How to create a secure podcast channel for internal podcasting

One of the things which are pretty crucial when you do internal podcasting and deal with sensitive information is the security level you implement in order to protect the sensitive information from unwanted eyes. In the early days when we implemented one of our first podcast series for a pharma company we were shocked to realize that all podcasts showed up in regular podcatch sites such as Odeo. Especially embarassing when Corporate Communications found out about it. Not good.

We learned a lot since. However, most knowledge we learned from trial and error. Surprisingly not a lot can be found on the internet about the process involved. Sure, there are many podcast hosting sites where you can upload your podcast, create a feed and submit it to iTunes. But when you do internal podcasting that is exactly what you do not want to do. Remember, when you use internal podcasting for business purposes two things are important:

1) You do not want your podcast to be found by the Googles in this world
2) You want to password protect your content

In addition, podcasters should in general consider the following as well:

3) You want to be flexible in your decision which hosting service you use
4) You do not want your feed to change since that will result in losing listeners

Regular podcast hosting services are aimed at obtaining an audience as large as possible, and create buzz wherever possible. Internal podcasting wants to stay below the radar, only accessable to selected members.

A few hosting companies have specialized themselves in this area. But not a lot. We have been using Podkive from Genetic Hosting for a while which provides easy creation of the feed through a simple web interface. However, lately they have been having some problems with their uptime, so I decided it was time to investigate other possibilities.

After half a day I think I have figured it out. It does require some logic thinking and I have to admit, it’s not for the technofobes. But it works. Until somebody comes up with an easy point and click system this is what we’ll be using. Let’s have a look.

The ten steps of creating a secure podcast channel:

1. Take an account with a reliable hosting service which offers password protected directories. I’m not providing any ‘reliable hosting service-lists’ since you can find these plenty on the internet. Make sure that you have sufficient storage and bandwidth.
2. In your home directory, create two folders: one for the files (video/audio) and one for the XML file.
3. Password protect the folder with the files. Do not password protect the folder with the XML file.
4. Upload your content via FTP to your files directory.
5. Fire up your feed creation software. I use Feeder for that (Mac only, I’m sure Windows has similar programs too). Create your feed. This may require some setting and filling in the right paths where to find the content.
6. Upload your XML feed via the software to the unprotected folder in your host directory.
7. Check if your feed works. Copy and paste the feed address in your browser. If all went OK you should get a pop-up window asking for your username/password when you want to access the content.
8. Now it’s time to make sure you will have the same feed till the end of days. Go to Feedburner.com and burn your just created feed into a Feedburner feed.
9. Take this feedburner feed (starting with feeds2.feedburner.com/[feedname] and check if it works in your browser. Again you should see a pop-up window asking for your username/password. Fill in your credentials. You should be able to see your content
10. Copy and paste the Feedburner feed into iTunes (Menu Advanced/Subscribe to podcast…). Hit OK. Fill in your username/password and off you go (remember to check ‘Remember Password’)

Because the folder with your content is password protected, Google spiders can not enter and hence can not find your data. If somebody finds the original path (which is difficult since it goes through Feedburner) they still can’t access your files without udername/password. If you want to change hosting services you just link a new feed to your Feedburner feed. End users won’t see the difference.

We think this is a nifty way of creating a secured channel. Is it 100% secure? Most probably not. Die-hard hackers will be able to hack into everything. And remember: the chain is as strong as the weakest link. Change username/password regularly, especially when people leave the company. And of course the morst important tip of the day: Don’t use sensitive information in your podcasts. We use no absolute figures when we talk about sales developments, only percentages. Treat this digital communication channel as any other. Cautiously.

Final video of Digital Pharma: The Impression

We don’t seem to get enough of that video thingie during the Digital Pharma Congress in Barcelona. This time it’s the impression of the congress itself. Check it out…

 

First two videos of my presentation at Digital Pharma

Found myself some time to make my ‘SteveNote’ way of my presentation given at Digital Pharma in Barcelona last month. For a detailed report on the event, see here.

