September 05, 2006

Go Back to School...For Free

Today is "Back to School" day for millions of people. So to celebrate (OK, we realize that many of you probably aren't celebrating...) we've put together a special section on our site stocked with all sorts of free audio and video resources in subjects ranging from American Lit and Astronomy to Physics and Psychology. Whether you're in school and looking to brush up or out of school and looking to get a little free learning in on the side you'll find tons of great stuff here.

For the complete list of our new "101 Pages", click this link. Otherwise if you're looking for some free stuff just follow the linkies below...

American Lit 101

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Classic Books Alive Podcast
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Jay Gatsby and the Myth of American Origins
Song of Myself Selections
Allen Ginsberg Poetry Readings
The Waste Land
Walden

Art History 101

Kandinsky
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Special Exhibition Podcast
Museum of Modern Art Podcast

Astronomy 101

The Birth and Death of Stars
NASA Astrobiology Magazine Podcast
New Frontiers in Astronomy
Planetary Radio Podcast
Space Exploration: The Next 100 Years

Business 101

A Conversation with Jack Welch
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Podcast
John Bogle - The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
Knowledge@Wharton Audio Articles Podcast
Venture Voice Podcast

Creative Writing 101

KPFA's Cover to Cover with Denny Smithson Podcast
NPR: Books Podcast
Stanford University: Books & Authors
Writing Show Podcast

Economics 101

Economic Analysis - Microeconomics Podcast

The Emergence of China in the Global Economy
The End of Poverty
Ludwig Mises: Mises Institute Lectures
Radio Economics Podcast

English Lit 101

Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
The Time Machine
Macbeth
A Christmas Carol
The Happy Prince
Robinson Crusoe
Lewis & Tolkien

French 101

Easy French Poetry Podcast
French for Beginners Podcast
The FrenchPodClass Podcast
Learn French by Podcast

History 101

European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present Podcast
History According to Bob Podcast
Ideas Lecture: Jared Diamond
Napoleon 101 Podcast

Italian 101

LearnItalianPod.com Podcast
Let's Speak Italian Podcast

Law 101

Georgetown Law - Podcasts
Conversations in Law Podcast
The Law
The Law Report Podcast
Copyright Controversies
Free Culture
The Oyez Supreme Court Podcast

Medical 101

DNA and the Brain - Dr. James Watson speaks at Google
FDA's Strategies for Improving Health Care
Instant Anatomy Podcast
Introduction to Human Nutrition Podcast
NEJM This Week Podcast
Sound Medicine Podcast

Philosophy 101

Zaadz Notes: Marcus Aurelius
The Apology of Socrates
Existentialism in Literature and Film Podcast
The Philosopher's Zone Podcast
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Walden

Physics 101

Descriptive Introduction to Physics Podcast
Einstein's Miraculous Year
Introductory Physics Podcast
New Queries
Quirks and Quarks from CBC Radio Podcast

Poli Sci 101

The Law
Civil Disobedience
Common Sense
Popular Government
The Role of Government in our Society
Speeches Free Audio & Video
Constitutional Conversations Podcast
The Founding Documents Podcast
Undergraduate Colloquium on Political Science Podcast
The Communist Manifesto

Psychology 101

Clinical Psychology Podcast
All In the Mind Podcast
Evil, the Self and Survival, with Robert Jay Lifton
Shrink Rap Radio - A Psychology Talk and Interview Podcast
Ten Days in a Madhouse
Architecture of the Brain

Spanish 101

Insta Spanish Podcast
Rolling R's: Free Spanish Lesson Video Podcast
Trying To Learn Spanish Podcast

U.S. History 101

Constitutional Conversations Podcast
The Founding Documents Podcast
The Gettysburg Address
In Depth: H.W. Brands
World War II Audio: 1941-1944

World Religions 101

Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason - PBS Podcast
Crash Course on Jewish History
The Nature of Islam
Zencast Podcast

Happy "studying" from all of us at LearnOutLoud!

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

August 31, 2006

Free Resource Highlights: Week 3

We've been sending out our "Free Resource of the Day Email" for a number of months now, and we want to share some of the free audio & video titles from past weeks that we have offered. Here are the free resources from Week 2:

Tragically Hips
Winter Session
Yoga Quickie

Time to do some yoga! You've no doubt heard how good yoga is for your body and it's a great way to get yourself more in balance mentally and emotionally. Vancouver Yoga has a series of yoga classes online for free. If you haven't done yoga before you may want to take a class or buy a book as audio alone is a tough way to learn. But if you are familiar with the poses you'll definitely want to check these out.

The Law

Frederic Bastiat's "The Law" produced by FreeAudio.org is one of the best free audio books available. Bastiat's brief treatise on law is a passionate cry for his belief that law should only be put in place to maintain life, liberty, and property. He denounces legislators and philosophers who seek legalized plunder, moral coercion, and numerous other methods of force through law which encroach on liberties. The production quality is professional and Marvin Payne's narration is superb. You can download this title through LearnOutLoud.com on MP3 or MPEG-4 (if you want to bookmark it in your iPod).

Harvard University Commencement Address

Last Monday was Stanford and this Monday is Harvard. This is a free speech that is not to be missed. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian author of the The Gulag Archipelago) delivered the Harvard University Commencement Address in 1978. While in exile from the Soviet Union, he spent a number of years in the United States and this address is his analysis of the Western predicament.

In this comprehensive one hour speech he discusses Western politics, the media, our role in Vietnam, the lack of courage in leadership, Soviet communism, commercialism and materialism, and the spiritual state of Western man. Most of Solzhenitsyn's criticisms still hold true today. He delivers the speech in Russian and it is simultaneously translated into English. This speech is offered by American Rhetoric and you can download the speech on MP3 or listen to it streaming.

