³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Hello there!

This week has brought about a packed edition of Pods and Blogs. If you want to listen through, you can find the download here.

If there is a page you are interested in or a character you want to follow up and find out more, this is where you will find all of the links.

was making tech headlines last week, opening up public data for programmers and developers. But what does it really mean for you and me? Chris Vallance joined us to explain what it is and introduces one of the people using public data to make something useful - developer Matthew Somerville who works with .

Something to look forward to on the goggle box later this week. The Virtual Revolution is here, well, the TV series is. Top web celebrities, big names and those who help to manufacture our daily experience online talk about their hopes for the future and more. The program came from a lot of work online asking audiences in a collaborative documentary making effort. Dan Gluckman told me more about a conversation that helped the show along.

The second half of the podcast this week is dedicated to youth online. Under 18s have been up to some impressive things and I have been lucky enough to catch a moment with some great examples.

Our youngest achiever this week is . At ten years old he has a good enough understanding of programming that he creates tutorial videos on YouTube to help out others. In a chat with Andrew and his father Oscar he reveals his favourite programming languages and how he may have plans to take over the world.

is the creator of the iSketch iPhone app. Creator as in the designer and programmer for starters. He was inspired to make the app to raise money for charity, started a company to market it online. Cameron is 11 years old. He and his dad, Jeff, told me more about getting the iSketch off the ground.

Moving up a few years this time, I had a catch up chat with Scott Campbell. You may remember him as the editor and creator of Net News Daily, the global online newspaper, launched when he was thirteen. Now, at the ripe old age of fourteen, he has taken that business, added a picture agency and refocused in a more local manner on Scotland alone to provide a tighter base for advertising revenue. Precisely what all fourteen year olds would be considering - right? Take a look at .

At the oldest end of our scale returns. Last heard on Pods and Blogs making a peace sign out of people, he has been living and studying in Swaziland. Trevor creates video online for all sorts of mainstream outlets, focusing on the good things that do happen in a place that sees a lot of hardship.

One thing that strikes me about our outstanding youth examples this week is that they are all boys. It would be great to highlight what the girls can do too. Maybe you are part of a girls' computer science club, maybe you can beat the boys at their own development games. Let us know at Pods and Blogs and I'll put together a selection to see if we can match the work that they boys do on-line.

You can email me at Podsandblogs at bbc dot co dot uk or come and say hello on Twitter where we are known as Podsandblogs. There is often a pre-show discussion there and everyone is welcome.

Until next week!
- Jamillah

Hello again,

To accompany your usual does of online discussion and highlights on the podcast here are the links and notes where you can find the people we talk to each week.

This week Chris Vallance takes a look at the immediate response when it came to getting information out of Haiti after the earth quake last week. Luke Renner is the founder and president of , a non-profit media company. He explains how satellite web was vital in getting the message out of a place where traditional methods were no longer an option.

Other tips for following the story when it comes to crisis reporting include taking a look at search engines that specialise in Blog search options. Take a look on Twitter and use a hash tag - one of these # - next to the keyword you are looking for.
With big events, the story you are seeking may already be a trending topic on Twitter.
Always good for original reporting and incredible reporting by individuals is the site where bloggers work together to report the latest news worldwide.

In a total change of topic. Rhod and I took a look at our resolutions and realised that this is the time of year where those of us on a health kick are likely to start trailing. So we had a look around at the bloggers and communities who are working on keeping us in shape.

Charlotte Hilton Andersen runs the . It's a blog and a passionate community who discuss all aspects of keeping fit whilst keeping tabs on each other's progress, Topics range from the usual hints and tips to more considered pieces about the bacterial state of your gym.

The loneliness of the long distance runner may be a think of the past if you are running with Gordon Harvey, and sometimes his wife, or sometimes the local dogs or sometimes near the traffic. Gordon makes the podcast where he takes us all with him when he goes running. Maybe I could get fit by proxy?

If running is not your thing then maybe a sitting down mode of transport is for you. Getting on your bike is an excellent way to keep fit and blogger Clive Chapman can testify to this. He's lost a great deal of weight and created an enthusiastic community who keep up with biking tips and his progress at his page.

After all that if you are not taken by the more traditional methods of staying in shape and just prefer a little active fun, then maybe the hula hoop is for you. By unusual means, Jenni Sheppard discovered that she should definitely pick up a hoop. By looking online she met a of talented and fit people who convinced her that the hoop is not just y'know, for kids.

