Gini Nelson's Engaging Conflicts

I referred to TWiT recently (here: TWIT [The WEEK In TECH] netcast network site) which Time Magazine named as one of the top 10 podcasts of 2006. The program this week looked back at the news that made 2006 and ahead into 2007, here. Among other news, TWiT identified Skype as application of the year (see here for my earlier post with Skype’s announcement of unlimited calling to landlines and cellphones in the US and Canada for $30/year, but only $15 if you sign up by January 31, 2007).

I’ll be podcasting in 2007. Readers here have been watching me get my feet wet (here’s my vBlog post from PodCamp West– San Francisco, made for Geoff Sharp’s mediation vBlog project ; a post about the podcasters’ internet marketing issues panel I was on at the conference, and a post with more about PodCamp’s agenda, including the legal issues in podcasting panel I was on). Podcasting is an exciting development in use of the internet, and fast-growing, and, really, attorneys and mediators need to understand what it is. Here’s some background, and observations on trends, from a leader in this new social media, Scott Bourne, variously of several tightly focused blogs and podcasts, including the PodcastingTricks.com blog, and the iLifezone.com blog and podcast associated with the TWIT [The WEEK In TECH] netcast network site. TWIT itself was named by Time Magazine as one of the top 10 podcasts of 2006.

Background (from Scott’s PodcastingTricks.com blog):

Here is what podcasting is and why it matters.

A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files that you can download and listen or view at your convenience on a personal media player (such as an iPod), computer, DVD player, or CD player.

Listeners don’t have to remember to visit the sites they are interested in to get the latest posting. Instead, they can subscribe (usually at no charge) to the ones they want. Their podcatcher software will periodically download the latest postings or episodes.

In the podcast universe, distribution distinguishes this medium: You don’t have to rely on your audience to check back for new content that you post. Once they have added your “show” to their playlist, they’ll automatically receive it each time you post a new episode. In other words, it’s much like choosing which programs you want to record on your TIVo.

And personal media players fit the lifestyle of people on the go by being small and portable. It’s a way for corporate marketers to extend their content distribution beyond their audience’s desktop computer. Listeners can access your content on their commute, in the gym, or while sitting in the airport.

More background: Podcasting FAQs by PodcastingTricks.com.

2006′s Important Podcasting Trends by PodcastingTricks.com

I’m learning the technology now, with an iMac with its preinstalled Garageband podcasting software, a professional quality microphone, and access to online training videos at lynda.com, including Scott’s own Podcasting with GarageBand 3.

Scott, thank you for making podcasting so much more accessible to us all.

It’s New Year’s Day — Happy New Year to us all! Most of us will at least consider resolutions to do or be better in 2007, and, for many of us, getting fitter will be one of them. Will we follow them?

Jane E. Brody, New York Times Personal Health columnist urges us, “To Avoid ‘Boomeritis,’ Exercise, Exercise, Exercise” in her December 19th column (note: a TimesSelect membership may be necessary for access) — as she says, citing Dr. Nicholas A. DiNubile, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, “evolution ha[s] not kept up with the doubling of the human life span in the last 100 years. To counter the inevitable declines with age, we have to provide our bodies with an extended warranty,” i.e., fitness.

Yet, while most of us know the benefits of exercise, few of us exercise enough, or exercise consistently enough. Why? There’s a good article available for free download posted at Change This.com, by Michale Gonzales, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist. As he says in his introduction:

With all the data there is about why people should exercise, why do they still have a tendency not to? As there are many types of exercise an individual can choose, not exercising is also a choice. No one can write a book or a scientific paper that will fully explain why some people do not exercise or why they exercise erratically. For this answer one really need[s] to look within. This paper is written to help people do just that — look within.

The quick answer to the question of why an individual does not exercise has to do with time, motiviation and worthiness. These factors will be addressed in this paper: finding time, getting motivated, and believing that he or she is worth the time and effort necessary to get healthier and more fit.

Here’s the link to the paper.

I won’t see you at the gym … my first fitness resolution is to walk more, first. But walk more, I will!