SXSW 2006 Interactive Panel Podcasts

Every spring thousands of people descend on Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and conference. It's a really cool mix of movies, music and technology and brings a lot of movers and shakers to the area to talk about what's on the horizon. This year's keynotes featured luminaries such as Bruce Sterling, Craig Newmark (of Craig's List fame), Heather Armstrong and Jason Kottke. If you didn't have a chance to attend this year's SXSW festival and want to see what all the buzz is about click on the link for free audio from the keynotes.

For more free resources like this, you can receive our "Free Resource of the Day Email" by entering your Email address into the box below, clicking Subscribe, and then checking the "Free Resource of the Day E-mail" check box in the pop up. If you're already a subscriber to our newsletter you'll be sent an email to change your preferences to include the "Free Resource of the Day E-mail".

Sign up for our "Free Resource of the Day Email" to be notified of free audio & video learning titles. Your E-Mail: We value your privacy

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

August 06, 2006

The 6 Best Ways to Learn Physics...for Free

I was listening to an excellent audiobook yesterday called The Wisdom of Huston Smith in which Huston relates a story about a visiting professor (can't recall the name right now) who came and lectured to the physics department at the university he was teaching at and spent the entire time presenting on philosophy rather than physics. He was asked why he didn't talk about physics with the physics department and his answer was interesting.

I don't draw any distinctions between physics and philosophy.

This has gotten me thinking that I need to study physics a bit more. So to help me (and you!) get started I've compiled six excellent ways to learn physics. The best part...all of these resources are free. Enjoy!

1. The PBS Series The Elegant Universe - I watched this one a while ago on Netflix and it's really cool. What's even cooler is that you can watch the entire three hours of it at the PBS website for free. The Elegant Universe covers a wide range of topics and goes particularly in-depth on string theory. It's very entertaining and you'll learn a ton by watching this.

2. Imagining the Tenth Dimension - A buddy pointed me to this recently and it's a great introduction to the string theory notion of ten spatial dimensions. I was introduced to this in the Elegant Universe and while I'm getting a better handle on it I'm still a little lost when we get outside of the three/four dimensions that most people readily understand. This flash-based presentation is very well-done and a great complement to a watching of The Elegant Universe.

3. Free Physics Video Lectures - In our free directory we've compiled over two dozen free audio and video physics lectures. Here are some of the highlights:

Richard Feynman lectures from the Vega Science Trust - Four video lectures from world-renowned physicist Richard P. Feynman
Einstein's Miraculous Year - Two free lectures from The Teaching Company that celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein's "Miracle Year."
Parts of a Whole - A free lecture with physicist David Bohm who addressed quantum physics from a spiritual perspective.

You can find more lectures like this (including lectures from MIT and the Lannan Foundation) and in the Physics subcategory of our free audio and video directory.

4. Motion Mountain - An amazing free, full-length, professional-quality physics textbook...how cool is that? If you'd rather not part with the $100+ that most physics textbooks cost give this one a shot. This is the real deal too at over 1,300 pages! (Thanks to Wynn @ The Stingy Scholar blog for pointing us to this.)

5. Free Physics Podcasts - Another great way to learn physics is to listen to some of the excellent physics podcasts that are out there. Berkeley has two worth checking out, Descriptive Introduction to Physics and Introductory Physics. NOVA has an "e = mc2" podcast that is also worth checking out (part of their well-done Einstein's Big Idea section).

6. Random Fun Stuff - I'll admit it...sometimes a subject like physics can get a little dry. If you'd like to spice it up a bit check out these fun ways to learn physics below:

The Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics
Super Mario Physics
Interactive Physics Simulations

OK, that should be enough to make your brain hurt for a while. If you know of any other physics resources that we should add to this post or include on our site make a post in our forums. Thanks!

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

April 03, 2006

John Wooden's Legacy

I realize I run the risk of raising the ire of Florida students and alumni but I'll admit that I'll be cheering for the UCLA Bruins in tonight's national championship game. After all, we're located in Los Angeles and I've taken graduate business classes on campus so I'm a quasi-alumnus of the school.

Just as Flordia has a storied tradition in football, UCLA has one in hoops. I find the legacy of John Wooden to be one of the most remarakable in all of pro sports. I had the chance to catch a few of the interviews with UCLA and LSU coaches and players before Saturday's Final Four games and it's amazing how much of the conversation focused on UCLA's past championship teams and its legendary coach despite the fact that we're more than three decades removed from Wooden's last title.

If you're interested in learning more about John Wooden and how his unique philosophy towards basketball and life has inspired so many people, I'd encourage you to check out some of the Wooden-related titles we have here on LearnOutLoud:

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court - A great audiobook narrated by Beau Bridges.

John Wooden: Values, Victory, and Peace of Mind - A DVD that gives an overview of Wooden's philosophy.

Powertalk interview with Tony Robbins - An interview of Coach Wooden conducted by Tony Robbins.

It'll be a fun game to watch tonight and regardless of who wins both teams have had amazing seasons and should be proud of how far they've gotten.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

March 17, 2006

Why Just Audio and Video?

One of the common questions we get here at LearnOutLoud is "Why do you just have audio and video on the site?" We'll get asked why we don't have book, e-books or other printed material. I guess what it boils down to is this.

We want to be the central place that you come to when you want to learn and you don't want to (or can't) read.

Let me explain that a little more fully. There's obviously a ton of stuff you can read out there to learn just about anything you want to . With all of the blogs, wikis, books, magazines, newspapers, etc. most of us find ourselves overwhelmed with more stuff to read than time in the day. Just think about how many unread books and magazines you have at home. How many unread e-mails sit in your Inbox (and if you've got a lot of those you really should try GTD). Or if you're reading blog through a blog reader you've likely got a backlog there too. It just seems like there will always be a surplus of printed material to read in relation to the amount of time in the day in which to consume this stuff.

