6/9/08 Episode 15: The News From The WWW - Volunteer Today!

Austin Grammer

Episode 14 is now on-line: www.TheNewsFromTheWWW.org

Thanks again to everyone who volunteered for last week's show - and super thanks to those who contributed two articles! And super duper thanks to those of you that contributed longer pieces - you guys rock! If just 10 people volunteer each week and each select a 5 min or longer article, we will have our hour long show easy!

I'm still working on the syndication service - I can't get logged into their FTP site to share / upload the show. Hopefully I can get that straighted out this week.

As always, if you have never volunteered before, we would love to have you aboard! PM me with any questions.

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Instructions:

Select a news article that you would like to read. Create a post in this thread with the title of the article and a link to the article to claim or get "dibs" on that story so no one else will take it, then record the story in Mono MP3 -6db with a sampling rate of 96 kbps 44100, and then edit your first post and add the recorded article as an attachment and add the runtime in your post so we can track the length of the program (we need one hour worth of material). Please submit your recorded article by Sunday at Noon 6/15/08.

You can pick your own article / news story. Please keep in mind that the target audience is mostly older people with vision issues who already get a lot of the mainstream news from the RIS service through other volunteers reading local and regional newspapers in addition to listening to TV. So I would avoid political and breaking news as those are already covered and change from day to day. Pick articles that will have a week or more of shelf life. Also avoid celebrity gossip, stories of a sexual nature, murder, abuse, etc. Articles that you would feel comfortable reading to someone you just met etc. Articles that are interesting, funny, clever, etc. I have a list at the bottom of this post of some recommended articles for you to get an idea of what I am talking about. Please choose / read articles that are longer than 3 min when read (not including intros). A lot of short articles can be difficult to concentrate on / listen to. Often, you may come across an interesting story or news topic on one website but it is the abbreviated article. If you search the subject of the article on Google News Search, you might be able to find a longer / more in depth article on the subject from another news source. If you can't, please pick another longer article, or, find two similar short articles and read them both and introduce them as such "here are two articles about a popular subject on the web...." "And now another article with a similar but different story". Just use your best judgment. If everyone contributed an article with a average length of 5 minutes, we would only need 12 VO actors contributing on a weekly basis to fill the hour time slot. I'm happy to pick up the slack but would rather hear from more people. You may need to lower the bit rate of your MP3 file in order to keep the file size low enough to upload to the savvy board (less than 5MB)

Here is the script I would like each person to read before reading their article in order to have consistency from one article to the next:

"[ARTICLE TITLE (for show intro montage), PAUSE]

Hi, this is [MY NAME] from [CITY, STATE] and [YOUR DOT COM WEBSITE (if applicable)] with an article about __________(short but intriguing summary about the article you chose).

PAUSE From [SOURCE], [TITLE OF ARTICLE].

[READ ARTICLE]

PAUSE, "For The News From The World Wide Web, I'm [YOUR NAME].

Example:

"City Council Outlaws Skateboarding In Downtown: Youth Unhappy, (PAUSE) Hi, this is Homer Simpson from Springfield, Illinois and homersimpson.com with an article about how one small town is dealing with a skateboarding hooligans. PAUSE From the Springfield Gazette dot com, City Council Outlaws Skateboarding In Downtown: Youth Unhappy" {STORY} "For the News From The World Wide Web, I'm Homer Simpson
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Here are some good places to look for news articles:

The Drudge Report
http://www.drudgereport.com/

Yahoo News Most Popular Stories
http://news.yahoo.com/i/964

Newhouse News Service
http://www.newhouse.com/

AP Wire Top Stories from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/aponline/index.html
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Here are some articles I have come across in the last few of days that I would recommend if you are unsure what to read:

Sweden turning sewage into a gasoline substitute
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/business/greencol28.php

U.S. border agents, lured by the other side
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/america/27border.php

Some US farms outsourced to Mexico
http://beta.ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080527/twl-mexico-offshore-farming-1be00ca.html

Uganda's children work on dangerous rock pile
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080601/ap_on_re_af/uganda_children_on_the_rocks;_ylt=AtiydzdH.3bPtIhfFJJ0IVwDW7oF

Diane Havens · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008, 12:24 (GMT) Post subject:

Oh, gotta get this for my son -- I'll read:

The Wii Fit Workout
Run time 6:14

http://www.newsweek.com/id/138076

Cameron Thomas · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008, 14:14 (GMT) Post subject:

I'll do a couple this week...

Smoking Linked To Midlife Memory Loss
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080609200428.xd0z9kn5&show_article=1

and

Scientists Ponder Moon Explorers' Need For Water
http://www.newhouse.com/scientists-ponder-moon-explorers-need-for-water.html

John Zadikian · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008, 16:17 (GMT) Post subject: Woof!

As an animal lover, a story about keeping Scruffy cool in the summer heat I'm sure will get tongues wagging... Smile

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24990796

TRT: 5:06

John Zadikian
Welcome home, Stanley!

Cameron Thomas · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008, 18:30 (GMT) Post subject:

Here are a couple of short ones for you.

Smoking Linked To Midlife Memory Loss
French Press
Runtime: 1:49
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080609200428.xd0z9kn5&show_article=1

and

Scientists Ponder Moon Explorers' Need For Water
Newshouse News Service
Runtime: 3:09
http://www.newhouse.com/scientists-ponder-moon-explorers-need-for-water.html

-Cameron

Clinton Nobles · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008, 04:54 (GMT) Post subject:

I have found a very interesting site. I love research and this site has articles from all over. It is called scienceagogo.com It is really neat. Anyway, here is one I chose for this week. Looking to do a couple hopefully, but life is full this week.

Chat soon.

Omega-6 Intake Can Determine Offspring
http://scienceagogo.com/news/20080510192326data_trunc_sys.shtml
Time: 3:12

PS: On a side note I thought I would put some music to it and I am thinking of doing like a podcast with these articles I do. (not sure if they are still mine or not, but anyway, thought you might like to hear so I included it.)

Scott Paxton · Scott_Paxton_WWWNews-06-15-08.mp3

Here is my story for the week.

Disabled Youngster Is Spokesman For Voiceless Peers

http://www.newhouse.com/gritty-disabled-youngster-is-spokesman-for-voiceless-peers.html

Time-5:01

Thanks,