Sidepodcast

Thursday Thoughts - Why Do You Blog?

This week as the off-season comes to a close, it's the final Thursday Thoughts for awhile. Unusually we have a question in front of us that both Christine and I can answer, but in different ways. So this is my take.

Maverick has put bloggers in the spotlight by simply asking, why do you blog?

This is a bit of a tricky subject to approach, because originally Sidepodcast was about audio and about video. The written word was, and still to a degree is, a secondary consideration. Two scenarios have driven the direction of site in a more textual direction - it is expensive to create two-way conversation using other media, and when time is of the essence, text delivery is faster and more convenient.

The latter is especially true when working on projects on a part-time basis.

Mr. C and Me

I only write blog posts for Sidepodcast and very occasionally for F1 Minute. You might consider me the lesser productive half of the team. I can't remember how I ended up getting roped into writing (I swear I only agreed to a speaking part), so a trip back into the archives is in order.

59 words made up my first post back in 2007, and it wasn't F1 related. A further month passed before I had a go at Ferrari. Following the archive trail through '08 and '09 it's easy to conclude that I primarily blog to promote things.

Catching right up to date, I can see that my text output has increased as more things have needed selling or explaining. My typing speed has not.

I'm confident that if project Sidepodcast ended tomorrow, my writing would cease along with it. There just isn't a burning desire within me to type anything.

All for F1

A year or so ago, we had a problem with people suggesting that we were F1 journalists, or reporters, or some such thing that we weren't comfortable with. For me, Sidepodcast was never a stepping stone into the Formula 1 circus, it wasn't a way to showcase any skills to the wider world, it was simply a vehicle with which Christine and I could work together. To that end it's work incredibly well, despite all the writing I've had to do.

This final Thursday Thoughts question closes the 2009-2010 off-season for me, and I've appreciated reading every question and all the posts that have spilled forth from them. I may not give so much back as some, but I love being a part of the F1 community.

Your Thoughts on This Year's Circuits

With an extra couple of races on the calendar this year, Mr C and I are rethinking the way we watch and discuss Formula 1. Free Practice has to take a back seat as there are only so many hours in the day, and we don't intend to free up all 19 Fridays through the year.

Less Conversation, More Action

A lack of Friday information means F1 Digest has to change, but hopefully it will be for the better. The first noticeable difference will be the reduction in show numbers. For the past two years, there have been four "digest" shows during a race weekend, but in 2010 we'll release only three. Free practice information will be bundled into a better qualifying show on Saturday.

The running order for F1 Digest will now look as follows:

• Thursday - Race preview in audio
• Saturday - Free practice and qualifying round-up
• Sunday - Race round-up

If you need more detail, all of this information can be found in our brand new 2010 F1 Calendar. Please subscribe to keep up-to-date.

Living for the Weekend

The weekend preview show will remain, but there is one addition to the show that I want to introduce, and that's your cue to get involved. As an introduction to the race, I want to get your thoughts on the circuits. Whether you love or hate them, favourite sections, thoughts on the atmosphere, and any other notes you'd like to make. If you've ever been to a race, first hand information is also a bonus.

I'm looking for opinions via text here, no need to pick up the phone for this one. The emphasis should be on concise thoughts, short sentences and catchy snippets, but I want to hear what you think about every circuit on the calendar (although Korea might pose a challenge).

I will read them out, mix them up and make the preview podcasts a great start to the weekend. I've set up a wiki page for the purposes - multiple entries per circuit are actively encouraged! There are a few examples on there already, so it just takes a moment of thought to add your own. You can also leave them in the comments here, or fill in the contact form below.

After submitting your ideas, all you need do is stay tuned and listen out in the first show of the year - the Bahrain Preview!

If you have any other opinions about F1 Digest, things you would like to see included, or anything that would make the coverage better for you, please let us know in the comments.

How Hard Can It Be?

Guest writer Jon Waldock talks us through the transition from commentator to podcaster, with a quick guide to the pitfalls and the positives of talking out loud.

Earlier this year the opportunity arose to become one of the commentators at the 24 hour 2CV event at Snetterton and after recovering from what was an exhausting weekend I realised that I enjoyed doing things with audio; whether commentating on a pit stop, explaining race procedure or playing jingles, I had fun doing it all. Since I have been a long time Sidepodcast listener/commenter the next step seemed obvious - a podcast. I mentioned this idea on my blog and it got a great response and I was even pointed in the way of a podcasting kit.

