April 19, 2008
Utterz Demo at PodcampDC
This is a mobcast I recorded using my mobile phone at PodcampDC. You'll hear me explaining Utterz, the tool I used to create the mobcast.
Tags: mobcasting | mobile phones | PodcampDC | Utterz
Posted by acarvin at 2:40 PM
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March 11, 2008
Oh Lord, Won't Ya Buy Me an N95
My biggest takeaway from SXSW: I must get me a Nokia N95 video phone. So I thought I'd offer it up in a song.
Mobile post sent by acarvin using Utterz.
Tags: n95 | nokia | phones | songs | video
Posted by acarvin at 10:43 PM
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March 10, 2008
Live From Austin City Limits: Spinto Band
Mobile post I recorded after having the honor of introducing Spinto Band on stage at Austin City Limits.
Tags: Austin | Austin City Limits | concerts | music | Spinto Band | SXSW
Posted by acarvin at 12:34 AM
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March 9, 2008
How Dev Hynes Got His Star Wars Jacket
Mobile podcast I recorded with Dev Hynes of Lightspeed Champion talking about where he got the awesome Star Wars jacket he was wearing during their soundcheck at Austin City Limits.
Tags: Austin City Limits | clothing | Dev Hynes | Lightspeed Champion | Star Wars
Posted by acarvin at 8:59 PM
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April 23, 2007
Sitting for my Second Musical Portrait with Pete Townshend's Computer
While Susanne was putting Kayleigh to sleep tonight I decide to sit for another music portrait with Pete Townshend's online music generator, The Lifehouse Method. You may recall I sat for my first portrait last year after being invited to beta-test the tool. The system, created by Townshend electronic composer Lawrence Ball, asks you to input several unique pieces of content, which it uses to interpret your musical portrait. It asks for a sample of your voice, which you can record with the website's flash recorder. I recorded a short message in a soothing voice, saying "Isn't my voice oh so soothing?" Then, it asked for a photo, so I supplied it with this photo of me taking a picture of the coliseum of El Jem in Tunisia. When asked for an audio clip, I gave it the opening bars to the Dresden Dolls song, "Coin Operated Boy," which we use in the opening credits of our Dirty Diaper Diaries videos. Finally, I needed to give it a rhythm. So I tapped out the opening bars to the Rush song "YYZ," which spell out the letters YYZ in morse code, in a 10/8 time signature.
The result? Have a listen.
For one thing, you can't dance to it. In some ways, it's reminiscent of some of the more dissonant musical studies my late father-in-law David Cornwall used to compose. It's rather slow, with strings and keyboards plodding along at a modest tempo, while a bass and piano interject themselves at inopportune moments. There are very few chords - mostly individual notes from each instrument overlaid with each other. I can't decide if it sounds like Morton Feldman revved up or Conlon Nancarrow slowed down. The first minute or so doesn't do much for me, but then it gets a bit more coherent, as several instruments fade away and elements of bassoon and marimba pop up, but in a very minimalist way. There's also a haunting, high-pitched whistle that weaves through the piece, not unlike a theremin. Fascinating stuff, but probably not for everyone.
Thanks again to Pete and his colleagues for letting me experiment with it. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 8:54 PM
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March 13, 2007
Podcast of My Interview with Dan Rather
The video is still being edited, but I've got a quick and dirty podcast of my 25-minute interview with Dan Rather. The audio quality leaves much to be desired, as it was compressed multiple times while transferring formats. Once I get the raw footage from Chuck Olsen I hope to make a better quality recording, but for those of you eager to hear what we talked about, this version is better than nothing, I guess. (UPDATE: I've created a much higher quality recording of the interview and posted it, so when you click on the link now you'll get the better version.)
Before the interview, I put together around a dozen questions, including a mix of my own and some from suggestions posted to the blog. In the end, we got around to tackling only half of them, due to his long responses and our time being cut short by a few minutes. Nonetheless, I feel like we covered some interesting ground, including these questions:
You alluded earlier to the effects of media concentration and cross-ownership on journalism and civic discourse. Could you say a bit more about the effects of media concentration at both the local and national level?If the relationship between media, corporations and politicians has gotten too cozy as you have suggested, how can the system change for the benefit of the public interest, given the fact that it's not in their interest to change the system?
In your talk today you lamented what you described "the ability to be anonymous and say scurrilous things" on blogs. How do you balance this with the role played by anonymous bloggers in places like China and Zimbabwe, who feel forced to blog anonymously to speak truth to power? Are there times when anonymity is the only solution?
Can you picture yourself ever publishing your own blog?
Video blogger Josh Wolf has been spent just over 200 days in jail for contempt of court for refusing to turn over footage he shot during a protest, with prosecutors arguing that his is not a "real" journalist. In France, they've just introduced a new law that would criminalize citizens from recording or broadcasting acts of violence if they're not accredited journalists. Do you see a growing clash between governments and citizen journalists, and if so, why now?
