Audio MBA Mondays
I've got some great news to share with all of you. MBA Mondays is now available in audio form. The coolest part is how it happened.
A few months ago, I met Tyrone Rubin in a room on turntable.fm. He was DJing and chatting. Because that's what you do on turntable. We got to talking and now we are friends. We haven't met but I'm sure we will at some point.
A few weeks ago, Tyrone emailed me and told me he wanted to do voice recordings of all the MBA Mondays. He has a friend Raph who is an actor and does voice work and they wanted to do it as a "labor of love." I listened to the first few and dug the South African accent. Tyrone and Raph are both South African and live in Cape Town.
So we created a SoundCloud account and they are recording and uploading. The've done 20 so far. They will get all 87 done in a month or two. And then they'll add a new one each week.
So if you are in a car or at the gym and want to listen to MBA Mondays, you can do that now. You'll miss a bit without the images and the links. But I've listened to many of these episodes and I have to say they are a pretty good substitute for reading the blog.
Here's the SoundCloud account. Here's the RSS feed. Here's the podcast on iTunes. You can also get the SoundCloud app for Android or iPhone and listen with that.
I was really impressed with how good of a podcasting platform SoundCloud is. It's a breeze to setup the account and start uploading. Getting an RSS feed and submitting to iTunes is also easy. And since SoundCloud is building out apps for all the popular mobile devices, you can listen pretty much anywhere on anything. Yet another USV portfolio company kicking ass. Well done SoundCloud. And most of all, well done Tyrone and Raph. Thanks for doing this.
Comments (Archived):
Ha, what a really cool idea! Can’t wait to start listening to them.
really hope you enjoy!
I think this qualifies for what Ron Conway called “collaborative consumption” on stage at TC Disrupt. This is the modern/digital way to earn a Street MBA. Thanks to Tyrone and Raph for making it possible.
Thank you for all your help and l have been loving following you on tumblr.I sent an email first thing this morning to Raph explaining that this is exactly’collaborative consumption’ at work. How insane!
Thanks for that podcasts, I love the result!
We really hope you enjoy and will most def get up to date asap. tx!
all the content i create here at AVC is creative commons licensed. book publishers contact me all the time to “write a book”. i always say no. but they could easily take the content and make a book out of it. my license allows that. and they never do it. so strange.
I think that a book without your endorsement and maybe some new content would not be that appealing.
rightbut tyrone and raph did it and then asked for my endorsement
But they are not trying to make money like publishers do.
how do you know tyrone and raph aren’t trying to make money?you can make money without charging for content
@fredwilson:disqus That’s true, they could make money in many ways and I would love that they do, but from your post it seems that they are doing it for other reasons (fun, friendship, exposure, relations… labor of love!).Of course that can translate into money down the road, but what I wanted to point is that usually traditional publishers work in a different way.
exactly. i know what you were saying and i just wanted to make the point that things that start out for alterior motives often end up making money. this blog started off as something fun. look at it now.
Sounds like a good topic for a future MBA Monday: ways to make money from online content.
Weird indeed, especially since the license doesn’t prevent them from using it commercially. They’re probably looking for exclusive content.
exclusive content is an anathema to me. never ever ever ever
This is a money quote, and so much can be written about it. It’s almost the essence of most of your investment companies where users are generating content & the company generates meta content on that content. “you can make money without charging for content”Let me count the ways….
i recently converted the entire series to epub/mobi format, is this something you would be interested in sharing with the rest of your readership? i haven’t found the time to incorporate the spreadsheets (probably would translate poorly to 6″ screen anyways), but it’s definitely a start. oh, and the TOC seems to work just fine as well…
sure. tell me how to access it and i’ll share it with the AVC readership
here’s a dropbox with both mobi and epub (according to the service they will be available for the next 30 days, plenty of time to download host here if desired). all of the images in your original posts are included, but at least a few will cause a little bit of eye strain (i tested on my nook). overall though it’s highly readable. let me know if you see any mistakes and i’ll gladly touch it up.http://ge.tt/9la6Nw7
what kind of app do i need to open a .mobil file?
it looks like i can’t reply to your other comment, maybe a disqus limitation on levels of nested comments?at any rate, you should be able to open the .mobi with kindle reader for pc, i just tested and it works fine. the other option is to just sideload it onto the kindle and test (if you have one).
is there a kindle reader for mac osx?
yup! forgot to mention it’s cross-platform:http://www.amazon.com/gp/fe…
It opens up access to older content which I’d be unlikely to reread, but am more than willing to listen to passively while out walking and letting my mind wander.
This is great! Now I can finally get to read (“listen”) to MBAMondays. Thanks Tyrone, Raph and Fred.
wattpad and soundcloud could produce great collaborative consumption for audio books
oooh. you know there is nothing that gets me going quite like portfolio synergy. i lovvvvvve it.
I like it. I think I’m gonna have a very intellectual gym session.
