Thursday, September 18, 2008

msb-0338 Interning: A lost art...

msb-0338 Interning: A lost art...

The Machine is Using Us (Final Version)
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Professor Walsh explaining "The machine is us"
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intro

Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

MSBPodcast is "not" any kind of a medical podcast.

It is by and for MSers.

Its purpose is to keep us entertained, to explain our symptoms, to remark on our discoveries, and to raise the general consciousness about our disease.

The path to illness is shadowy, murky and rough strewn.

The path to wellness is lit by the lamp of knowledge.

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I have a quick and easy, painless and not too figgin' nosy customer survey that I really, really, really need you to go and fill out.

You can go to my podcast "page" [ http://www.msbpodcast.com/ ], click on the button on the left hand side of the page and anonymously answer a few simple questions.

I really need this.

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Feedback comes first, so...

I admit it. I am a communicating fool.

The Beeb was running an article [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7622191.stm ] about how MS may be more prevalent than previously thought.

I was depressed at the description of the level of misunderstanding about MS.

Pardon me for waxing lyrical and poetic on you, but as Shakespeare had "Marullus" say in "Julius Caesar": "You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things."

There are over 5 million people with MS world wide and there are about 6 billion people who either know enough to be a danger to others or seem to know nothing about anything.

Gad, people's ignorance, willful ignorance, is such an overwhelming weight on themselves, on their own backs; it makes me weep for us as a species.

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Feed Forward comes next, so...

This is "your" segment.

Say "your" piece on this segment.

Share with other MSers whatever "you" want to share.

Drop us an email: "charles at MSBPodcast.com"

Feed Me comes third, so...

I'm making my own baloney sandwiches.

Life is so much more fun when you don't expect anything...

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"Thesis:"

I am writing again because of this strange compunction I have to "run off at the fingertips" and type/talk to somebody, anybody (and lucky you, you actually downloaded this episode so you're "it".)

I was wondering what I would do for an internship in communication studies when I caught (and scrawled down in my nearly intelligible hand scribbling,) something that my professor had said.

Hmmm... I just wondered if I could do it...

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"Synthesis:"

Part of getting what you really want out of life comes from from knowing what you really want.

I am very strange that way. I have "always" known what I wanted out of life (I know this makes me unusual...) I just never know what this knowledge is going to bring or what its going to cost.

I took the professor's remark, which was made in an off-handed way during an aside in class, searched on the internet (because, as my wife likes to say: "the web knows all",) found the company he'd mentioned, found their interactive arm and determined that either they "didn't" know about podcasting, (which was an opportunity because they needed "edjumacatin' ",) or they "did" know about podcasting but weren't sure about its potential and, as "Alan Kay" said years ago, "the best way to predict the future is to invent it" or at least find out about it first hand and close.

Either way, I would be able to intern, get some credits, get some knowledge, get some experience, get my name known out there and mayby figure out how to get advertisers for this podcast.

Since it would cost the firm nothing except some reporting requirements to have me as an intern and would actually earn them some cred (and a few bucks from the gummint to boot,) I figured that this would be an easy cajole.

What did I have that could possibly of use to them?

Years of experience in podcasting.

Years of thinking about the possibilities and limitations of podcasting.

Year of experience with the various technologies of podcasting both from the content side (audio production) and the delivery side (RSS, XML, internet/web transmission.)

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"Conclusion:

You always get more by aligning yourself with other people's motivational vectors than trying to go against them.

I'll let you know how it turns out...

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Outro

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Charles,
Where did you get your figure of over 5 million people with MS?

S.

Charles-A. Rovira said...

There's over 6 billion people on the earth, (6.3 and change)

According to the MS Society, MS affects one in twelve hundred (the prevalence is greater around the poles and less around the equator but its still an average of 0.0833% or,) after a li'l math, about/around 5 million.)

The figure is meant to be merely representative of the order of magnitude of the spread and prevalence of MS.

Still its about 5 million people who can't scrape up a representative minute and some seconds of air time per day because air time ain't free, nobody cares anyway, and what a bummer it would be to have to listen for 216 minutes per day to the "bitch fest" of 15% of the population who are disabled (WHO statistic.)

I'm learning about Radio (your "field of dreams" ;-) for my bachelor's degree in communication and its scary how its set up.

I'm trying to get an internship at a radio "rep firm". They're the people "In The Middle, Where It Matters."

(Sorry I got that from a poster for the charming British town of "Rugby" :-)

Sorry got to run...

Unknown said...

Charles,
According to the NMSS they estimate 2.5 million world wide have MS. The recent stats in the MSIF Atlas (reporting from 112 countries, about 87% of the world population)show 1.3 million. I have also read recent stats indicating 2 million. Sadly, the numbers just get more confusing with different stats.

S.

Charles-A. Rovira said...

Well, strangely, it doesn't really matter.

There's over a million of us, possibly two, possibly five; but less than ten.

Regardless, its more that one but less that ten. That gives us the order of magnitude.

That is enough to start with...

pb said...

Absolutely riveting video.