Category: Internet

JOIN THE FESTIVITIES.

A reader writes:

Jimmy, would you please comment on Podcasting and its implications for the New Evangelization.

I would.

First, some helpful definitions:

• Mobile blogging or moblogging is blogging when you are away from a computer. It is often done by a cell phone, camera phone, or PDA.
• Audioblogging is what it sounds like (literally! ;-P). It is the use of audio files on a blog. People stop by the blog and listen to or download the files. Audioblogging may be regular blogging (sitting in front of a computer) or moblogging. Often the latter is done by someone calling from a cell phone and recording an audio file that is automatically posted on their blog.
• A feed is an internet tool that allows people to be notified when you have put something new on your blog so they don’t have to keep coming back to check. When you put something new on your blog, a notice of some kind (typically part or all of the post) goes into the feed. A reader who has subscribed to the feed then gets notified that there is a new post for him to read. The references you see online to RSS and XML are references to feeds that people may subscribe to.
• The person who subscribes to the feed either uses an aggregator (a service or a piece of software) that aggregates the different feeds he has subscribed to.
• An iPod is a portable listening device used to play audio files.
• Last year somebody got the bright idea of combining these things and slapping a label on them (even though they were already coming together informally). That label was podcasting. Podcasting involves the creation of audio files which are then pushed via feeds to aggregator-like services and programs so they can then be listened to online or downloaded to devices like iPods. Since it’s "broadcasting for iPods," it got called "podcasting," though really you don’t need an iPod to listen t a podcast.

Some savants differentiate podcasting from audioblogging, noting that many podcasters produces more sophisticated audio files that are modelled after radio shows (with music and all). Some radio shows are now getting into the podcasting market as technology is forcing changes on the radio industry. By contrast, audiobloggers often just use their cell phones. Other savants do not divide podcasting and audioblogging by their content, though, and consider any audio files pushed via a feed to be podcasting.

Now, as to new evangelization potential: There are already some religious (and Catholic) podcasts,

LIKE THIS ONE BY A DUTCH PRIEST.

I think that podcasting has new evangelization potential comparable to web sites and similar doo-dads. It will make it easier for people to get religious content than in the prior age (the third age of human communications, to anticipate  post I’ll put up soon). Now that we are in the fourth age, people can get info much more easily than they could before. But there’s a catch.

You have to want the info.

In the old days, the Old Media basically had a captive audience. You got exposed to the info that your local newspaper or radio station or TV station wanted you exposed to. That’s why the MSM is lamenting their loss of control over the distribution of information in our society. They don’t like it that people now have the ability to choose what information they want. The MSM liked its information monopoly. It let it push its agenda on us and manipulate the public.

But in the fourth age, people pick their own info, and so if someone is to be evangelized via a website or a blog or a podcast or an as-yet-undreamed-of-thing-that-will-come-out-next-year, he has to request it.

So I’d say that podcasting adds more bandwidth to the new evangelization (and the new anti-evangelization) in a way comparable to what web sites and blogs did.

For right now, there are also some limitations in getting into podcasting that still need to be worked out. One of the biggest is that the folks running podcasting services are geeks and, as such, they don’t know how to explain things to ordinary people and they don’t know how to sell themselves and their services.

I’ve been thinking about doing some podcasting (to anticipate another soon-to-be post–and no, this is not one of the Secret Projects), but the services I have checked have really poor explanations and don’t do basic salesmanship-type things, like giving you links to sample audioblogs so you can see how the end product would look. Others advertise that they work with TypePad (my bloghost) but then don’t tell you how to use the two together.

This kind of info is crucial for getting new customers. I recently e-mailed one such service to try to get some of this kind of info, but a customer shouldn’t have to ask for that info. It should be present on the service’s web site as part of its sales pitch.

Eventually, though, people who understand marketing will start working for these services and the geek factor will recede into the background, allowing more people to get on the podcasting bandwagon.

The other day I posted a request for folks who send me news stories to blog to please be sure to include a link to the story to make it easier on me to point people to the original source.

I’d like to make another request that I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of days. It also would make it easier for me to respond to questions folks have. Here’s the situation:

1. Sometimes in the comboxes people will raise an issue and say "maybe Jimmy can address this."
2. I see most of the comments that get posted (though a few get away from me), and so I (usually) see these requests and make a mental note to respond, BUT–
3. I usually can’t compose a response at the time. There are only certain hours of the day I have free to actually compose posts (though I have more liberty in reading what people are saying or posting my own comments).
4. Therefore, I end up forgetting either the request itself or where it is located. As a result, despite my best intentions, I end up not responding.

Therefore . . .

If you raise something in the comments box that you’d like me to respond to, could you send me a quick e-mail and do one of two things:

1. Include a link to the comment (which you could get in the Recent Comments sidebar), or
2. Paste the text of the comment into the e-mail so I’ll have the text of the request handy.

Thanks much! This should make it much easier for me to respond to such requests, it being easier for me to keep track of what’s in my (single) inbox than in (numerous) comboxes.

BTW, I wanted to thank all the readers who have been sending links to stories and other items of interest for the blog. I can’t use them all, but I really appreciate them.

