This week’s episode of Spark originally aired on February 13, 2008.
Usually, when a repeat episode of Spark goes over the radio airwaves, a repeat podcast is posted here. But, the past two times we’ve done this, we’ve caught a bit of flak. For example, Raj "Rajio" Patel writes:
seriously. If the episode is a repeat, we don’t need a new podcast post for it – we can just look in the archives if we want to listen to old content. Repeats make zero sense in the podcast medium.
So this week, instead of posting a repeat MP3, Nora talked to Raj about his argument against podcast repeats. Download the MP3 or listen below.
If you’re looking for the episode of Spark that goes to air on May 17 & 17, 2008, click here. But in the meantime, let us know what you think:
Do repeats make sense in an on-demand context like podcasting?
Spark is breaking new ground here.
Raj is right. It seems like a little thing, but deciding not to post repeats makes the Spark podcast a completely new thing. Not just a podcast (like TWIT), but also not just a rehash of a radio broadcast.
Congratulations!
-Julio Ohep
Caracas, Venezuela
I don’t think you need to repost Spark when it’s a repeat on air. Just put a 30 second file in the feed saying when the next new show is.
I don’t have to much to add to what Raj said regarding repeat broadcasts other then I agree with what he says.
If you have an archive there is no need for a repeat broadcast, point ppl to the archive.
–
bruce
I’ve got to agree with Raj. The beauty of the podcast is that it is, as he said, an on-demand medium. It’s easy enough just to download old episodes we may have missed.
Thanks for the comments. This may be a good time to get your thoughts on what to do over the summer (during which there’s a new summer series airing in our time slot). We obviously don’t want people to get unsubscribed. What would make sense?
Would you be interested in hearing favourite interviews in longer form? Bloopers? Just a short message saying “pleeeeaaasse, we beg you, don’t unsubscribe?”
Your thoughts and suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks!
I would just leave the feed silent for the summer. I generally don’t unsubscribe from old feeds (especially I’m warned of a season break). On the other hand, I am VERY likely to unsubscribe from a feed which delivers weekly mp3s I’ve already heard.
+ 1 to everything said above. As Raj said in the interview, perhaps pointing people to the podcast number which is being repeated online (much as a radio broadcast would indicate the original air date) so that people who are interested can go back if they haven’t heard it yet.
As Padraic noted above, I’m not likely to unsubscribe from a quiet feed, but very likely to unsubscribe from one that merely rehashes what is out there.
Summer suggestion: turn it over to the listeners. It’s already a community effort in part; this might be an opportunity for some interesting content or an innovative project.
I like Kim’s idea of turning it over to the listeners. What if you air an extended version of a previous interview, perhaps supplemented with some community comments or additions. It could make an old interview relevant again and breathe new life in to both that content and the listening community who would be encouraged to make the show more interactive.
This issue is one other CBC podcasts are going to need to address too eventually.
Like Padriac, every time I hear a repeat I reconsider my subscription.
I would be happy with just a 3 minute wheel of freedom spin each week in lieu of a straight-up repeat though
Thanks for the suggestions!
Raj said it all. I would like a very short segment telling me that it is a repeat.
I totally understand your wish to keep people subscribed. The longer interviews with some bloopers sounds like a good idea to me.
@ Raj
+ 1
No repeats. If anything, I’m bummed when I get into my car, plug in my iPod, hit play and find it’s a repeat.
I’m going to agree with Raj. I JUST started listening to The Spark, and I’d prefer if repeats weren’t released via the feed.
I know how to go back and find back episodes.
I listen to podcasts on my ipod, automatically synced, so when I’m out walking and discover the DNTO podcast I was going to listen to is a repeat, it’s a bummer.
CBC’s Search Engine does a good job of either recontextualizing old stories (like Raj selected), or providing a funny little “we’ve been pre-empted” message (like Jesse’s 3 minute talk with Cory Doctorow recently).
Down with repeats!
Hey Nora:
‘Great idea to abandon redundant digital repeats of not-very-old content. Search Engine led the way on this. ‘Excellent to see that Spark is following suit.
However, empty podcasts are not an optimal solution either. The following is my proposed solution — inspired by ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live podcast history.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/
From Day 1 of this program’s podcasting history, they simply mp3-ify the entirety of each and every show — warts and all.
And on Fridays, this means repeats — yes repeats, but not of content that’s a mere year or two old. They go back to the years that preceded the invention of podcasting. Is this a kludge in the podcast world ? … On average, no. Its sometimes boring stuff that you dismiss and jump to something else on your iPod menu, simply because its not “current”. But sometimes its very interesting indeed to get a historical perspective on an issue that has evolved dramatically since the relevant “Classic LNL” program first aired.
A recent case in point: The issue of the current Australia government’s “sorry speech” to the historical mis-treatment of Australia’s aboriginal community. It was very interesting to hear perspectives on aboriginal issues from LNL programs first aired a decade or so ago — especially interesting for an Australian Canadian who was not in Australia at that time.
So, back to my proposed solution for Spark (and Search Engine for that matter?) … digitize analog tape archives (if they’ve not been digitized already) and/or mp3-ify digital archive copies of relevant segments of programs originally aired on (say) AIH or The Sunday Edition etc, that occasionally deal with technoculture issues.
‘hope that’s useful to you ? … perhaps inspiring variations on this theme ?
Enjoy summer.
- rob d
Adelaide, Australia
(where its winter and raining — AT LAST !! … yay !)
Okay, so maybe I’m ultra-lazy, but is it possible to send actual links through rss feeds? If so, I would be in favour of actually sending the link to the old, repeated content through the feed, in addition to some sort of short message.
Also, I wouldn’t unsubscribe a silent feed either.