And that's where my attention turns to audio and video.

You see there are a lot of times during the day in which we can't read or don't want to. Here are just a few of the ones that occur to me off the top of my head:

1. While driving - Please don't read while doing this...
2. While exercising - Again, usually not very conducive to reading.
3. While doing the dishes or cleaning up around the house - Ditto.
4. When your eyes are tired - Lots of time on a computer usually leads to eye fatigue. While you might not be up for reading you can definitely listen or watch something.

Audio and video comes in handy for all of these. You can listen to stuff while you're doing #1-#3 and when you want to take a break from reading (such as with #4) you can watch something.

Now here's what I get fired up about audio and video education.

For the last several decades if someone was going to listen to something while driving, exercising, etc. it was usually the radio and if they were going to watch something it was the television. Now, I'm not one to see that all commercial radio or broadcast television is crap. Just that most of it is...at least if you're interested in actually learning something.

That's where this whole learning out loud thing comes into play. Shift from listening to the radio while commuting to some high-quality educational/inspirational material and see what a difference it makes. Sure you can start your day listening to the news (a.k.a. stories about war and crime) but what kind of a change would happen in the world if we instead started listening to speeches by Gandhi or MLK, immersed ourselves in some Plato or biographies of Presidents or spent a little time learning a foreign language? Maybe I'm a dreamer but I do think it would make a HUGE difference. (And as far as being a dreamer...while I know I'm not the only one.)

And video? Well it seems every day we draw closer to the end of broadcast television and the increasingly garish commercial upon which the entire industry is based. Innovations like IPTV and sites like YouTube (probably the fastest-growing site on the Net right now) are going to change the way people watch stuff. Here again, is a golden opportunity for an educational revolution. A chance for us to slide our viewing habits from the trivial and inane to the substantial and potentially life-changing. To switch away from the dumbed-down soap opera or sitcom and towards stuff like Teaching Company courses, MIT lectures and wisdom from places like Integral Naked and WIE Unbound. Can you imagine the change that would happen if people curled up on their couch to this sort of stuff every night?

The fact of the matter is that there's a time and place for everything. Yes, there are times when we just need to turn the brain totally off. But I'd love nothing less than to see that become the exception for our listening and viewing habits rather than the norm.

Just as we wouldn't expect to consume a steady diet of junk food and the occasional salad and expect to be physically healthy we shouldn't expect to consume a steady diet of mind-numbing radio and TV and expect to be in tip-top shape intellectually. Make a move to shift the balance. If 90% of the stuff you watch and listen to is pure entertainment and 10% is educational see if you can't get to 50/50.
Your brain will thank you for it.

And so that's what we're all about here at LearnOutLoud. We want to give you a bunch of stuff so that when you do decide to get your learn on and want some audio or video you'll have plenty of options (10,000+ at last count) with which to do so. Just keep telling us how we can better do that and we'll do our darnedest to make sure we're serving your needs.

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for checking out the blog and visiting the site!

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

March 05, 2006

World Economic Forum Podcast and Webcast

Another cool offering: The World Economic Forum that happened in January in Davos, Switzerland is available to watch or listen to online. Some of the people who spoke or were panel members include:

Larry Summers
Michael Dell
Bono
Thomas Friedman
Bill Gates
Bill Clinton

Some heavy hitters huh? Kind of like an international version of the TED Conference.

One of the best things about the Forum is that the audio and video downloads are being made possible by an innovative new company called Red Swoosh. The company has an application that offers legal P2P services to media companies and organizations. I had a chance to chat with the founder Travis Kalanick today at BarCampLosAngeles and see him do a demo. I was very impressed with the technology. You'll be hearing a lot more about his company in the future.

If you're looking to feed your head with some good stuff head on over to the World Economic Forum website, download the Red Swoosh client and check out some good stuff.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

February 23, 2006

Giving You Your Daily Dose of Education...Free!

In the last few months our Free Audio and Video Directory has become a very popular destination. As of this writing we've got 642 free audio and video titles up there and we're adding many more each week. We wanted to figure out a way that we can notify y'all when we post new titles that might be of interest and also highlight some of the best ones so that you don't need to spend all day combing through all of them.

To do this we're launching a new newsletter, the Free Resource of the Day newsletter. Each day during the week (starting March 1st) we'll mail you out a link for a free audio or video learning resource that we think is really cool. A lot of them will be in our directory but many of them will be new ones you might not have seen. And some will be exclusive ones that you'll only be able to get wind of via the newsletter.

This is a great way to start your day. Imagine waking up to a speech by Christopher Reeve or ending your week with a free audio book like Thus Spoke Zarathustra to enjoy all weekend long. Cool huh?

To subscribe to our new Resource of the Day newsletter just go to the link below and enter your e-mail address. Check the box for "Free Resource of the Day E-mail" and you're all set. As with our other newsletter we'll never rent or share your name and you can easily unsubscribe at any time. So go ahead and click the link below and get your Learn Out Loud on, every day of week!

Free Resource of the Day E-mail

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

February 22, 2006

Recommendations Alchemy

This is really cool.

Last week we went live with our new recommendations engine powered by the wonderful folks over at Loomia. Our recommendations engine works similar to the ones at Amazon and Netflix in that you will be recommended titles based on how you've previously rated titles here at LearnOutLoud.com. The more titles you rate the better your recommendations will get.

Here's something sweet. This is the only recommendations engine on the web that allows you to rate audio books, podcasts and video and receive recommendations in each of those areas. Throw in a couple of ratings for some audio books you've listened to and you might get a great suggestion for a new podcast to listen to. Rate a DVD like Citizen King high and you might be recommended Beyond Vietnam, a free title available from American Rhetoric. The possibilities are limitless.

