DaveTraynor.com

In recent months, I’ve been having a blast discovering lots of new music, especially what is called podsafe music by artists who are letting their music be played by podcasters.

But I admit that I also like to listen to lots of music that isn’t “podsafe.” In fact, my Ipod is full of all the copyrighted stuff I’ve collected over the years.

So I was really excited to hear about a new service that’s up and running called Pandora. It’s essentially an on-line radio service, but you can create your own, personalized stations, tailored to present music you like.

The format is deceptively simple, but it really works. If you don’t believe me, just try it out for yourself. Just go to the website and type in the name of an artist, or a song that you like. Then the site will start playing music that matches your preferences.

How does it do that? That’s the really cool part. The site is based on the work done by a dedicated bunch of folks who have been working on something called The Music Genome project. Their goal is to break down music into essential elements in such a way that you can identify which songs will be attractive to which people.

But like I said, the details are less important than the end result. And the result is — it really works. The online service lets you create up to 20 personalized radio stations. You have to register on the service, but it’s not a problem and it’s available for free. There is a Premium edition, without any advertising, but the ads are not really a problem. After all, it’s the music you’re interested in.

Oh, one more thing. If you’re not a US resident, you’re technically not allowed to use the service, according to the licensing arrangement the site has with the copyright owners. But as long as you don’t tell anyone I told you, there is an easy way around that requirement.

When you get to the part of the registration process that asks for a valid US Zip code, just go here, enter the name of any US city, and you’ll get a valid Zip code. Then just copy that back into the Pandora site, and you’re off and streaming.

And since it’s the holiday season, you should know that you can create a holiday music station really easily. Here’s what the site says about that:

To hear holiday music on Pandora, just start by entering the name of a favorite holiday song (for example, “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”). We’ll then ask you to pick from a list of artists that we know performed that song. Pick your favorite version and we’ll create a station that will play other similar holiday music. While we’re not able to play that exact song immediately, it will play on your station eventually so keep listening!

If you’d rather start from an artist, just enter the artist’s name followed by the word holiday (for example, “Nat King Cole Holiday”). We’ll then use that input to build a holiday station based on the musical qualities of that performer’s holiday
classics.

If you’re looking for something nice to listen to at your desk filled with stuff you like, give Pandora a try.

Update – Dec 21 — I’m not the only one that loves this site. Here’s a detailed review by Tonya Engst from the Tidbits site.

As an English major and an all-round word kind of guy, I feel good about having my opinions validated by a prestigious organization that is widely respected as an arbiter of the English language.

This week, the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary chose podcast as the Word of the Year for 2005.

According to a recent story in the Globe and Mail The New Oxford American Dictionary defines podcast as:

“a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made
available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. And it’s nice to know that all my harping about how cool a use of new technology podcasting is getting some larger agreement in those not directly involved in this business.

Now I’ve got to start thinking about what the word for 2006 should be…

Last week, I posted a note about the virtues of simplicity — and how Google is one of the best examples of how “just enough is more.” It’s a mantra that will only gain strength as we continue to reclaim our most precious resource — time.

Today, I’ve got a follow-up. In the most recent New York Times Magazine, Clive Thompson takes a look at why so many of us are being driven to distraction by interruptions. (The article, called “Meet the Life Hackers,” might still be available on the Times site, but here’s a link to Thompson’s blog, with a complete version of the story.)

What makes his essay so interesting is research that shows that interruptions are not always the problem — in fact, they are often the solution to problems that we are facing, and we need the information they are providing. But not always. And there’s the rub. We get interrupted, which might be a good thing and it might be a bad thing. But until we stop what we’re doing and check, we won’t know. And by then, it’s already too late.

Here are three excerpts to whet your appetite. But be warned … this is a long article … make sure you have the time to read it without interruptions! Ha-ha!

Excerpt #1

Information is no longer a scarce resource — attention is … 20 years ago, an office worker had only two types of communication technology: a phone, which required an instant answer, and postal mail, which took days. “Now we have dozens of possibilities between those poles,” Rose says. How fast are you supposed to reply to an e-mail message? Or an instant message? Computer-based interruptions fall into a sort of Heisenbergian uncertainty trap: it is difficult to know whether an e-mail message is worth interrupting your work for unless you open and read it, at which point you have, of course, interrupted yourself. Our software tools were essentially designed to compete with one another for our attention, like needy toddlers.

And another…

Once their work becomes buried beneath a screenful of interruptions, office workers appear to literally forget what task they were originally pursuing. We do not like to think we are this flighty: we might
expect that if we are, say, busily filling out some forms and are suddenly distracted by a phone call, we would quickly return to finish the job. But we don’t. … The central danger of interruptions, Czerwinski realized, is not really the interruption at all. It is the havoc they wreak with our short-term memory:
“What the heck was I just doing?”

And finally…

But for many users, simplicity now trumps power … we have shifted eras in computing. Now that multitasking is driving us crazy, we treasure technologies that protect us. We love Google not because it brings us the entire Web but because it filters it out, bringing us the one page we really need.
In our new age of overload, the winner is the technology that can hold the world at bay.

Thanks to David Allen for the pointer to this article.