I have split my presentation (Best Practices for the Use of Web 2.0 and Social Media Tools for Internal Collaboration) in three parts:

Part 1: The Need for Innovation in Pharma
Part 2: Social Media and Internal Collaboration
Part 3: Best Practices Using Web 2.0 and Internal Collaboration

In this blogpost the first two episodes (it was late, so the third one coming up asap).

Students perform better with podcasting

Something we endorsed some time ago is now ’scientifically’ proven: the use of podcasting technologies make students perform better in class and is therefore better than the ‘real thing’. According to a study executed by the State University of New York “Podcasted lectures offer students the chance to replay difficult parts of a lecture and therefore take better notes”, says Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York in Fredonia, who led the study.

To study the differences between traditional ‘live’ attendance to lectures and the ‘on demand’ lectures McKinney had 64 students taking a single class on an introducory psychology course. Half of the students who physically attended the class received a printout of the slides from the lecture. The other 32 downloaded a podcast that included audio from the same lecture synchronised with video of the slides. These students also received a printed handout of the material. They were told that they would have an exam the week after.

The results came out pretty clear: students who downloaded a podcast got a 71 (out of 100) on average, whereby the ‘traditional’ students got a 61. But if you were also taking notes during the listening of the podcast the average score would increase to a wobbling 77.

There are several hypothesis for this variation. One explanatioon could be that new technology is…well.. new. And most young people tend to start trying new technologies fast, and hence adopting it. So what would be the effect if the ‘new’ wears off? Back from scratch?

Having said that, the fact that with a podcast you can determine when and where you can consume your lectures plays in my view a much more significant role compared to the ‘latest and greatest’ motivation. Who doesn’t remember physically being present at a lecture on university, but mentally in another universe? Either because it was just not your timing, of you had a terrible hangover (or both, actually). To complete the disaster you would have a professor trying to squeeze an inhumane number of words in a sentence, preferable without interpunction. Bye bye exame.

But if you would have the same lecture on audio synchonized with the slides? First of all, you would follow that lecture once your hangover gained an acceptable pain-level. Secondly you could rewind the wordcruncher over and over again, just as long as you need to understand the guy. And that helps improving understanding (and thus scores).

We are living in a new world where technology is leading us the way. In the Netherlands, classrooms  don’t have a blackboard. They have a whiteboard, attached to an ethernet socker so you can go on the internet. Teachers can show multimedia presentations, as well as the kids. And kids have their own laptop which they bring to school. Every statement done by the teacher can be doublechecked immediately. These kids need new ways for training and education. They can not be formed and shaped like we were (talking 30+ years ago). But also grown-ups can benefit from these new technologies. May be even more since time is often even less available. Within DigiRedo have proven over and over again that the use of these new tools dramatically increases understanding of your message. And understanding the message is what it is all about. Who’s next?

Twitter, tweets and business

When I ask you whether you are already tweeting on Twitter, do you think about ornithology? Or do you think about collaboration and microsharing?

If you belong to the first group, I highly recommend the watch this video, where all is explained about Twitter and the use of it in business.

Thanks for the tip Shwen (via Twitter, of course)

The future of pharma e-marketing

Just read an interesting article on eyeforpharma’s social networksite about the future of pharma e-marketing. They talk about social networking tools and advanced physician portals, streaming videos and closed loop strategies.

Len Starnes, Head of Global Digital Sales for Bayer Schering Pharma indicates that: “Over the next few years, the biggest external impact will be seen on pharma’s interactions with patients, followed closely by the influence on the industry’s online relationship with doctors.” Even more interesting is that Starnes indicates that “social media also is poised to drive significant change internally in pharmaceutical organizations as they strive for productivity and efficiency gains”.

Well, we all know that this is exactly the message we have been preaching. Good to see that Starnes agrees with our vision.

The article continues with saying that US advertising budgets are changing, focussing less on television. Nothing new here, since less and less people are spending time behind this passive medium. Online spending therefore is “up with a lot of room to grow”. Could be. However I still feel that advertisement on TV is the same as advertisement on the web: make it too commercial and people won’t believe it anymore. Wake up, something is going on. Forget about the smooth and slick commercials, time for something different. Also in pharma.