The first night I tried it out I was expecting much. After all we really don't have all that much data in the system yet (only a few thousand ratings which isn't a lot). But what I got back was pretty cool. One of the titles I'm planning to listen to next is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Sure enough, there it was in my recommendations. Out of the 10,000+ titles on our site this was one of the few recommended to me. Awesome.

Now that might be coincidence but I do know that in the few days I've been using this I've gotten some great suggestions. My "Wish List" is growing larger by the day. So I'd definitely encourage you to give it a spin. If you haven't rated very many titles your recommendations might not be all that great. And even if you have it'll probably take a bit more time to get enough data in the system so this thing really hums.

To use the recommendations engine just click on the "Recommendations" link in the upper-right corner of any page on the site (you'll need to be registered and logged in to use this). You'll get a list of your recommendations. If some of the titles on the list are ones you've already listened to then make sure you rate them (that will prevent them from showing up again in the future and will help us further tailor your recommendations).

Feel free to make reply to this post in the forums and let us know how good (or bad) your recommendations were. Then go off and rate a bunch of titles so you can get even better recommendations for the future. Please note that the recommendations don't change in real time so it might take a day or so for you to see the impact in your recommendations listing.

We're pretty excited about the potential for this. A big thanks to the people at Loomia for all the help getting this going on the site and a special shoutout to David and Francis for their help with the integration.

Go check it out and find yourself some new possibilities for Learning Out Loud!

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

February 13, 2006

Can transformation sprout in earbuds?

Great article in today's St. Petersburg Times:

Can transformation sprout in earbuds?

Just when he needed a shot of salvation, Russ Blanchette found God in the strangest of places: a digital music player no bigger than a deck of cards.

"It's really helped deepen my understanding of my faith," says the 38-year-old electronics technician from Litchfield, N.H.

Suffering the strains of a marital separation, this father of three has been spending "about four hours a day" listening to daily devotionals, Bible readings and other spiritual programming on his RCA MP3 player, which can hold thousands of audio files Blanchette has downloaded from the Internet.

Cool.

Thanks to Dan O'Shea for calling this one to our attention.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

February 06, 2006

New Discoveries in New Guinea

It's amazing how the reticular activating system works. Just yesterday I'm watching the excellent National Geographic documentary Guns, Germs and Steel based UCLA professor Dr. Jared Diamond's book of the same name. In it he discusses at length the people of New Guinea and the reasons for their lack of material wealth when compared with those in North America and Europe.

Then today I'm scanning my blogs and see a post from 37signals pointing me too an article in The Independent entitled "Scientists hail discovery of hundreds of new species in remote New Guinea" with the following quote:

An astonishing mist-shrouded “lost world” of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international team of scientists… The scientists are the first outsiders to see it. They could only reach the remote mountainous area by helicopter, which they described it as akin to finding a “Garden of Eden”… In a jungle camp site, surrounded by giant flowers and unknown plants, the researchers watched rare bowerbirds perform elaborate courtship rituals. The surrounding forest was full of strange mammals, such as tree kangaroos and spiny anteaters, which appeared totally unafraid, suggesting no previous contact with humans.

How cool is that?

I'd highly recommend checking out the documentary or listening to Diamond's book on audio.

What a fascinating world we live in huh?

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 28, 2006

My Goal? To Bring TED to You

Twice a year there's an amazing conference called the TED Conference that takes place. It's an astounding collection of people and speakers. In the past it has featured such speakers as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Frank Gehry, Jane Goodall, Billy Graham. Here's a short introduction. And here's a list of just a few of the people who will be speaking this year:

Nicholas Negroponte - Founder and Director of MIT's Media Lab
Al Gore - Former Vice President
Tony Robbins - Motivational Speaker Extraordinaire
Rick Warren - Author of Mega-Best Seller The Purpose-Driven Life
Bill Joy - Co-Founder of Sun Microsystem

It's an amazing line-up. I love everything about it. And plan to attend one day.

But here's the problem with the TED Conference. They cap registrations for each conference at about 1,000 people and it costs $4,400 to attend. And while I totally understand why it's so expensive and exclusive the fact of the matter is that it leaves the other 6.5 billion of us out in the cold.

What do I propose?

Record the TED conference on digital audio and high-definition video and give it away for free.

Crazy you say? Yup, just crazy enough that it might work. It's one of those ridiculous goals that I think would get a lot of people fired up.

But wouldn't this destroy the market for TED tickets? Nope, it would work just the opposite. The Super Bowl is televised for free. Does that prevent people from paying a ton of money to go to the game? Hardly. Music from the most popular rock stars can be found for free on all the file sharing sites. What's happened to the demand for tickets to rock and roll shows?

Consistently throughout time it's been shown that when you give content that has a corresponding live event the demand for the live event almost always increases. My guess is that if you gave away the audio and video from TED you'd find that you could command $10,000 or more for a ticket due to the increased popularity and buzz that the conference would receive.

And imagine the difference it would make in the world.

Imagine firing up a speech from James Watson (you know, the guy who discovered the structure of DNA) or Craig Venter (the guy who mapped the human genome) on your way into work in the morning. Or sinking into your couch after a long day and watching a presentation from Jimmy Wales (The Founder of Wikipedia), Steven Levitt (Author of Freakonomics) or Bono (actually you can do that last one here). All past TED speakers. All with a mission to push the world forward.

Can you imagine a child in Africa being able to sit down in front of a computer and learning from all these people? Or a person in the midst of sorrow or depression being so inspired by these intellectual and philosphical giants that they decide to change their lives for the better? It's possible. More than that, it's necessary.

We need millions of people tuning into TED in the morning on the way to work instead of Howard Stern.

We need those same people replacing some of their daily diet of mind-numbing television programming with TED or something like it.

TED represents the best of what's out there when it comes to content.