I listened to the podcast with Raj on “Do repeat podcasts make sense?”
I agree completely with Raj’s comments… and I feel very guilty about not having written to Spark (and Search Engine) much sooner to make them. I have been taking a free ride on the work you – and the listeners who do comment – have been doing (and enjoying it immensely).
I am a 48 year-old Information Technology consultant for a major IT outsourcing company. I listen to the CBC almost exclusively by podcast. However, in my daily work life, I am continually challenged to help business managers cope – NOT with technology – but with the changes information technology makes to business practice. So, I am not surprised that the CBC struggles to understand how podcasting differs from broadcasting.
I think the struggle within the ranks of public broadcast managers to understand and adapt to podcasting would make an interesting show. I would also be interested to know how listeners use of podcasts varies by age, type of employment, and region.
Thanks for the show, look forward to hearing you next week.
From a technology perspective, there’s a <guid> (globally-unique identifier) for each item in the Spark RSS feed, the purpose of which is to identify each unique item. (Funny, that.) If you re-add an item to the feed with the same GUID as it had previously, new subscribers will pick it up as if it were new, and existing subscribers won’t re-download it. (Presuming that client software behaves as it should.) If there’s a reason to post an updated version, the <pubDate> can be used as a version field; the semantics aren’t quite the same as, say, the atom:updated and atom:published elements in the Atom Syndication Format, but they’re probably close enough.
This is a vote FOR having, as a minimum, a place-holder podcast when the broadcast show is a repeat.
Without a place-holder, or other marker, I would be left looking for the missing show.
I let an RSS-FEED manager (DOPPLER) collect my podcasts, and irregularities do happen. Sometimes the URL is scrambled by the host webmaster. Sometimes DOPPLER burps. SO: When I delete old files from my .mp3 player, I check that there are no missing items. To not have the repeat-show-marker leaves me looking, unnecessarily, for the missing (non-)item.
PERHAPS you can take this as an opportunity: When you post a quick ‘This show is a Repeat’ message, you could include editorial comments, correcting the errors you missed the first time around (e.g. In the show with the ‘Watt-Check’ you talked of Watts per Minute — instead of Watts, or Watt-Hours per Minute).
I’m very glad that someone has finally suggested skipping the repeats in a podcast. I find them very annoying and pointless for all the above mentioned reasons. Once additional suggestion though: why not have to podcast feeds? One that mimics what is on the air and one that is repeat free.
While full out repeats aren’t necessary, I think having “best of” episodes are a great way to advertise the best interviews you had and encourage listeners to go back and re-download (or listen for the first time) older content. Search Engine has done this in the past, and I think it has it’s place.
For example, assuming your great partnership with Merlin Mann continues, I’d love to have a single episode with 2-3 Merlin segments bundled together, maybe with more previously unreleased content in it.
+1 for Rajio.
I’d like to note that itunes at times will cease downloading content from a feed if you have ceased listening to it. That’s when you get the (!) beside the feed. So keeping the feed active with something small would likely be the best solution to this issue.
Maybe you could have a podcast where you recommend people go back and listen to a specific podcast or interview and request comments here on the Blog ? you could call it Nora’s Podcast Club !
I agree, just leave the feed silent. I wouldn’t unsubscribe a silent feed either. Just leave a little audio note in the last show of the season letting us know when to expect the start of the new season.
jimmy
Repeats are not necessary to release, although on weeks with repeats, the Spark weblog might contain the link to the original show.
During Summer or other hiatus, then a weekly release of a podcast of a single long interview would be cool. This would be an excellent thing to get unpaid student interns to work on during the year, by the way, which could solve the person-power issue. A Spark episode with only voice over introductions and an interview or two would be easy to assemble, and interesting.
Repeats are not necessary to release, although on weeks with repeats, the Spark weblog might contain the link to the original show.
During Summer or other hiatus, then a weekly release of a podcast of a single long interview would be cool. This would be an excellent thing to get unpaid student interns to work on during the year, by the way, which could solve the person-power issue. A Spark episode with only voice over introductions and an interview or two would be easy to assemble, and interesting.
Nora,
Thanks for not doing the repeat. I’m with those that think repeats are silly for the podcast.
I’m wondering what resources will still be available in the summer. Would rough unedited interviews still be possible to keep the podcast live and keep people subscribed? A massive amount of time goes into what ends up being a half hour show, and maybe something less quality would still work.
I love that you put the full unedited interviews up.
BTW: I’m always available to chat if you wanted to fill some time. I’m involved in policy where technology controls aspects of our lives — and the key policy question of who gets to control that technology.
Nora,
Thanks for not doing the repeat. I’m with those that think repeats are silly for the podcast.
I’m wondering what resources will still be available in the summer. Would rough unedited interviews still be possible to keep the podcast live and keep people subscribed? A massive amount of time goes into what ends up being a half hour show, and maybe something less quality would still work.
I love that you put the full unedited interviews up.
BTW: I’m always available to chat if you wanted to fill some time. I’m involved in policy where technology controls aspects of our lives — and the key policy question of who gets to control that technology.
Hi Nora and others,
Sorry I’m late to the party. I’ve been turned on to some of my very favourite programs when they were plugged by hosts of my other favourite programs. Ira Glass turned me on to both The Sound of Young America, and the fine folks at On the Media got me started on RadioLab. Better then a plug, why not use repeat weeks to give us all an episode of something else, just like they do on the regular radio?
Also, why does this comment software not recognize Canadian spellings?
Anthony
Raj is absolutely right. This is an on-demand medium and serving up old content doesn’t make any sense. Listeners simply need to know there is no new content and to address the fact that some of the listeners may be new to the podcast, pointing them to interesting old content is the way to go.