The Archdiocese of Atlanta holds an annual Eucharistic Congress around the Feast of Corpus Christi. Dynamic speakers, inspirational music, a beautiful procession, and special tracks for kids, teens, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and the deaf draws tens of thousands of people from around the country to the Georgia International Convention Center.

Last year a strong contingent of podcasters, thank to the efforts of Greg and Jennifer Willits of Rosary Army , attended including Fr. Roderick and most of the members of the SQPN team.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory has announced that the 2007 Eucharistic Congress will be held June 9, 2007 at the Georgia InternationalConvention Center in College Park, Georgia. Archbishop Gregory has selected the theme “The Food that endures for eternal life (John 6:27); The Eucharist – Promise of Everlasting Life“.

This would be a great opportunity for another, and larger, gathering of podcasters. Head on over to RosaryArmy.com and see what’s going on.

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God’s keynote address at Heaven Expo 2006 (or was it 2005?). Great content. Definately worth the listen.

Thanks Fr. Roderick!

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Fr. Seraphim of Catholic:Under the Hood fame sent this tasty bit:

The International Podcasting Expo, sponsored by PodshowCreator, PRWeb, and PRWeb Podcast, invites Podcasters, Podcasting Professionals, and Podcasting Software and Services Companies from around the world to present seminars, workshops and podcasts during the October 20-22, 2006 online event. All seminars are conducted and recorded in PC and Mac compatible audio/visual conference rooms during the Podcast Expo.

Participation requires an internet connection and speakers, and a headset microphone if the attendee chooses to participate verbally.

If you pay the $25 registration fee before August 31st, you get a free 2-CD recording of all of the presentations.

I don’t know how good this will be because so far no speakers have been named. But, it may be something someone here is interested in.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/8/emw423113.htm

http://www.internationalpodcastingexpo.com/

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I’m wondering how many Catholic and Christian podcasters are planning to attend the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. While I am curious, I am not sure what value the Expo would provide.

Also, I have seen the idea floated about having a Catholic podcast conference. The consensus seems to be that there is not yet critical mass (no pun intended). It seems that this year’s Eucharistic Congress in Atlanta (previous post here) attracted a large number of Catholic podcasters. What if we had a ‘pre-conference’ the day before the start of the Congress in Atlanta. Then we could all attend the Congress and put on podcasting workshops and just podcast from the Congress.

What are your thoughts.

Tags: Godcasting, Homepage News, Expo/Conference | 5 Comments »

iPadre (Fr. Finelli) was in Ohio from Rhode Island and so I took the opportunity to drive down to Steubenville and meet him. Jim Coyle and Fr. Seraphim of Catholic:Under the Hood fame joined us. We talked about all things podcasting for about 2 1/2 hours before praying together and me heading home.

It was a great time and below are pictures of our little gathering. Enjoy.

The iPadre A great person, good listener, and one who strikes me as very pastoral. His parish is blessed to have him as their priest.

The Jim You can’t see it here, but if you look closely to the side of Jim’s shirt with the pocket there is a wire leading up to his head. Jim has a Borg-like implant in his other ear. Probably to stay in contact with the collective.

The Fr. Seraphim (Is he sleeping???)

The I. I was feeling a bit unfocused. I was surprised it came across in the picture. (Must be the medication)

The conversation ranged from XML feed management to field equipment to plans for a DwM gathering in Gaming, Austria. Also, note the Borg-like implant in Jim’s ear. Kinda spooky!

There has never before been a group that so needed to get into the sun than the four you see here. We are all so white that the camera had trouble dealing with our dark clothes and our shockingly bright faces.

It was such a joy to at last meet Fr. Finelli. I am so glad Fr. Seraphim and Jim Coyle took the time to sit and just talk shop for a while.

If you are going to be in Ohio, let me know. Who knows, we might just get a chance to meet and talk podshop!

Tags: Collaboration, Expo/Conference, Community, DwM, Steubenville | 5 Comments »

I have been having a conversation with Greg Willits of Rosary Army about his experience at the Archdiocese’s Eucharistic Congress. I have posted about the Congress in the past, but Greg reminded me that there were a number of podcasters there.

Greg sent me a link the Archdiocese of Atlanta. On the page you will find (at least at the time of the writing of this post) links to podcasts which dealt with the Eucharistic Congress.

It appears the Archdiocese of Atlanta has embraced podcasting. Keep your eyes on the site to see how they continue to implement pocasting to their existing ministries. Should be interesting.

Tags: Podcast, Podcasting, Look Who's Podcasting, Expo/Conference, Rosary Army, Greg Willits | No Comments »

Carlos sent me an article from Current.org. It is a commentary based on the Beyond Broadcast Conference held May 12-13, 2006 in Harvard, MA. I was not aware of the conference and don’t know if I would have been inclided to attend. I am, however, intrigued by a commentary of the conference’s content. In part I read:

“You can’t be a one-way company in a two-way world,” commented Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. One-way media were declared dead more than once. By that standard, podcasting loses points. It’s merely another means of delivering one-way, top-down media. It’s just time-shifting, said Terry Heaton, an outspoken Nashville consultant”

In itself, these few sentences have given me much to think about. The entire essay is packed with insightful and mind-bending assertions. I have read the lengthy article once, and will be re-reading it shortly. I also plan on listening/watching some of the session from the conference that have been posted. Just a note, at the time of this writing, the two audio files I attempted to access were not available, while the one video I checked out, was available.

