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Post details: Using Life-Events on the Internet

01/23/2007

Using Life-Events on the Internet

As you might know, this podcast is dedicated to Internet stuff, especially web 2.0 websites and services. I did not offer my HTML video tutorials since November 2006 but I will produce some more of these in the near future. In the meanwhile I got distracted by all these life tools that you can use to talk to people in real time.

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One of these is Skype and Skypecast, where you just can schedule a life event and you can get up to 100 participants showing up with the Skype client and voice over IP. I did some experiments with this but it still has some technical glitches. I have also tried blogtalkradio at www.blogtalkradio.com where you also can schedule your own internet show that will be broadcasted life on the internet. This website allows people to dial in via telephone. But telephone is expensive in some places over the world. I don't think this is really a good approach.

Recently I found talkshoe at www.talkshoe.com where you also can set up your life shows. This system seems more developed because your audience can take part via internet audio stream, via a text chat client and over the telephone. Just recently they have built in the possibility to call in via voice over IP using any SIP-compliant software like X-Lite or the free Gizmo Project. Unfortunately not via Skype, because Skype does not support the SIP-Standard.

As a podcaster, I really like the idea of having a life audience who will be able to discuss a topic or ask questions. So I set up a regular show on talkshoe that will take place every Thursday at 2:30 EST (that is 7:30 GMT). I already have recorded three shows already. The first was a short introduction to the topics that I want to talk about. The second show was about blogging and podcasting. Last week I talked about photo sharing sites and how you can share your photos with other people over the Internet. This week, I will talk about social bookmarking and I would like to have some participants who want to discuss this topic with me. So, if you have questions about social bookmarking, or if you want to know what's so cool about it, you can be part of it with the chat client or you can call in via telephone or with a voice over IP Client.

There is a good explanation how to join the talkcast. The website is http://drdocktorson.com/?q=howtocall. This Dr. Docktorson is also a Talkshoe host with his own show. He explains on his site, how to X-Lite as a VoIP Client for Talkshoe. You can also go to the Gizmoproject at http://www.gizmoproject.com to download the Gizmo Client. Gizmo is very similar to Skype, you just set up a free account and you can call other Gizmo users for free. To call talkshoe, you just use a special phone number to call which is:

Sip:123@66.212.134.192

You will hear an answering machine that tells you to enter the talkcast-ID. For my show it is 12267. You muster enter the number by clicking on the keypad that you find in the Gizmo client. Afterwards you must click the "Pound" key, which is the "hash" key that is located to the right beneath the number Zero (#).

Then the machine asks you for your PIN-code. This is a 10 digit number that can be your phone number or any other number that you use when you register at talkshoe. Registration at talkshoe is free. After the registration you can download a text chat client that enables you to see who is online in the life talk and who is currently speaking. With this client you can text chat without dialling in. If you just want to speak, you can dial in via telephone or VoIP and just talk. Normally, the callers are muted when they appear in the talk. So please be patient and wait until you are unmuted by the host.

The only thing that I don't like at talkshoe is the poor audio quality. I'm currently experimenting with some techniques, to record my own voice in better quality and upload this after the life event. Every talkcast is recorded on the talkshoe website, but it is possible to upload my own audio files after the recording is finished. Usually, you may find the original audio download replaced with another one in higher quality just a day or two after the show. I'm still experimenting with this, so I cannot guarantee a top quality right now. Anyway, I will put important information and links in the show notes in this blog.