Do you worry that the public lacks the media literacy skills to recognize when bloggers have ulterior motives and when they don't? Has the rise of the blogosphere made media literacy even more important? (Built upon a question suggested by Shava Nerad)
You also talked today of one of the roles of a journalist is to hold politicians accountable. Do they have a similar role in holding their peers accountable, given the coziness you alluded to between beltway journalists and politicians?
Again, sorry about the crappy audio. What can I say; I'm a video guy. But I'll try to get a better version of the audio online later. Enjoy the new version of the podcast. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 12:54 AM
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February 20, 2007
NPR Social Media Forum, Part 2
Here's part two of the podcast from last week's social media forum at NPR. Part one can be found here. Participants in the podcast include David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Jay Rosen, Zadi Diaz, Euan Semple and Jeff Jarvis. NPR media reporter David Folkenflik moderates, and Michel Martin chimes in as well. -andy
Tags: David Folkenflik | David Weinberger | Doc Searls | Euan Semple | Jay Rosen | Jeff Jarvis | journalism | Michel Martin | news | NPR | nprsocialmedia | podcasts | social media | Web 2.0 | Zadi Diaz
Posted by acarvin at 5:33 PM
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NPR Social Media Forum, Part 1
Given the amazing response we've received from the social media advisory group I co-hosted at NPR last week, we've decided to release the full audio of the two-hour forum as a pair of podcasts. Each podcast is about an hour long. As far as I know it's the first time NPR has released the audio of one of its in-house "Digital Den" forums before, so I'm really excited to share it. The podcast includes a discussion featuring David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Jay Rosen, Zadi Diaz, Euan Semple and Jeff Jarvis, moderated by NPR media reporter David Folkenflik.
Here's part one of the podcast. -andy
Tags: David Folkenflik | David Weinberger | Doc Searls | Euan Semple | Jay Rosen | Jeff Jarvis | journalism | news | NPR | nprsocialmedia | podcasts | social media | Web 2.0 | Zadi Diaz
Posted by acarvin at 5:21 PM
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November 25, 2006
Sitting for a Musical Portrait by Pete Townshend
This afternoon I helped compose a song with Pete Townshend of The Who.
Okay, not exactly. It was actually with Pete's computer.
I can see you're skeptical, so I better provide some context. To do that, we're gonna have to go all the way back to 1971, the year I was born. Because that was when Townshend began work on a musical project known as Lifehouse.
The Who had just found great success with their rock opera, Tommy, and Townshend was now working on a new musical project called Lifehouse. A science fiction story in which the world has suffered an ecological disaster, Lifehouse included a major plot line based around the idea that the world's music was controlled by a small group of powerful media conglomerates, which in turn pumped its mediocre muzak into the minds of humanity. (In some ways it's similar to Rush's 2112 album, which came out in the late 70s, without the Ayn Rand influence.)
Pete explains:
"The essence of the story-line was a kind a futuristic scene.... It's a fantasy set at a time when rock 'n' roll didn't exist. The world was completely collapsing and the only experience that anybody ever had was through test tubes. They lived TV programs, in a way. Everything was programmed. The enemies were people who gave us entertainment intravenously, and the heroes were savages who'd kept rock 'n' roll as a primitive force and had gone to live with it in the woods. The story was about these two sides coming together and having a brief battle."
As part of their revolutionary struggle, the heroes of the story utilized a technological weapon called The Method, which would combat the soulless music they were literally being force-fed.
"What Lifehouse was about, at its root, was to reaffirm that what's important is that music reflects its audience as absolutely and completely as possible," Townshend explains on his website. In the early 70s, he was exploring Sufi mysticism, which no doubt put him in touch with qawwali music, like that of the famed Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whom I got to interview in 1992. Qawwali concerts, which often extend to four hours or more, intend to use the trance-like power of lengthy musical performances to bring the performers and audience into a state of spiritual ecstasy. This, of course, is often a complete contrast to rock concerts, where performers and the audience show up, do their thing and leave. Townshend says:
Standing on stage and waving your arms about is wearing a bit thin, I think. There's going to have to be a way of listening to music which doesn't mean that you're going to have to face in a particular direction, there's going to have to be a way of listening to music that doesn't mean that you have to go out to a concert hall between eight and ten in the evening. I've seen moments in Who concerts where the vibrations were becoming so pure that I thought the world was just going to stop, the whole thing was just becoming so unified. But you could never reach that state because in the back of their minds everybody knew that the group was going to have to stop soon, or they'd got to get home or catch the last bus or something - it's a ridiculous situation.
For various reasons, Lifehouse didn't come together as planned, even though Townshend composed many songs for the rock opera. Instead, these songs were published as part of the album Who's Next, arguably one of the greatest rock albums of all time. But Lifehouse - and the musical weapon known as The Method - never fully vanished from Townshend's creative consciousness.
