April 27, 2006

Take a look at TeachOutLoud

It’s been flying under the radar for a while but I finally decided I should blog about our new service TeachOutLoud. When we started LearnOutLoud we were impressed by the number of good audiobooks and podcasts that were out there. At the same time, we compared that with the total amount of high-quality audio content that is generated on a daily basis around the world. We’re talking about literally hundreds of speeches, lectures, presentations, classes, etc. that are delivered every day and of which far less than 1% are ever recorded and made available on the Internet.

One of the reasons why we felt that people didn’t bother to record this content is that there wasn’t an easy way to distribute it. You’d have to set up your own site, upload the content, deal with people who couldn’t figure out how to download it or play it, etc. Not rocket science perhaps but certainly a bit of a hassle. And that assumes that you’re giving the content away. If you wanted to charge for it then there’s even more involved in terms of e-commerce, secure downloading, etc.

We wanted to make it a lot easier.

In fact, we wanted to make it so easy that if you had an MP3 recording of a live event or audiobook then you could have that audio available for people to download within minutes, complete with a professional looking product page and the capability to charge for the content if you so chose.

With TeachOutLoud that possibility is now a reality.

TeachOutLoud provides you with all of the services that you need to distribute and sell your audio content online. It allows you to focus on what you’re really good at: Creating great content. Our vision for TeachOutLoud is a day when anyone and everyone can take a lecture they’ve just given, a class they’ve just taught or an audio book they’ve just recorded and easily make it available through LearnOutLoud.com.

No need to understand RSS or XML or any of that stuff. No worries about a proprietary file format that won’t work with certain players (all files are distributed as MP3 files). No hassle in setting up hosting, customer service, e-commerce. Just an opportunity to record educational and inspirational content and make it available to anyone around the world (Note: We support international payment as well as Paypal).

In the last few weeks since we’ve done a soft launch of TeachOutLoud we’ve already had 50+ titles uploaded through the TeachOutLoud system. Here is a sampling of what you can find there:

John Selby – A best-selling author and noted teacher, John has posted a half-dozen courses on self-development and spirituality on TeachOutLoud.

The Work of Ratanjit Sondhe – Discoverhelp is a company dedicated to help you reaching your potential. They’ve posted a number of discussions with Ratanjit Sondhe that you will enjoy.

Trish Dennison – Dave Trager, the Founder of Feel Good Vibes, introduced us to Trish and we’re proud to be hosting her content.

Sounds for Sights – Audio walking tours are a great way to enjoy a new city. The folks at Sounds for Sights have posted several titles through TeachOutLoud and even have made a free walking tour of Rockefeller Center and the Diamond District available for download.

This is just a start as we hope to have hundreds, if not thousands, of titles added to TeachOutLoud in coming months. The best part is that your title could be next. Do you have something you would like to teach the world about? Just head on over to http://www.teachoutloud.com and see how easy it is to get your audio content up so that others can learn from what you have to say.

Thanks to everyone who has been instrumental in bringing TeachOutLoud to life!

April 24, 2006

More Content 2.0

OK, so I’ve been bitten by this Content 2.0 thing. In fact I think I’m going to start a whole new category for blog posts on the subject. It might not seem like it has anything to do with LearnOutLoud but I beg to differ.

It has everything to do with how we’ll consume content/media in the future.

The graph above is the Alexa traffic chart for YouTube. If you haven’t been already you really owe it to yourself to go. In less than a year and with virtually no marketing YouTube has grown to one of the Top 50 sites on the Net. By year’s end I’m pretty sure it will be one of the Top 10. I think the reason for this is that it pretty much embodies what Content 2.0 is all about. What are those elements?

1. Brevity – Shorter content is perfect for our ADD-ish culture. While I’m definitely not saying that the three-hour epic movie is going away anytime soon I do think you’ll see a trend to shorter and shorter forms on content in coming years. And one of the main reasons for that is…

2. Portable – A cool thing about YouTube is that I can watch stuff on YouTube or I can post it on my blog. With a little doing I can even download the content. Content 1.0 resides in a certain place (e.g., your television). Content 2.0 is a nomad and shows up wherever you want it to.

3. Personal – One of the neat things about Content 2.0 is that is remarkably personal. It’s not the super-polished stuff you see coming out of television networks and movie studios. It’s more rough. It’s raw like AskANinja
or the Gillmor Gang. It’s Blair Witch…not Blair Witch 2. Clerks vs. Clerks 2. In fact, often times the more money you throw at it the worse it gets.

4. Efficient – Look, we’re all busy. I’d love to sit down and read all of the great books ever written and watch all the movies and the “cool” TV shows. But I don’t have time. Very few of us do. So if you can give me 90% of the benefit and enjoyment of the full-length content in a condensed version I will be very appreciative. That was sort of my point in yesterday’s post. If your 350 page book can be condensed down to a cool 50 pages then I can read 7 different books in the time it would have taken me to read your book.

Again, I’m not talking about Cliff Notes or executive summaries. I’m talking about a new form of content that is concise, personal, relevant and highly entertaining. A form of content that respects my time and at the same time appeals to my desire to gain a richer understanding of the world and learn the stuff I need to to improve my life and reach my goals.

