ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

First, thanks for all the great responses I have so far. Others have sent
answers and referral's off list. Keep them coming.

Second, I agree with Sue Ann, but was about to put it in different words.
Basically they help you fulfill and extend your mission and promote your
brand. I don't think there will ever be money directly made CREATING
podcasts. The money seems to be in the promoting, disseminating,
advertising, and the playing of Podcasts (ie hardware).

Podcasts are great for the same reason the web is great. It helps you reach
a wider range of people interested in your content area (which for some
museums can be quite narrow) with audio, and soon video, content they can
listen to at their leisure. At first all we are going to do is re-purpose
audio content we already have. If it proves popular, then we may branch out
and create Podcast specific content.

Bill brought up an interesting point in his post. He concluded,  "I think
before we can answer Matthew's question about measuring success, we
have to define what our hopeful outcome is." Absolutely, and in the post I
did not send I went into far too much detail about that issue and included
background on our mandate to reach more Americans and not just those who
live close to or travel to DC. But that made my email drone on (I do that
sometimes)

I was wondering how those institutions who had implemented this technology
evaluated the program. So far it sounds like people are evaluating it simply
by download count, which strikes me as appropriate for something so unknown
and mercurial. Knowing simply how many people are interested in a new
program is preamble to more sophistacted analysis as the technology, and our
use of it, matures. And, at the least, will help us decide whether it is
worthwhile for each of our institutions to invest in this type of
programming.

Keep those comments coming both on and off list, I am enjoying them and
they are very useful.

Matt White



>>> [log in to unmask] 11/08/05 01:54PM >>>
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
*****************************************************************************

It's also a great way to extend the learning, beyond that of the museum
visit.

I can see  a museum writing a grant to the NSF for a new
exhibition/program
and using podcasts as part of a strategy for extension activities.

Sue Ann
Green Bank Science Center

***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at
http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]

***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]