Nov 15 2007 9:11AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
Web 2.0,
podcast,
fun,
video,
new media,
blog,
culture,
free,
feeds,
social publishing,
downloads,
IPTV,
community,
interactive media,
buzz,
humor,
Dell,
geek
Thank to its ubiquitous advertising spots on BoingBoingTV, I’ve discovered the IT Room. Clearly, I’m part of the target audience of this new take on tech support humor, ’cause I found the trailers and initial 4:22 minute webisode (embedded below) hilarious.
Download link
If you like it, you can watch it online or subscribe with iTunes or RSS – or even via email. Folks, we’ve left the old ways of watching TV in our living rooms at a set time far, far behind.
The IT Room has ambitions to be more than just a series of webisodes created by Motiv Studios, written by a group of writers in a snark-laden conference room. The producers want the audience of IT geeks (and perhaps a few end users) to submit their own IT horror stories, which they can then use to create further episodes.
Is it a way of dodging the ongoing writer’s strike? Perhaps. We’ve had some luck with getting users to submit their own IT bloopers in the past, though we haven’t assembled a crack comedy team to make them into video shorts quite yet. The monkey promises to give the best written IT horror story a Dell Latitude, so there’s some extra incentive in there, too. The site gathers submissions in a transparent and decidedly techie way — you contribute the story as a blog post, visible to all.
Cleverly, there’s a Digg button next to each post, a move that the rather more old media Wall Street Journal just made as well, leading to wide spread speculation that Murdoch might be interested in acquiring the social news site. (That move also allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed of all of the WSJ’s content on Digg– neat!)
The cynic in me notes that Motiv works on marketing programs for Dell, though this is obviously more than just extended commercials. There’s no Dude getting me a Dell (instead, he’s offering me a pint), happily, but until I see a battery meltdown or a frustrating tech support mobisode focused on relentlessly calm Indian associates offering scripted responses, I’ll be a tad suspicious…. even as I snarf my coffee a bit when I tune in.
Jun 25 2007 1:47PM GMT
Posted by: Dennis Shiao
podcast,
college,
MP3,
downloads,
gadgets,
tutorial
OK, so I lied - I didn’t ace my SAT exam. However, if I grew up as part of the iPod Generation, it may have turned out differently. The New York Times has an interesting article today about Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions’ release of three interactive programs for the video iPod (and available at iTunes).
The next time you’re riding the train and see impressionable teens bobbing their heads, it may not be the beat of Jessica Simpson, but rather a mathematical stumper that they’ve just solved. As the article notes, the exam is still a “pencil and paper” format; however, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this exam move to a digital format in the near future.
I’ll be interested to see the popularity of these Kaplan downloads, especially compared to all of the entertainment options that teens have these days. As for me, I hereby return to my own iPod, where I’ve got podcasts loaded up from some technology sites, along with my current favorite - numerous podcasts from ESPN Radio.
Apr 11 2007 10:35AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
Microsoft,
Web 2.0,
podcast,
software,
video,
blog,
collaboration,
Development,
forum,
wiki,
screencast,
IPTV,
feedback,
conversation
Channel 9 is a discussion forum used to promote conversations among Microsoft’s customers, hosted by Microsoft, featuring video interviews with developers, podcasts, forums and a wiki. More than twenty different podcasts and IPTV shows are available for download and subscription as well.
According to the first video ever posted on the site, the name “Channel 9″ was chosen after the on-board channel #9 on airplanes. When the flight crew turns on Channel 9, passengers can listen to cockpit conversations. The metaphor makes sense in describing a forum between developers and users — and both the site and the name stuck. Microsoft’s application development teams use Channel 9 as a platform for aggregating user feedback and responding to it, publishing production notes and occasionally posting quirky videos like a “Hitchhiker’s Guide to Microsoft.” You can learn more about the story of Channel 9 by watching this video or reading the Channel 9 Doctrine.
