Archive for the 'Podcasts' Category

As part of my occasional series on My Local London, I describe a visit to Beddington Park to look for the Lost Village of Beddington - in the otherwise unremarkable Greater London commuter town of Hackbridge

Here are the pics from our stroll:

I stare out at sea from The Cobb in Lyme Regis, pondering on the illusion and reality of John Fowles’s “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and later, meet a friendly Fossil Hunter who shows us his “catch” from the rocks of the Undercliff.

And these are the snaps:

I share the views from the cliff tops of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast on my summer holiday via a live mobile podcast from my mobile phone.

Here are some snaps:

BTW, I was inspired to visit this part of the UK by the A Mile With Me running podcast after its host, Steve Chopper, who lives in Bournemouth podcast about his walks along the coast. So, thanks, Steve for inspiring me to come on this lovely holiday!

As part of the occasional series My Local London where I share with you a favourite or interesting spot in London, this week’s mobile podcast episode takes you to the Horniman Gardens in South East London.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

Here are my snaps from the afternoon:

Are you a Horniman Gardens regular? Or if this podcast has inspired you to visit, it would be great to hear from you. To share your views about this podcast - or anything else - via voicemail or email, you can do so via my Contact Page.

Links:

Horniman Museum and Gardens

My Local London series on Fusion View

loclon

Most major exhibitions offer visitors an audio- or multimedia- guide that can enhance your experience of their artworks or artefacts. As you take the tour of the gallery or exhibition, audioguide in hand, it’s like having your own private expert alongside who can point out the fascinating details of the exhibits.

Who are the creative artists behind these audio experiences? In this episode, I hope to find out as I talk to Steve Slack, the writer behind the audioguide for the Italian Renaissance Drawings exhibition, now on at the British Musuem (until 25 July 2010). Steve also shares tips on the business of being a freelance writer & the emerging field of multimedia writing.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

What do you think about exhibition multimedia guides? A help or a distraction? Or do you have a comment about anything else in this podcast? You can send me - or Steve - an email or voicemail via my Contact Page

Photo: from Steve’s website, with permission

Can art make a practical difference to the world we live in? One man thinks so. His name is Neil Ellis and he is hoping that his performance piece for Anthony Gormley’s 4th Plinth project is going to make a real practical difference to Londoners.

I talk to Neil about his performance piece Pedal Power and how he hopes it will contribute to making London’s roads safer for cyclists.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

Links:

You can join Neil’s Pedal Power Facebook Group to add your voice to his campaign.

GalleryFilm event at Dulwich Picture Gallery: The role of protest in art - Neil Ellis on Anthony Gormley’s 4th plinth creating a drama performance to drive home the issue of cycling safety. Come and see the sizzling short films by Riffy Ahmed, the visually stunning Illuminations Productions ‘Anthony Gormley and the 4th Plinth’ and discuss the issues with them.
Monday 10 May, 7.15pm at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Tickets: 020 8299 8750 or online

CORRECTION: The video of Neil’s performance is not yet available online so I’m not able to show it here. As soon as it is available, I’ll add a link or embed it here. Apologies for the incorrect information in the podcast.

Do you have a comment about cycling safety? Or about anything else in this podcast? You can send me - or Neil - an email or voicemail via my Contact Page

Photos: thanks to Dulwich OnView, with permission

In September 1987, a group of four of us cycled the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. We were four girls who didn’t know much about bicycles or even how to change a flat tyre and who didn’t really think of ourselves as endurance athletes. But we cycled over 500 miles in about 10 days across rugged wilderness and over the Galician mountain ranges to win - what? A certificate in Latin forgiving us of all our sins and a sense of personal satisfaction.

In this episode of my mobile podcast, while laid out on the sofa with a bad cold, I look back at this personal journey and a moment of transition in my life:

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

More about the pilgrim route:

The Caminon del Norte (northern route) that we took

The Confraternity of St James - the society where we obtained our pilgrimage pamphlet

Walk St James’s Way - a holiday company that will arrange your pilgrimage holiday, with or without bag transfer

Photo: thanks to Nick in exsilio from flick.com (CCL)

I’ve updated my How To guide for listening to podcasts as I thought it might be useful for some of you to have a handy reference guide on how to access podcasts - not just my Fusion View Mobile Podcast but also other podcasts available out there.

When I was telling a friend the other day about my podcastes, she asked me, “How do you listen to a podcast?”. On asking around, it turns out quite a number of my “middle youth” friends don’t know how to listen to podcasts and don’t have iTunes or other music / multimedia aggregator installed. Many have been too busy with work and family to fiddle around online to find out how to do it and others just don’t know where to start.

So to help them out - and anyone else who’d like to know how to listen to podcasts, here’s some guidance

Listen from my blog page

You can listen from my blog - on the post which has the podcast, click on the player and the podcast will start. That’s the simplest way to listen but you will need to be at your computer during the whole podcast to listen to all of it.

Note that you’ll need to have your sound speakers on to hear the audio. You’ll also need a broadband connection for best results.

