Como crear su "Podcast".

Spring, 2008 Create your own podcast By Byron Ricks, Microsoft.com What you need to know to be a podcaster. When I first walked into a radio station a long time ago, I was surprised by what it took to broadcast the spoken word. In addition to the microphone, there was a control room, a director, a producer, an engineer, satellite feed boxes, editing rooms, newsrooms and a whole staff. Now, however, with a computer, Internet connection, mic and some software, you can podcast alongside the largest media companies and the many other independent podcasters around the world. What's a podcast and why do one? The term podcast is a combination of pod (Portable On Demand) and broadcast. You can use any MP3 portable music player to create or listen to a podcast. Think of your podcast as your own radio show where you say what you want, when you want. It's your private thoughts gone public. Your words for the world. Your commentaries and reflections. Your video and audio recordings — even documents — delivered on the Internet using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) that people can download to their computers or portable music or video devices to listen to or watch wherever they want. Video podcasts are great, but I'll just cover audio podcasts to get you started quickly. Tools of the trade You need more than your voice to begin podcasting, but not too much more. Once you have the equipment, setting up to podcast generally takes from several hours to a few evenings — not much time when you consider how long it would take to set up your own radio station. And after you're set up, making podcasts won't take much longer than it takes to speak the words. Also on this topic: Windows Help and How To Stream media from your PC to your HDTV Make friends with Windows Media Center A computer with an Internet connection You can use a mobile PC or a desktop computer with an Internet connection to create a podcast. Some podcasters prefer to work with a mobile PC so they can podcast from any location they want. If it has a microphone built into it, you can also record your podcast on a portable MP3 player and then transfer the file of your recording to your computer to edit and post to the Web. A microphone and headset Your computer's microphone probably won't give you the sound quality you're after for a podcast. For one thing, it'll likely pick up background (also known as ambient) noise. Mine picks up the furnace switching on and off — even my computer's fan. You might have the same problem with a portable MP3 player's mic. All of this ambient noise could be a neat effect ("Listen everyone, I'm giving you a tour of the basement plumbing in my home!"), but before you choose to join the ranks of the sonic avant garde, it's probably best to focus on getting your voice heard — and heard well. For quality podcasting, get an external condenser mic that plugs into your computer. This kind of mic will reduce the background noise so your voice comes through loud and clear. If you get this kind of mic, get a stand, too. This will eliminate the noise you'll pick up from adjusting your hands on the mic during your show. You'll probably also want a headset that'll allow you to monitor your recording levels as you speak. (You can't use speakers while recording because the speaker sound will be recorded and you'll risk getting audio feedback.) Go online and take a look at some of the USB headset/microphone pairings for an all-in-one solution — or you can get the separate mic, stand and headset (usually pricier) like the pros. There are even several podcasting equipment packages that include a microphone, headset, audio mixer and audio recording and editing software. Using one of these packages doesn't give you much of an alibi for not sounding your best. Recording and editing software To create a podcast, you'll need software that can record sound on your computer. An obvious choice is Sound Recorder, which comes with Windows Vista. For information on how to use Sound Recorder, see Record sound. While Sound Recorder is fine for recording, you can't use it to edit audio, and editing your recording is a big part of creating a podcast. I know that on the first take I don't always say exactly what I want exactly the way I want to, and you might not, either. Windows Movie Maker has some basic audio recording and editing features. For more information on how to use Windows Movie Maker to record and edit sound, see Add narration to your movie. You might also consider downloading and using a program that can both record and edit your audio, such as the free software available online from Audacity. With it, you can record several audio tracks, such as your voice, music and other sounds, so that your podcast can use a variety of sounds at once. You can also get an all-in-one record, edit and upload podcasting program that has multiple recording tracks, a teleprompter and voice effects. (If you choose this route, you can skip the "MP3 converter" section below and go directly to the "Plan your podcast" section.) Such end-to-end