Audio and Podcasts

I recently had this fit of semi-Socratic logic:

Artists can be clever. People who are clever are not necessarily artists. Mash-ups are clever. Mash-ups are not art.

Creativity is artful and art is a blending of influences -- to wit one Paul Hewson, reflecting yet another artist, said "Every poet is a thief" -- but merely resequencing other artistic works in a furious technological cut and paste... Well, good on you if you think you're an artist.

All of this became clear to me recently as I looked at a video mashup by J.D. Lasica and others over at ourmedia.org. It not only uses copyright images and cultural iconography interspersed with popular music; but also, seems to imply that if it can be remixed it should be remixed. Is it right that if I can sample something then I can freely use it for mass distribution over the internet? Is making Charlie Schulz Peanut characters available with an alternate soundtrack -- a recording by commercial artists Outkast -- for free, a culturally relevant artistic endeavour?

Of course not.

In the comfort of my own home I can cut and splice to my heart's delight. That is personal entertainment. In America, that is fair use. Once I distribute the product of my remixing on the internet I need to be mindful of the source of my product. If I used copyright material without permission, I have just cut the artist off at the knees. It doesn't matter whether the artist makes 25 cents or $100 million dollars from their work; remixing is reuse and reuse without permission constitutes a major breakdown in the social-cultural contract.

I have heard all the arguments about large corporations controlling the cultural and copyright agendas. I have heard about how unfair it is that we can't play Led Zepplin on our podcasts. Big deal. Copyright law protects my nephew just as much as it protects Paul McCartney and I would like my nephew to earn a living as an artist. Copyright can be a force for good and, when combined with the internet, it can fuel thousands of really creative people with artistic careers.

Providing free "audience member" edits of commercial music and video is just a disrespectful stunt. Some people have a giggle when a politician is portrayed as a goof using heavily edited audio and video, but it's not a political statement, just a distortion. Directly inserting, cutting and pasting imagery from an animator or artist into a publically available "remix" just highlights a desperate lack of talent or resources on the part of the assembler.

Copying is not allusion and remixing is not an expression of influence. Public distribution of remixed mash-ups is a culturally equivocal and socially misdirected exercise.

Chris Pirillo describes his Sept 7th podcast -- which features a conversation with Stardock's Brad Wardell -- as "a passionate discussion".

That's putting it mildly.

Chris gets heatedly animated when talking about UI -- especially Windows UI. Both he and Brad W wonder why there are still some tell-tale signs of previous Windows code in the "new" Vista. The engine and the interface seem to have a long way to go, even now. Brad Wardell explains with great insight some of the decisions and non-decisions that may be guiding Microsoft's thinking in the UI area. I was driving through Wisconsin missing most of the scenery because I was captivated by the level of knowledge Brad has. A great piece of audio -- focused, relevant and specific.

Microsoft; listen to this podcast -- er... blogcast.

The CBC lock-out in Canada has made news in many places, largely because of the response of some of the locked-out employees. Faced with an inability to get "on mic" some are now podcasting.

Radio master Tod Maffin has been covering the lock-out in detail and has publicized many of the efforts of the un-CBC podcasts.

In the midst of a major labour upset, triggered by management action, I see a certain irony in the actions of the "rebel" podcasts.

What is this lock-out about? Contract vs. full-time? Staffing levels? Flexibility to designate resources? Response to technology change? Costs in general?

5,500 people are out on the street because the future will not be like the past. Many of the locked-out workers must surely know that. When a crew of a few can post up a podcast, they are pointing to the on-demand future. They are high-lighting the profound delivery adjustments and resource allocation issues that make this event meaningful. In bootstrapping their own broadcasts and distributing them in the form of podcasts, they are fearlessly experimenting with petards at their own breakfast table.

When management and the union finally meet to resolve this dispute will the "solution" be based on a typical 2 or 3 year formula or will there be an opportunity to embrace the future? Imagine a broadcast network scaled back to staffing levels used by private broadcasters, with hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of CBC workers being redeployed to on-demand technologies, new media and local coverage of events. Imagine a public broadcaster responding to technological change by embracing it; imagine the employees having fun again. Imagine a CBC de-centralized and so much a part of the Canadian fabric again that public funding becomes a non-issue.

If the CBC were to integrate its broadcast strategy with an on-line strategy of unlimited download for made-in-Canada video and audio; we would be innovating a creative industry that would be years ahead of others. Imagine a CBC where data centers and servers were just as important as transmitters and towers. Imagine the CBC viewed again as a public service with offerings so diverse it would shatter the watered-down delivery of the thread-bare Country Canada and Newsworld. Imagine a national network involved in developing better, faster delivery mechanisms and think of the sweetness of using broadcast to promote and announce multiple offerings on-line.