Really hope you enjoy the audio Matthew. Feedback is most welcome, thanks.
Thank You Tyrone and Soundcloud!
Thank you Shana if you use it, will be most happy
I probably would use it as a refresher, but I’m actually one of those people who learns best from reading/writing. It is definitely very good for those who learn best through audio methods
Yip I am def one of those audio junkies. No idea why. Think could be attention thing. Just love listening. But in no way am I presenting this particular MBA content as a substitue. Especially due to the maths involved in some of the courses. I aimed at adding value, and yes as a refresher can hopefully also serve a purpose to you. What I liked was when I was editing it, I had the posts and read and listening to them, which helped me.
Actually, do you think CC licences cause more remixing across content the way Audio MBA mondays happened?
that’s the whole point
Well, yes, but does having a legal method to do so actually cause more remixing. Many people just ignore copywrites – so does CC actually help, or should we just rewrite copyright law because of these flaws (much like the flaws in patent law)
It would be amazing if Soundcloud allowed to subscribe to external podcasts (I think it’s not possible now, please correct me @davidnoel:disqus if I’m wrong). I’ve already followed the account you’ve created, but being able to subscribe to RSS feeds without the need of a user publishing the feed inside Soundcloud would be perfect. The best app for podcasts I’ve found for Android is Google’s Listen,but it’s far from perfect and I think SoundCloud be much better with a couple tweaks.
Cheers for audiolising Fred. The narrator sounds like a rapper. Will there be a rap version of your MBA Mondays 🙂 ?
the content is creative commons licensed. rap away!!!
Since the AVC content is free to remix, it would be awesome to see hip hop versions of audio MBA Mondays. Just like Educational Rap / Rhythm, Rhyme, Results:http://soundcloud.com/educa…Btw, @tyronerubin:disqus would be great to change the license accordingly on each of the recordings to reflect attribution.
You should get @djstevereporter:twitter to do it… http://www.youtube.com/watc…”We’re sitting here, we’re sitting here, talking about term sheets.”
practice?, we talkin ’bout practice????
I am a big consumer of audio-books and pod-casts. This is straight up my alley. Thank you so much Tyrone and Ralph!I currently live in the UK and, after hearing so much about turntable.fm, I am hating that it is not available outside the US!
I am also an audiobook junkie, which is why I wanted to do this. Thanks and really hope you enjoy.
trish, we need you to comment more here. the men to women ratio is not good.
Thank you so much for the encouragement. I will certainly try to do so! I gain so much from everybody’s comments that it is only fair to contribute to try to give back.In any case, I do read all your posts. Although, sometimes, I have to ‘gulp’ them all at once during the weekend!
What about an experiment with teaching one MBA Monday from a whiteboard for 10 to 20 minute video? I think the visual aspect of it may be helpful to learning the concepts. I struggle with the written style of the posts.What about an experiment with a future post devoted to how some of the MBA posts cumulatively build on larger concepts? I think this would give users some starting points among the 87 existing MBA posts. I struggle with getting a starting point for some of the content.
I think you are looking for a Khan Academy for MBA.
I’m interested in incremental changes to MBA Mondays to add value.I’m more interested in Fred’s take on “MBA” than a more generic “MBA” that would come out of Khan. Khan does a good job.
i’m going to videotape the live MBA Mondays classes i’m going to start soonhttp://www.avc.com/a_vc/201…
cant wait, love video as much as audio!
I like the idea of starting with the first post, or starting with the more beginner concepts and moving towards more advanced. Thanks,
be even nicer if you streamed it as well
i will
Thanks to Tyrone for stepping up to help with this. I look forward to listening to some of them, which I’ve already downloaded from i-tunes.
Yeah so happy, thanks Robert, hope you enjoy.
What a great idea. I wonder how this relates to the MBA series you plan on doing with Skillshare? I haven’t listened to it, but was curious- did they include the comments too in the audio?
No. But, Yes it would be great if Fred can suggest the quotable quote comments to Raph and he can try to change the voice and make that real!!!
The community is rating the comments by likes.It will be challenging to parse the discussion to capture the context of the comment so it has value.
Right. You need a human editor to pick a few top/useful comment threads and incorporate them under the Discussion rubric.
Yes…but then someone besides the community (likes) needs to create a criteria. In this case, context issues aside, why wouldn’t most popular be most valuable?
Yes, most popular & best rating would definitely be top picks.
Ownership of the comments should also be considered. Fred has said that his content is under CC, but what happens with comments? are they under CC because they are in Fred’s blog? are they Disqus’s property? user’s?Disqus terms are not very clear regarding that. They talk about several available licenses but I can’t find where they are. @danielha ?
Gd point.To me, once I hit [Return] it’s all public info.
As soon as you press [return] I consider everything under CC.Safest way to conduct business online.
Same for me, but if I were to use the comments for anything I would like that completely sorted out.