The article then continues describing the power of online video, as explained by Kathleen Oneial, a former vice president of marketing channels at Novartis and Merck. “It’s a wonderful format for consumers and physicians and now that we have such widely available broadband, video will become a big part of how we communicate,” she predicts. “We’ve seen the profound impact of YouTube and others. Video will become an important tool for marketers and we’ll need agencies that have this capability.”

The article of course ends with the usual ‘it’s-so-difficult-in-pharma’ but “those innovative and dedicated enough to do it have greater competitive advantage”.

Say no more.

Full article here.

The New Media Expo – Our first impressions

Just returned from one of our most exciting trips in our relatively short existence. Started in New York with the participation of an Expert Group about social media in the pharma industry, followed by an intense three days of all things new media at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas. I will try to give a brief summary of our experiences, more detailed blogposts about the content will follow later, once we have edited our interviews.

The New Media Expo (NME) was located in the Las Vegas Convention Centre, home of about 20,000 expos per year. According to Tim Bourquin, Founder of the NME, some 2,000 participants made it it the Convention Centre this year. Each day there were 5 different streams to choose from, varying from Podcasting 101 to New Media Strategies. Since we were with the three of us we could, theoretically, split up but we often ended up in the same lectures since our interests are pretty equal. Fortunately we will receive audio files of all sessions later so we don’t have to miss a thing, content wise (why this is not a standard service in many congress organizations is beyond me).

The exhibtion floor was crowded with companies providing goods and/or services to new media producers. We do have a ‘30 Seconds Shameless Self Promotion’-video in the works, showcasing most of the vendors. Stay tuned.

For us last year in Ontario the focus was on learning; this year it was on networking. The lectures did provide a few new insights, but less than last year (we tend to believe that this is because we are learning too in the remaining if the year ). We met some great people and we spend more time discussing new media concepts and the future of these exciting developments (yes, and in the US that starts with an early breakfast meeting at 7:00 hours, thanks Paul)

It is good to see that internal podcasting got a place in the program too this year. Robin Maiden, a pilot of Delta Airlines did a presentation about his project within Delta Airlines. The project is quite similar to our internal podcast concepts and it is interesting to see that Robin is facing the same challenges as we do, as he discusses in our interview we had with him.

Paulo Tosolini, New Media Business Manager in Microsoft presented the final product he showed us last year: the Podcast Kit for Sharepoint. With this (free) add-on to Sharepoint, companies can create a ‘YouTube’-like experience whereby employees can upload company-related videos they made themselves. I was pretty excited when Paulo presented the concept last year and I’m pleased to see that Microsoft decided to make it into a commercial product. We have a vivid interview with Paulo about the Podcast Kit, so check back later.

Last but not least I want to mention Shwen Gwee, a podcast host of Med 2.0 and active in the pharma world as well. We got to know Shwen as one of the most extended networkers in new media and definitely sharing our vision for the use of new media in the pharma world. He has interviewed some interesting people in this industry, known to approach these new technologies with utter care. Watch out for our interview with Shwen as well.

René, Mikki, Erik and Shwen

Together with Paulo Tosolini from Microsoft, Robin Maiden from Delta Airlines and Schwen Gwee from Med 2.0 we are dedicated to give internal podcasting a more prominent place in the next NME.

We look back to a fullfilling expo with lots of ideas to bring home. It was motivational and inspirational for us. Although less ‘intimate’ than last year (Las Vegas is so big, at the end of the Expo everybody ‘disappears’ in the city) there was sufficient content and networking possibilities. We therefore highly recommend this congress to new media producers and related companies. Rumor has it that in 2009 it will be in San Fransisco, We for sure can’t wait…

New Media Expo takes off like a rocket with Gary Vaynerchuk

The New Media Expo 2008 took off like a rocket. First keynote of Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. Gary, a first generation Russian immigrant who loves the NY Jets and dreams of buying the tam one day, just gave a very energetic presentation. He produces and hosts a very successful podcast show on one of his biggest passions, wine. His key to success:

• Know your DNA, and do what you want to do
• Know the 2 C’s: Community and Content
• We all know it, Content is King, but don’t forget that Marketing is Queen and the Queen runs the household.
• Be everywhere, on every platform available
• Love your fans, and answer all their e-mail
• Patience, patience, patience and you will get there

His biggest mistake: his twitter name, garyvee. Why? Nobody can find him, it’s damaging his brand.