podcasting programs also often allow you to create RSS feeds that help tell people that you've posted a podcast, what it's about and how to find it. There are many of these podcast recording and editing software solutions available. MP3 converter MP3 is a standard podcast file format, which means that the greatest number of people will be able to hear your podcast if you make it available to them using this format. If you haven't already recorded your podcast using the MP3 file format, then you'll need to take your recorded file and convert it to an MP3 file. To do this, you need an MP3 converter. There are many free programs and commercial MP3 converters to choose from. Plan your podcast Sometimes ideas come to me in a flash. Other times, I have to sit down and hammer them out. While you're waiting for your podcasting equipment to arrive, think about what you want your podcast to be. When you at last press "record," you don't want to sit there just drumming your fingers trying to think of what to say. It's a good idea to plan — at least in general — not only what you want to talk about, but how you want to talk about it. Overall, what to talk about is probably easy — it's whatever interests you. You can podcast about anything — from your criticisms or praise of local government to your search for the most talkative parrot in New Jersey. There are no rules! But since ideas are likely to be the core of your work as a podcaster, why not write them down? An outline of what you want to say can help your podcast recording go more smoothly, although some podcasters feel most comfortable with a script. How you do your show is a different challenge. Will your podcast be a monologue, a talk show, a restaurant review, a walking tour of your favorite hiking trail, an interview with your pets? Of course, it could also be something different each time, and it can evolve. Listening to other podcasts is a great way to get ideas. Here are some online podcast directories to explore: Blubrry iTunes Odeo Podcast Alley Podcast.net Podnova Record and edit OK. This is the moment you've been preparing for: recording your voice. Before you click the Record button, check to see if your microphone came with information about how to speak into it for clearest audio quality. There is a technique to using a mic correctly, such as speaking directly toward it, over the top of it, or off to the side. It's a good idea to practice speaking and recording a few times. To begin, plug your microphone and headset into your computer and mute your computer's speakers. After you record, you can use Windows Media Player to listen to your recordings to make sure everything is working correctly. This is a great time to get comfortable with the equipment and how it works with your voice and style. For more information on how to listen to audio files with Windows Media Player, see Play an audio or video file. Find a quiet place to record your podcast, and then have some fun. Once you have a recording, many of the audio editing programs let you add effects, such as fade in and out and extra sound tracks. Don't be afraid to experiment! Check the documentation that came with your software to get tips about the best ways to use the features it comes with, or take a look at articles online or at the library about home recording. Note: If you add effects or music, make sure they aren't protected by copyright. After you've recorded and edited your first podcast and you've got an audio file you're proud of, convert it to an MP3 file using the MP3 converter I talked about earlier. Publish your podcast Now you're ready to publish your podcast online. To do this, you need a place to put it — your Web site or a Web hosting and syndicating service that distributes podcasts across the Internet. There are a many free and paid options that you can find online. Here are just a few hosting services to compare: Hipcast Liberated Syndication Podshow Creator Tell the world Now that you've posted your podcast to your Web site or hosting service, you need to help people find it. Along with your podcast, you'll upload an XML file called an RSS feed. This short XML file helps tell people that you've posted a podcast, what it's about, and how to find it. You can enter this descriptive information in an RSS feed generator, such as TD Scripts or RSS Feeds Submit to generate this RSS feed code. If you're using an end-to-end podcasting program or hosting service, creating the RSS feed might be a built-in feature. Essentially, this RSS feed will produce the link that people click to listen to your podcast. When you've uploaded your podcast and have a link to it, you can take that link and let the world know about your podcast by putting the link on your blog using Windows Live Writer, publishing it to your Windows Live Spaces Web page, posting it into podcast directories or sending it in e-mail. Now your listeners are drumming their fingers, waiting for news that your next great idea is ready to download. Open article in Microsoft´s Web Site. COPYRIGHT © 2008 Microsoft All rights reserved.

