Don Demsak

Sponsors

The Lounge

Wicked Cool Jobs

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

View more

Archives

Advertisement

Don Demsak » ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1
Images in this post missing? We recently lost them in a site migration. We're working to restore these as you read this. Should you need an image in an emergency, please contact us at imagehelp@codebetter.com
ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1

While going thru my morning ritual of reading my subscribed blogs, I ran across Martin Fowler's announcement of the first ThoughtWorks podcast, IT Matters.  There doesn't seem to be an HTML page up for the podcast, just a feed.  I started to listen to it on the train ride into NYC this morning, and so far so good (well what do you expect).  The only thing I would suggest to ThoughtWorks is if they will to continue with the podcast:

  1. Put up a website (I'd be surprise if this wasn't already in the works).
  2. Add a forum to the site, so people can discuss the podcasts (helping to develop a listener community).
  3. Hire (or contract) a sound engineer.  I know this is just their first podcast, but the sound quality is pretty bad.  From working with Carl Franklin and the .Net Rocks team, I know how hard it is to produce decent sound quality podcasts.  ThoughtWorks should be able to come up with great content for the podcasts, but if the sound quality isn't there, it will limit their audience.

But, don't let these small issues stop you from subscribing to the podcast, the content is worth your time.  I'm looking forward to DSLs Part 2, and beyond. 

Posted Tue, Dec 4 2007 11:04 AM by DonXML

[Advertisement]

Comments

Alex Hung wrote re: ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1
on Tue, Dec 4 2007 2:02 PM
Re: #1 http://www.thoughtworks.com/what-we-say/podcasts.html
DonXML wrote re: ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1
on Tue, Dec 4 2007 2:28 PM

Alex, the page www.thoughtworks.com/.../podcasts.html isn't a website, and it looks like it is for all ThoughtWorks podcasts, not something specific to the IT Matters podcast.  Plus, the feed url is podcast.thoughtworks.com/itmatters/it_matters.xml">podcast.thoughtworks.com/.../it_matters.xml, so one would expect podcast.thoughtworks.com/itmatters/it_matters.html">podcast.thoughtworks.com/.../it_matters.html to be the home page for the IT Matters podcast, or at least the url podcast.thoughtworks.com/itmatters should route you to the home page (it doesn't you get a forbidden error message).  Yes, I know this is just the first podcast, so I've got to give them some time to get it up and running.  But for a company that has an image of a thought leader and agile, these sorts of things should be important to their image.  But as the saying goes "The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes".

Sidu wrote re: ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1
on Wed, Dec 5 2007 5:19 AM
Thanks for the feedback Don, we're working on it.
Alex Hung wrote re: ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1
on Tue, Dec 11 2007 4:50 AM
Don, I agree it is not a web site, but what is a web site nowadays? A web page? A whole site with forum, social networking, web 2.0, etc.? As a ThoughtWorker myself, I obviously believe in doing only what is needed and then build on top as the need arises :) As for the audio quality, it is terrible. It sounds like the podcast was recorded off a telephone conference call, and from a landline no less. Even a moderately cheap headsets (Plantronic's $50 ones), Skype, and a decent net connection will result in much better audio quality. That was what I used on Download Squad for this podcast (http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/06/07/switching-to-ubuntu-linux-download-squad-switcher-podcast-1/). I am sure most, if not all, will be remedied by episode 2.
DonXML wrote re: ThoughtWorks Podcast #1 - Domain Specific Languages Part 1
on Tue, Dec 11 2007 5:53 AM

Alex,  I had the opportunity to talk to kb and Martin about this over the weekend, and I offered words of encouragement.  Hopefully it is just the first of many.

Don

Devlicio.us