cuttlefish this weekend), British sitcoms (49 WEAO Akron), some of the cooking shows, Globe Trekker and Ugly Betty. Some of these shows run at the same time, but I have 2 VCRs so I just tape whatever sounds interesting then watch later at my convenience.

Communication Tools

At work I use a Mac and a Windows PC on our high speed network with voip phone. At home I have a 1999 G3 Powerbook that connects via 56k modem on a land line I use only for local calls. It seems like shockingly slow access, but I'm online all day and do my Web surfing at lunch, so when I get home I mostly use the computer to write. Once I get a newer MacBook, I'll probably upgrade my internet access.

As far as I'm concerned cell phones are most useful for meeting people in airports. I just don't use mine that often (much to the annoyance of some of my friends). And yet, my phone is pretty cool. The last one (bought in 1999) was fading fast, so I replaced it with the LG VX8600. It is much easier to use than was the old phone and with the USB cable and BitPim, I can upload my own ringtones, images and calendar entries. The first ringtone I uploaded was the sound of an old fashioned phone ringing. I don't know why that isn't included as part of the standard set. It will also play music and videos and take photos, but as far as I'm concerned that's what my iPod and camera are for.

Movies

I buy DVD's when they're on sale. I like going to the discount Monday movies at the Cedar Lee, but haven't been getting there as often as I once did. I think the last movie I saw, other than at home, was Night at the Museum. It was playing on the plane coming back from Phoenix a few weeks ago. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to pay for headphones .

Newspapers

Usually I'll just read selected bits online—unless I'm having breakfast in some foreign locale and an English paper is in easy reach. I used to buy the Sunday Plain Dealer for the T.V. Guide but I didn't like the last format change, and it seemed wasteful to buy a three inch stack of paper when I would only pick through and read selected bits. Now I just go to T.V. Guide's online listings and write down the shows I want to watch that week.

Magazines

Years ago I worked for a start-up business magazine. In trying to learn the trade, I became addicted to magazines, reading everything from consumer schlock to trade magazines. I did things like compare the editorial and design styles of Cosmopolitan versus Esquire (the latter usually had more depth and far cleaner layouts—one could write a dissertation on the differences between men's magazines and women's magazines). Now I hardly read them at all, except to skim Crain's Cleveland Business or Ad Age, Scene and the Free Times chuckle at the Weekly World News and tabloid headlines at the grocery store, or read National Geographic while waiting for friends at the Spider. I also will read at least some of the newspaper or magazine stories featured in the "In the News" section of Case Daily.

Books

I am addicted to books. They're portable, don't require batteries and share the imaginations of countless minds. You may think me crazy, but I think books may even be more important than chocolate. I read (on average) somewhere between 2-5 books per week, though this varies depending on the weather and what not. My reading taste is omnivorous and includes Nobel prize winning authors, contemporary literature, vampire novels, mysteries, sci-fi, cereal boxes and stray flyers found stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I mostly read fiction, but dig the occasional biography as well. Favorite authors include: Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Fuhmann, Herman Hesse, Tom Robbins, F. Paul Wilson, Haruki Murakami, Connie Willis, Christopher Moore, Chuck Palahniuk, Carl Hiaasen, Bill Fitzhugh, Neil Gaiman, Christa Wolf, and many others.

Podcasts - iPod

My iPod completes me. Well maybe not, but I sure do like this thing. Aside from being a cool music player and photo album, it is a great tool for gathering and ingesting knowledge. I use it to listen to podcasts from the BBC, NPR, universities and various people with more spare time than me. Sunday afternoon as I was shoveling snow (in 3 - 40 minute sessions) I learned about the history of anaesthetics on "In Our Time," and listened to a discussion of aesthetics and "The many worlds of David Lewis" on the Philosopher's Zone. Snow shoveling is far more pleasant when accompanied by an interesting lecture or radio show. Later that evening I listened to a podcast from my alma mater which featured a speaker from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. No one radio station would have packaged this content together in one day, but with podcasts I can program my own content based on my current mood and interests.