La Nueva Inteligencia Empresarial.

Abril 27 de 2008 Nueva Inteligencia Guillermo Santos Calderón Opinión Si las compañías no se acomodan a los cambios que la tecnología les impone, serán superadas por otras que sí lo hagan. No me refiero a su uso para implementar sistemas de misión crítica, balance scorecard o ERP, que ya deben estar funcionando porque, de lo contrario, no es que vayan a ser superadas, sino que seguramente ya no existen. Es usar las tecnologías de punta para canalizar la inteligencia de las masas para generar nuevas ideas, modelos de negocio, canales, etc. Ya se ha demostrado que si se unen las inteligencias de los empleados de una empresa, seguramente van a salir a la luz novedosas iniciativas. Cisco es una empresa norteamericana que puso a disposición de sus empleados, con gran éxito, las herramientas necesarias para que estos expresen, no solamente sus iniciativas, sino que colaboren y opinen sobre las de otros. Y como si fuera poco, también lanzó un software de colaboración que permite a los emprendedores e innovadores de todo el mundo el desarrollo de nuevas ideas para que Cisco decida si las adopta y premie a sus proponentes. Starbucks también usa este tipo de herramientas para que sus empleados opinen y expongan sus sugerencias sobre cómo mejorar el producto y la atención a clientes. Algunas de las ideas han sido acogidas y su implementación será una realidad. Qué tal el caso de la minera de oro estadounidense. Estaba a punto de quebrarse, hasta que su presidente expuso por Internet todos sus estudios geológicos secretos y anunció un premio al que dijera dónde podían encontrar oro. Hoy tiene una operación exitosa que supera los 3.000 millones de dólares. Este caso fue tomado del libro Wikinomics, de Don Rapscott. ¿Por qué eso no se aplica más? La respuesta es simple. Porque empoderar a las masas requiere un cambio de mentalidad en los niveles ejecutivos. Entender que cualquier empleado, sin importar su nivel, puede proponer una idea que no se les había ocurrido a sus directivos. Pues llegó el momento de aceptar y acoger la inteligencia colectiva. Guillermo Santos Calderón guisan@eltiempo.com.co Abrir artículo en el Sitio Web de "El Tiempo". COPYRIGHT © 2008 CASA EDITORIAL EL TIEMPO S.A. Prohibida su reproducción total o parcial, así como su traducción a cualquier idioma sin autorización escrita de su titular. Reproduction in whole or in part, or translation without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

¿Todavía no tiene su marca en internet?

18-04-2008 Internet ¿Todavía no tiene su marca en internet? Fuente: Prensa Cel Chile. Las grandes marcas del siglo XXI serán todas aquellas que logren ostentar el mejor posicionamiento a través de Internet. Así de radicales fueron los expositores que se presentaron en el seminario "Herramientas para la Competitividad a través de Internet", cuando tuvieron que definir la importancia de la presencia de las empresas en la red. Los especialistas que participaron del seminario en la Universidad de San Sebastián, Chile, explicaron que es de vital relevancia que las organizaciones decidan y definan con rigurosidad cuáles serán los roles que jugarán las tecnologías de la información en su modelo de negocio. De no ser así, éstas no durarían mucho tiempo en competencia. Para Marcos Clark Gavilán, presidente de Cel Chile, la sobrevivencia de una Pyme está en una automatización obligada en la forma de venta de su producto o servicio. "Hoy los potenciales clientes no sólo están en las calles, sino además en el ciberespacio", acotó el ejecutivo. Según Clark, no basta con poseer diseños de páginas web, sino que estos además, deben reunir los estándares de usabilidad, accesibilidad y negocios para que los usuarios y visitantes de todo el mundo tengan llegada a la información de los productos y servicio que ofrecen las empresas chilenas. "Un factor clave para la expansión de las empresas es estar bien posicionados a través del motor de búsqueda más influyente del mundo, Google, bajo palabras relacionadas a los productos y servicios que ofrecen las empresas y de esa forma llegar a mercados mundiales", dijo. Para James Ballentine, representante de Google en Chile, la personalidad activa de los actuales consumidores los hace mucho más exigentes y dinámicos. "Internet madura junto con los usuarios y más rápido que cualquier otro medio, se mueve más desde la periferia hacia el centro y permite la proliferación democrática de los medios, permitiendo que las marcas estén en todos lados y en cada momento. Entonces sólo internet puede satisfacer las necesidades de los consumidores del siglo XXI", argumentó Ballentine. El representante de Google Chile destacó que Internet es el más segmentado de los medios de comunicación y cuantificables por lo demás. Consideró que la Red puede ser una importante plataforma para hacer llegar los productos y servicios a otras latitudes. Abrir artículo en el Sitio Web de América Economía./font> © AméricaEconomía 2001-2007 - Todos los derechos reservados Este material no puede ser publicado, reescrito, redistribuido y/o reenviado sin la previa autorización de AméricaEconomía.

Comcast, "regañado" por interferir en su servicio de Internet.

Science & Technology.

Tech.view Apr 18th 2008 From Economist.com Delivering the bits Fear not, the dumb old internet can still cope

Shutterstock Uncloggable artery?

