Now that US national politicians are adopting podcasting – are they working for bottom up control of government or just using the latest hyped communication medium?

Senators, let me hip you to something. Podcasting didn’t come about to reinvent radio and PR. Podcasting was nurtured on the energy of individuals with their own messages. This is the very core of a grassroots democracy. Share more of your process of governing with all the people who live in America. (Citizens and non-citizens) Let them have a hand in your government. Let them be creative! For tips on how to do this look at how local politics are conducted. I’m talking about a town or county level. Reproduce that nationally!

To help with this I just set up a public web based aggregator for podcasts at UNC called UNC Podcasters. You can listen to podcasts right in a web browser with flash player, click on a link to download the podcast (mp3, mov, etc.), and find RSS podcast feeds you’re interested in. It’s still a beta site so we don’t have a ton of feeds up yet, but soon.

Right now it is not multi-user. This means you can’t create an account yet. But hopefully in the future you’ll be able to log-in and create your own feed list. ala Bloglines. So if you’re part of the UNC community and you have a podcast send me your RSS feed URL.

The UNC Podcasters aggregator is based on the latest nightly build of the great software Gregarius. (Feb. 15) Ibiblio.org is hosting the list and the site for us. (Thanks guys!)

In the spirit of open source development at Universities I hope we can add to this wonderful bit of software. I’m hoping PHP developers at UNC can work on the Gregarius project. There are so many good reasons to build the tool so it fits our unique needs and then give it back to the world for others to benefit. For starters it could could save the University a ton of money!

Here are a few of the podcasts I made in 2004 and 2005 that I’m the most proud of. A Best of Audio Activism Year One.

Messages for Soldiers in Iraq, March 25, 2005
MP3 9m 5s 4.2MB 64kbps

One Man Protests Racism at Walmart, May 29th, 2005
MP3 3m 55s 1.8MB 64kbps

Interview with Lou Plummer, March 3, 2005
MP3 27m 9s 12.5MB 64kbps

Jon Elliston speaks at the Carrboro Book Fair, May 22, 2005
MP3 36m 21s 16.7MB 64kbps

MP3 5m 5s 2.4MB 64kbps

MP3
Title: George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People
By The Legendary K.O., Produced by Kanye West & Jon Brion
Words by Big Mon and Damien a/k/a Dem Knock-Out Boyz

Thanks for the link Albert and Matt to FWMJ’s Rappers I know Month
Click on ‘more’ for the lyrics to the song. Albert of the DragonBallYee Blog wrote them down for us.

Kanye: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”

Now I ain’t saying he’s a gold digger
But he ain’t messing with no broke niggas x2

George Bush don’t like black people x4

Hurricaine came through, fucked us up ’round here
Government acting like it’s bad luck down here
All I know is that you better bring some trucks ’round here
Wonder why I got my middle finger up ’round here

People’s lives on the line
You declinin to help
Since you taking so much time, we survivin ourself
Just me and my pets and my kids and my spouse
Trapped in my own house just looking for a way out

5 days in this mother fucking attic
Can’t use the cell phone I keep gettin static
Dying cause they lyin instead of telling us the truth
Other day helicopters got my neighbors off the roof
It’s cool cause they said they coming back for us too
That was 3 days ago, I don’t see no rescue
See a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do
Since God made the path that I’m trying to walk through

Swam to the store trying to look for food
Corner store’s kinda flooded so I broke my way through
I got what I could, but before I got through
The news said police shot a black man trying to loot?
George Bush don’t like black people x4

Now I ain’t saying he’s a gold digger
But he ain’t fucking with no broke niggas x2

George Bush don’t like black people x4

5 damn days
5 long days
And at the end of the 5th, he walking in like “Hey!”
Chillin on his vacation sitting patiently
Them black folks gotta hope, gotta wait and see
If FEMA really comes through in an emergency
But nobody seems to have a sense of urgency
Now the mayor’s been reduced to crying
I guess Bush said “Niggas been used to dyin”

He said “I know it looks bad, just have to wait”
Forgetting folks who to broke to evacuate
Niggas starving and they dying of thirst
I bet he had to and check on them refineries first

Making a killing off the price of gas
He woulda been up in Connecticut twice as fast
After all that we’ve been through
Nothing’s changed
You can call Red Cross, but the fact remains that

George Bush ain’t a gold digger
But he ain’t fucking with no broke niggas x2

Come down Bush, come on come down x4

George Bush ain’t a gold digger

George Bush don’t like black people x3

Come down George, come on come down x4

MP3 15m 54s 7.3MB 64kbps

First you need a bit of cheap gear.

