Podcasting with a purpose

Podcasting, eh. Maybe its me, but little about this medium has so far struck me as being "innovative". Yeah, I can listen to radio programs I missed, and IT conversations is really useful, but nothing has yet made me go "ooo, thats an unusual idea". Until this - guided tours for places you're visiting! OK, its not groundbreaking but its a practical useful extension of the idea which I found myself wanting to use, to download something for the various hols destinations I have in mind, or National Trust properties I intend to visit. Obvious problem - no content. Sigh. Still, like the idea...

Extending this philosophy, there's a real buzz in Talis at the moment precisely because we are becoming far more innovative in the way we look at the world of emerging technology, and we're getting people in who can see how to exploit this view. Something I mentioned a while back which I got to play with, and has been shown at the Talis Research Days, plays up to this idea. Richard has been experimenting with Web Services, and created some really innovative ideas from...well, nothing. One service utilises googlemaps, and various Silkworm components (Access control, library directory) to create a service where the user can see on a map libraries by them, find details on these, and even search them. Another highlights ISBNs on any web page, uses FRBR to find related ISBNs, sticks some books jackets in and purchasing info and also lets you search your local library. And this is with any ISBN in any webpage.

There seem to be hundreds of these ideas knocking around at the moment and - once the Lyra workload lessens (first beta release this week of MARC21 Alto and Talis Base - woo hoo!) - I can't wait to start thinking far more deeply about these sort of things so we can start linking all this smart innovation to identified customer needs. And thats the crux - Web2.0 will provide us with the opportunity to develop innovative solutions both huge and tiny - and its going to be (partly!) down to the analysts working with our customers to find ways to use this innovation to make a real, direct and practical difference to everyones lives. Oooo, I can't wait ;-)