This brings us to last February, when Townshend was wrapping up work on his novel, The Boy Who Heard Music. The novel was released chapter-by-chapter on a blog, and he invited the public to comment on the story and help improve it. When the novel was complete, Townshend announced that some of the bloggers who participated in the story's development would be invited to participate in his next project - the rebirth of The Method as online software that would interpret the images and sounds submitted by a person and convert it into music.
As I explained on my blog:
A partnership between Townshend, programmer Dave Snowdon and composer Lawrence Ball, The Method will perform musical works generated by a computer based on interactions with a real person, referred to by Townshend as a "sitter." Initially the website will feature works generated by The Method through interactions with Lawrence Ball and others, but Townshend plans to invite bloggers to "sit" with The Method and generate music of their own. At least that's the way I understand it from his description on his blog. From what I've heard of Lawrence Ball's work, his music is reminsicent of Erik Satie and Arvo Part. Adding Pete Townshend to the mix, along with a community of 500 bloggers, will hopefully lead to some exciting, unusual results.
Yesterday, I received an email informing me that I was being invited to serve as one of the first beta-testers of The Method. I'd have a chance to "sit" and have three musical portraits painted for me. So this afternoon, I logged into and gave it a shot. The website asked me to upload a series of original audio clips, as well as a photo. This data would then be interpreted by the website to create an original electronic composition. I wasn't sure if it would take the content I gave it and sample it, or just be inspired by it. First, I supplied it with a photo of me from my honeymoon. I then gave it three audio clips:
- A loop of me saying "The moving walkway is ending; please look down."
- A sample of me doing babytalk to Kayleigh, and her response.
- A loop of a Tunisian malouf trio I recorded in Tunisia last year.
Once this was done, The Method went to work, composing an original work based on my inputs. The result is this song. It's just over five minutes long, and is very reminiscent of the work of Terry Riley, Michael Nyman and Phillip Glass, each of whom often utilize electronic-like repetition in their compositions. Personally, I like the piece a lot, though I can see how people might dismiss it as being too repetitive. (It also has some crackle noises at the beginning, which must have occurred when The Method saved the mp3 file.) I'll be very curious to see if my future experiments with The Method produce similar results. I'll have to go out of my way to submit a photo and audio samples that are very different from the ones I just used.
So what's next? For one thing, The Method is still in beta, so it's not totally ready for prime time yet. Eventually, more people will be invited to sit for musical portraits, and even be invited back repeatedly to work with Townshend and his collaborators to expand them into major works. They'll also take their show on the road, doing live performances of some of the compositions, with sitters like me invited to attend and potentially participate.
Meanwhile, any musical works produced by The Method will be co-owned by Townshend and the sitter. For all practical purposes, that means that if you sit for a musical portrait, you can do whatever you choose with the results, as can Townshend. We just can't veto the other's uses of it. That way, we can both use it, refine it, sample it, license it and perform it. Not like I would ever say no to Pete if he wanted to incorporate it into a concert or anything like that. :-)
So that's the result of my first experienced with networked musical composition. I can't wait to do it again. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 5:44 PM
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November 14, 2006
Fugue in Four Parts, by David Cornwall
Here is a podcast of Fugue in Four Parts, recorded at Dave's funeral yesterday. It was the first time the piece had ever been performed publicly. Dave composed it in late 2004, beginning a period that would prove to be the peak of his creative output. Though Dave had been experimenting heavily with 20th century classical music inspired by Witold Lutoslawski, Igor Stravinsky, Gyorgy Ligeti and Morton Feldman, he never turned his back on his love for Bach. Given Dave's background as a software engineer, he loved the mathematical precision of Bach's fugues. In the liner notes of two CDs he made for Susanne and me, Dave described the piece as
a full Baroque fugue in four parts, written according to the rules of counterpoint espoused by Bach. This piece begins and ends in C Major, but modulates into many major and minor keys during its episodic development.... Each of four voices state the main theme in a different part of the scale, until all are intertwining in the harmonic glory of fugue.
The recording is far from perfect, captured on a digital camera and performed by an organist who had almost no time to practice. But Dave would have still loved it. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 6:59 PM
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October 31, 2006
Edgar Allen PoeCast
No Halloween is truly complete without some spooky guy reading aloud Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. Courtesy of the LibraVox audiobook project, by way of the SEGA Tech blog. Enjoy.... -andy
Tags: audiobooks | halloween | podcasts | publicdomain
Posted by acarvin at 4:20 PM
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October 26, 2006
Political Attack Ad Mashup
Jaime Holguin of the Associated Press asap service has put together an amazing mashup of this year's most obnoxious political campaign ads. And yes, you can dance to it. Enjoy.... -andy
Posted by acarvin at 6:14 PM
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October 1, 2006
The Wall That Separates Them
One of the most difficult aspects of coping with Dave's illness is the fact that he hasn't met Kayleigh yet. Since Kayleigh was born premature, we dreaded the thought of taking her on an airplane before she was at least six months old. And being wheelchair-band, Dave could not travel very easily, particularly on airplanes. Then came the move to DC, the job.... We always assumed we'd get to see him over the holidays.
