robert fitzgerald, phd

I have just registered with Talkr, a service that provides text-to-speech and podcast functionality for blogs.

"Talkr provides a service that allows you to listen to your favorite text-only news sources rather than read them. If you can point us to an RSS or Atom feed (a machine-readable version of your favorite blog or news source) we will convert that feed from text to speech. Talkr can also provide you with a podcast of your favorite news sources. This means that you can plug your MP3 player into your home computer once a day and Talkr will provide you with hours of audio content with no additional work on your part. Talkr will keep tabs on your feeds and send audio to your computer as those audio files become available." 

Here is an audio example of one of my recent blog posts. The link to Podcast (RSS feed) for my blog can be found here

The Australian Blogging Conference will be hosted by the Legal and Regulatory Program of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation and the Queensland University of Technology on Friday 28 September in Brisbane, Australia. Some topics to be covered include:

• Why are blogs becoming so ubiquitous?

• What is unique about the Australian blogosphere?

Citizen Journalism

• Grassroots vs mainstream journalism?

• Video/photo citizen journalism?

• Is there any original reporting by citizen journalists?

• Who cares?

• Case Study: youdecide2007

Blogs and Education

• Why blog in education?

• Examples and reflections?

• Should academics blog?

Business and Corporate Blogging

Legal Issues

• What can I say without defaming someone?

• What can I take from other websites and blogs?

• Encounters with the Law (or the threat of it)

The Politics of Blogging

• Right, left or centre?

• Who cares?

• A politician's perspective

• Blogging the 2007 Federal Election

Researching Blogging

• What research methodologies can be used to research blogging?

Blogs, Creativity and Creative Commons

• What is Creative Commons?

• How can I use Creative Commons on my blog?

• Showcasing Creative Commons and blogging

Building a Better Blog

• Improving content

• Improving design

• Making money

• Podcasting and vodcasting

Concluding discussion

The future for blogging - what's next?

The future for your blog - promoting your blog and building traffic