Well, if you get a moment amid all that activity, then don't forget to keep in touch. It's great to talk about your comments and emails. Your tips lead us to fresh bloggers and podcasters all the time, so keep 'em coming and always let me know what you think.

You can email me at Podsandblogs at bbc dot co dot uk or come and say hello on Twitter where we are known as Podsandblogs. There is often a pre-show discussion there and everyone is welcome.
Until next week!
- Jamillah

Welcome to another week of web-wanderings,

The podcast is ready to rock and it's a bag of mixed treats made up of smart web based ideas.

Thanks to everyone who added their points about the changes to podcasting. It's important to know what you think and how you hope these weekly editions might be best presented.

This week, friend of Pods and Blogs, Alex Wood finds out about a new romance. Using augmented reality to see where the local singles are is adding another dimension to the dating scene. Alex chatted with Anthon Erwin about his phone based dating service, .

From seeing new prospects for the heart, to seeing radio. Infographics are a great way of describing data in a simple and elegant visual form. of Orange County, New York is creating a series of visualisations based on episodes of the US radio show, This American Life. Having an instant visual reference can really add to the listening experience.

There are now a multitude of ways in which we can stream information, links, feeds and other sources straight to whatever device we choose to view them on or read them. But once you have set up a hose-pipe of brilliant things - where do you find the time to read and see everything and do we managed to actually take that data in and enjoy it?
is a video blogger and producer and he is trying the Slow Media Diet and we can join him if the constant stream of info is starting to become a little overwhelming.

Being more specific about your online consumption can be a tricky thing, especially if you decide to cut out one of the most ubiquitous players on the net. tried to get through a week without Google, not easy for a man who works online, but more surprising were the places where the big G pops up and can be harder to avoid.

That's all we have for you this week. Next week as I slide away from my new year's exercise regime and end up at a computer terminal instead of a treadmill, we're going to talk about exercise. Are you part of a community online that addresses the idea of being active in an interesting way? Then let me know about it!

As usual you can send me an email - podsandblogs at bbc dot co dot uk or come and say hi on Twitter where our screen name, oddly enough, is .

''Till next week! - Jamillah

Happy New Year!

The podcast is in its usual place, ready to download or listen through. There have been some changes to how the Podcast is presented and kept online again, but I think it is best to let the experts explain about what has been happening.

Jim Downie of Audio and Music Interactive has been looking at changes in how the podcast might work and if the episodes should be collected on our pages. Here's what he told me:

"Currently, when a podcast episode is published it is only available for 7 days. We'd like to know the level of audience demand for extended availability and to assess what impact this might have on the wider market. As part of the assessment we decided to run a trial, which ran from October to Christmas 2009.

A broad range of podcasts were chosen and during the trial their associated episodes were not deleted after the usual 7 days. This meant that in the relevant podcast pages, or in software like iTunes, a lot more episodes would be visible and available to download.

When the trial ended, any episodes outside the 7 day window were automatically deleted and if listeners had not downloaded them beforehand they would now not be downloadable.

To try and avoid frustrating or confusing listeners we issued various briefings, so hopefully the message got through that the build-up and subsequent disappearance of episodes was to be expected.

We now intend to collect and analyse the data from the trial. This will help in deciding whether we will offer some or all of our podcasts for an extended period of time, at some point in the future."

So, what do you think? The podcast is now back to being up for seven days, so make sure you catch it while it's hot. I'd like to hear more about how Jim's trial affected you though, so please do leave a comment here - or send me an email. The details for contact are a bit further down this page.

On the podcast this week, we kicked off the new year with an assorted menu of goodies.

Our Chris Vallance put together a brilliant appraisal of Twitter. Graham Linehan, Tom Standage and Alan Rusbridger chat with him about the online and mobile service that has changed the game for so many of us.

Social gaming is spreading fast but how's the quality on story lines? Are Facebook and Twitter related games a matter of clicking to win? Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter Games hopes that his offering, provides more in the way of story writing and user influenced content.

Sci Fi audio can be a treasure or a nightmare, depending on how it is presented. Peter Bullock, editor of translates stories into audio form, sometimes read by the authors themselves and all on a volunteer basis. Find out why he felt that these tales of the unexpected deserved such special treatment.

That's all we had time for this week. If you have been up to something intriguing and fresh online, then let me know and hopefully we can share that activity. If you want to drop me a line about the podcast you can leave a comment here, or send an email to podsandblogs at bbc dot co dot uk. You can also find me on Twitter as

'Till next week!
Jamillah