And sadly only 1,000 people will experience that next month.

I want to change that. Help me in my goal to bring TED to the masses. Send an e-mail to tedfeedback@macromedia.com (the only e-mail that I have for them, if you've got a better one let me know!). Join in on a conversation about this over at The Conversations Network or in our forums (link below). Or drop me an e-mail at jon@learnoutloud.com and tell me how you think we can do this.

The impact this could have is tremendous. The technology is ready and willing to make this a reality. The need for this type of infomration to be disseminated to the world is real.

Let's make this happen.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 19, 2006

Our Reason for Being

(Sorry for the blog barrage today...I'm on a roll... :))

This my friends is why we started LearnOutLoud. It's to make this a reality for children around the world (and everyone else too).

(If the movie doesn't play go here.)

How incredibly cool is that?

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 16, 2006

The Dirty Dozen: 12 Predictions for Digital Audio and Video

With 2006 upon everyone is offering their predictions for the year so I figured I would throw my hat in the ring, especially as it comes to the future digital audio and video. Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian over at MarketingOnlineLive.com got me thinking about this yesterday during one of their podcasts and 24 hours later I've got a list of what I think will transpire in the next 12 months. Enjoy!

1. Device convergence will happen more quickly than anyone realizes. When you're walking down the street carrying both a cell phone and iPod (or other mobile player) and you bump into your friend who has a killer cell phone will all the same mobile media functionality as your iPod you're going to want to switch...soon. The number of people who carry a combination cell phone/media player will grow significantly through 2006 and explode in 2007. Here's a recent quote from Sun CEO Scott McNealy, "It's going to be hard to sell a lot of iPods five years from now when every cell phone is going to be able to automatically access your library wherever you are." I don't think that's going to take five years. Verizon has a phone with a 4 Gig chip on the horizon. The convergence trend will happen quickly. And when it does it's likely going to mean...

2. The iPod could become the next TiVo. TiVo is a superior product to any other DVR on the market. It has a great interface and does pretty much everything very well. Yet the general consensus is that unless something changes soon the TiVo will go the way of the dodo bird. The problem? Distribution. Requiring a consumer to buy an extra box and an extra service means asking them to jump through two more hoops than they have to when they get a DVR from their cable company. Apple will face the same challenge with the iPod. As device convergence emerges people will begin to wonder why they need to purchase a separate device and load content on it when they can just do everything through their cell phone. So unless Apple makes significant strides in the mobile phone space their domainance in the mobile media market will quickly fade.

3. Google Video will be bigger than anyone realizes. Google Video appears to be able on the cusp of doing something that no one has really done to date: Allowing individuals a significant opportunity for monetization of video content. Their current video store leaves a lot to be desired but I trust that they will figure this out...after all, they are Google. And when they give people an incentive to produce quality video content and get paid 70 cents on the dollar for their efforts the game changes significantly. They'll be empowering the little guy to sell video content much the same way that a certain little company called eBay empowered the little guy to sell products a decade ago. And we all know how well that worked out for eBay...

4. Satellite video will arrive...courtesy of the satellite radio guys. Two themes seem to be emerging in video: The ability of companies like Google Video and Netflix to meet the demand for long-tail content and the ability of Apple and others to provide space-shifted content (see Prediction #12). Space-shifting allows people to view video content whereever they are. I can watch content on the train on the way to work, when I'm at the gym, at home on my new HD TV (I wish...), etc. Who is best positioned to provide this? It just might be XM and Sirius, the satellite radio companies. Their mobile players offer a ton of potential and Sirius already has announced plans for video in 2006. It's very likely the day will soon come when people consider ditching their cable or DirecTV subs for an XM or Sirius-powered satellite video service.

5. Real Rhapsody for the spoken word will surface. I love Real Rhapsody. And their new Rhapsody-To-Go service is killer and would be a huge hit if only Apple would take down the walled garden and let Real license its DRM. But enough about music...let's talk about the spoken word. It seems to me like a huge opportunity exists to do for the spoken word what Real/Yahoo!/Napster have done for music. Don't limit someone to just a couple of audio books a month (a la Audible.com). Instead give someone the ability to listen to whatever they want, whenever they want. If you're an hour into an audio book and it sucks, fine, just jump to something better. There are a few companies right now vying for the non-Apple/Audible/iPod spoken word throne: Sounds Good, Jiggerbug and Simply Audiobooks. A tremendous opportunity exists for one of them to attempt to create a Rhapsody-like service for audio books. I'd be one of their first subscribers.

6. Audible will hit an unexpected snag with WordCast. Audible recently launched WordCast, their podcasting service to enable advertising and/or premium content. There's just one slight problem. If I'm an author and want to get an audio book up on Audible's website I'm looking at a royalty somewhere in the neighborhood of 15%. But if I take that same audio book and sell it through WordCast (complete with DRM if I wish) my take jumps to 80%. Does something seem strange here? I think at some point there has to be an acknowledgement that all of the "services" that traditional publishers and companies like Audible provide lose a lot of their luster in a world in which it's increasingly easy to go directly to the consumer with your products. Somehow the gap between 15% and 80% will have to close and that could be a bit painful for Audible.

7. Podshow will focus on music and Odeo will focus on personalized communication. The two podcast-related companies that received major chunks of funding in 2005 will find themselves in a bit of a tough spot in 2006. The big boys like iTunes and Yahoo! have the directory game pretty well sown up and the market for podcast production software is becoming increasingly commoditized. But all hope is certainly not lost for these companies. The most sensible thing appears to be for Podshow to focus on the music side of podcasting, the area in which Adam Curry and Ron Bloom have the most knowledge. Becoming anything and everything to musicians looking to market themselves via podcasts seems to offer an incredible opportunity for the company and I hope that's what their focus becomes. As for Odeo, Evan Williams has expressed a desire to be closely involved with facilitating personal communication via RSS. He's a visionary in that regard and to the best of my knowledge, one of the few people talking about it. To the extent that Odeo makes it incredibly easy for people to send and receive podcasts to and from friends and family I think they have a tremendous business. Like Podshow, they'll fail only to the extent that they try to dominate podcasting as a whole rather than focusing on a specific niche of what is rapidly becoming a huge industry.

