January’s main (“Mothership”) meeting will be Wednesday, January 16, 7pm at the Panera Bread eatery in the Framingham Mall, 400 Cochituate Road (Route 30), Framingham. For reference, there is also a Target in this mall. This is the same location scheduled for last November’s meetup. Hopefully, with the holiday season over, the location will work better this time around.

Here is the location on a Mapquest map: Panera Bread

We’re trying an experiment by having our monthly meeting on a Saturday.

November’s meeting will be Saturday, November 17, 1pm to 3pm at the Panera Bread eatery in the Framingham Mall, 400 Cochituate Road (Route 30), Framingham. For reference, there is also a Target in this mall.

Here is the location on a Mapquest map: Panera Bread

NE Podcasting Meetup
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
7:00 PM

Where
Smile Thai
16-18 Eliot St. 2nd Floor
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Come meet with New England Podcasters… Boston Media Makers , Boston Video Production Discussion Group and Beanywood peeps.

Special guests will be BostonNOW who will be providing appetizers and sodas.

Please RSVP so we can make sure we have enough food.

RSVP:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/204267

Please note special date, TUESDAY, May 8
Location: Paradise Lounge, 971 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA
Time: 7:00pm

David McMillin (a podsafe artist) will be kicking off a new tour in Boston
that night. We thought it would be cool to have a bunch of podcasters show up
and show support. Plus it’s a fun downtown location.

Please note that there is an $8 cover charge. However, if you are there by 7pm, please identify yourself as a New England Podcaster to Chris Penn when he arrives, as some special arrangements are being made.

Location: Kelly’s @ Jordan’s Furniture, Natick, MA

Time: 7pm

Both podcasters and podcast listeners are welcome.

Directions to Kelly’s: Click here

Location: Kelly’s @ Jordan’s Furniture, Natick, MA

Time: 7pm

While this meetup wil mainly be a social gathering, we will also be dealing with the issues of future meeting locations and meeting topics.

Both podcasters and podcast listeners are welcome.

Directions to Kelly’s: Click here

Kelly’s @ Jordan’s Furniture
Route 9 in Natick at 7PM on Wednesday, November 8

Notes from CC and Clinton:

Last night was a small but great meeting.

What I liked about it was that Kelly’s was quiet enough that we could all have conversations. Sure the tables were not exactly set up in the best way for what we wanted, but not having to yell just to be heard was a huge improvement.

There were as many new faces as familiar ones which is always great to see.

At least four of the people there do not yet have podcasts, but are on the verge of starting them. It’s good to see new faces (as well as all the regulars, of course!).

I hope that everyone else enjoyed it as well.

Wednesday night was the New England Podcasters meeting.

Here are Chris’ meeting notes:

Thanks to everyone who dropped by last night for the meetup. Some
followup things for those who were there…

[1] The MySpace program I mentioned can be found at FriendAdder.com – very useful.

[2] I’ll have a video on YouTube later today about condenser mic placement.

[3] Reader.Google.com may put you off Bloglines forever.

[4] SEOChat.com has a ton of great tools for your site.

[5] The tutorial about understanding 301 redirects:

http://forums.feedburner.com/viewtopic.php?t=17

Very useful – don’t necessarily give out your Feedburner URL just in
case, one day, they go away.

[6] Podshow+ is located at http://www.Podshow.com.

Other great directories for podcasts:
http://www.podcastpickle.com
http://www.podcastalley.com
http://www.odeo.com
http://www.podfeed.net
http://www.podcastready.com
http://www.amigofish.com
http://podcasts.yahoo.com

[7] Ira Krakow’s WordPress plugin list: http://www.irakrakow.com/wptips/

[8] Feedburner’s Google Pinging service is under Pingshot in the Publicize tab. Also, use Google’s RPC service to notify them directly in WordPress.

RPC endpoint: http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

[9] Tools for Second Life at http://www.slexchange.com

[10] LAME encoder for iTunes at:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13048

Very important – it uses LAME 3.91 which is badly out of date. You can, through a very elaborate procedure, upgrade the built-in version
of LAME to 3.97, which is what I use. For the same quality, same bitrate, LAME has reduced my show’s file sizes by a third.