Today's been a better day than yesterday for Dave.... His temperature and white count are down, while his lungs and kidneys seem to be working relatively better. He's awake for several hours a day, and can communicate by nodding or blinking his eyes. There is no doubt about his alertness; as long as his strength holds, he doesn't hesitate to respond to yes or no questions. Having said all that, the doctors have made it clear that it will take a miracle for his body to recover from the massive infection that's overtaken him.
I'm sitting here in the ICU waiting room with Kayleigh and Susanne's cousin Mike. The rest of the family is spending time with Dave while he sleeps. The waiting room, by coincidence, is adjacent to Dave's room. Sometimes when it's quiet in here I can hear Dave's music, particularly when his Parade of the Wedding Party - the orchestral version of the string quartet he composed for our wedding ceremony - reaches its crescendo. And sometimes when I'm visiting him, talking about his music, I can hear Kayleigh crying in the waiting room.
Because Kayleigh is so young, the doctors will not allow her in the ICU. And Dave is too weak to leave his room and visit her somewhere safe. Only a wall separates them, but I fear it may be a wall that wall never be breeched.
I would give anything for a sledgehammer. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 7:33 PM
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September 30, 2006
Prayers for David Cornwall
Friday I had to fly out to Denver after finding out that my father-in-law, Dave Cornwall, is gravely ill. Dave has abdominal surgery about a week ago but somehow he got an infection, and it's erupted into full-blown sepsis. His temperature spiked to 104 yesterday and he is on life support, but today his temp has come down to 97. He also woke up for several hours this morning, appearing alert and nodding his head to yes or no questions.
While he was awake, Susanne asked him if he wanted to listen to his music. As many of you know, Dave started composing classical music after his retirement and has written dozens of pieces, including the wedding march for when Susanne and I got married. We're playing a copy of it in his room in the ICU right now. Here's a podcast of it, performed by a string quartet from the Denver University Lamont School of Music.
All in all, the situation is very touch-and-go, and he has an uphill battle ahead of him. Any forms of prayer, good thoughts, karmic energy, etc, would be most appreciated by Susanne and her family during this difficult hour.
Posted by acarvin at 6:37 PM
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August 28, 2006
Audio of Babies Crying
Okay, some of you may wonder why I would post a podcast of babies crying, but there's a good reason for it. Before Kayleigh was born, our veterinarian had recommended that we get an audio recording of crying babies to help our cats adjust to the cacophany before we brought our baby home from the hospital. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a recording anywhere that suited our purposes, so we brought Kayleigh home without prepping Winston and Dizzy. Thankfully they've been great with her, but it's pretty obvious that they don't like the crying.
Since we have several friends with pets who are expecting soon, we decided to record a podcast of Kayleigh crying. The audio is about a minute long, and actually features three separate crying tracks for maximum noise effect. So if you happen to be expecting a baby and are wondering how your pets may react to the sudden racket, play this podcast nice and loud for them. If you don't have stereo speakers for your computer, I encourage you to burn the podcast to a CD and play it on a stereo. It'll also help you get used to babies crying as well. :-) -andy
Posted by acarvin at 1:19 PM
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August 7, 2006
What's the Ideal Toolset for Citizen Journalism?
At Dan Gillmor's citizen media unconference here at Harvard, Hong Kong University professor Andrew Lih led a discussion about the ideal toolset for fostering, editing and distributing citizen journalism. I recorded a podcast of the session; it's just under an hour and 45 megabytes. Sorry about the static during the first 10 seconds - I promise it gets better.... -andy
Tags: Andrew Lih | citizen journalism | citizen media | Harvard | speeches. Berkman | unconference
Posted by acarvin at 1:42 PM
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Lisa Williams Discusses Placeblogging
Here's a podcast of Lisa Williams of H2Otown talking about "placeblogging" - blogs focused on hyperlocal community journalism. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 11:36 AM
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August 4, 2006
Podcast of Jimmy Wales Talk at Wikimania
Here's the podcast of Jimmy Wales' talk at the Wikimania conference. It's about 30 megs, so it may take a while to download depending on your connection. -andy
tag: wikimania2006
Posted by acarvin at 10:18 AM
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August 1, 2006
Birthday Greetings from Brenda
A birthday voicemail from my Aunt Brenda on Sunday.