8. OPML matching will arrive on the scene. This prediction strikes me as somewhat obvious but suprisingly absent from the current dialogue. If you and I each subscribe to 20 podcasts and it just so happens that 17 of them are the same then I want to know the three you've subscribed to that I haven't and you would likely want to know the same thing. I'm not certain but this doesn't seem like rocket science. To the extent that someone launches a service that allows for this and it reaches critical mass you'll have an amazing discovery service for podcasts, something that will become even more important as tens of thousands of new podcasts come online this year. I'm not sure exactly what AmigoFish and Loomia are doing with their recommendation services but if they haven't incorporated OPML matching yet it would be a great idea. And get Netflix to do this for movie queues while you're at it... :)

9. Many "mini" multimedia portals will be launched. Music artists have fans. Many fans will buy whatever the artist is selling (hence, $40 concert T-shirts). Artists set up fan clubs. Fan pay annual fees for "goodies." Everyone is happy. Now why not do this for authors, gurus, etc. Why shouldn't a Tony Robbins or Tom Peters have their own multimedia portal? You could pay $20 a month and have access to exclusive audio and video content, RSS feeds and other stuff that fans of these individuals would eat up. A lot of big names could literally bring on thousands or tens of thousands of subscribers overnight. Do the math and consider that almost all of this revenue falls directly to the bottom line and you can see that we're talking about a huge opportunity here. Companies like iAmplify, What is Enlightenment?, Integral Naked, The Great Lecture Library and many others are already doing something of this nature for collections of content. Multimedia portals around individuals are next.

10. Podcast prioritzation will become a reality. I want to be able to communicate to my media player that I have a 45 minute drive ahead of me and have the media player automatically figure out the best content to deliver to me based on the amount of time I have, the latest content that's been loaded to my player and the preferences that I've given it ahead of time. Sound farfetched? It's not. In fact, Taldia is offering something very close to this right now. The only problem with their system is that they haven't incorporated prioritization into podcast feeds yet, just for the news feeds they offer. If they (or someone else) offers the ability to give me a "custom commute" I'll sign up in a heartbeat. When that happens manually locating which podcasts you've recently put on your iPod, which you've listened to, calculating how much time you have to listen and how long each episode is...all that will seem so 2005.

11. Live event content will start to tap its true potential. Every day, around the U.S. and around the world many thousands of people say things worth listening to in classrooms, seminars, conferences and other forums. A very small percentage of that content is recorded. An even smaller percentage is distributed to a wide audience via the Internet. Why? You tell me. I haven't been able to figure it out yet. If this content wasn't worth listening to or watching people wouldn't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to attend these events. And while there are some benefits of attending a live event there are also some significant drawbacks. I think the market for the recording and distribution of live events is an incredibly huge one and hope that 2006 is the year when many people wake up to this. We're hoping that efforts like Doug Kaye's Conversations Network and our soon-to-be launched LearnDirect service will help provide the match that starts the fire.

12. New words will be coined and gain widespread adoption. This list of predictions wouldn't be complete without a prediction for a few new words that will enter the lexicon in 2006. Here are some that I think will enter the dialogue this year as well as a couple that I'm definitely hoping will. :)

Space-shifting - As previously mentioned, this is the ability of content to be with you whereever you are. To the extent that content can be consumed anywhere it's value increases tremendously. That's incredibly important for those providing content and distribution channels to understand.

Dead-time Learning - Thanks to Paul and Alex who've used this term on their show for a while. Dead-time learning refers to turning time that is normally thought of as intellectually unproductive (e.g., commuting, exercising, etc.) into prime learning time. It's taking your hour commute and using it to learn a new foreign language, study for a certification exam or stay on top of trends in your industry. By doing so you'll free up more time to spend with your friends and family, devote to your hobbies and do the things that you previously thought you didn't have time for.

DRM-free - People already use the term "DRM-free" but I'm hoping/predicting that it will become thought of as more of a feature in 2006. People will start to actively seek out DRM-free sources of content and show an increasing willingness to pay more for content that hasn't had DRM applied to it. It won't be because they're looking to illegally share such content but rather because they want to have the versatility to share content they legally purchased across the increasing number of devices they own.

Learning Out Loud - My wish for 2006 is that people increasingly talk about their desire to "learn out loud" which I define as using audio or video content for personal and professional development. Part of this is a selfish desire as the CEO of LearnOutLoud.com and part of this is (hopefully) a very altruistic desire to see everyone become more educated this year. I truly feel that education represents the rising tide with the potential to lift all boats. And I also feel that in an era of globalization and increasing competition "lifelong learning" becomes less of an option and more of a requirement if you want to stay ahead of the curve and possibly even keep your job.

So we'll see how this all shakes out. At the end of the day I'm more excited than 2006 than I've ever been excited about an upcoming year and many of the people I've talked to lately have expressed the same sense of hope and optimism. There are so many cool technologies coming down the pipe and the opportunity to effect positive and lasting change in the world is more real than it's ever been.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 13, 2006

MLK Out Loud

When people ask me "Why audiobooks?" there are a few common responses that I'll give. It's a great alternative or supplement to reading. You can listen while you're driving or at the gym. Sometimes it's easier to remember what you hear than what you read. But there's one another one that's really powerful:

Some listening experiences just can't be duplicated in print.

