When we were brainstorming the idea of the show, one cool idea we had was the notion of a listening party. It could work a little like this:
We release a show, as usual.
At a set time that day people can connect to a webpage with an embedded YouTube stream that streams the latest episode in full.
There is also an embedded IRC channel (that connects to #badvoltage on Freenode) so people can share their thoughts and opinions as the show is played.
This could be a fun way to listen together, share thoughts and perspectives etc…
We really want to grow an awesome community around the show, so I wanted to throw this idea out to see if this is something that someone would be interested in organizing, if there is interest?
Or you could stream it live and we join this. You could use a google hangout or build your own infrastructure. German podcats for example use the Xenim. ReLive shows have only one feature, the hosts can better join the discussion.
We covered this on the most recent show, but we won’t be doing a live version of the show online (maybe live at an event someday though )
The reason is that production quality is really important to us. Today we can assure a high-level of production values with an audio show, and I think it is reflected in each show. If we were to do a hangout, the production quality would go right down - just look at existing hangout-based shows to see what I mean - the audio/video quality is not very good, there isn’t much editing, the content is not so tight etc. To get the same level of production quality would require a huge investment in equipment, editing, bandwidth, and time.
As I said in the show too, I think there is also a certain magic or romanticism with radio too…just hearing the voices of the presenters provides a bit more of an aura when listening to the show.
So, a live show is unlikely, but I still think the premise of getting people together to enjoy the show when it is released seems fun to me, hence the idea of the listening party.
Sounds good to me I often watch or listen to other podcasts that use a chat room though those are live broadcasts but I don’t see any reason that doing it with a prerecorded show would make any real difference at least as long as the show’s cast was involved with the chat.
I secound this, I normaly download with GPodder, listen while I do other stuff. Hanging out in a Chatroom during the show and talking to the guys on air is well and good (when I remember when there doing it live) but to listen to a pre-recorded podcast with just listeners I can’t see working to well. If say the hosts where in the channel too activaly chatting with the listeners I could get into that.
I think some of the hosts would definitely show up; I would, and I suspect @sil would too (depending on the times obviously).
I just think it could be fun to have a page at party.badvoltage.org or something with an embedded G+ Hangout On Air that streams to YouTube that just plays the most recent show.
Underneathe the stream we would then have an embedded IRC channel that links to #badvoltage and an embedded tweet stream (and maybe even a live stream where people can post related bookmarks and other interesting resources. This would then make the listening party a cool place to share related content.
Something like that might work. I think a lot of it would depend on hosts activity in said channel. My self I hate web front ends to IRC. So I can go in via X-chat, and shrink the web page down to the player and do other things when it slows. If I know hosts are there chatting too, I would be more tempted to be there for it. If they wouldnt be I cant really see a reason for me to go there to listen to a podcast with other listers at the same time.
Another idea, just occured to me, might be instead of a G+ hang out since the hosts are all for Audio only may be an Ice cast server or streaming audio. Theres a Open source Airplay I think its name is, plug it into a streaming server, and you can set up what plays when, put in some creative commons music before and after and run say reacent podcasts in off times. Like 'Come join us Every X-day at 5 GST when we release the podcast, and join us in channel. Go there link up streaming audio from the ice cast and a party.
Use a web plug in for the audio streaming, and IRC channel, and on the irc server put the link to the streaming server, for thoes who dont want to have a web page open for it. Thus two sides are happy. But I think the key thing to this is host involvement. Otherwise I can’t see it drawing people in. Just my thoughts on it.
I think we would want to keep the sysadmin requirements to a minimum at first. This is why I was thinking this could be a cool thing for our community to organize so they can dedicate more time to it.
I think the best thing is for us to trial a listening party and see how it goes. I think we should do one for not this weeks episode, but the next one.
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