LISNews: Librarian Blog Since 1999

Four years of podcasting with LISNews.org has been interesting. The statistics make things even more interesting. Sadly, I do not have a complete set of data points. Those that I do have worry me.

Location is key. When it comes to covering the Library & Information Science world, our main focus is not geography but instead topical matters. Based upon what data I can derive from FeedBurner's limited statistics, we may cover the right topical matters but hit all the wrong areas of geographical coverage.

From the limited geographical data I have, the bulk of listeners to LISTen: An LISNews.org Program happen to be located in places like the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada. US listenership actually comes in a bit lower than would be expected. This may also reflect regional preferences in how you subscribe to podcast content since the FeedBurner link is but one way to subscribe. We simply lack data for some means of subscribing to the podcast.

What can I do with having primarily a foreign audience while the content is primarily produced with a domestic US focus? Some changes in content focus may be necessary perhaps. The big problem with that is that we have virtually no budget and are tethered to the south shores of Lake Erie in a township called Ashtabula. We really do not have the assets in place to cover stories in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada. Expansion of assets would otherwise be necessary and we do not have a way to do so quite just yet.

The fifth year of the program is now underway. I want to make changes this year. A big one would be to secure funding for shortwave distribution. With the lessons of this year in terms of how fragile the Internet is, having a backup is important. Considering how much of the listenership is located outside North America, such would be a viable backup that would also skirt around national blacklists and firewalls.

Getting the resources to cover foreign stories is an even harder thing than simply buying blocks of airtime with money we don't have. Foreign collaborators would be necessary. Without any way to compensate them it is kinda hard to recruit such people. Indigenous correspondents would allow for better coverage anyhow compared to trying to secure a travel budget and visa clearances for international travel. We could previously handle this sort of thing through judicious use of Skype but with as unreliable as Time Warner Cable has been locally we cannot go with that option.

These speed results help illuminate what we are paying USD$39.95 to get:

The easy part is knowing what you want to do. The hard part is finding the resources to bring such to fruition. The search for resources is the big challenge for year five, it seems.

Demographic Rambling by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at erielookingproductions.info.
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This week's episode is somewhat light but, then again, we did some technical experimentation. See below:

The traditional audio episode is still posted, too.

Related links:
10 years ago today BBCWS dropped SW to N America
China Radio International now on your local AM station
Former Bulgarian foreign minister calls for 'EU WiFi paradise
Web censorship moves West: While few may object to blocking access to child pornography, online restrictions set dangerous precedent.

Excluding United States Government content incorporated herein, LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #160 by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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This week's episode is brief due to cascading countervailing requirements.

Related links:

Kindle, Nook, Other E-Readers Wrecking Publishing Industry: Report - Desktops and Notebooks - News & Reviews - eWeek.com - e...

Apple comments on iPhone location storm, software update soon

Facebook shoots first, ignores questions later; account lock-out attack works (Update VIII)

The PhD problem: are we giving out too many degrees?

Extending WiFi to one mile, thanks to empty TV channels

How do you use 1Gbps Internet links? Chattanooga residents find out

Money flowing into "open courseware" on college campuses

Amazon gets 'F' for communication amidst cloud outage

Five amazing computers for under £100

Did PlayStation Network hackers plan supercomputer botnet?

Bike Messengers Pedal Past Bandwidth in Data Race | Raw File | Wired.com

The Volokh Conspiracy » Ninth Circuit Holds That Violating Any Employer Restriction on Computer Use “Exceeds Authorized Access” (Making It a Federal Crime)

Superman threatens to renounce US citizenship - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Attackers Can Use IPv6 to Launch Man-in-the-Middle Attacks - Security - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust - Russia and former Soviet Union - Russia could propose Internet copyright regulation idea - president

Reform the PhD system or close it down : Nature News

In defense of military science fiction | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics

Raymund Paredes: $10,000 Degrees "Entirely Feasible" — Higher Education | The Texas Tribune

Why You Should Think Twice About Opting-In to the Delicious-AVOS Transfer | ZDNet

Sony apologizes for data breach but can't rule out credit card data theft | World | Deutsche Welle | 01.05.2011

BBC News - Sony to resume some PlayStation gaming services

Gas prices keep rising

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #151 by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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From this week's script:

To you, dear listeners, this has some impact. The first is that any read counts on the site for any particular post should be regarded as utterly fictitious. The second is that you really should be using the FeedBurner target for the podcast rather than subscribing directly to the LISNews PHP-generated feed. The third is that our presence in the iTunes Music Store is a bit off-kilter for now and the downloading of individual episodes through that source is not recommended.

That whole discussion of the weirdness on LISNews over the past week as well as an expansive news round-up can be found in this week's episode.

Related links:
LISNews Netcast Network on gpodder.net
An example of illegal narcotics becoming a cash crop
Associated Press on current economic woes
Deutsche Welle on gender imbalance in Wikipedia editor stats
Monty The Dog
Greenstone 2.84 released
Ann Althouse on the New York Times paywall
Teleread on per capita distribution of ebook reading
Ars Technica on Google's +1 vote up search ranking system
CNET's Caroline McCarthy on Google's +1 vote up search ranking system
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals on their awards nominees in the realm of children's books
Evan Prodromou on the launch of Freelish.us
Ars Technica on data caps becoming a problem in Canada for Netflix
Ars Technica on the reduction in wireline broadband bandwidth caps that resulted in Netflix problems
John C. Dvorak on the Internet being the new opiate of the masses

LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast -- Episode #148 by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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