Probably the best example I can give of this is listening to A Knock at Midnight, an outstanding collection of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermons. I mean I guess you could read these but I doubt that it would move you the way listening to King himself preach would. When I flip this on my iPod (something I find myself increasingly doing) I almost immediately get goosebumps. I'm not sure quite what it is about King's preaching that does that to me.

As most of you here in the United States know, Monday is Martin Luther King Day. For many people it's just another freebie holiday that they probably won't think twice about. And that's a shame. Because it's an awesome opportunity to learn more about an amazing man who has done so much in the struggle for justice and equality here in the U.S. and around the world.

Today David put the finishing touches on MLK Out Loud, an attempt on our part to bring together all of the audio and video content from or about King that we could find. There is a ton of great stuff linked from the page including biographies, documentaries, collections of sermons and of course King's stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. We've tried to find as many free audio and video resources as we could too knowing that there are a lot of teachers who would love to use them to relay the power of King's message to their classes.

I wanted to say a special thank you to American Rhetoric which hosts several of King's speeches for free. If you have a minute, drop Michael Eidenmuller who runs the site a quick line and tell him thanks.

In the "I Have a Dream" speech King talks about a faith that he has. In his words:

With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

It's a faith we need more of in this day and age when King's message of brotherhood is as relevant as it has ever been.

Take some time this long holiday weekend to listen to one of his King's speeches or order one of his audio books. It's a great way to celebrate his legacy and a powerful way to learn more about the man who has touched so many lives.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 06, 2006

Peaceful Warrior The Movie

I had the distinct privilege of being invited to attend an advance screening of the new movie Peaceful Warrior which is based on Dan Millman's book Way of The Peaceful Warrior. The movie comes out in June and you'll definitely want to check it out. It's both a touching story and very thought-provoking. And I would highly recommend reading the book or listening to the audio book beforehand. As with any movie a lot gets left out but I thought they did do a pretty good job in sticking to the theme of the book.

If you're interesting in catching a little of Dan's work for free you can take a listen to the Dan Millman Podcast which we host on LearnOutLoud. We've only got one episode currently up but more will be on the way soon.

Thanks to Dan for the invite and kudos to him and everyone at Lion's Gate for their work on the film. It may or may not be the next Hollywood blockbuster but the inspiration it will provide for many will far outweigh any dollar figures.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 04, 2006

Five Things That Make It Easy To Get Up In the Morning

Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

It's a question worth asking often. Last night I was reading a quote I have on the wall at home. It's from a commencement address that Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave to Stanford students last June.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

The answer for me is "Yes" and I thought I'd share with you five reason why. Five reasons for being (I thought I'd dress it up with a bit of French). Bear with me. I think you'll see my point by the end. :)

Raison d'etre #1 - I want to learn from the world. Today, around the world, there are thousands of people teaching. Scratch that. There are millions of people teaching. I want to learn from them. I don't want to be limited to learning from the minute percentage that broadcast media gives to us. The few talking heads that say the same things in the same way. That doesn't do it for me.

Tomorrow somewhere someone will give a talk on some niche topic within the world of search engine optimization (or any of thousands of other subjects, take your pick. This person will know more than 99.99999% of the planet on the subject. His talk may reach 30 or even 300 people. Yet there are thousands of people around the world who could benefit from that talk. How do we enable that?

That's my raison d'etre #1.

Raison d'etre #2 - I want to teach the world. Maybe I have a message. Maybe I'm an expert in a particular area. Maybe the words that I spoke two days ago or two hours ago could add value to someone's life. Maybe I'm that guy or gal teaching that search engine class. Why should I have to limit my message to just the people in the room at the time of the class. In this era of technology and new media that makes no sense.

There's a reason why college professors are relatively underpaid (IMHO). It's because of leverage. Professors typically only reach a few dozen people at one time. They could be reaching hundreds, thousands or even millions. A child growing up in Africa could have the finest education in the world if the technology enabled it. And the people who are the best teachers of our era could at last become the rock stars that they truly are.

That's my raison d'etre #2.

Raison d'etre #3 - I want to immortalize wisdom. On the way to the office tonight I was listening to Martin Luther King Jr. (A Knock At Midnight is one of my "broken records"). Every time I listen to that I am so thankful that someone took the time to record his voice so that we have it for future generations. I'm glad that my children will one day listen to MLK's sermons and that they'll be able to pass them to their children.

But I also get sad when I think of all of the wisdom we have captured and that we'll never be able to go back and get. People who had incredible things to share with the world that we'll never be able to hear. So I plan to do my best to tell everyone to record everything. Not only will digital audio and video content have increasing monetary value in the upcoming years, it's also a tremendous legacy to leave to future generations.

That's my raison d'etre #3.

Raison d'etre #4 - I want to help the diamonds in the rough to be discovered. There are so many people out there who have incredible things to share with the world. They just need a little help to get that voice heard about the crowd. My buddy Brian Johnson is a great example. He has some incredible wisdom to share with the world.

In the past he would have had very limited options for sharing his spoken message with the world. But we've been able to post his content here at LearnOutLoud and now people are saying stuff like this:

Brian's reading of this collection of quotes on courage helps to enliven them for us - thus, giving us a greater chance of learning and mastering the courage we need in order to maxmize our lives.

There might not be anyone just like Brian out there but I guarantee there are a ton of people who have some awesome content out there and just need a little incentive to get it captured and online.

That's my raison d'etre #4.

Raison d'etre #5 - I'm frickin' selfish. :) The reason I love audio and video learning is that it gives me options for learning at all times throughout the day. Out for a run? I can throw on a pair of headphones and listen to an audio book or podcast. Need to veg on the couch for bit? Give me a cool video course or documentary to watch.