"How hard can it be?" I asked myself. The answer was very.

I’d settled on the topic quite easily as there’s only one subject I know a lot about and would feel comfortable talking about knowledgably; junior formulae, and so ‘The Feeder Series’ was created. My podcasting kit arrived with mixer, microphone, headphones and various bits of software. In reality all you need is a microphone and to download Audacity, but as I knew I would need other inputs in the future, I went for the whole kit.

Once I had started playing about with the software and hardware it dawned on me what I had let myself in for. Firstly, I discovered that I don’t read out loud very well and as such the first episode, which was only 6 minutes long, took a good few hours to get right. However it does take time and you can’t expect to be producing professionally sounding recordings first time unless of course you do that kind of thing for a living.

After feedback from the comments I made some changes to the hardware settings and to how I was speaking as well. The thing I have found most hard is trying not to sound monotone and like I’m just reading from a script, but these things don’t happen quickly, and so patience is the key with such a project.

Once I’d finished my first episode I had to find a host. Currently my podcast is hosted by 2 different sites - Podbean hosts my website downloads and RSS subscriptions, whilst my iTunes downloads and subscriptions are hosted by Podcast Machine. It may seem odd to do it that way and I hadn’t planned to do it like that, but as Podcast Machine do not offer a podcast website (but do have the best free bandwidth and storage package), Podbean was the next option.

Now that I’ve got the hang of the equipment I can start to grow the listener base of the podcast; through social networking, setting up interviews with drivers and through word of mouth. Whilst still in its infancy, the podcast is growing and although I might not be on the iTunes top 20 yet, it’s something that I can say I’ve made, that serves a purpose, and that ultimately is fun to do.

People Who Listen to Sidepodcast, Also Listen To...

Not so long ago we discovered the online music recommendation site last.fm had introduced the ability to create "groups", or areas on the site for like minded individuals to share musical tastes and ideas.

Given that we're prone to signing up to anything with a login button, we created a Sidepodcast Music Group, admittedly with no real clue as to what use it might serve.

Quickly however, this proved to be something of a special idea. In essence, anyone with a last.fm account can join the group which allows you to take part in audio related discussions and to see what other Sidepodcast listeners are enjoying at any particular moment in time.

That's all well and good, but the really cool feature the group offers is that any songs you listen to get added to the weekly Sidepodchart - calculated every Sunday, as all good music charts should be. Having a chart gives us a good idea of what tracks people who listen and contribute to the show also consume, as well as highlighting those who actually have some taste when it comes to music.

There are currently 18 members in the group, including ourselves, and after about three weeks The Beatles top the chart which also features, Beck, Kings of Leon and The Ting Tings. Wonderful stuff but clearly none of those are our doing.

If you're interested in seeing what the F1 community listens to, check out last.fm/group/sidepodcast, and why not sign up while you're there?

New for 2009

A very, very long time ago, eons ago in fact, we introduced the idea of 'free F1 content for your website'. Essentially this was an embeddable audio player containing news in the form of F1 Minute. That generic player has done remarkably well for us, and we have seen it appear in the most unexpected of places and there have been many more downloads of the daily minute as result. Now we're taking the concept to the next level.

Much as we did with Sidepodcast's Partner TV Player, we're offering a branded version, tailored with a custom image and audio introduction, to anyone who's interested in including it on their site. For the past month or so we've been trialling the idea in two places - Pitlane Fanatic and Racing Bulls. If you haven't already seen them in action we recommend you go check them out now, but here's a heads-up for the uninitiated.

Pitlane Fanatic

Jackie and Jolly from Pitlane Fanatic were on the show a couple of days ago, and you might've got the impression Jolly is something of a fan of Christine's daily minute. We're just as big fans of them too though, and we love the look and feel of the site. The F1 Minute player fits snugly into the silver design.

Check out pitlanefanatic.com for more information.

Racing Bulls

Ian from Racing Bulls is a familiar name around these parts and for the second time he signed up to be our beta tester. The branded F1 Minute player is situated above the ever popular message board and just like the previous example contains a custom logo and audio introduction.