It used to be that if you wanted to listen to a lecture or watch a video published online you were tethered to your computer. I can't listen to or watch these while I'm working because I can't concentrate on both. I don't listen/watch on my home computer because I have slow internet access and I still don't want to be tied to the computer to listen to a lecture whether it be on Socrates or the top 12 uses for persimmons. Podcasts changed all of that. While you can still use the computer to listen and watch, you can also transfer the content to your iPod or other portable device. Now I can listen to the news while buying groceries, lectures while snow shoveling, and "This American Life" just before going to sleep. I consume much more of this content now that I can schedule it at my convenience and carry it with me anywhere I go.

Heidi's media trend

In reviewing my media diet, I've noticed a consistent trend towards time-shifting. This is seen not only in my T.V. habits, but also in my preference for e-mail, books and podcasts. I tend to consume more information when I can control the time and place. Not everyone is like this, it varies by personality, but knowing such trends can help us determine what kind of content we produce on our own sites.

If you are producing a site for people like me, you'll want video and audio content to be in portable rather than streaming formats. Knowing I like to read, you needn't fear long amounts of text (so long as they are relevant). Of course, in the real world your target audience will be broader than "people like Heidi." Some of your visitors will be time-shifters, some will adjust their schedules to watch the live Webcast at noon and others will have a penchant for .pdf's that they can print and take with them. If we keep in mind the different ways that people interact with our content we give ourselves the opportunity to produce it in the most usable formats.

The Case Writers' and Editors' Forum, WordNerds, will discuss blogging next Wednesday, March 21st, in room 2280 (2nd floor) at the School of Nursing. I'll be leading this discussion in which we'll cover a brief overview of blogging, then discuss ways to use blogging in our marketing, recruitment and other communication efforts. I've asked Jeremy Smith, Case's blog administrator, to join us to share his opinions and expertise.

About Wordnerds

For those looking for brainstorming partners, story ideas, or the chance to benefit from the best practices other Case communicators have developed, Case's WordNerds meets every third Wednesday of each month for lunch, networking, professional discussions, and general moral support. All university staff members involved in writing, editing, communications, public relations, marketing, and recruiting are welcome. Send e-mail to wordnerds@case.edu for more information, or to join the mailing list.

Blogging? What's to know?

Regular readers of the Web Development Blog are already quite familiar with blogging. For members of Wordnerds, who may not be as familiar with the topic, I've posted a very general introduction to blogs and podcasts below. I wrote this last summer as part of another project, but the principles still apply. Read this now to get a jumpstart on next week's discussion.

Blogs: Web sites with benefits

According to the Case Blog FAQ, "Weblogs, or blogs, are a way of publishing to the web one idea at a time. By simplifying the process of publishing, letting authors create posts easily, and making it simple to link to related ideas on the Web, blogs make it easy to update a Web site while still making sure your words retain a clear, personal voice."

While often thought of as online diaries or journals, blogs can be written by one or more authors and used in any number of ways. Here at Case, the Undergraduate Admission blog allows admission staff to share ideas with one another and give prospective students a glimpse into the way the admission process works. Because the blog system allows readers to make comments, prospective students can ask questions related to specific blog postings and receive answers not only from admissions staff, but also from other Case faculty, staff and students who read the blog.

According to admission's former writer—now director of media relations, Lisa Chiu "We launched our blog last summer as another way to connect with prospective students. Ours is a group blog, so we have several people who post—admission counselors, financial aid counselors, and marketing and communications staff. We post on a variety of topics, some serious, some silly. We love when high school students leave comments on our entries—it's always great being able to spark a stimulating conversation. It's exciting to see that high school students from all over the world are reading our blog and learning more about Case."

One of the greatest features of a blog is its ability to syndicate content. As wire services such as Reuters distribute news to media outlets around the globe, you as a blogger can distribute your content via RSS or Atom feeds. These feeds allow users to subscribe to a variety of blogs via aggregators such as http://www.bloglines.com.