A) A computer w/internet access – Drop by your local computer technology center, library, or a friends to use their computer.

B) Olympus DS-2 – A wonderful voice recorder with a stereo microphone, a microphone input, earbud headphones, a external speaker, USB, and software that creates uncompressed versions of your recordings!

C) Cheap External Mic – (Optional) The Labtec AM-222 is a good handheld mono microphone with a 1/8_ high impedance jack. Works great with the Olympus DS-2 and isolates a persons voice well.

D) Weblog – Lots of varieties help you podcast. I like the Open Source php/MySQL based Word Press. See this article about how to Podcast with Word Press 1.5. It should work out of the box.

You can learn more about this stuff here. The Olympus DS-2 is only $120, lots of Weblogs that can podcast are free, and you can access a computer for free at a library or community center.

Podcast Interviews Step by Step

1) Find a Story – everyone has one, find one that interest you

2) Write Some Questions – There is bound to be something you and others want to know about the person you’re interviewing.

3) Practice Asking Questions – Ask a friend some of the questions you wrote. It’s good to get comfortable with your questions before start recording audio. Get feedback from your friend on how you did. Research the subjects areas you want to discuss.

4) Get an Interview -

1. Schedule – Email or call the person you’d like to interview. Ask them very nicely. Tell them you’re an amateur and will not profit from this. Most people love to talk about themselves.
2. Spontaneous – You can also just walk up to people in public places and ask them questions. This takes humility and kindness too. It’s intimidating for some to be interviewed on the spot. Smile. I’ve heard wearing a funny hat helps.

5) Prepare – Now that you have an interview scheduled make sure you have everything you need. Batteries? Check! Voice Recorder? Check! Ear buds? Check! Questions? Check! Are you relaxed? Just take lots of deep breaths. Do you know how to pronounce interviewee’s name?

6) Interview – Meet the person your interviewing. Find a quite place to talk. Relax and think about having a conversation with an old friend. If your using a external microphone plug it into the voice recorder. Point the microphone at the person your interview. Don’t hold the microphone too close to their mouth. Remember to point the microphone at yourself when you ask a question.

1. As soon as you start recording don’t say anything for about three seconds.
2. Introduce yourself. Say your websites name too.
3. Introduce your guest. Say their name and a bit about them
4. Ask your questions
5. LISTEN, try not to talk too much or over your guest
6. Say goodbye to the people listening, say your name, say your websites name
7. Say nothing for about three seconds. Hit stop.

7) Thank the person you interviewed – Tell them your weblog URL. Be sure to write down their URL and the CORRECT spelling of their name. You might want a bio from them too.

Copy audio from Voice Recorder – The Olympus DS-2 connects to a computer via USB. It will mount on your desktop just like a hard drive. The DS-2 comes with software that will make downloading the audio off of the device easier AND it will convert the audio to a lossless audio file type AIFF (Mac) or WAV (PC). This will make it MUCH easier to convert your audio into a MP3 that everyone can play.

9) Tweak Audio (Optional) – I like to raise and or lower the gain on the audio so it sounds good on lots of speakers. Plus sometimes I put a fade in at the beginning and a fade out at the end of the audio. Here are some articles on how-to use a great free piece of Open Source audio software called Audacity.

10) Convert your interview into a MP3 – The majority of software and devices out there right now can play MP3 encoded audio. There are lots of other audio file types that sound better and are Open Source but right now we have a majority standard so if you want the most people to have the ability to listen to your audio use MP3. I suggest that you convert your audio to a mono file that’s encoded at 64kbps and 16 bit.