[11] Audacity’s leveler is fantastic if you edit in Audacity. Go heavy on stuff at first.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

[12] Gigavox levelator:

http://www.gigavox.com/levelator

Do NOT, NOT, NOT use this with any audio that contains music or it will transform it into a steaming pile of dung. Use a compressor or
leveler instead.

[13] My settings in Garageband:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=garageband&w=72143877%40N00

Thanks again for another great meetup!

Chris
–
Christopher S. Penn, The Financial Aid Podcast
A Publication of the Student Loan Network
On-demand financial aid internet radio, no iPod required
http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com
http://www.StudentLoanNetwork.com

The monthly meet-up was on Oct. 11 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm and will be held this time at The Fours Restaurant in Quincy, MA.

The Four’s Restaurant and Sports Bar – Quincy
15 Cottage Avenue
Quincy, MA 02169
Phone: (617) 471-4447

Southeast Expressway (Route 93) South to Route 3 South Take Exit 18 to QUINCY CENTER (first exit on Rte. 3 after split) onto Burgin Parkway.

Google Directions.

Sept 9-10, 2006 Bunker Hill Community College, Boston. (Venue Sponsored by the Museum of Science, Boston)

For September, we’re going to take part in PodCamp Boston!

Podcamp Boston is a FREE unconference in the tradition of BarCamp, and will be held on September 9th and 10th, 2006, at the Bunker Hill Community College (sponsored by the Museum of Science, Boston), accessible by public transportation, and readily reachable via the train. Podcamp is FREE to attend. (You find your way here, get a room or ask us for a list of folks who might let you crash, and we’ll feed you and entertain you for a few days).

SIGN UP: http://podcamp.org
The first 200 registrants are guaranteed a free shirt, and any other interesting free schwag we find along the way.

THE DEAL: An unConference means that the participants are also the experts. We’re audio and video podcasters, enthusiasts, businesspeople, hobbyists, musicians, promoters, marketers, and people who generally want to understand more about the new media space. The power of an unconference is you get FREE ACCESS to ideas, thoughts, best practices, and the true “wisdom of crowds” simply by registering and attending.

We urge you to consider signing up to give a 5 minute lightning talk about your experience with podcasts (viewing/listening), or a 30 minute session if you’ve got enough material. Really shy or too new to the space? Try signing up for a Round Table Discussion and just let the others start off the conversation before you join in.

BRING YOUR GEAR: We’ll be doing lots of hands-on learning at this event, including how-to’s on recording techniques, editing skills, video composition, podsafe music, and plenty more. There’s a whole section on the Podcamp.org website showing SESSIONS. I’m bad at math, but it looked like over 20 sessions are set up now. Don’t see what you want to know? Request the session. Have something to add that we haven’t considered? Throw it up there. Oh, and as for bringing your gear, if you want to have some kind of gear swap, we’re set up for that, too.

BUNKER HILL COMMUNITY COLLEGE: PodCamp Boston will be held at Bunker Hill Community College . We have access to a few large areas to assemble, with sessions being held in smaller classroom areas. It’s local enough to everything that you can ride a train, take a bus, get a cab. It’s VERY accessible to folks either coming from far away or locally. There’s parking, as well.

VENUE SPONSOR: The event’s venue was sponsored by the Museum of Science, Boston, who’s made a strong commitment to the new media space. Did you know they have their own Podcast? Our venue isn’t that far from the Museum. Seeing as you’ll be in town anyway, come on by and give your thanks to this great institution for making our venue possible. (If you don’t have time to visit, drop them email. Go to http://mos.org).

SIGN UP: http://podcamp.org

Use Google Calendar?

SPREAD THE WORD: If you’ve already signed up, thanks! Please spread this around and get the word out. This event is the kind you DON’T want to miss, and I imagine some of your friends won’t want to miss it, either. We’re hoping you can attend this landmark experience.

SPONSORS: If you’re a business sponsor and are interested in being known as a supporter of new media and technology, please consider sponsoring in one of the many ways we have available to you to show your support.

THIS EVENT IS ABOUT YOU: Come to PodCamp Boston on Sept 9-10th, to a FREE unConference, and learn how you can get involved in the new media revolution.

SIGN UP: http://podcamp.org

Fauxtographing CC Chapman on Vimeo