Show 66: Beyond HTML
Posted in Podcast on: Tuesday, February 6, 2007 by Paul Boag
We have a bit of an audio and video theme to this week’s show with Ian Forrester talking about online video and Paul sharing some advice on creating a podcast. Marcus also continues his series on client contracts by looking at “the statement of work”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (26.9MB)
To subscribe directly within itunes click here
News and events
Mobile internet usage increasing
This week the BBC has reported that 15.9 million handsets in the UK accessed the web in December. This is an increase on over a million on the previous month. This further underlines the fact that the mobile web is going to be the big growth area in 2007.
Headscape recruiting
Headscape is expanding yet again. We are currently looking to recruit a .net developer and an experienced css/xhtml coder. If you are interested in either position send an email to enquiries@headscape.co.uk.
Great British Booze Up
If you are attending SXSW this year then come along to the Great British Booze Up. ClearLeft, Boagworld and @Media 2007 are taking over a “British themed pub” (yeah right!) to bring you an evening of traditional British entertainment.
Enhance your page performance
There are two new articles on the Think Vitamin website this week. Unfortunately Chris Heilmann’s Article is far more interesting than my own. He looks at the issue of page performance, outlining some of the common problems and how to address them. He also has an interesting discussion on page performance verses best practice.
Some handy flash tips
Robert Nyman has obviously been struggling with Flash recently as he has posted two very useful tips on dealing with that pesky plugin ;) He shows you how to embed flash without invalidating your code as well as how to place an HTML element on top of a flash movie.
Client corner: The statement of work
This week Marcus takes a look at the statement of work, which is the cornerstone of the contract between client and developer. In particular he focuses on the various stages of the development cycle and what information needs to be covered in the contract. Elements covered include:
- Kick off meetings – Who will attend, what documentation will be produced?
- Information Architecture – Will there be expert reviews, stakeholder interviews or card sorting? What documentation will be provided, who will do the recruiting? What about wireframe testing?
- Design concepts – How many concepts will be produced? How many different pages will be demonstrated? What happens if the client doesn’t like the design?
- Template development – What types of pages will need designing and building? What additional style sheets are going to be produced (print, mobile, low vision)? Will the client sign off each template?
Ask the Expert: Ian Forrester on video formats
Ian Forrester from BBC backstage and the Geek Dinners joins us to talk about online video. He talks through the different formats available (quicktime, real player, windows media and flash) as well as the different delivery mechanisms (steaming, download and progressive download).
Producing a podcast
Probably the most common question I get asked is how I go about producing Boagworld. That is why in this week’s show we combine the review and agony uncle sections to talk about the whole area of podcasting.
I share some thoughts on creating the right format as well as reviewing a range of podcasting tools including:
- The Samson CO1U microphone
- Hot Recorder
- PrettyMay
- Pamela
- Propaganda
- Audacity
- Adobe Audition
- Sound Forge
- Libsyn
- FeedForAll
- Feedburner
10 Comments
Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email
hey guys. i just downloaded the episode via itunes and it seems to be an incomplete one (lasts 48:36 and ends in the middle of the audio-recording-software subject). how come ? is just my problem ?
The problem might just be from your end as I have it on my system for 58:37.
There was a 10 minute period when an incomplete version of the podcast was uploaded. Try deleting it and downloading it againm.
I like your podcast so take this as a usability suggestion, not a criticism. I have yet to listen through to the end of a podcast. There’s just too much rambling to wade through to get at the informative bits. I like the chattiness but I don’t have an hour to listen to it all.
Is there any chance you can release a condensed version of the podcast along with the full version?
Paul, you mentioned looking for a new jingle to start off your podcasts. I’ve written one that might work for you (if you want to hang on your techno theme). How could I send you a copy to listen to? If you follow my link above, it will take you a low quality version of song hosted by purevolume. Let me know if you’re interested or you’d like to hear more!
@cmj… unfortunately for every email we get complaining about the waffle we get 20 praising it which means it will definately stay. Unfortunately I dont have the time to do a second version and to be honest I dont think there is a big enough audience to justify it.
@Bryce…. we are not going to change the boagworld theme unless Marcus writes something. As for the .net show, we are intending to run a competition at some point in the future.
Paul and Marcus, I love the waffling along with the great info. Don’t change, please! If I just wanted the facts, I’d read a book. The waffling makes it fun while getting to learn something. I like the 45-60 minutes because I have a 35 minute commute to work and I don’t have to worry about fiddling with my iPod because the podcast is too short. 50 minutes is a good target to do, as you do, in my opinion. Keep up the great work. You are both appreciated very much.
1) After creating your MP3 file for a podcast, you should also edit the id3 tags inside the file, which contain the “metadata” such as the podcast title, year, author, and even a graphic (for your logo). Most MP3 players allow you to edit this.
2) I just started using Pamela and I’d also recommend it.
3) About the intro jingle, I like it, but could be a little shorter (closing in on a minute).
Great podcast. I like it ;) And i download the episode via itunes. it very great this program. Thanks fo sharing this usefully article.
Thanks for the posting. Really interesting stuff. Many thanks for it from Germany