Don't ask me why the voicemail timestamp says Saturday; I swear my birthday was Sunday. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 5:46 PM
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July 24, 2006
When the Saints Go Marching Into Dupont Circle
Yesterday I had the chance to spend a few hours walking through Washington DC, visiting some of my old haunts. Dupont Circle is as wonderful as ever, particularly since the local brass band was out in force. On weekends during the summer, these dozen or so jazz musicians perform an impromptu concert on the northern side of the circle. You never know who will stop and listen, but typically it's a combination of tourists, locals, embassy officials and the occasional homeless person. Yesterday was no different. I've probably seen these guys perform dozens of times over the years, but I think this was the first time I sat down to listen. They're not the best brass band in the world, but they sure are a lot of fun. Have a listen. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 9:46 AM
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July 20, 2006
Embracing Web 2.0 in an Education 1.0 Universe
Yesterday I had the honor of delivering the keynote at the ThinkBright Summer Digital Institute, hosted by WNED public television in Buffalo, New York. The speech, "Embracing Web 2.0 in an Education 1.0 Universe," was a variation of one I've done previously this year, but with a greater emphasis on education. For those of you who are interested, here's a podcast of the speech, along with the accompanying Powerpoint. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 7:25 PM
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July 11, 2006
Thoughts and Prayers for the People of Mumbai
It's been a terrifying day for the people of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), with a series of bombs ripping through more than half a dozen suburban train stations, killing well over 100 people. I've had a hard time getting much of anything done today, absorbed by the CNN coverage, emailing Indian friends and colleagues, trying to make sense of the situation. Peter Griffen, Dina Mehta and other friends from the Tsunamihelp blog have been working hard to assist people through the MumbaiHelp blog, while Wikipedian's have been doing yeoman's work updating the Wikipedia entry about the attacks.
Last year, I blogged about riding the Western line into Mumbai with blogger Rohit Gupta. We jumped onto an express train at Andheri Station and headed into Mumbai for coffee with Dina Mehta, playing with the iTalk recorder on my iPod, never giving a thought to our safety. I even recorded a demo with my iPod on the train, which I've never posted publicly. Here's a copy of it.
Looking back on that afternoon, I now realize that the train I rode that day passed through four of the seven stations bombed today. It could have just as easily been that day or any other day; it's the sheer randomness of terror that makes it so horrifying.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Mumbai tonight. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 4:25 PM
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July 10, 2006
Podcast: Angus King on the Maine Laptop Program
Last month while I was attending the AALF conference here in Boston I mentioned I'd recorded a podcast of Angus King, former governor of Maine, talking about the state's groundbreaking laptop initiative. I didn't want to post it without getting his permission, and earlier today I received an email from him giving me the thumbs up. So here's the podcast. It's about 50 minutes long and around 43 megabytes. As always, sorry about the audio quality but it gets a little crackly when I compress it. For those of you who would prefer a text version, here are my notes from his speech. -andy
Tags: Angus King | digital divide | education technology | laptops | Maine | policy | Seymour Papert | students
Posted by acarvin at 6:30 PM
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June 23, 2006
Tim Magner: Laptops and Edge Devices are the Tip of the Iceberg
One last podcast from the AALF conference. This one comes from Tim Magner, director of the US Department of Education's Office of Education Technology. Tim talks about the role of emerging technologies in transforming education and educational management. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 12:08 PM
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Mike Furdyk Takes IT Global
Check out this podcast of Mike Furdyk from TakingITGlobal (TIG) talking about what it was like growing up as a digital native and how he's applied this to his work with TIG, the world's largest online youth activism network. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 10:49 AM
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Ben Shneiderman on Making Education Ecstatic
Here's a podcast of Ben Schneiderman, computer scientist and author of Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies, speaking at the AALF conference. He talked about his work developing interactive visualization tools and learning experiences that result in positive real-world change.
He also offered a great quote from George Leonard on the purpose of education: "A large part of the answer may be what men (and women) of this civilization have longest feared and most desired: the achievement of moments of ecstasy."
Unfortunately, when was the last time most students had a learning experience that was truly ecstatic? -andy
Posted by acarvin at 10:11 AM
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May 22, 2006
This Wednesday: Day of (out)Rage
On Wednesday I'm planning to take part in the Day of (out)Rage, a day of national protest against the COPE Act. For those of you who haven't been following the debate on Capitol Hill, the COPE Act would allow telecom companies to ignore the basic Internet principle of network neutrality, letting them charge users more for complete access to the Internet, while peddling their own content instead. It would also take away local control of public access TV channels. And for those of you who are worried about the digital divide, the bill would let telecom companies conduct redlining, which is refusing to build out broadband access in low-income neighborhoods simply because the residents are poor.
