The Podcaster

Interesting report from informitv about the BBCs iPlayer having had over 100m downloads for two months running (November and December 2009). This is over a 50% increase on the same period 12 months ago.

This increased use (as well as similar ones for YouTube and other platforms)  shows citizens demand for web based video is continuing to grow. Smartphones like the Apple iPhone, which allow mobile consumption of video, can only increase demand as well as creation.

Organisations looking at what social media tools to use to build and engage with online communities should be factoring in the use of video.

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It is always interesting to learn how podcasts can be used practically. A great post here about using them to learn or improve language skills.

One of the challenges for any production company is to help all clients get maximum value from audio and video podcasts. Some of the organisations mentioned in this post are using exercises and links to other multi-media resources to increase the value of the podcast.

An interesting video from the Salt Lake Valley Health Department in the USA on how they have been using social media tools to maximise public and media communications relating to H1N1

This is how one school in America is using iPods to assist with classroom learning and homework.and podcasts 

What is interesting is the way that the teachers used collaborative ‘cascade’ learning to teach each other and then expand the learning experience by having pupils create their own content.

The US Library of Congress is starting to use social media tools YouTube and iTunes to allow even more people access to archive materials.

An interesting analysis of
some of the practical issues the US authorities are facing implementing Govt 2.0.

I heard this morning on BBC radio 4 that part of the reason for slow case hearings
in the UK Court system is weak IT and document management processes. The example given
was where one part of the court system keyed in documents online and scanned them
for another part of the organisation to have to re-key all the data. That is the way
it has been done for over 20 years! When I started in IT back in the early 1980s I
actually worked on a Magistrates Court system. Established practices and ’silos’ of
operations and departments caused us all sorts of challenges in developing and deploying
a unified system.

To implement change in any organisation is hard. Into something like local
and cetral Government with well established and embedded processes is hard.

According to an item in AdWeek the US
consumption of podcasts will contine to grow until almost 1/5th
of internet users will be listening on a monthly basis. The boost is being attributed
to mainstream media organisations producing content.

What a number of podcasters have noticed in the UK is that the use of podcasts is
increasing internally on the intranet as organisations use it for management communication,
training and a form of ‘event record management’.

In our latest podcast we
interviewed the Leader of Barnet Council (and prospective Conservative Parliamentary
Candidate for Finchley and Golders Green) – Mike
Freer about his experiences of using Social Media.

Mike blogs and
twitters and has been using social media tools for over 2 years. He talks about their
earlier experiences.

He strongly believes in the use of the ‘authentic voice’ rather than having ‘ghost’
posts and tweets and accepting there will always be ‘negative’ people and if
you get upset by digital ‘heckling’ you should not be in politics.

All very refreshing and down-to-earth for a politician!  

As it says on its website – FutureGov helps
Governments exploit “…the
huge potential of information and technology in driving improvement in the public
sector, (so enabling them)…to get closer to its customers and deliver
services that better meet the needs of the people it serves…”

FutureGov has been doing great
work in the UK and is now taking the discussion to the Europe via an EU
event on March 16th. The event will look at Public
Services 2.0

We recently spoke to Founder and
Director, Dominic Campbell about this event and his hopes for it. Listen at the Parity
podcast website.

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The Parity podcast web
site goes live!