I do have one request, though: When sending a story, can y’all be sure to include a link to the original story rather than just the text of the story?

Makes it a lot easier, as I frequently can’t quote the whole story in a blog post and need to link to it (in which case I have to find it on the web if I don’t already have a link to it).

Much obliged, folks, and thanks for your contributions to making the blog a better, more interesting place!

(I’d love to give readers credit by name for stories they send in, but last time I broached the subject of changing Rule #15, folks seemed to like things the way they are. If I actually use an e-mail as a guest blog, though, I’ll contact the author to see if he’d like me to suspent Rule #15 in a single case.)

Guest blog from guestblogger <Rule #15 Suspension>Tim Robles</Rule #15 Suspension>:

A couple of days ago, I heard a news report on the radio (Fox News) about the recent elections in the Ukraine. A youth who demonstrated there said that The United States Policy of "Spreading Democracy" and in general, freedom, was an inspiration to their cause. The youth also noted that the internet played a large part in their ability to spread the word of their cause. He warned "…just wait and see what happens in Russia next").

This new found strength and use of the internet can be also found in Lebanon where the people there have had enough. The use of the internet to spread the word I’ll bet can also be found there as a major tool. In China the faith is spread there….you guessed it through the internet. I personally know of an elderly gentleman of Korean decent who sneaks into North Korea to pastor a church there. He communicates via…..once again … the internet.

It’s typical for many people to pour themselves that morning cup of coffee, and instead of opening up that newspaper (…the only time I open a newspaper now-a-days is to line the bird cage. My bird has a preference for the Los Angles Times Editorial page) we check one of our favorite Blogs or news wires on the internet. News is instantaneous today. If we want to converse with a friend or an acquaintance, whether local or on the other side of the world, we can text message or login to one of our favorite Forums (CA Forums are the best!) We can talk about anything under the sun, from religion to politics. My sending this thought to share with you and others (…possibly) is a good example of one of the freedoms we enjoy, without much thought on a day to day bases.

Enter the Dragon: China now thinks that where should be some controls on that freedom and it wants it controlled by the United Nations. One can imagine the "Internet Control Committee (…ICC for short) comprising of Syria, Iran, Congo, Russia and headed by China.

Your thoughts?

My thoughts?

It’s our Internet. We developed it. We bought it. We paid for it. We’re keeping it.

If others don’t like it, they can go develop their own Internets.

The China angle just shows that the much-vaunted Great Information Wall of China (whatever they call it) is cracking.

GET THE STORY.

This morning we crossed the third of a million hits mark since moving to TypePad ten months ago.

These hits do include people going to the comments boxes, but they are page calls and do not include individual file calls (e.g., images on the page).

At this rate, we’re on track to hit the million mark in about 8 months. (If the blog keeps growing, though, we’ll hit it in less than that.)

THANKS, Y’ALL! THAT’S Y’ALL’S DOING!

(NOTE: The "Today" field really isn’t today. It’s everything-since-yesterday-midnight.)

Down yonder, a commenter writes:

Congrats, buddy [on your fixed blogiversary]! You have been an inspiration to me for a long time, and now I have been inspired to start my own blog concerning Christianity and the arts (esp. Catholicism and Visual arts).

Any advice?

Yes, three pieces:

1. READ THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES (Cowboy hat tip: Southern Appeal)
2. Get a real blog that has permalinks and automated archives, not one you design yourself. (Hear me, In Light Of The Law?)
3. Be sure to blogroll me and link to me a lot. Thanks much!

Okay, this is cool.

Y’know how bloggers will sometimes put updates welcoming visitors from other blogs who have linked them?

Well, my post on Sharona leaving Monk has been getting a ton of hits from Google. In fact, it’s the top page Google gives you if you type in "sharona leaves monk." Only problem was, it was written before we knew the on-screen explanation for why Sharona left.

So I just updated it with this:

UPDATE: Welcome Google visitors! More information has been revealed about the Sharona situation since the time this post was written. Basically, Sharona and her son, Benjy, moved back to the East Coast to reunite with her former husband. (This was not shown on screen but was talked about.) Subsequently, Monk hired a new assistant, a former bartender named Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), who has a daughter. Thus far, Natalie seems to be doing as good a job at standing up to Monk as Sharona did, but we’ll always have a special place in our hearts for Sharona. Hopefully she’ll guest star in the future.

. . . that’s the number of e-mails in my gmail inbox at the moment.

It’s significant because I’m using my gmail inbox as my staging area for e-mails I want to take action on (either blogging, sending a private reply, etc.).

Making the switch to gmail has made it much easier for me to keep track of the e-mails I need to take action on, with the result that I’ve been responding to readers more on the blog (and off) than previously.

Nevertheless, 121 is a pretty daunting number, so I just wanted to say to folks who’ve e-mailed me that I hope they’ll be patient. Gmail is making it easier for me to respond to folks, and I want to respond to as many as I can.

Muchas gracias, and God bless!

Just a note to folks visiting the site. After a year of constant labor, I’m taking a blog day off today. Posts will be back to normal tomorrow.

God bless!