Listen on your iPod or mp3 player

It’s best to listen to podcasts on an iPod or mp3 player which you can take with you wherever you are. Setting it up takes a few steps and once you’ve done that, everything is pretty much automated.

1. The easiest podcast application to use is iTunes - but do note that there are other options. Go to the Apple iTunes store and you’ll see the prominent section to Download iTunes, which will take you a page explaining what iTunes is with instructions. When you’re ready, click the Download Now button on that page and follow the instructions.

2. Once iTunes is downloaded, open it up and go the iTunes Store. You’ll see a virtual store where you can download music, videos, podcasts and audiobooks - some of which are free and some are paid-for.

3. To find the Fusion View Mobile Podcast in the iTunes Store, the easiest thing to do is to go to the Search box in the top right corner and type in Fusion View or Fusion View Mobile Podcast. My podcast will come up - click on that to see the episodes. Click Subscribe and iTunes will download the latest episode. In future, any time you open up iTunes, it will download the latest episode since your last download. (You may see both the Fusion View Podcast and Fusion View Mobile Podcast - the Mobile Podcast is the latest one that is regularly updated so that is the one to subscribe to for current and future episods.)

You can also click on the Subscribe with iTunes button on the podcast posts on my blog - or below:

Clicking on the above button will open up iTunes and subscribe to the Fusion View podcast automatically.

Many other podcasters have this or similar logos on their blogs so clicking on that will automatically subscribe you to their podcasts using iTunes.

4. If you want to get previous episodes on my podcast, go to the Library section of iTunes (left sidebar), click on Podcasts. This will take you to your library of podcasts that you’ve subscribed to. Click on Fusion View Mobile Podcast in the list of your podcasts and you will see a drop down list of previous podcasts in pale grey text to indicate that you haven’t downloaded them yet. Click on the “Get” button alongside whichever episodes you want to download.

5. To transfer podcasts from your iTunes library to your iPod or mp3 player, plug that device into your computer with iTunes open. iTunes should automatically recognise the device and take you through the steps to make the connection and download items from iTunes to the device. The iPod synch should be seamless as it’s an Apple product but you can find more help at the iPod and iTunes FAQ page. For those with mp3 players, there’s more detailed information on the mp3 players and iTunes page.

6. Every time you then plug in your iPod or mp3 player to your computer, iTunes should automatically open up and transfer the latest episodes of podcasts you’ve subscribed to across to your device.

For beginners, there’s more info and help at the New Users Guide to iTunes page.

Again, you’ll get best results for fast downloads via a broadband connection.

There are great podcasts to download from the BBC as well as radio stations in Australia and USA - what I love is that you can listen to them when you choose, not when the broadcaster chooses. There are also really good ones by ordinary people like myself (eg on running, triathlon, gardening, marketing, management, communications, technology etc) and also podcasts of lectures from some of the best universities in the world - check out iTunes U in the iTunes Store (I especially like UC Berkeley’s History and Psychology podcasts). Podcasts have really saved me from boredom and helped me get through tedious activities as I plenty of interesting audio to entertain me when I commute to work or I’m doing the washing up or gardening.

Enjoy!

Continuing my exploration of the volcano ash travel crisis, I reflect on the silent skies above the UK this springtime. Podcasting guru Neville Hobson also adds his voicemail, reflecting on a silent London.

There’s also a round up of travelling friends who’ve been posting about being caught up in the air travel chaos on Facebook, including a voicemail report from Ingrid Beazley of Dulwich OnView who is stuck in the US after a museums/ heritage sector conference.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

Here are links to the articles I discuss on the podcast:

Social Media and Stranded Travellers

Dunkirk-style mission to transport travellers

Also, I mention Dulwich OnView wins an international award

Other resources:

Liftshare.com - social network site for car sharing

My snaps from the park:

I’d love to hear about your experiences of the air travel ban - have you been enjoying the quiet in the skies above your area? Or have been caught up in the chaos, trying to get to your destination? You can send me an email or voicemail via my Contact Page

Twitter proved invaluable for my cousin who has been caught up in the volcano ash air traffic chaos while on holiday in Malaysia - in this podcast, I share her story and ask: How do you use Twitter to keep in touch, especially in a crisis?

Also, I use Rebtel.com for cheap international calls on my mobile phone so I thought I’d give you a handy tip about this service. I don’t get a commission from them but I just want to tell you about this useful service because I like it.

There is a new Postbag section with readers’ comments and feedback.

And I’ve set up some voicemail lines with a US/ North America as well as a UK telephone line AND a Skype line for you to leave your voicemail to be included in future podcast episodes. You can find all the details on my Contact Page at www.fusionview.co.uk/contact.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

I’d love to hear how you’ve used Twitter to keep in touch with family and friends or if you have been caught up in the recent air travel crisis - or if you have any comments or thoughts about anything else I’ve discussed in my podcasts or on my blog. Just go to www.fusionview.co.uk/contact to send me an email or voicemail.

Photo: thanks to Danny Choo from flickr.com (CCL)