A DOZEN years have passed since David Isenberg, then a distinguished engineer at AT&T Labs, wrote his seminal essay "The Rise of the Stupid Network". In it, he outlined how a new philosophy and architecture were changing the communications business, and pointed to some of the cataclysms ahead. Far from being a scarce resource used intermittently, Dr Isenberg argued that future networks would be "always on", with their intelligence located in the end-user's equipment rather than within the network itself. They would make no fancy routing or traffic-management decisions; they would just "deliver the bits". Unlike the telephone circuits of the day, which used their built-in smarts to determine where messages were to be delivered, the data would tell the network where they wanted to go. In short, the data would be boss. The stupid network Dr Isenberg had in mind was, of course, the internet we know today. Central to his vision was the radical notion that end-users—or customers—would be free to do as they pleased, and the network would make no assumptions about the kind or content of data being transmitted. The engineering community applauded the idea. The phone companies (AT&T especially) thought it stank. And Dr Isenberg wound up working for himself. Dr Isenberg will likely be watching this week's deliberations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with interest. As your correspondent was scribbling away, the FCC was preparing for its second hearing on network-management practices. The meeting, held at Stanford University on April 17th, concerns whether internet service providers (ISPs) should be allowed to shape, filter or even block content travelling over their networks. The hearing stems from a complaint filed last autumn alleging that Comcast, America's largest cable-TV company and one of its biggest ISPs, was blocking a perfectly legal file-sharing program called BitTorrent. Ever since, Comcast has been scrambling to prevent the FCC from rewriting its rules about peer-to-peer (P2P) software like BitTorrent, which is widely used to download video and other large multimedia files. Comcast argues that throttling P2P traffic is justified because it's swamping its network. Unlike conventional networks, where central servers dish out files to peripheral client computers, a P2P network is an ad hoc collection of individual computers all acting as servers and clients simultaneously, sharing bits of a large file between themselves until each has a complete copy and leaves the party. All very friendly and helpful, save for one thing. By definition, the peers are all on the periphery of the network—in users' homes and offices at the end of the so-called "last mile". That's where bandwidth is hugely asymmetric—being designed almost exclusively for downloading files, not uploading them as well. For instance, the maximum upload-speed of AT&T's premium 6mbps (megabit per second) service dawdles at 768kbps (kilobits per second). P2P presented no problem before the web, when it was used for sharing articles on Usenet. Then Napster, Kazaa and Gnutella came along and changed everything. And not just because of the popularity of such file-sharing programs with music fans. The sizes of the files they handled increased dramatically. Music tracks and podcasts used to be offered for streaming at 128kbps; versions at 256kbps or even 320kbps are now common. Video has an impact, too. Though online video-rental and distribution has only recently begun in earnest, all those HDTV sets sold over the past few years will shortly make high-definition downloads the norm. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings is "4k video", which promises four times the resolution of today's HDTV, and needs a whopping 6gbps (gigabits per second) to fill the screen. Once again, alarmists are issuing dire warnings about the internet collapsing under the weight of its traffic. But that's nothing new: they've been doing so since the 1990s. Bob Metcalfe, who invented the Ethernet protocol for local area networks, once claimed that the internet was about to be overwhelmed by e-mail traffic. That was in 1996. A year later, Dr Metcalfe not only admitted the error of his doomsday prediction, but literally ate his own words—grinding his speech from a year before with liquid in a blender and quaffing the lot to cheers from his audience. The latest panic started with a scare-mongering story in the Wall Street Journal last year, which concerned the rise of internet video and the inability of the network to handle it, especially at network edges where the internet enters the home. The author talked of the "coming exaflood", referring to the exabytes (ie, billions of gigabytes) of HD video users would soon be downloading. Others in the industry have continued to fan the flames, with cable companies like Comcast wafting the hardest. Unlike the individual DSL lines that telephone companies use to deliver broadband, cable operators provide services using a single loop shared by up to 450 households at once. Comcast claims it takes only about a dozen people simultaneously using a bandwidth-hogging program like BitTorrent for others on the loop to find their web activities grinding to a halt. While neither the DSL nor the cable companies have beefed up their local connections as fast as the internet backbone operators have boosted their capacity, there's still enough bandwidth over the last mile for current traffic. And soon there will be a whole lot more—at least for Verizon, Sprint and even Comcast. Verizon is spending $18 billion pushing its FiOS fibre network out into neighbourhoods. Despite its woes, Sprint is pressing ahead with WiMAX, the faster, longer-range version of WiFi. And Comcast is making good progress with the latest cable protocol, DOCSIS 3.0, which should allow it to offer 100mbps within a year or two. Comcast has also made its peace with BitTorrent. The two companies are to collaborate on addressing some of the issues caused by P2P. It has also teamed up with an outfit called Pando Networks which has a nifty traffic-management technology known as P4P. The technology helps P2P file-sharers find each other more selectively, thus boosting their download speeds. Comcast and others hope Pando's P4P can persuade the FCC to back away from implementing stronger net-neutrality rules. That could well forestall any further legislation on Capitol Hill that might force them to keep their networks open to all comers in the way Dr Isenberg intended. Following a number of aborted bills over the past few years, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act that's currently working its way through committee has the express backing of Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other congressional bigwigs. The bill specifically bans blocking or degrading lawful content, and forbids ISPs from charging more for downloading things like video. The present political climate gives it the best chance yet of making it on to the statute book.