11) Upload MP3 to web – I use a ftp client to get the MP3s on my webserver. Some weblog software will allow you to upload files via a web browser. Be sure to remember where the files is uploaded too. You’ll need to know the full URL that you MP3 resides at. (ex. http://www.yourwebserver.com/your_podcast.mp3)

12) Blog about Audio – The best podcasters are good bloggers. You need to write about the person you interviewed, what you asking them, and what you talked about. Link directly to the MP3 you made in your weblog post. Including the size of the MP3 in Mega Bytes and how long it is in minutes and seconds is a good idea.

13) Podcast your MP3 – RSS 2.0 is the key to Podcasting. The rest of this how-to is nothing new really, but once you ENCLOSE your MP3 in a RSS file people can automate the download of the audio you made. My Podcasting Into and Tutorial can give you all the details of how this works. For now if you are using the weblog software the MP3 you linked to should automatically be in your RSS feed.

14) Tell people about Your Podcast – Email or call the person you interviewed and tell them where they can find the MP3 you made. Many times your guests can be your best word of mouth advertising. List your site and podcast URL on Podcast directories like the one at Podcast.net.

15) Start OVER – The more you create podcasts the easier it gets. At first this looks likes a lot of steps. But as you do it you’ll see they all sort of run together and this process becomes quite natural.

If you have any questions about Podcasting or get stuck with any of these steps please contact me and search Google with the keywords Podcast and How-To. Please leave any creative criticism you might have in the comments.

Lots of people from all around the country were there wearing One t-shirts and One stickers. Several NGO partners were in attendance also. First it was a pep-rally to brag about the “success” of the One online and letter writing campaign and then speeches to discuss message. The message that poverty in Africa can end in our lifetime is a noble one. The strategy to achieve this goal is to pressure world politicians to have the will and money to act.

But during the press conference part we had celebrities, a eloquent man from Africa, and three reverends from various Christian churches. Sound like the beginning to a joke? Well it was.

The final speaker, a Christian reverend, led the crowd in prayer. A fine tradition of gathering unity in the crowd duplicated from the civil rights struggle. But when listing singular unity of one, such as one person, one vote, and one voice he included ONE GOD. A man in the audience booed. Another man looked upon this dissent and stared angrily.

Where were representatives from other religions? Lots of people in Africa worship other gods besides this reverends god. Many worship more than one. I found this loud public statement in front of tons of media and a good size crowd to be extremely rude. Why didn’t the staff and leadership of The One Campaign include religious leaders from the Islamic faith, or the Jewish faith, or even from the indigenous religions of Africa?

Another glaring omission of this press conference and the ENTIRE Live 8 event in Philly was the condemnation of war. No one even brought up the war in Iraq, pro or con. It was like we were all in a zone of denial. Not once did I hear about how war causes extreme poverty. Not once did someone express their sadness for all the people who have died needlessly in war. It was if the price we must pay to get war starting leaders to listen to us is to not mention war. We can not pretend war does not exit in the world.

I understand, but do not agree with, the argument that we want to create unity by setting aside our political differences. But when did war become a positive political position? I tell you when. When George W. Bush started peddling fear as reason for war. When he began using the thousands who died in the attacks on 9/11 as reason for more war and death. As Live 8 happened and as I write this post the President is under a lot of pressure for not ending the war in Iraq soon. As each American solider dies more and more Americans wonder why our military stays in Iraq. Does The One Campaign pledge not to discuss the war to get a seat at the table with the leaders of the world? Are they suggesting that if we just ignore the death and suffering that it will go away?

No campaign to end poverty in Africa will succeed with a monotheistic, Eurocentric, blindness to the fact that all war in the world must cease. Live 8

MP3 2m 48s 1.3MB 64kbps

No he isn’t talking about the future of the WTO if Paul Wolfowitz becomes it’s head. He’s talking about the banter and competition between three new podcasting ventures and the blogers that love them and hate them. BlogerMatrix, Odeo, and Adam Curry’s Podshow.