Picking up where I last left off, we made our way to our first sessions. I have a hobbiest interest in programming so I selected a session labeled Zero-to-wiki in 30 minutes or Building a wiki with Django presented by Brad Montgomery. Brad walked us through the basics of Django explaining how it works at a level which helped the non Code Monkeys among us. As a Perl programmer from days gone by, I found Django very easy to understand and like the fact it is a “Code Once, Use Many Times” type of language. An excelent example of Django in use is the Social Media site Pownce. (I’m on there as AndyG1128, look me up) The full presentation and sample source code, which Brad ha made available for download, can be found at http://bradmontgomery.net/bcmem/.
Next up, I went, well stayed in the same room for Podcasting: Just Add Talent with Tollie Williams. Tollie, who you can also find at http://tollie.org/blog (suddenly had an urge to drink for some reason), has a long history of podcasting and did an excellent job of helping us realize it doesn’t take a studio full of equipment, ala TWiT, to do an effective and entertaining podcast. Tollie detailed podcasting history and helped me remember it hasn’t always been this way. Podcasting is a more recent addition to out lives, but has now grown to the point advertisers see it as a viable platform for advertising. Tollie then gave us suggestions on software and hardware we could use to start out own podcasts, from the simple microphone and audacity, or GarageBand for we Apple geeks, to the sublime setup of one Leo Laporte, Pod, uh, um, NETcaster extraordinare. Tollie actually was uStreaming his presentation, another form of live broadcasting and then used Skype to bring in Graham Hancock of The 10th Wonder, a podcast (http://www.heroespodcast.com) about NBC’s Heroes. Graham answered questions about advertising and stressed the important thing about podcasting is to find something you enjoy talking about and don’t get discourage if it seems no one is listening. After listening to Tollie, I have decided to encourage my son, who is 13, to do the Football podcast he has been wanting to start for a while. Look for the test run here in a couple of days. Info from Tollie’s presentation can be found at http://www.tollie.org/wiki
Tune in tomorrow for Part 3 of my adventure at BarCamp.
BTW, I am not diving very far into each presentation, but rather giving you a taste and a place to go get more. If you’d like a deeper exposition, let me know. I’m always happy to talk.
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2 Comments
November 13, 2008 at 9:26 am
That’s excellent! I hope your son enjoys doing his football podcast. That’s such an excellent way to build broadcasting/ communication skills, and to have fun with friends.
Thanks for the mention and the links. I’m working on hopefully getting a bonus interview from another well known podcaster for the wiki as I finish up the presentation files there.
Grace and Peace!
November 14, 2008 at 9:25 pm
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