In protest against this legislation, there will be protests in NYC, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. I'll be at the Boston rally, which starts at 1:30pm in Boston at the State House grand staircase. To learn more, visit saveaccess.org or listen to this podcast. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 7:23 PM
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May 18, 2006
Public Media Podcast Part 3: Dan Coughlin
The third and final podcast from yesterday's public media community meeting in Boston. Dan Coughlin of Manhattan Neighborhood Network gave a fantastic presention about the COPE Act in Congress that's threatening public media and network neutrality. The audio also includes group discussion, with comments from myself, Fred Johnson, Nettrice Gaskins and others. A Windows Media version can be found here:
http://www.andycarvin.com/podcasts/publicmedia3.wma
Posted by acarvin at 11:59 AM
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Public Media Podcast Part 2: Alice Myatt
This is the podcast of the second part of yesterday's public media community meeting. It features commentary by longtime public media advocate Alice Myatt. Here's a link to text notes from the session as well. A Windows Media version can be found here:
http://www.andycarvin.com/podcasts/publicmedia2.wma
Posted by acarvin at 11:47 AM
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Public Media Podcast Part 1: Fred Johnson and Andy Carvin
Here's a podcast of the first part of yesterday's public media community meeting. It includes opening remarks by Fred Johnson and an international perspective on public media and the digital divide from me. Here's a link to text notes from the session as well. The podcast is in mp3 format; sorry about the static from the compression process. A Windows Media version can be found here:
http://www.andycarvin.com/podcasts/publicmedia1.wma
Posted by acarvin at 11:36 AM
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May 16, 2006
Low-Power Educational Radio in Scotland
I was going through the file folders of my handheld digital audio recorder throwing away some extraneous files when I found some audio I recorded for a podcast at the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow last September. The audio included an interview with Brian Rowan of the broadcasting equipment manufacturer Clyde Broadcast Products. Clyde Broadcast has been working with a group of Scottish secondary schools to develop a network of low-power radio stations programmed by students. The interview, which is about six minutes long, was recorded in a very noisy expo hall with one of the student radio stations broadcasting in the background. Combine that with Brian's Scottish accent, the interview takes a bit of concentration to follow, so I'd recommend listening to it with headphones if possible.
Enjoy the podcast. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:23 PM
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May 1, 2006
Immigrant Rights Podcast, Part 2
My second mobile phone podcast today, recorded during the immigrant rights march from Cambridge to Boston. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:31 PM
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Immigrant Rights Podcast, Part 1
Here's a podcast I recorded over the phone just prior to the immigrant rights rally at Harvard. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 12:50 PM
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April 10, 2006
Podcast of My CISOA Presentation
Here's the podcast of my presentation at the CISOA conference this morning. It's about an hour long, and accompanies this Powerpoint presentation. It's somewhat similar to the speech I gave at the University of Missouri last month, but with a bit less focus on Wikipedia and more on telecentres and the digital divide. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:24 PM
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April 8, 2006
Monterey GrooveCast: Airport Hell, Aquarium Fun
Here's a five-minute podcast after a very long cross-country trip to Monterey, California. Highlights include a period of aural misery at the Salt Lake City Airport; exploring Cannary Row; and shooting tons of video at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Music by Drop Trio, courtesy of Magnatune Records, used in accordance with the Creative Commons license. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 10:03 PM
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March 31, 2006
Post-Game Summary of My Appearance on Radio Open Source
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Chris Lydon live on Open Source last night |
I arrived at the studio just before 7pm, when the program airs live. I sat in the studio with Chris, who was busily jotting down notes for the show, peppering me with interesting questions about the subject. I'd met Chris once or twice at Harvard Berkman events, but this was the first time we'd ever really chatted. You can tell he's done thousands of interviews in his long career; he really makes you feel comfortable. I think it was particularly helpful that I was with him in person. Sometimes I've done radio interviews in which I'm over the phone or checking in via another studio, and the lack of eye contact can affect the rapport of the conversation. So it was great being able to sit at the same table with Chris, microphones bobbing six inches from our noses; it would make for a very comfortable, casual conversation.
I didn't come on for the first 40 minutes; Chris interviewed Spencer Wells of National Geographic and John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin first. This allowed me to observe his interview style and take notes. During music breaks, Chris would talk simultaneously with the control room as well as with me, taking advantage of every moment to prepare for the next segment.
Eventually, it was my turn to appear on air. Chris opened things up by asking me how I started my own family tree odyssey, and the brick wall I hit in terms of a lack of a genealogical paper trail beyond my great-grandparents. I talked about how I learned about genetic genealogy in early 2000 and tracked down the founder of Family Tree DNA, which was just getting off the ground as one of the first commercial providers of DNA tests for genealogical purposes.
From there, we talked about some of the findings I had, including the connections on both sides of my family with the Middle East and northeast Africa. I also talked a bit about my father-in-law, Dave Cornwall, who got tested last year and ended up connecting with other DNA customers who happened to be named Cornwell and shared a similar story of how their families came to America. Chris wrapped it up by asking me what I plan to tell our first child about our family's history and what we've learned from the DNA testing. I said I hoped that it would give them an appreciation of how we're connected to people from all over the world, and that we're all one large human family, all equally deserving of dignity and respect.
The hour was over quite fast - it's amazing how these things fly by when you're into it. Chris said he'd be getting tested soon; I can't wait to see the follow-up show and learn what he discovered.