A big factor in the quality of our lives is the quality of the information we're exposed to. The better the information, the better our lives are. I want more choices. Audible has 5,000 audio books. Great. I want 50,000. iTunes promises 20,000 podcasts. Cool. I want 200,000. I want to give people the incentive to bring the absolute best possible content to market and share it with as many people as possible.

That's my raison d'etre #5.

So why do I bring all this up? Well, last night I had the opportunity to see a sneak preview of LearnDirect, the new service we'll be rolling out in a few weeks. It might be a bit presumptious to say this but LearnDirect (and other services like it that will no doubt follow) will. change. the. world. Sure, it won't happen overnight but when it comes to opening up the flow of information I think it has tremendous potential.

Let me go back to a quote from Jeffrey Sachs that I posted last week:

I believe that the single most important reason why prosperity spread, and why it continues to spread, is the transmission of technologies and the ideas underlying them.

We here at LearnOutLoud are incredibly excited to help with this "transmission." We hope you'll join us.

For more information about LearnDirect, please send an e-mail to learndirect@learnoutloud.com.

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 03, 2006

Dylan Out Loud

Bob Dylan = Absolute Genius. That was first and primary reaction after watching No Direction Home, Martin Scorcese's film biography of the man who defies labels and has transcended generations. I've been a big Dylan fan for years (got hooked on Blood on the Tracks my sophomore year in college) but I didn't really know a lot about his life until recently.

In addition to the movie I've also been listening to Chronicles Volume One, a sort of rambling autobiography which is poetic and cryptic and engaging at the same time. Read by Sean Penn, this audio book is a must-listen for Dylan fans old and young.

What so impressed me about Dylan was his incredible focus for his craft. No Direction Home spends a lot of time covering the period in Dylan's life when he went "electric" which caused an incredible amount of consternation among the fans of his folk music. They even went so far as to boo him on stage and walk out of his concerts. Dylan's response? To keep on doing what he wanted to and not compromise his integrity to appease what other people wanted out of him.

No Direction Home was an amazing look at Dylan's life and I sat there spellbound through a good chunk of it. Not only is it a wonderful journey through musical history but it's also a compelling look at a man who has done so much and experienced an incredible array of highs and lows throughout his life. I think Bono expressed it best in a recent interview:

I mean, Bob Dylan is much more interesting with age, not less interesting. Some pretty boy face on the cover of a style magazine, or him! I want to stare at Dylan's face and I want to hear what he has to say because he has travelled a long road and he's got something worth hearing.

Indeed.

(And if you're interested in learning even a bit more about Dylan you may want to check out Bob Dylan: A Tribute or Bound for Glory, a book not about Dylan but about his biggest influence Woody Guthrie.)

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

December 27, 2005

Education and The End of Poverty

During my plane flights back and forth to Minneapolis for the holidays I had a chance to dig a little deeper into Jeffrey Sachs' new book The End of Poverty. It's a remarkable study of the history of poverty and what we can do to end it in this generation. Here's a quote that I found particularly relevant to what we're doing here at LearnOutLoud:

I believe that the single most important reason why prosperity spread, and why it continues to spread, is the transmission of technologies and the ideas underlying them. Even more important than having specific resources in the ground, such as coal, was the ability to use modern, science-based ideas to organize production. The beauty of ideas is that they can be used over and over again, without ever being depleted.

I got goosebumps when I read that. The transmission of ideas is exactly what LearnOutLoud is all about. It's why I'm so excited for all of the cool stuff we're planning to roll out in 2006. And it's why I'm so incredibly passionate about bring the best audio and video educational content possible to as many people as I can.

I've been having some great discussion lately via e-mail with Wynn Williamson over at The Stingy Scholar blog (highly recommend by the way). Here's a snippet of a recent e-mail that he sent me to give you some flavor of what we've been chatting about:

Some of the best emails coming into Textbook Revolution and Stingy Scholar have been from people in countries like Papau New Guinea where there aren't textbooks to go around, let alone new and updated ones. Making these audio, video, and text materials available is a huge deal - not just because people can't afford to pay, but also because the openness makes translations possibility.

We've been discussing a lot of possibilities and I suggested to him that we bring the conversation out in the open and see if we could latch on a few other people to join us. So I'll keep this brief and we'll pick up the conversation in the forums. I'd love to hear from you so click the link below to join us. Through giving people increased access to ideas we will change the world. We would love it if you would want to be a part of that. :)

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Want to subscribe to this blog? This free, short video tutorial will show you how.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

December 09, 2005

Narnia Mania

If you haven't spent the last couple of months in a cave you're probably aware that Disney is releasing their latest projected blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe today. The Chronicles of Narnia was originally a seven-book series written by C.S. Lewis. I fondly remember reading these as a child. I'd have to check with my parents but I'm pretty sure I probably read them all.

If you're a Narnia fan you'll want to check out a couple of things we've put together here at LearnOutLoud.com. The first is our C. S. Lewis Author Page. We've collected every audio and video title from or about C.S. Lewis that we could find. One of my favorites include the The Chronicles of Narnia CD Box Set which contains unabridged recordings of all seven Narnia books for a very affordable price ($52.50). Another interesting title is a reading of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe read by Michael York.

If you're interested in learning more about C.S. Lewis or delving into some of his non-Narnia material there are a couple of things you may want to check out. You can start with our free reading of the C. S. Lewis Wikipedia entry where you'll learn more about the man behind Narnia. Then you can move on to The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics Audio Collection, a collection containing The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain and Mere Christianity.

If you're heading to the movie this weekend drop a quick post in the forums and let us know how it was.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Discuss this post in the LOL Forums!

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

October 28, 2005

Starting Fires

Caught this over on Brian Johnson's blog:

"Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire."
~ William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Irish poet, playwright & mystic, winner of Nobel prize in 1923

If education is lighting a fire then we here at LearnOutLoud.com are pyromaniacs. :)

Have a g