Podcasting -- Thing 20

Podcasting, and vodcasting, are widely available and are often the "means of choice" for sharing information and training workshops. For this "thing", I tried three different audios. I listened to a portion of a book at nancykeane.com. This was very high quality, by a professional reader. I also listened to a podcast from the Denver Public Library. I would rate it as middle of the road: it would have benefited from a more animated vocal. Without a visual component, the vocal becomes extremely important. The sound was clear (without any background noise). Lastly I tried the teen poetry contest from the Woodcrest branch of Los Angeles Public Library. Again the sound was clear. Because these are amateurs, the quality varies with each person, but the enthusiasm was obvious. Maybe there is an opportunity for our library to podcast the youth poetry and/or storytelling auditions.

Hulu -- Thing 19

While Hulu has a lot to offer, viewing on a computer may not be appealing to many users. Yes, you can hook your computer up to a different monitor to get the "big screen" effect, but many will not. Also, having to contend with commercials is not very appealing, but is not much different that a video DVD (especially if you select to view all the commercials up front). So that's the down side. The up side is the extensive library of offerings, and the instant availablility -- no "it's checked out by someone else", no damaged media, and no losses.

In the future, it would be great if subscriptions to series or genres were offered, and patrons could download (like they do with ebooks). That might be the answer to the endless issue of providing everyone's favorite TV series on DVD.

Hulu's advertising revenue is growing by leaps and bounds, indicating that it is a big success -- and is recognized as such by companies marketing their products. And, as you see in the news, Netflix is stiff competition for Blockbuster

To revisit a prior "thing" on cloud computing, I saw recently that Office 2010 is supposed to be available from the cloud; i.e., you would download and use only the relevant parts. I am not sure how the licensing will work, but sounds like a good concept.