I love an idea that's both simple and brilliant. Here's one: Unite podcasting with "live listening" and make it point-and-click easy on a platform that supports community contributions.
Drupal for Artists and Musicians has done exactly that with a little open-source Flash applet and a
bit of documentation. You can
see and hear the results on a demo site.
Here's how it works:
Drupal, a free content-management/blogging system, makes it easy to create an audio blog -- just write a blog item and attach an MP3 file. Since Drupal generates RSS2.0 files in just about every possible context, you have an instant podcast machine. Simpleplayer, the Flash applet, reads the RSS feed associated with any Drupal blog (individual blogs, community blogs, whatever) and loops through the attached MP3 files, playing them sequentially for any site visitor. So you have both podcasting (offline, synchronized, portable) and streaming audiocasting for casual visitors.
Here's what you could do with it. Record and edit your own segments with
Audacity and run a virtual newscast. Open it up to bands in your community and let them blog their own sound tracks. Play DJ (using unencumbered music such as you can get from enlightened publishers like
Magnatune). My wife instantly figured out how a coach could use it to program and publish audio workouts.
Like blogging itself, the simplicity of the process will undoubtedly lead to some surprising applications.
You can do the same thing a lot easier for...
