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December 11, 2004

Podcast Review: IT Conversations; Memory Lane

This entry posted in: 3 and a half stars , I subscribe , Podcast Review

IT Conversations - Memory Lane

Format: interviews
Content: important people in technology
Rating: 3 and a half stars
What I'm going to do: listen regularly
Typical Length: 55 - 65 minutes

Halley Suitt has a fairly long history in the IT industry. In addition, she's a strong voice for women in IT and an advocate for a larger contingent of women in technical fields. This is an important voice to be heard; it's good to know that my daughter will have a role model in IT and I'm glad that Halley has a public forum like this.

Halley's body of work for IT Conversations is in the format of interviews with a broad selection of people important in IT, either historically or currently (or both). Some of her subjects are important because of their technical contributions and some for their cultural ones. Much of what she discusses with her guests are issues surrounding the history of IT and the Internet, thus, I presume, the title of the series.

Halley's a good interviewer insofar as she is able to keep the conversation focussed around interesting subjects and for the most part keeps control of the conversation. She asks good leading questions to encourage her guests to talk about the subjects she thinks her listeners will find interesting. For my part I favor a slightly more challenging interview style than Halley's and that is occasionally a disappointment - her guests sometimes espouse contestable positions but Halley takes them at face value without asking the probing questions that I would like to hear answered. I'm not looking for blood, mind you, but when someone takes a position I disagree with I want to know why so that I can re-evaluate my position if that's warranted. Perhaps this is a conscious decision made for reasons of time, since a more challenging interview can also be a longer one. Still, she does get a lot of valuable commentary from her subjects, making a very worthwhile interview.

Halley's podcast contains a small break in the middle of the 'cast which doesn't make any sense to me. She mentions in one of her programs that her listeners demand a break around the 30 minute mark, and that would make sense in a way if the content was being streamed. But this is time-shifted audio, and we all have pause buttons and presumably know how to use them; we can take a break whenever we like. So, for that matter, can Halley. The half-time break seems like a throw-back and I'd as soon see it disappear.

Production for the series is adequate and relatively simple - Doug Kaye uses one of his standard musical selections for both the intro / outro music and the break. Doug's intro to the podcast is good as usual, and the transitions into and out of these elements are handled smoothly. The audio has some difficulties, as might be expected in what is essentially a series of phone interviews; there are definitely instances of the participants cutting out and occasionally Halley or one of her guests is difficult to hear. For the most part, however, the audio doesn't interfere with the listener's enjoyment of the podcast.

Track naming meta-data has gone through a shift in the Memory Lane series; at first the tracks were titled Memory Lane and the artist referenced the guest. This has lately been swapped, which I think is a better arrangement. In any case, the naming meta-data provides all the requisite information for finding the podcast both in Windows and on my portable. There's no date in the title or filename, but I don't think that's relevant in this case.

See also my review on other IT Conversations series:
The New, New Podcast Review: Podcast Review: IT Conversations; The Gillmor Gang
The New, New Podcast Review: Podcast Review: IT Conversations; Voices in Your Head

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Posted by cori at December 11, 2004 09:30 AM