Check out f1network.net for more information.

If you're interested in partnering with F1 Minute, please either email Christine or let us know in the comments. The audio is updated every weekday during the off-season and seven days a week once the racing gets underway. It's free to use, easy to install on most sites (we can help if you're struggling), and now you can integrate and brand it as your own. What's not to like?

The Twelve Days of F1 Christmas

During a recent live recording of F1 Debrief, the Sidepodcommunity managed to butcher the 12 Days of Christmas like never before.

The end result was so spectacular it really does deserve of a post of it's own. So we've created a 7" single version for your listening pleasure / pain.

The full history of how this came about, can be found on the on the Wiki, but the full rundown went something along these lines:

• Twelve years of gridwalks
• Eleven points for Rubens
• Ten Kimi fast laps
• Nine dromes from Tilke
• Eight points positions
• Seven different winners
• Six wet races
• Five Massa spins
• Four Heidfeld podiums
• Three maiden winners
• Two teams a-leavin'
• And a last corner Championship win!

A huge thank you goes out to Alianora, Alex, Andy, Gavin, Little Purple Goth, Journeyer and Steven for taking the time to phone in, as well as to everyone who contributed to the list in the first place.

We couldn't imagine a more perfect end to a brilliant season. I just hope we haven't ruined the original for you forever.

The 2008 Megamix

A little while ago, actually a long while ago now I come to think of it, Rich sent us an email containing his personal 2008 season review in audio. At first we figured we'd slot it into F1 Debrief along with other voicemails, but it was a long review, weighing in at nearly 15 minutes, and we didn't want to lose any of the insight. Thus the idea of an end-of-season megamix was born.

We've already discussed this plan on the past two shows, but I promised to go into the idea in more detail as well as put up a reminder, plus Dom's threatened to keep hassling me until I do.

Those who've followed Sidepodcast for a while, may remember back at the start of the year we requested listeners to call in with their predictions for the outcome of Melbourne Grand Prix. The results were compiled into a dazzling montage that set up the season nicely. It seems only correct that we should close the year with something similar.

Therefore what we're after is yet more contributions from your good selves. We promise this will be the last thing we ever ask of you, this year... probably. What we'd really like is for anyone and everyone to let us know what you loved, hated, supported or derided between the months January to December 2008. What made you cheer and and what made you jeer? Can you name the moments you'd watch again and again, and the ones you'd sooner forget?

12 months is a long time though, so just in case you've forgotten, here's a potted history of F1 in 2008 to help dust off the cobwebs:

• The banning of traction control
• The magically, magnificent, combustible Red Bull
• Kimi losing control in Monaco and taking Force India's sole chance of points with him
• Début wins for Kovalainen, Vettel and Kubica
• The resurgence of Renault and fall of BMW
• Poor stewarding descisions, pretty much everywhere
• The making of Massa
• Pitlane lights, both red ones and green ones
• The rain at Silverstone and again Monza
• Rosberg outdriving his penalty at night
• That corner, on that lap

You can tell us everything either by calling our voicemail on 0121 28 87225 or Skyping the username sidepodcast. If neither of these appeal, but you have the ability to record your voice onto computer, you can mail us by attaching an MP3 and posting to christine [at] sidepodcast.com.

It doesn't matter how long or how short you make it. We already have donations spanning from 1 minute to 20 minutes. Whatever you've got to say, we'd love to hear it.

I've put back the deadline twice already, but I swear that Sunday 14th December is the very last day we'll accept contributions and then we'll compile them altogether, and create a 2008 Megamix to keep forever.

Where do we go from Here?

At the beginning of the month we asked for ideas and feedback relating to things that need improving on the site for next year. We received tonnes of useful comments and we've collated that information into all manner of updates scheduled for sometime in January.

Because we're needy, high maintenance people the next thing we're after is criticism on our audio podcasts, video podcasts and live shows. Last year we picked up some excellent constructive feedback from both doctorvee and BlogF1 on ways in which we could improve in 2008, and the result of those suggestions led to the creation of F1 Digest.

In order to figure out how Sidepodcast 3.0 will look and sound, we're really keen to find out what you like and dislike, the shows you can't live without and the bits you'd never listen to again, even if we paid you.