I strongly suggest everyone engaged in blogging, podcasting (including video podcasting) need to read this article. It suggests an important mindset which we need to explore fully if we are going to stay in touch with the development of “the new media” (sometimes called media 2.0). It is even more important if DwM is going to contribute in any significant way to the develpment (dare I say evolution?) of podcasting.

Let me know your thoughts. I look forward to hearing them. (thanks again Carlos for the heads-up)

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Jim Coyle and I did a presentation at the 2006 Catholic Media Convocation on the topic of podcasting. We spent a lot of time working on different flows for our session. What we ultimately decided on, worked out very well.

We decided to model the production of a podcast for them. Coming into the session, I had ready a brief intro and outro as well as a couple of other sentences. As participants wandered into the session I recorded their answers to a few questions. Then, when Jim officially began the session, I jumped in and started to edit the sound files I had just recorded. I ended up with an edited central content piece. Then I walked the participants through the assembling of the cast using Audacity. I then created an mp3 (with id3 tags) and then Jim uploaded them into an existing Libsyn account. He then went over to iTunes and as he was telling them about iTunes, the cast I had created (it ended up being around 2 min. 30 sec.) became available on iTunes. He then subscribed and we watched the cast download.

It opened up a series of questions for the audience. We had about two dozen folks and they were all highly enthusiastic and had lots of great questions. All told, the session went about an hour and a half (we were given one hour).

What we plan to propose for next year’s conference (to be held in Brooklyn, NY next year) is two sessions. The first will be on the technical side and the second on how podcasts can be used. I hope the committee accepts the proposal.

Jim and I had a great time. We are looking for other venues where we can present a similar presentation.

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I had the opportunity to have lunch with a great group of newspaper folks today. We went to an Italian place across from my hotel and of course that meant I got the meatloaf (with smashed potatoes - yest Smashed potatoes). What made the lunch so fulfilling was to hear the stories of these people struggles. You see, they were all from diocesan papers from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, St. Charles and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The told of their experience with last years hurricane season and how they struggled to get the news out.

It seems that people relied a great deal on the Catholic press to report on local issues. These local issues were all that more vital during this time of devestation. I provided me a great insight into their editorial struggles as well as their ongoing struggles dealing with the destruction and ongoing reconstruction of their homes and communities.

Jim Coyle of Franciscan University is leading a discussion and presentation on the Catholic media coverage of Katrina and the aftermath. Then, after lunch, Jim and I will be doing a presentation on podcasting. I think it is called “Podcasting - The Seedy Underbelly of Catholic Media”. Wait, no, that’s something else. We are going to lead an hour and fifteen minute discussion on how other media (various print, radio, and television groups) can use podcasting to tell ‘the story’ more fully and completely. My task is to assemble a podcast during the session. I won’t say much more about it now (I need something to blog about tomorrow).

One of tomorrow’s posts will be an interview with a podcaster. I was going to post an interview with Fr. Seraphim Bershoner of Catholic Under the Hood fame. It was awesome, insightful, profound, and otherwise Pulitzer material but… well, I deleted it in a way that it cannot be retrieved. So tomorrow’s posting will be with a podcaster who is not a member of DwM, but who has an amazing cast.

Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel (man, I’ve got to get off this medication).

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Well, I made it. I am here in Nashville, TN for the Catholic Media Convocation. Took a flight out of Akron/Canton flew to Detroit and then to Nashville. Everything worked like clockwork. It was an interesting journey since this was the first flight I’ve taken since my disability. For those of you who do not know, I am recovering from Lyme disease. The disease has messed with me quite a bit and makes it difficult to walk and sit.

Well, travel is made up of those two experiences quite a bit. I wanted to be able to come but was worried about having the endurance. My wife convinced me to ‘go gimp’. I contacted the airline to find out what kind of assistance was available to get to and from each flight. I was wheeled from place to place and so had the opportunity to speak with some delightful people. It was strange, however, to sit on a plane until everyone else had deplaned to wait for a wheel chair. It was awkward asking strangers for help with my luggage because I was not able to do it myself. The trip was made up of several new experiences that I will need to take some time to process and learn from.

Jim Coyle and I had dinner together and had a chance, once again, to get to know eachother better. We talked about DwM for quite some time. It was great to hear his take on where we are and where we are going. He presented me with some awesome insights. I am blessed to have him as a friend. We were both so tired from the trip, we called it an early nite. Since I am in Nashville, I’d love to make it to some club with live music, but I have no car, little stamina, and am on medication that does not allow me to drink. I am not sure that this wish will become a reality this time out.

Know that the discomfort and pain I do feel during this trip, I am offering up for all of the members of Disciples with Microphones. You are all a blessing to me and I look forward to discovering, with you, what God has in store for our little corner of the universe.

In the mean-time, I ask for your prayers. I especially ask that you pray that my heart and mind stay open to His purpose of my being here. I believe God has brought me here, to this place and this time, for a reason. I pray that I recognize it when God sends it my way.

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