Last week, I attended a panel discussion on blogging in business hosted by the Canadian Public Relations Society, Toronto, called “Wake Up and Smell the Blogs!” The chair was Michael O’Connor Clarke whose personal blog is Uninstalled. The other panelists (I’ve linked to their blogs) were Jack Kapica of the Globe and Mail, Mark Evans of the National Post, John Oxley from Microsoft Canada, Rick Segale, a Toronto venture capitalist and Geoffrey Rockwell, from McMaster University.

I’ve linked to all their blogs above, but only John Oxley and Geoffrey Rockwell actually wrote about the event and those posts are the ones I’ve linked to.

For me, the most important message was how important it is to have an authentic voice in order to have a credible blog. This is even more important in a business blog. Blogs are successful when the authors are passionate about what they’re doing and their passion has to come across in a way that is real.

Geoffrey Rockwell summed things up for me in his post, when he said:

Finally, I realized, again, how blogging is not about the technology, it is about voice and engagement. It is a sign that web technologies are maturing when things like RSS and XML are not really the issue, it what you do with them and how they are hidden.

I’m having an “ah-ha!” moment after thinking about this for a few days. I realize just how passionate I am about this “new media” thing and its potential for the communications business. Yet somehow, I’m not connecting what I’m doing (on a daily basis) with what I know is possible.

Sure, technology is a cool thing and at first, it tends to obscure the real uses of these new tools for communicators. But eventually, content takes over as the true measure of how useful something is for the people using the technology. If the content is up to it, no matter how “cool” the product doesn’t get used. And making sure the content is good is my job.

What really hit me is that I am just as up-to-date (maybe more so) on the topics of interest and the current events in the blogosphere as the panelists were, yet I’m not really participating in that world. I watch it from a conventional corporate communications perspective.

I’m on the cusp of straightening out my thinking in this area. When I do, I’ll write about it.

I was going to write a post about an article that’s out on the Fast Company website about Google, and how hard they work to keep things simple. But, thanks to my putting off writing about it, I see that my good friend Eric Eggertson at Mutually Inclusive has already posted a great commentary with a link to the story. Check out his take here.

Thanks Eric

As you may or may not know, Kelly has been on several recruitment trips to visit US college rowing programs in recent weeks. Although she hasn’t made a decision about where she’ll end up, I thought you might like to know what she’s been doing.

So far, she’s visited Washington State University in Pullman, WA, the Univeristy of Washington, in Seattle, Sacramento State University, in Sacramento, CA (obviously) and the University of Louisville in Kentucky. While the west coast is beautiful, the rowing programs look a bit stronger in the east…so we’re still waiting to see what happens.

She’s now evaluating at least two offers but she’s still waiting to hear from a couple of the schools. Needless to say, we’re pretty excited in the Wood/Traynor household!

Watching Kelly jet off to parts all over the continent has really brought home to me just how quickly Heather and I will be on our own. While I keep reading about how some parents are getting used to their kids staying at home forever, that’s not the case with us.

Cory was by last night to pick up some recipes and we were chatting about his future. He’s really enjoying his house, but he’s thinking that he might like to find a place of his own come next May when his lease is up. Right now, he’s living with four other guys and while that’s all right, it can be a bit tiring at times. Especially when you want to go to bed and everybody else is interested in sitting up and drinking beer!

So, when Heather and I head out to Victoria at the end of the summer, we’ll be on our own, for the first time in over 21 years…hard to believe. (Of course, Jaime will be close by…which will be nice.) Speaking of being alone, Heather will be spending January and February in Victoria, before coming back here to wrap things up in Hamilton. And then she’ll be back there for good in July, while I’m not likely to make it out until September or so…it’s going to be an interesting year, to say the least.

Well, that’s my short update for today. More to come soon, I’m sure, especially now that we’re having an election…oh joy!

You’ve probably heard about Google’s plan to index all the world’s books. If you haven’t, you might be interested.

At first, it sounded like a great idea. Then some publishers and authors’ groups stepped in and cried foul and claimed that Google was an evil empire intent on smashing the sacred cow of copyright protection. Sounds like a bad thing, right?

Since I’m a writer at heart and by profession, albeit one who is fascinated by all things electronic, this is a debate I’ve been watching with interest.

Well, today, I found a great commentary at Wired News by Lawrence Lessig, one of the founders of the Creative Commons licensing scheme, who is someone I think a lot of.

I think he’s hit the nail on the head. And his warning of what the result of this could mean for the future of the Internet is defnitely food for thought. Read it for yourself.

Just a short note to say I just got off the phone with Heather. She’s watching the Canadian University Rowing Championships in Victoria.

Jaime’s Varsity 4 just won their race, by a comfortable 3 boatlengths! So they’ve repeated as Canadian Champions, capping off a very successful fall rowing season.

I know Jaime is flying higher than a kite right now. Congratulations to her and her whole team!

Heather called me while I was in the car home from the Toronto airport. I’d just picked up Kelly, who is back from her recruiting weekend at the University of Washington and Washington State University. She says she had a great time and she’s got lots to think about.

But a final decision will have to wait until she visits the Univeristy of Louisville in Kentucky next weekend and Sacremento State in California the week after. Right now, there’s a lot of stuff to process, but with luck, a decision will be made before Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed!

Man, am I a Proud Papa or what!?