Carnival of the Blue #22

image credit: Jason Robertshaw

Carnival of the Blue #22 is now up for your consideration at Rick’s Malaria, Bedbugs, Sealice and Sunsets blog. It’s a big one.

I contributed a couple things for this Carnival. First, I submitted my last podcast entry, I Heart Darwin. Yes, I know, it is an audio submission and not your traditional textual carnival fair. But it was the biggest thing I was able to accomplish last month and my thanks to Rick for including it. I have a lot more planned for the future, but my perfectionist tendencies are working counter to regular spontaneous blogging submissions. Sigh.

I also made a custom web badge for CotB #22, featuring one of Rick’s beloved coral creatures, a moray eel. More details on that process later. However, it is released under a Creative Commons license, so feel free to use it as the terms allow. BTW, my original CotB badge is also under a Creative Commons license. So if you want to remix or remake it for you own custom badge, go for it.

Podcast of the Blue

The other big announcement is the Podcast of the Blue. Rick and I are still working out all the details. But the notion is as follows.

On or near the first Monday of each month a new CotB host puts up the official CotB blog carnival post. Approximately one week later, after everyone has had a chance to read the entries, the host invites the authors on a first come, first serve basis to do an audio chat about their entries. That month’s host can emcee the conversation if they are comfortable with the added role. I can act as the podcast producer, making sure the technical details are covered. After post-production, I’ll send that month’s host a link to the audio file so they can put up a second entry on their blog (along with any show notes). This means that the CotB host gets two opportunities for traffic (bonus). After one month, I will duplicate the entry from their blog onto an archive at a new Web site, podcast.oftheblue.com. Then the next month the cycle starts again.

Participation in the Podcast of the Blue is optional for the host and the entry authors. I am approaching this as an enhancement to the CotB, with the monthly hosts acting as the main vessel and the podcast.oftheblue.com being there as a support craft. There is also every possibility that technical and scheduling snafus will make it all collapse in on itself.

For a list of past Carnivals, visit the carnivaloftheblue.blogspot.com. Next month’s ride will begin at Monterey Bay Aquarium’s SeaNotes blog. It also looks like there are still some open slots in the 2009 lineup, so if you would like to host a CotB, sign up now.

Tagged as: blogs, eel, Illustrator, Photoshop, podcasts