Blogger in Draft is the test version of the popular blogging platform by Google which I also use to power many of our educational web sites. The Blogger team just introduced 2 new features: Podcasting Enclosures and Polls:
"Starting today, we’re automatically adding enclosure information for Blogger video uploads, so your blog with video has instantly become a video podcast. Your readers can watch your videos on your blog with the Flash player, or they can subscribe to your videos with their favorite podcatcher."
The Blogger team sense of humor is admirable:
"We’re not 100% versed in podcasting ourselves (those guys left), so this is an area where we’re really listening to you for advice."
Those guys are Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jason Goldman who started the original Blogger and added such great features as audioblogging which we used extensively to discuss EKGs, X-rays and clinical management. Ev and Biz (shorter names are easier to remember) created the podcasting web site Odeo which did not really take off and was sold some time ago. Unfortunately, our audio files have been unavailable for several months although the new Odeo owners are reportedly working to fix the problem. The latest (and wildly popular) project by "those guys" is Twitter which Joshua Schwimmer of Kidney Notes uses for microblogging -- just scroll down his sidebar to see the Twitter widget.
In conclusion, the video upload and podcasting make an already good blogging platform by Google even better. I would recommend it as a starting point to any aspiring blogger/medical educator.
References:
Polls and enclosures added to Blogger in draft, 06/2007.
Update 07/07/2007:
Audioblogger files are online now and you can enjoy Dr. Koch's short EKG teaching sessions again.
Update 07/31/2007:
Audioblogger files are missing again. I hope the new owners of Odeo are able to fix this and bring the MP3 recordings back online.
Updated 08/24/2007:
Video upload is now available in the regular version Blogger.com.
A CommonCraft video explains what a microblogging platform is by using Twitter as an example.
This Google video shows it takes about 2 minutes to start a blog on Blogger.com. Creating a web site has never been easier.
Further reading:
The accidental innovator. The Economist, 12/2007.
Twitter for Academia. AcademHack, 01/2008.
Updated: 03/10/2008
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