In case you didn't catch the show, here's the podcast of the full hour. It's about 24 megabytes, so it may take a while to download. My segment is about 40 minutes into the show - not that you should skip ahead or anything. :-) -andy
Posted by acarvin at 11:37 AM
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February 22, 2006
Podcast: The MIT Open Courseware Initiative
Anne Margulies, director of the MIT Open Courseware initiative, just finished her speech here in Missouri. Here's a podcast of her speech, recorded with her permission. It's 45 minutes long, around 11 megabytes. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:38 PM
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Podcast: Open Content vs. Closed Doors (Or Closed Minds?)
Here's the podcast of my keynote speech at the University of Missouri Scholarly Communications Conference. It's 16 megs and runs just over an hour. And don't forget the powerpoint. :-) -andy
Posted by acarvin at 12:49 PM
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November 17, 2005
Hoder on the Iranian Blogosphere
Podcast of pioneering Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan on the Iranian blogosphere. It's about 10 minutes long; I had to compress the hell out of it to upload it from here, so pardon the audio quality. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 6:43 PM
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November 16, 2005
WSIS Podcast, 12 Hours Late
Here's that podcast I recorded this morning but couldn't post because of the horrid bandwidth limitations at WSIS. Probably not worth the wait. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 8:57 PM
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November 15, 2005
Tuesday Morning at the Kram Palexpo
Podcasting from the Kram Palexpo in Tunis, site of the WSIS summit. Just a quick update on my plans for the day, including the Telecentre Leadership Forum. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 11:43 AM
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November 14, 2005
A Quick Evening Podcast from Tunis
A quick podcast from Tunis. Nothing special; just a summary of what I've already written about in my previous blog entries today from the Kram Center. Mainly I'm just testing the bandwidth at the hotel. So far, so good. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 5:27 PM
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October 26, 2005
Departing (and Pronouncing) Dhaka
My final podcast from Bangladesh. I talk about the close of the conference, shopping for souvenirs and learning the right way to pronounce Dhaka. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 5:19 AM
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October 25, 2005
Shahiduddin Akbar Discusses the Bangladesh Digital Divide
Earlier this morning I sat down with Shahiduddin Akbar of Katalyst to record a three-minute podcast. I interviewed him about the digital divide in Bangladesh, the role civil society can play in bridging the divide, and his expectations for the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:50 AM
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Dhaka Police Station
This morning I went to the local police station here in Dhaka to file a police report regarding the theft of my Treo and my digital camera. In general I prefer to avoid having to deal with police, but there was no way getting around it. Fortunately, I had an official from the ICT ministry accompany me, which helped make the visit a three-minute stop rather than an all-day affair. They accepted my affidavit, signed a copy of it and stamped it as an official document submitted to the Dhaka police. And yes, I recorded a podcast to document the experience - and for my own protection, just in case. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:39 AM
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Bangladeshi Beggars
One of the most difficult things for first-time visitors to South Asia to experience is the number of beggars who wander in city traffic, rapping on the window or reaching into the car demanding alms. It's a fact of life in cities like Dhaka, where traffic lights are slow; you often have to wait for five or 10 minutes at a traffic stop as one or more beggars, often children or the disabled, stand by your window until you're able to drive away. Your instinct is to give them alms, but this causes two problems. First, it's seen by other beggars, who then swarm your car and start banging for their share. Second, many beggars actually work for syndicates in which the money is kicked up to local criminals, who often use the money to bribe the police. So in general the only way to leave with a clear conscience is to make a donation to a legitimate charity, which I do every time I visit the region.
It's a troubling experience sitting in a car while a beggar does this. I made this 30-second recording documenting what it's like. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:31 AM
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October 24, 2005
Shopping in Dhaka
Podcasting while strolling through the busy market streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 9:30 PM
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Robbed
A very bitter podcast from me after having my Treo and one of my digital cameras stolen at the conference today. Meanwhile, as I was recording the podcast, Alexander Felsenberg came by my room and told me his passport and credit card were stolen. Oh, and I talk about visiting a nuclear reactor and staring at the glowing blue uranium rods. Overall, a day I'd like to forget. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 10:14 AM | Comments (1)
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Josie Cacdac's Keynote on Gender and ICTs
Here's a podcast of Josie Cacdac's keynote on gender and technology. I had to compress the file so I could upload it from here, so please pardon the audio quality. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 12:03 AM
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October 23, 2005
Bangladesh Podcast: Monday Morning
A six-minute podcast from my hotel room prior to heading back to the conference. I talk about yesterday's sessions, including my dead battery problems and a minor India-Bangladesh development statistics kerfuffle in the afternoon plenary. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 9:51 PM
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Bangladesh Podcast: Sunday Morning
Sunday morning podcast from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Posted by acarvin at 12:18 AM
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October 5, 2005
Politics and Activism Podcast
Podcast of today's panel session on We Media, politics and activism, including Rebecca MacKinnon, Nicholas Kristof, me unofficially, etc. -andy
tag: We Media
Posted by acarvin at 4:11 PM
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We Inc. Executive Forum
Podcast of the executive forum at the We Media conference.