This kick-start sets the tone for the rest of the coming three days.

Brainstorming @ Google

Yesterday was the final day of the workshop in New York. This part of the workshop was executed in the office of Google (well, part of it). Many people were excited to go to this place, including myself. Don’t know exactly why that is. Could be that Google represents the ‘new’ business model regarding the interaction company/employee, or because we use it everyday?

What I do know is that Google pays a lot of attention to the well-being of the employee, or I should I say ‘well-feeling’ since so many candy bars freely available might hinder your well-being at a certain moment. They give the employees the idea that ‘work’ and ‘play’ can be combined, no doubt hoping that the employees are more productive and/or make longer working days. The latter is no doubt the case, although I also believe that New Yorkers in general make their fair amount of hours on the workspace.

The offices are well designed, combing modern elements with the old elements of the building. There is food everywhere, varying from candies to sushi. People may eat and drink for free. There is writing on the walls and it all looks a bit campus-like. Which is intentionally, so I’ve heared.

After the meeting we had a short tour around the premises (thanks Lisa, I know you’re reading this).

For the last day Kevin Colleran, Director of Media Sales and Employee Number 8 at Facebook joined the team of Experts. Kevin had some interesting facts about Facebook (now number 1 social network in the world, having 92 million subscribers and growing with some 400,000 per day) and a jaw-dropping presentation of one of the new features (see later post). I did a short interview with Kevin, and hopefully I can put that online as soon as possible (needed to borrow somebody else’s camera. Mine broke, remember?)

After a good dinner in what was for me the most chique Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been in we spent some time absorbing cocktails in a dito club somewhere high up on a terrace overlooking the city. Well deserved for all the people involved I think.

Hello from the Big Apple!

We usually start our US New Media trip with the intention to meet some celebrities. Last year we met Ryan and the Dorkman, kind of celebrities in the new media space, this year we wanted it to upper it a notch. So I met Leonardo DiCaprio in the plane. I was thinking to do a short interview with him about new media (after all, he was using a MacBook Pro) but I was too busy preparing myself for the upcoming workshop. Sorry Leo, may be next time.

I won’t dive too much into my first impressions of this amazing city called New York (we are not a traveling blog) but let me say that I think Peter Stuyvesant did a pretty lousy job giving the city away to the English in 1664. I can see why the workshop about innovation in communication is held in this trendy place.

It’s now 11 pm and I look back to an inspirational first day. We started off by introducing ourselves to the group. The group is split into two, a group of end users (the target audience) and a group of people who know a thing or two about digital media (the experts). What followed was a mapping of the digital media the young women are using on a daily basis (yes, I did take some notes since some of it was new to me) and other available tools brought in my the experts.

Obviously I can’t go into details about the outcome of these sessions but in general I observed that some of the new tools like Twitter for example were completely unknown and not seen as very relevant, and that reading books which they buy -of all places- in a bookstore (“since you can wander around there”) is still very popular. So may be this generation is not completely lost after all? .

When you look at the overview, it’s really amazing what a modern human being has to deal with on a daily basis to get all the information he or she wants. We identified 19 media touch points, and I’m sure this list is not complete. 

In the second half of the day we brainstormed about ideas based on these digital media touch points, trying to relate that to the marketing of a pharmaceutical product. These ideas were later presented to the target group who could score the ideas. Interesting to see that augmented reality was scored quite high.

Like I said, it was inspirational. It’s a special experience to be in a group and talk about digital/new/social media where everybody is on the same level. A lot of geeky talk about new iPhone apps, the newest and coolest website technologies but also about the social implications of social media on society and the never ending discussion about privacy and the internet (always interesting if someone from Google participates in the discussion).

Gave a lot, learned a lot. A fair balance of this first day. Tomorrow we’re heading to the Google offices for the final part of the workshop. Need to buy a new camera too, since I realized that the internal mechanism can not handle a 1 meter drop on a wooden floor…