Skype Offers Free Land-line Calls

Skype, a pseudo VoIP / Instant Messaging provider has offered free calling between computers that have Skype, while calls to or from land lines and mobiles could be bought as credits.

But Skype has now made calling from a computer to a land-line or mobile phone free. They're betting on customers using additional services like SkypeIn and buying ringtones and such.

This could really increase the number of interviews we hear in podcasts.

Gaming a "New Media"

On NPR today, Michelle Norris interviewed University of Southern California graduate student Susana Ruiz. She's created an online "game" for her thesis that educates people about the crisis in Darfur. In the interview, she suggested that online gaming, or interactive learning, or whatever you want to call it, is a new medium to send information, just like Art Spiegelman used graphic literature (she called it a comic book - gasp!) to tell a story about the Holocaust.

I played the game yesterday, it's pretty cool. And it encourages people to take action in the Darfur crisis.

Learning More About Podcasting

I just finished reading Podcasting for Dummies. A lot of it was both interesting and helpful. I've just reedited (or, if you prefer, digitally remastered) my first two podcasts and posted them to a free account at PodOMatic. OurMedia is sometimes a little unreliable when I try to upload, and I'm not sure how much bandwidth they offer. However, PodOMatic messes with the ID3 tags when I upload, so we'll see how long my patience lasts with them (I know, I just want it all, huh?).

I've finished student teaching and plan on podcasting sometime this week, so keep your ears open for episode 3.