By popular demand, I’ve posted a report from Jira, our issue-tracking system, for all to download. Many (most?) of the items won’t make sense to anyone who’s not actually writing code for SpokenWord.org, but you may find it interesting. By all means, feel free to peruse it and if you find a feature request that you think should be escalated (or one that should be added), let us know. The best place to discuss bugs and new features is on our Spoken Word Strategy discussion list.
SpokenWord.org
News and updates about the SpokenWord.org web site.
What Would it Take?
Now that SpokenWord.org out of the alpha/beta phase…
- What would it take for you to:
- recommend SpokenWord.org to your friends?
- send a link to your collections to your friends?
- How should we spread the word?
- a JavaScript or Flash widget for displaying your collections on other web sites?
- a better email-to-a-friend feature?
- better links to social networking sites?
- direct interfaces to Facebook, FriendFeed, etc?
Give us your ideas on our Discussion List.
A New Program Page (SpokenWord.org)
Tweaking the UI design for SpokenWord.org, starting with the /program detail page. One of the most-frequent complaints is that there was too much metadata on our detail pages for programs, feeds and collections. Here are examples of a new /program page and a /feed page in the old style. Note that many of the links and metadata have been moved to the right-hand column and the tag cloud has been eliminated.
What do you think?
Open Search for SpokenWord.org
I’ve created an Open Search description file and <link> tag to SpokenWord.org. If you’re using a browser that supports Open Search, you can now add SpokenWord.org search to your list of available search-engine shortcuts. In Firefox, for example, use the pull-down in the upper-right corner of your browser window and select Add “SpokenWord.org”. More Open Search stuff still to come as I figure it out.
New SpokenWord.org Groups: APIs and the iTunes Connector
I’ve just created two new Google groups for SpokenWord.org users:
- The API Group is where we’ll be discussing the design of APIs for SpokenWord.org.
- The iTunes Connector Group is for those who want to be alpha testers of a new utility we’re developing to sync iPod/iPhone/iTunes data (ratings, etc.) with their SpokenWord.org collections.
I encourange you to join one or both.
The Conversations Network: Board Meeting Report
What an amazing Board of Directors we have. In addition to Jon Udell, David Weinberger and Jake Shapiro, today we elected Brian Gruber of Fora.tv to the board then spent the rest of our time in informal session. Discussion highlights included:
- PodCorps.org is not being used. We may put it into cold storage until we can find someone or some organization to champion it.
- What’s the 3-5 year strategy? Should The Conversations Network merge with another compatible non-profit?
- Our traditional channels (eg, IT Conversations) are solid and stable.
- SpokenWord.org is the future growth of The Conversations Network.
- How can SpokenWord.org best serve the public? Academia? The press/media? Libraries?
- Should we exercise more of our own curatorial control and influence? Serendipity only goes so far.
- How are we better than any other aggregator? Open APIs are critical to creating value.
- What benefit do we offer our content provider/partners?
Yes, we asked more questions than we answered, but that’s what a good board meeting is all about.
Stepping into the River
Jon Udell has posted a fascinating essay disecting two different but often confused usage models for RSS and other content feeds. Jon refers to the duality of his experience at SpokenWord.org. One one hand he follows feeds or others’ collections prospectively looking for good programs that may appear in the future. In the other use case, he also searches the SpokenWord.org archives for already-published programs. Both cases make use of SpokenWord.org’s collections and RSS feeds, but in different ways.
YouTube EDU on SpokenWord.org
Yesterday YouTube launched YouTube EDU, featuring videos of lectures from more than one hundred colleges and universities. As of a few minutes ago we’ve imported 6,216 individual videos and added a YouTube EDU widget to the SpokenWord.org homepage.
The Conversations Network Annual Survey Results
Thanks to 452 survey responses to date, we again have some terrific feedback. Most of it wouldn’t interest you, but the demographic data remain fascinating. Listeners to The Conversations Network:
- 90% are male
- 59% are at least 40 years old
- 42% have a Masters degree or better (Still blows me away.)
- 39% have household incomes of US$100,000 or more
- 55% are in the U.S.
Search API Strawman
Initial thoughts on a search API for SpokenWord.org here. Comments? Use the forum.
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