Moderator: Jason Calcanis, Weblogs, Inc.
Panelists:
Jennifer Feikin, Google Video
Andrew Heyward, CBS News
Scott Rafer, Wireless Ink
Craig Forman, Yahoo!
Posted by acarvin at 1:39 PM
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Al Gore, the Low Bandwidth Edition
Low-bandwidth podcast of Gore's speech. -andy
tag: We Media
Posted by acarvin at 12:03 PM
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Podcast of Al Gore's Speech
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Al Gore shares some yuks with my brother Eric Carvin, news editor of AP's asap news service, at the We Media conference. |
Here's a podcast of Gore's speech. It's quite large - more than 40 megs - but when I compressed it too much the audio quality really suffered. I'll post a separate link to the lower bandwidth (11 meg) audio version in case you need a relatively smaller file and can put up with the crummy audio. -andy
tag: We Media
Tags: Al Gore | democracy | keynotes | media | We Media
Posted by acarvin at 10:57 AM | Comments (1)
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We News Podcast
Podcast of the first half of the We News session.
Al and Tipper Gore just sat down next to me. What a cool conference. -andy
tag: We Media
Posted by acarvin at 10:15 AM
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Getting Yanked On Stage at We Media
Andrew Nachison of the Media Center and Chris Willis of Hypergene Media Solutions just finished the opening session at We Media; about half-way through, they pulled me on stage. First, though, some quotes from them:
Willis: "If it works for that community, it doesn't necessarily work for the community next door.... Community building takes a lot of hard work."
Nachison: "We've watched a gradual transition... where the Internet has played a larger role."
"What's really astonishing is not thinking about the significance of the Internet itself... but the incredibly rich diversity of perspectives we're exposed to now."
"It's the incredible diversity of options and voices which are gonna become the norm."
Then, they started talking about my Katrina Aftermath blog, so they invited me on stage to give a bit of history about the site. That prevented me from typing more notes, of course, but at least I recorded a podcast of the session. -andy
tag: We Media
Posted by acarvin at 8:59 AM
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October 4, 2005
Ensuring "We Media" Includes All of Us
This evening I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of 120 graduate students at NYU's interactive telecommunications program. After being introduced by Red Burns, I spoke for about an hour about the the digital divide and its relationship with participatory media, or "We Media" as it's sometimes known. I made the argument that the participatory media phenomenon will remain skewed to well-off, well-educated populations as long as disenfranchised groups, such as low-income populations, people of color and people with disabilities, don't have equal access or the skills to participate. Unless we do more to bridge the digital divide, particularly in terms of 21st century skills and media literacy, marginalized groups will find it harder and harder to engage in civic participation effectively.
After giving some basics about the digital divide and its various manifestations, I talked about several initiatives that are beginning to push back by creating more equitable participatory media, from Global Voices Online to Atlantic City Rough Cuts. I then took questions for about 30 minutes; the students asked smart, probing questions and did a great job of reminding me of all the things I'd wish I'd said in my speech. :-)
I recorded a very long podcast of the speech, including the Q&A. Be forewarned it's over 30 megs, so download at your own peril. Meanwhile, here's the powerpoint presentation in case you missed my original link from earlier today. -andy
tag: wemedia
Posted by acarvin at 10:04 PM
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Audio of Negroponte's $100 Laptop Presentation
File this under "better late than never." Now that I've got my laptop back from the repair shop, I can post the podcast of Nicholas Negroponte's speech at the MIT Technology Review conference last week. It's a big file - around 18 megs - so if you prefer a short text summary, don't forget the blog entry I wrote that day.
Special thanks to Jason Pontin of Technology Review for encouraging me to podcast the session. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 2:33 PM
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Powerpoint for my NYU Presentation
I just arrived in NYC and I'm at my brother's office at the Associated Press; here's a brief podcast. Meanwhile, later today I'll be speaking at NYU about the digital divide and participatory media. The crux of the talk will be, "It ain't 'we media' if it doesn't include all of us." In other words, as long as there's a significant digital divide, the notion of participatory media will be limited to those of us lucky enough to have Internet access and the skills to use it creatively, while disenfranchised populations are left out of public discourse. Here's the powerpoint presentation; I'll try to post a podcast of the actual presentation tonight or early tomorrow. -andy
tag: wemedia
Posted by acarvin at 12:38 PM
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September 28, 2005
Stuck at the Apple Store
While everyone else is back at the conference, I get to spend my lunch break at the Cambridgeside Apple Store, hoping they can fix my laptop's power port in time for the 1:45pm breakout sessions. Feel the drama in this podcast from the store. -andy
Posted by acarvin at 11:57 AM