The Sounds

Aside from the change of name, F1 Debrief has remained pretty consistent throughout the year. The changes made in January have stood the test of time, but we've had complaints regarding the show's length, and that sometimes we don't give all the driver's enough coverage. What can we improve on, drop or add to make Debrief better in '09?

F1 Digest was new this year, but how does it stack up against other podcasts? Do you listen to all the weekends coverage and does it give you enough / too much detail? Tell us what you think is needed for next year.

The mini-series remains one of our most popular shows, and this year listener feedback went so far as to create two of the series as well as to nominate a host of future shows. We don't have any specific plans to make changes to this in the future, but we're always open to suggestions.

The Pictures

At the start of the year we had the frankly laughable idea of releasing videos on a weekly basis. This turned out to be more difficult than we planned, but we did at least manage to put out two episodes of F1 Rewind. Should we make more time for a video news show or are race preview videos, along the lines of Inside Track, more important? 18 - 20 videos a year is probably our limit, but what should they contain? Can we do a third year of track guides or do we know our way around by now?

The Bit that Breaks Often

Although the idea of doing live shows only came into fruition halfway through the year, they've started to take over our lives. There are an awful lot of improvements we're thinking of making in this area, but what things do you think we should work on? If we keep doing live video / audio next year, would you still tune in? Should we do more, should we do less and are you interested in "behind the scenes" coverage like green screen recording, or do you prefer interactive shows such as the podpanel.

We really appreciate and take on board anything you can throw at us, and as before, I believe Rich is working on a survey that we'll combine with comments and hopefully come up with bigger and better things for 2009.

Rock Chick of the Century

If you've ever glanced at our Last.fm playlist, then you'll know our taste in music is eclectic and probably not up to anyone's standards. Some would even go so far as to say we have bad taste in music, and I would argue... no, actually, that's probably fair.

If you're a last.fm user and haven't added us as a friend please feel free to do so. We frequently find cool and interesting music to listen to just by peeking at what others are playing. As podcasters, the site also provides some cool insight for us - did you know for example, that people who listen to Sidepodcast also check out Maurice Hamilton's show and the Renault podcast too? Okay, maybe not that insightful then.

Dancing like there's no one there

Nevertheless, despite already publicly showing our poor taste, we put our necks on the line, and decided to pick out some podsafe songs to play during our pre-race chats on the Parade Lap show. Whilst our DJing skills leave a lot to be desired, some of the songs we have played have been real gems. We've always made the track information available on the Sidepodcast Music page, but awhile back, Dan Brunell suggested we go one step further.

Apple's iTunes offers the ability for anyone to create an iMix, with which I can pick out songs from the catalogue, put them in a playlist and suggest them to you. Therefore I've created a Sidepodcast iMix [iTunes link] containing many of the artists we've played during our shows this year. That includes The Parade Lap, various mini series and any music used in videos.

If you ever heard a track you liked and fancied grabbing a copy for yourselves, please do check it out. Each one is just 79p (from the UK store), we don't make any commission from sales, we just like to spread the love to artists who are forward thinking enough to let us play their songs on our shows.

And I Would Listen to 300 More

Quite honestly, you couldn't have scripted it better.

I'm not sure how it happened, maybe the stars are all aligned or something, but Tuesday 7th October, marks the one year anniversary of F1 Minute, which by some freaky coincidence also happens to tie in with the 300th episode of the show.

That's 300 minutes or 18,000 seconds of Formula One news delivered to your ears in the past 12 months, all from the lungs of one girl. if you listened to every show back-to-back, and they are archived should you fancy the challenge, you'd have exactly 5 hours of entertainment at your disposal.

I have to take my hat off to Christine, because when she first suggested the idea I figured it would last about a week before the colossal amount of work would bury her.

She hasn't stopped though, nor shown any hint of slowing down. Even when she was unwell post Silverstone the minutes kept on coming. On two occasions there was a requirement for multiple shows in a single day, and despite a minor slip up on my part not so long ago, I've listened to every single one of them.

This evening we'll drink a glass or two of champaaagne and say thank you to the F1 circus for providing a seemingly never-ending stream of fascinating stories, as well as one to everybody who's subscribed, listened or left comments in the past 365 days.

Thank you one and all!