Open article at "The Economist" Web Site

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Internet, medios e información

OPINIÓN. Abril 18 de 2008 Internet, medios e información Olga L. González . ¿Cuál es la primera fuente que reseña Google para noticias colombianas? By Akl´or Hace unos años, uno de los blogueros más antiguos hizo una apuesta con el editor electrónico del célebre The New York Times: Dave Winer le aseguraba al periodista Martin Nisenholtz que, al cabo de cinco años, los blogs serían más influyentes que su periódico. La apuesta fue consignada y evaluada por un tercero. Hace poco fue proclamado el ganador: el bloguero tenía razón. Cuatro de las cinco noticias más importantes del último año en Estados Unidos (la masacre de Virginia, la guerra en Irak, el precio del petróleo y las exportaciones chinas) fueron reseñadas por Google en blogs antes que en el tradicional periódico de Nueva York. Tan solo una noticia especializada (la crisis de los créditos hipotecarios) fue reseñada primero en el diario. Esta apuesta confirma la consolidación de los blogs como fuente alternativa de comunicación. Los blogs son hoy un elemento importante en el debate de los países del Norte. Contribuyen a enriquecer la opinión. Tienen en su favor ser más independientes que los medios comerciales, emplear un lenguaje más directo, interactuar con los lectores y animar conversaciones más horizontales. Desde antes de la aparición de Facebook, los blogs ya contribuían a formar redes virtuales alrededor de intereses comunes. Así, cuando un bloguero denunció los problemas recurrentes que tenía con su computador provocó una reacción en cadena en el medio de los blogs, que generó una fuerte caída de la acción bursátil de la firma Dell. Por esas razones, que los blogs sean citados más frecuentemente por Google que un legendario periódico norteamericano no resulta muy sorprendente. Más interesante es saber qué sucede en un país con un menor nivel de desarrollo de los blogs. Basándome en la apuesta de marras, hice un ejercicio similar para Colombia. ¿Cuál es la primera fuente de información que reseña el buscador Google para las principales noticias criollas? Los hechos que retuve fueron los siguientes: la liberación de Clara Rojas y Consuelo González, la caída del dólar, la manifestación contra las Farc, la 'parapolítica' en Colombia y el cumpleaños de García Márquez. El resultado, que cualquiera puede verificar en Internet, es sorprendente: todos estos hechos fueron reseñados en Google en medios alternativos antes que en medios tradicionales comerciales colombianos. Dos de estas noticias (la liberación de las secuestradas y la manifestación contra las Farc) la encabezan en el buscador Google sendos videos colgados en YouTube. Otras dos noticias (la caída del dólar y la 'parapolítica') figuran en el medio alternativo Indymedia antes que en la prensa tradicional colombiana. Por último, el cumpleaños de García Márquez, que los medios comerciales trataron en su momento con gran despliegue, quedó registrado en los anales de Google en un blog antes que en un gran medio colombiano. Que el buscador más usado del mundo les dé un rango superior a los medios alternativos que a los medios tradicionales muestra que muchas personas se han apropiado de las herramientas de la comunicación que anteriormente estaban reservadas a los periodistas profesionales. Los colombianos realizan videos de los hechos noticiosos y los cuelgan (varios videos de la marcha del 4 de febrero que la prensa no registró circulan en YouTube). Los ciudadanos escriben sus opiniones y análisis en sitios de libre expresión, como Indymedia. Los blogueros, personas del común, pero también -a menudo- periodistas profesionales, aprovechan la potencialidad del medio y crean verdaderos canales de opinión. Los ciudadanos ya no esperan pasivamente a que la gran prensa los oriente sobre los hechos: ahora interpretan, analizan y comentan los hechos. 'Los medios transforman el mundo, Internet transforma los medios', dice el lema. La gente bien informada es la que comprende este movimiento. Abrir artículo en el Sitio Web de "El Tiempo". COPYRIGHT © 2008 CASA EDITORIAL EL TIEMPO S.A. Prohibida su reproducción total o parcial, así como su traducción a cualquier idioma sin autorización escrita de su titular. Reproduction in whole or in part, or translation without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.