Blog post listeners, podcatchers and accessibility

I received an email today from a blog reader who is using the “listen to this post” link at the bottom of many of my posts to hear rather than read my posts. She is having trouble listening to my post on John Seely Brown’s interview with Steve Hargadon. Her email prompted me to login to Talkr (the company that provides this service for free) and view some reports on downloads. I was amazed, since the first of the month people have listened to over 1400 of my blog posts!

I added Talkr to my blog on October 25th last year. Between that date and the end of the year, people listened to a little over 2800 posts.

This information is very helpful, and I think it brings home the importance of accessibility and the importance of providing people with CHOICES in the ways they access content and ideas.

This also relates to providing podcasting audio files in the most accessible formats possible. I know Apple would love it if everyone used iTunes to subscribe and listen to podcasts, but the fact is many people don’t. (I love iTunes and Apple, but my overriding reason for podcasting is to share ideas with others more than promote use of a particular product. That’s why I don’t release podcasts in exclusively m4a or m4v formats, which are QuickTime-only.) Here is a current graph showing the types of podcast aggregators (podcatchers) subscribers to my podcast have used in the last 30 days:

At one point, about half my podcast subscribers were using iTunes, but currently it shows that just about 36% are using iTunes. An equal number of people are using Feedblitz, which is a free email notification service for any RSS feed. For me, this means it is more important than ever to release all podcasts (even enhanced or video podcasts) as audio-only mp3 versions. I also like the free WordPress plugin podpress, since it enables people to use an embedded flashplayer to play the podcast in their browser. I’m guessing that feature is especially useful for people who are getting podcast updates via email, and then clicking a link to view/access podcasts using a web browser.

Section 508 accessibility requirements for schools may not be legally binding for private individuals, but I think we should all strive to make our content as accessible as possible. The new “read-only” of the 21st century is about CHOICES for the formats of media people consume, as well as choices for the TIMES and PLACES they consume media. (I discussed this at MacWorld.)

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On this day..

• Students & Teachers Explain Benefits of MinecraftEDU [VIDEO] – 2015
• First iMovie for iPhone Video – 2011
• Understanding the value of social media use for literacy development – 2010
• Bison on the Konza Prairie – 2008
• Opposing ethnocentrism in schools and society – 2007
• WikiPedia user page, Oklahoma Digital Centennial project – 2007