Comments on: Stanford using iTunes to take lectures global

Working hand-in-hand with Apple, the university is using iTunes to reach alumni. Everyone else can use it, too.

[wyohman]

Yawn!

Wow, take mp3 content relabel it as a "podcast." The emperor has no clothes.

[open-mind]

More Than MP3

It's subscription based free audio content on 1000's of topics
delivered to your computer (and iPod if you have one)
automatically, to be enjoyed any time And it's easy to use.

Brilliant ideas often seem trivial at first glance.

[fear_and_loathing]

Cool...

Now you can actually beat your parent's "little red school house,
uphill both ways, snow up to my eyes" stories.
Mine will sound like this...
"Son, when I went to school, we didn't have podcasts... We
actually had to ATTEND classes".

WOW dad!

[Peter Halmos]

Next step: audio mining technologies like www.compure.com ACTNow

Let's assume we really start to record all lectures, which I think is a good idea, then I think we'll soon need some automated search technologies. E.g. we want to know: "When did professor X talk?", "Give me all lectures that mention the topic Y" etc.
These technologies already exist today. Have a look at www.compure.com and check out the ACTNow technology. Once such technologies are integrated to the recorders the information stored in the audio files can be much better accessed.