Think of the competition it would spawn.

Imagine the CBC drawing so many eyes and ears that advertisers clamoured for exposure. Imagine a network flush with cash and think of profits re-invested in more creative industries throughout the country. Maybe Canadian TV and film wouldn't be a joke anymore. Maybe we could blow up the whole "Hollywood North" apparatchik and make really good stuff. Maybe the phrase "Canadian content" wouldn't spawn bursts of derisive, cynical, quota inspired laughter.

When the time comes, I hope that management and the union see a future full of incredible growth and dynamic possibilities. Or will they only think about what they have and how they'll keep it?

I'm still on the record as agreeing with Mark Cuban that there will be nobody getting rich solely from podcasting... but I'm pleased to announce that The Bradcast will be one of the sites carrying the Gotomeeting.com advertisements that are part of a deal struck by Techpodcasts.com. Wait there's more. Another major advertiser is in the wings.

Whoop dee do you say. Another capitalist running-dog sell-out. Well no... Podcasting takes quite a bit of time and a heap of bandwidth. In order for me to continue in this vein, I would like to recoup some of the bucks that I have invested in the venture. Now some have decided to go the route of donations and I tried that for awhile, but how would it look if I ran ads and had a donation box. Not very clever. Kind of like Letterman stopping the show to shill Suze Orman books and asking for "just 12 more callers to make a pledge"... It has to be one or the other.

Lest you think I'll lose that seering edge I've been hailed for; let me reassure you that, just as in the previous podcasts, The Bradcast will retain its Butter Knife Kewl (tm).

Depending on how you read this site you may see a change in the blog title and RSS feed. You will eventually notice a change in the way Apple iTunes lists this site. Brad Gibson's Current Thinking is now known as The Bradcast: Engineered Thought from Brad Gibson. Why did I do it? iTunes.

Silly old iTunes sticks a blog's name into a podcast's "Album" field. What happens when your podcast is titled differently from your blog? Your podcast name disappears. Now I've invested some time and energy into the "Bradcast" brand and I did not want it to be arbitrarily changed but how the heck is Apple going to figure that out? I caved and changed the name of my blog. Now you will see the Bradcast brand in both print and podcast. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Apple to change it's directory.

Sometimes you fight, sometimes you switch.

ITConversations big daddy Doug Kaye has been letting the kimono slip a bit over the past week. I listened to the G'day World interview (hey guys please check your sound levels) and have been reading his blog post about the "new" business model.

To summarize: More of the same. Much more.

Doug is looking to sustain and grow ITConversations but he is not interested in profit. It's clear that Doug has made some successful business decisions in the past and is a man of independent means with a vision. That is not to say that the network will not be seeking other forms of revenue. He is still seeking listener donations, sustaining sponsors and non-governmental grants. (If you can't love an organization that makes it a policy NOT to seek government hand-outs then have fun in Scotland...). Indeed, Doug may introduce a premium content stream at ITConversations. You will be able to pay to get a package of audio immediately after a conference rather than wait for the presentations to be delivered for free at the rate of one per week.

Given Doug's specialty content and continued focus on audio programs of high quality, I ask you: Who would you rather have piloting your plane? Curry or Kaye?

Me, me, me, Dave, Dave, Dave, blah, blah, blah, same stuff I've talked about over and over, me, me, me, Senseo regurgitation, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me...

The Academy Award speech at the end was irritating. Mercifully, it ended.

Did he get paid to do that?

gnomedex

The hype was mindgafflingly blabbleful.

Colour me very disappointed. Apparently Longhorn will be full of RSS goodies. I'm not exactly plugged-in to Microsoft intel but even I knew that before today. Apparently MS is adding extensions to RSS 2.0, anybody can do that through namespace extensions. Apple is doing the same thing for podcasting support in iTunes. And everbody got to see IE 7.0 which looks like Firefox only I've got Firefox now.

Longhorn won't run on my current machine and won't really mean anything to me until I and my customer/employers renew their hardware. Guess what? Many of them are using Windows 98, Word 97, Windows 2000, etc on current hardware. MS has been promising the future with Longhorn for 3 years now. A few weeks ago Apple promised that the future will have to be put off for another year or so on their platforms; now it's Microsoft's turn again. What I heard today was the tinkling of wrenches in the engine room as somebody tinkered with something "cool".

[Thanks to Boris for asking the question about the "community process" that MS had not even thought of until Scoble jumped in with an idea -- it will be at the Channel 9 wiki]

gnomedex
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