The answer to that is “it depends”. Where I’m posting from, I hold the copyright for this comment, and through the act of posting it a license to publish is implied. I can revoke the license in writing.If I were to revoke the license and my request went unheeded things get a bit tricky. I either have to try and have a civil case heard in my jurisdiction (e.g. a different country), or petition to have a civil case heard in the publisher’s jurisdiction.Better just to assume any comment you make is commons: You’ll sleep better.
I was not worried about my comments, I assume they are CC. My worry is about comments in general. We were discussing about including comments in the recorded versions and I was wondering if there is a right to do so. As you perfectly explain, law and the internet don’t mix very well.
We were discussing about including comments in the recorded versions and I was wondering if there is a right to do so.Well… where I’m commenting from shift in media is tricky, however given this specific purpose is for “research and study”, you’d be able to make a good case for Fair Dealing under section 40 of the copyright act. Another angle is fair comment.We have quite a lot TV shows now that stream curated tweets from the show’s hashtag onto the ticker at the bottom of the screen. Some of the shows even interact with the twitter audience. In this case you’ve used the hashtag which implies a license to the network to publish.(I assume the practise is fairly widespread these days. Twitter has made some forms of TV participatory and that’s really cool in my book.)
oy. i am not sure i own the comments. i think you all own them. so i’m not sure i can cc license them.
That is a very good point and one of I have been considering. In fact, I have considered deleting my Disqus account due to the uncertainty surrounding that very issue Fernando
skillshare is live teaching in a physical place. i am planning my class now. i had hoped to get it done this month.
Fantastic job done by Tyrone and Raph. I was listening to some of the topics i liked and also reading the comments here and typing this comment. One good thing about listening is you don’t have to be 100% on it (like reading)…50-90% is good enough depending on the topic and the skill on that topic for the person who is listening.Once again Great work Tyrone and Raph.Fred: you have mis-spelt Tyrone’s name as Tryone 🙂
haha yip I didnt want to say anything, thanks! Really hope you like them, will get up to date soon, thanks.
crowdsourced copy editing FTWthanks!
Thanks, guys.Great read Ralph!!!
Thanks Tom, I will tell Raph. We really hope people listen and love it.
I don’t always get a chance to read the posts in real time, yet prefer reading because I can do it faster than listening. Appreciate the opportunity Tyrone and Raph have afforded me with the audio version. I’m excited about re-listening to all the posts now while I’m out walking. Maybe I’ll remember them better 😀
Really hope you like it Mark, thanks!
Passed word around to my Twitter (got a little excited with the F-Yeah) and Google+ feeds. I’m listening to the podcasts now while coding at work. Multi-tasking MBA mondays review for the win.I usually listen to my favorite drum and bass customized pandora station while coding at work, but appreciate the change of pace.
yeah def seeing twitter love. Makes me want to get through them all pretty quickly. Thanks for that and keep posted until we catch up.
Cool! That would be a big boon to auditary folk. I look forward to listening.
Hope you enjoy it Rohan, thanks!
Hey Tyrone, Thanks a lot for doing this. I’m just looking forward to getting these on my iPhone. And then we should be good to go!
yeah either get Soundcloud app or podcast the 20 posts. Please not we will be getting better with the audio quality, just in case its not 100% perfect. Hope you enjoy it Rohan!
Okay great. Soundcloud app is the way to go then. I’ve put it down to try during the week. Do let me know if there’s anyting else I can help with.. feedback etc. 🙂
Very slick. I have 2 actions:1. give out the RSS to my podcast-listening MBA-heads2. re-evaluate soundcloud — that is pretty slick
thanks hope you enjoy.
soundcloud is in berlin. you could fly there in about an hour
we need a disqus rank called “old timers”you’d qualifyi think you were commenting here in 2003!
Now I have to change my slide deck for my MBA class tonight. Sigh.At least I’ll have a new podcast to listen to for the 90 minute commute.
Really hope you enjoy Michael. thanks!
Great idea. Love audio.
Thanks Pete, love it too and hope you love MBA mondays audio version. thanks
Thank you Tyrone, Raph, and Fred. I’m excited to start using this for my morning run!
great hope you enjoy listening to it Stephen, thanks!
I smell a new business model here…
Another great post!! Read about the other companies USV owns, I must say they have such a nice portfolio.
I smell a new business model here…
loved the “street mba” comment, for sure that’s what i’m getting here and as a south african i get an extra kick out of hearing the accent. love it, thank you Fred, Tyrone and Rhaph
our pleasure. hope you enjoy Tanya, thanks.
This is great news for us folks who commute many hours each week. Makes it much easier to follow content. 🙂
great hope u enjoy! tx
This would be great.
thanks Eric hope you enjoy.
Hope you enjoy it Charlie, thanks!
new disqus profile pic! i like it.the wise man from lancaster!!!!!
I noticed too and did a double-take! @ccrystle:disqus
Saw it on his blog post today. Nice. Until now, thought he only had half a face.