That’s what Content 2.0 is all about. YouTube gets it. Some podcasters get it (most don’t). It’ll be interesting to see who else gets it in the coming months and years.

April 7, 2006

5,000 Registered Members

I promised myself I’d blog about these milestones a little less frequently but was excited to see that sometime in the last 24 hours we passed over the 5,000 registered member threshold. It’s a lot of fun to watch the growth of the site and to see all of the people who are downloading audio books and podcasts.

Thanks to all of you who have joined the site. We’ve got lots more coming down the pipeline which we’re very excited to share with you. Have a great weekend everyone and keep learning out loud!

April 7, 2006

Paypal and International Payments

We’ve recently a couple of things to make it easier to purchase audio learning titles.

Pay with Paypal – If you’re one of the 100 million+ people with a Paypal account you can now purchase audio books and video with Paypal. It’s nice to make a purchase and not have to enter in your credit card. Your Paypal information (username and password) is entered directly on the Paypal website ensuring a safe shopping experience. Just look for the Paypal button above when you’re making your purchase. It’s really easy.

International Payments – Based on the many requests we’ve had we’ve now opened up our site for international purchases. If you don’t live in the U.S. you can now purchase any of our downloadable titles with your credit card or via Paypal. We’re very excited about being able to take the Audio Learning Revolution global. (Note: Our distributor only ships CDs and cassettes on the U.S. so, for now at least, the only titles that can be ordered internationally are downloadable titles.)

We’re always interested in doing anything that we can to make it easier for you to find and order great audio learning titles. If there is anything we can do don’t hesitate to let us know by sending an e-mail to suggestions@learnoutloud.com.

Thanks!

March 13, 2006

French look to open iTunes to other music players

France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker’s popular iPod player.

Read more

The reason that stuff like this is important is that closed systems almost always stifle innovation. Currently you can only listen to songs (and audiobooks, podcasts, etc.) that you’ve put in iTunes if you have an iPod. By opening up iTunes to other devices there would likely be increased competition in the device player market which would lead to technological advances and drops in pricing.

Apple no doubt feels that by controlling both the software (iTunes) and the hardware (the iPod) that they can provide a superior user experience. To a certain extent that’s been true to date. If you’ve had a chance to compare the iPod/iTunes/Fairplay DRM package to the alternatives you’ll likely agree.

But to move forward these systems must become more open. I had a chance to watch a great presentation a week ago on the subject of the future of media and a great quote from Rob Lord was included:

“What if Internet Explorer only went to Microsoft’s site?”

If that was the case we would be back in the dark ages in terms of web development. Fortunately Microsoft allowed users of Internet Explorer to go other places besides microsoft.com. Let’s hope that Apple does something similar and opens up iTunes and the iPod to competing music and spoken word services and players. That’s something that would be in the best interest of everyone.

February 9, 2006

Barack Obama takes home Best Spoken Word Album Grammy

Beating out the likes of actors and comedians such as Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, George Carlin, and Sean Penn, Illinois Senator Barack Obama took home the Best Spoken Word Album Grammy last night for his audio book Dreams from My Father which he authored and narrated. Mr. Obama joked in a recent podcast that he was going to now change his name to The Artist Formerly Known as Barack.

I haven’t listened to the audio book yet but I plan to very soon. It’s a memoir of Mr. Obama’s search for the truth about his father and his familial roots in Africa, after his father died in car crash.

I’ve been a subscriber to the Barack Obama Podcast since it’s inception. Regardless of political affiliation, I think Mr. Obama is an excellent speaker and his podcasts are very entertaining and informative. And he mixes up the format of how they are delivered as well. Sometimes he’s at his home in Chicago, sometimes it’s a speech he gave, sometimes it’s him on a cell phone from the Middle East (which he recently traveled to), and there’s also one of him on the Al Franken show. Mr. Obama is no dry, square politician and he’s not always talking politics. He frequently talked about the Chicago White Sox as they were approaching the World Series.

So it was not surprising to me that his audio book and his narration were Grammy worthy. With this win, I’ll have to make his audio book my next purchase.

January 30, 2006

Monday Round-up

Wow, tomorrow’s the last day of January already? This month has flown by…

1. We crossed the 2,000 member mark last weekend. It took us about 11 months to get our first thousand members…and only 45 days to get our next thousand. Fun to see the growth. Thanks to all of you who just recently signed on!

2. Saw some cool buzz over the weekend about our Free Audiobook of the Month club. Several people blogged about it and I wanted to say thanks to Wynn, Phil, BK and Gary for the mentions (as well as anyone else out there who’s linked to us). We appreciate it!

3. Our 1st Anniversary promotion ends at the end of the day tomorrow. If you didn’t catch it in this blog post, we’re giving away $12 gift certificates to promote our first twelve months in business. So if you’ve been itching to buy an audio book or two there’s no time like the present. 🙂

January 26, 2006

Our First Anniversary!

It’s hard to believe that we launched LearnOutLoud.com only a year ago. We’ve been working our tails off here to try to find you the best in audio and video content that’s both educational and inspirational and we’re really excited about a lot of the things that we have in the works for 2006.

