skypecasts become focused brodacasts

Two innovative uses of Skypecasting I’ve read about this week point to new ways of using voice over internet other than for talking to family overseas, which is where most of us begin.

Stephen Downes has recently included Skypecast into a workshop, and then in what he described as “the World’s First keynote address” from Africa on Sept 6th. So moving from person to person conversation to broadcasting to up to 100 particpants (Skypecast’s current maximum login). I’m not sure if the listeners had any opportunity to participate in these events, but they clearly could have.

Also FutureLab yesterday reported Heineken’s Skypecast with Dutch band Johan. (It’s worth visiting the Heineken site for the website features alone). Being a skypecast, this was an interactive concert where users were able to sing and clap along, and to ask questions. Heineken has now made the audio available on its site, and within a few days will post the video as well. Be patient as there is a flash(y) log in and the pages take time to load in my experiennce). From the site “The interactive element is of course a huge bonus in engaging your community”.

The idea of using this free service to include the offsite community in presentations, with the ability to include interaction, is intriguing and has possibilities for professional learning for teachers constrained by distance and travel costs.

TAGS: skypecast, audiocasting,