What this means to you as a reader is that instead of visiting the 10 different Web sites where your favorite blogs are published, you can instead go to an aggregator such as Bloglines, subscribe to your favorites, then read them all in one place. Another example of an aggregator is Planet Case. Planet Case aggregates all the most recent postings from the Case blogs. I usually skim Planet Case at least once a day because it allows me to catch up with my favorite Case blogs as well as learn of new ones.

Highlights of the blogs on Planet Case today (last summer) include the latest updates—with photos—from Kelly, who is studying and doing community outreach in Uganda; a post from Weatherhead's Professor Piderit, in which she explores the nature of an "organization" and opens up the topic for group discussion; and part 4 of a series of insightful philosophical entries entitled "Why we must learn to see ourselves as others see us" written by Case's most prolific blogger, Mano Singham, director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education.

While content found on the blogs is easily viewed through aggregators, it can also be found elsewhere on the Case Web site. Our office uses the blog system to publish news stories about Case. The headlines from these stories are automatically pulled into pages such as the home page and the MyCase portal and can be repurposed in their entirety or by topic on pages throughout the Case site.

The blog system's ability to syndicate information is also what enables us to podcast audio or video content.

Podcast, both noun and verb

A podcast (the noun) is basically just an audio or video file that has been uploaded to the Web in such as way that it can be downloaded automatically through software—such as iTunes—that can read syndicated feeds. While users may also be able to download such files from regular Web sites, the ability to subscribe to a feed—as one subscribes to a magazine—lets users have their audio and video content delivered automatically to their computers. To podcast (the verb) is simply a matter of publishing your content to a system, such as a blog, that can disseminate the file via syndication.

This is much less complicated that it sounds. As I type this on my computer, iTunes is checking my subscriptions and downloading new files. The podcasts I listen to include radio shows from the BBC and NPR, lectures from the City Club of Cleveland, academic lectures as well as some very amusing videos on learning German. To subscribe to these I simply copied the addresses of their feeds from their Web sites and pasted them into iTunes. Now I can watch or listen to the files—at my convenience—by copying them to my iPod, burning them to CD or just using my computer.

Here on campus, it is also fairly simple to produce a podcast. For example, earlier last year Aaron Shaffer, formerly of the university's Freedman Center, gave a talk about blogs, wikis, and podcasting. Using a digital recorder, he recorded the talk, then—using software provided by the center—he added the slides from his demonstrations and saved the augmented audio file in the appropriate format. To podcast the file, he simply uploaded it to the Freedman Center Blog—which supports RSS and Atom feeds. Those who couldn't attend the lecture can listen online or subscribe to the podcast.

Podcasting has become so easy in fact that Silicon Republic.com announced in March 2006 that podcasts now outnumber radio stations.

On a different topic…

I will be out of the office tomorrow through Tuesday. Please direct any Web development questions to Kevin in my absence. ]]> http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2007/03/13/case-wordnerds-to-discuss-blogging/feed/ 0 http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2007/01/23/the-workings-of-internet-search-engines/ http://www.heidicool.com/blog/2007/01/23/the-workings-of-internet-search-engines/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:10:10 +0000 Heidi Cool http://www.heidicool.com/blog/?p=81 Princeton's University Channel, a collection of podcasts provided by UC member universities. ]]>

As some of you know, I'm a bit of a podcast junkie—listening to everything from NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" to the BBC's "In Our Time." Last week, as I was running errands, I listened to an intriguing lecture about search engine technology provided by Princeton's University Channel, a collection of podcasts provided by UC member universities.

The podcast featured Jan Pedersen, chief scientist for search and marketplace with Yahoo!, who gave a talk at Vanderbilt University on "The workings of Internet search engines" on January 12, 2007.

While Pedersen's focus was not on optimizing your Web site for search engines, his explanation of how they work and the challenges they face as the Internet grows so quickly, provides helpful background material to those of us who want to ensure that our Web pages are easily found.

If you'd like to understand more about how search engines work, I highly recommend listening to this lecture. It is 51 minutes long and non-technical enough that it should be accessible to most listeners.