A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Beyond Collaboration And Multimedia: A Case Study Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath URL Contents Building on sound recording Creating a Podcast Creating a multimedia presentation using SMIL Conclusions Contents Building on sound recording Creating a Podcast Creating a multimedia presentation using SMIL Conclusions UKOLN is supported by:

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Case Study – This Workshop Case study: Maximising access to workshop resources Evaluating the technologies Gaining user feedback Aims: To allow remote user to listen it to talk To record a talk and to make it available as a Podcast To synchronise talk with display of PowerPoint slides using SMIL format To share experiences Case Study Used Blue Peter rules – have created resources in advance to gain experiences, save time and avoid technical problems!

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 Technologies - Recording Recording a talk: Used iPod voice recorder: Low bit rate and limited control over settings Used (£5) microphone with Audacity open source recording software: Time-consuming to synchronise sound with PowerPoint display Used microphone with Blogmatrix Sparks software: Can create bookmark when changing slides (and automatically upload Podcast)

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 Technologies – Creating Podcast Currently done manually (software is available to automate process) Potential For Collaborative And Mobile Technologies /collaborative-technologies/smil/podcast.xml Podcast Of Talk on The Potential For Collaborative And Mobile Technologies en-gb Creative Commons - Attribution and Share- alike Sat, 25 Jun :20:00 GMT Define the Podcast channel Podcast On Talk on Podcast Of Talk on The Potential For Collaborative And Mobile Technologies /collaborative-technologies/smil/collaborative- technologies.mp /collaborative-technologies/smil/ This Podcast provides access to a version of a talk on The Potential For Collaborative And Mobile Technologies held at the University of Bath, UK on 21 July This is a 20 minute long MP3 recording (~8.96 MB). Mon, 19 Sep :35:00 GMT Describe the Podcast item End user can then use Podcast software (e.g. iTunes) to automatically subscribe to file – the sound file (and any new ones) will automatically appear on Mp3 player swmlac /collaborative-technologies/smil/podcast.xml swmlac /collaborative-technologies/smil/podcast.xml

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Technologies – Creating SMIL File SMIL (Synchronised Multimedia Interchange Language) – an open standard for multimedia File created manually (software should be used!) Define the SMIL file <audio src=" /collaborative-technologies/smil/collaborativetechnologies.mp3" alt="collaborative technologies" longdesc="collab-technologies.txt"/> <img id="image_1" src="../smil/Slides/Slide1.GIF" region="main" begin="0" alt="title slide"/> <img id="image_2" src="../ smil/Slides/Slide2.GIF" region="main" begin="0:32" alt="What We'll Cover"/> … Define the SMIL elements GIF images of PowerPoint slides created using Save As option in PowerPoint

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 Non-Technical Issues Technical Issues: Multimedia expertise needed to enhance quality Human Issues: I move a lot, so sound level variable I tell jokes – and you had to be there! I repeat myself if people arrive late – sounds strange on recording Business Issues: Who owns copyright? If I record all my talks, will anyone bother coming in future? User Issues: Do users want this – or is it technology-driven? See Emmott for example of enhance recording

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 Discussion Recordings Of Talks Would recordings of today's talks be useful for (a) you and (b) your colleagues who can't attend? Is the sound sufficient or would you want to integrate the slides? Remote Participation Would you (or your colleagues) find it useful to participate remotely using (say) Skype? Is sound sufficient or would you want video? Issues For Us Is this too time-consuming to do? Will workshops lose their impact? Could we involve remote facilitators?

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Questions Any questions?