Being Interviewed Is Fun
So far with Tech Writer Voices, I've stuck to interviewing other people who are experts in a topic. However, this past week, I changed it up a bit, delivering my own 30 minute podcast on Podcasting, and then being interviewed by Alistair Cristie from IT Author podcast. I came to a surprising little conclusion: being interviewed is fun; so is deliving the entire podcast yourself. I wish I were more articulate and graceful, but even with my uhms and uhhs and patches of silence where I grapple with words, I really enjoyed giving my point of view on topics. When I ask to interview others, I will remember there is some pleasure in that.
As far as audio learning goes, I've pretty much got a system down: I use Pamela and set the mics at about +25% each. But I also use Hot Recorder in case something goes wrong. So far, nothing has been disastrous.
Coming u p next on Tech Writer Voices is an interview with John Mcphie in Australia on indexing. I really enjoyed listening to John. He reminds me of a kind of old-fashioned gentleman scholar whose knowledge of a subject has countless layers of depth.
One new feature I added to the podcast was voice mail. If you listen to a podcast and want to comment on it, simply dial 727-493-2139 and leave a message. No one will answer. It's a skype answering machine. What is skype? Skype is the free internet phone that allows you to call almost anyone anywhere for free. I'm hoping to read one person's comment on every show so that listeners will feel that they can interact more and have an impact on the podcast.
About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.
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