We’ve been working very hard on a new service called TeachOutLoud which is currently in private beta. You’ll be hearing more about that soon. Our Free Audio and Video Directory is expanding rapidly (638 titles at last count). And traffic to our forums is starting to pick up.

To kick off our second year right and celebrate the last 12 months we’re running a promotion between now and the end of the month. If you place an order of $30 or more between now and the end of January we’ll send you a $12 gift certificate for a future order. If you’ve never ordered from us before this is a great opportunity to give it a try. We have over 2,000 audio titles on CD and cassette and an ever-expanding number of titles available for download. To check out what we’ve got go to the following link:

https://www.learnoutloud.com/Sale-Section

We’ll send out the gift certificates
automatically so it’s super easy. Thanks for
helping celebrate our first anniversary with us! We look forward to what the rest of 2006 will hold!

January 20, 2006

More Reasons for Being

I recently returned from a three week stay in Ghana, West Africa, where I trained several non-profit organizations how to build websites. Over and over again I was reminded how much we in the West take our wealth for granted.

This is the start of an inspiring blog post from Rob who writes the Software By Rob. It’s a highly interesting account of his stay and well worth reading. And while I wouldn’t disagree with anything he has to say I would offer one addendum: I also think that we in the West take our education for granted.

Consider this story Rob relates about one of the gentlemen that he worked with and to whom he recommended a $15 computer training book.

15 bucks. The guy works 40 hours a week at an IT training facility and can’t afford a $15 computer book. He’s not starving. He’s not living in a mud hut on the side of the road scraping to feed his family. But $15 is probably a week’s salary for him, maybe more. At 83 times the minimum wage this book would cost $427 in the U.S., and the book was actually an old edition (from 2001), which as most of us know is almost worthless in the world of computer programming. If he wanted a current edition he would have to pay three times that if he could find it at all.

Rob then asks the question “Does this seem wrong to anyone else?”

Yup. It does to me. It should to most everybody.

He goes on to say:

For destitute poverty, providing food, clean water, shelter, and medical care are the most critical needs. There are many organizations that provide these services to the poor, and they help remedy a dire need in the world. But once these needs are met, the person’s information poverty must be addressed.

The phrase “information poverty” has now been added to my vocabulary. At the end of the day I think it is information poverty that lies at the heart of Africa’s problem. Until you attempt to solve that all of the money being spent on all of the other things won’t have the impact they could have. I won’t spoil much more of the article (go read it!) but Rob talks about Africans could help to climb out of poverty if they had the technology to sell their goods on the global market. He uses the example of Ghanian drum-makers selling their wares through eBay or Yahoo! Not that far-fetched in today’s age of technology…and a lot more fulfilling than buying some crap trinket from some faceless department store.

At the end of the day the twin potential powers of education and technology offer an incredible opportunity to make a real and lasting difference in the world. As I blogged about before, Technology + Education = Productivity = Progress. And I tip my hat to everyone else who sees the potential here for technology and education to empower people.

To Doug Kaye for his tireless work on the Conversations Network which will Change the World by bringing cutting-edge, innovative conversations to your headphones.

To Jimmy Wales for his vision and dedication to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia and services that Change the World by providing increased access to information. (Note: In his personal appeal for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation, he lists he reason for being as “the child in Africa who is going to use free textbooks and reference works produced by our community and find a solution to the crushing poverty that surrounds him.”)

To Wynn at the Stingy Scholar blog and Tyler at Textbook Revolution for their passion for Changing the World through increased access to educational materials (join our conversation on that very subject here).

To Brian Johnson and the rest of the gang at Zaadz who are creating social networking tools that will connect people serious about Changing the World and empower them with the technology to actually do it.

And to the many others out there who want to leave a brighter, more hopeful and more educated world to the generation to follow.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone and if you feel the urge please take a few minutes this weekend to appreciate the access you have to technology and education. It’s an incredible blessing but one that most of us (myself included) rarely acknowledge.

January 19, 2006

The end of boredom

Was cleaning out the ol’ Bloglines tonight and remembered that I wanted to blog a Cuban post from last week. Here it is:

The end of boredom

A snippet:

Portable media devices, whether Ipods, portable gaming devices, phones with all their features, or whatever have solved what has been a generations old nuisance for all of us, boredom.

We have our little devices and now we are never bored. We dont find ourselves staring off into space unoccupied, wondering what to do. We dont find ourselves muttering about how bored we are sitting on the train, or on a plane, trying to do anything to make the time go by more quickly.

Our little mobile devices are so popular because they are the ultimate, continuous distraction. They are the easiest cure for boredom.

Interesting ramifications for portable audio and video no doubt. I think the shift of content away from big devices (TVs, PCs, etc.) and towards little devices (iPods, PSPs, mobile phones, etc.) will be one of the most sigificant, or perhaps the most significant development this decade. By the year 2010 I think we’ll have the equivalent of VOD and AOD (audio-on-demand) on our mobile phone/PDA devcies.

That will change the game entirely.

The end of boredom is near. 🙂