This episode introduces the launch of “Open Tabs,” the brand new series from Bob Dunn. He shares lessons from decades of running his own business, reflects on moving from grid to list layouts in web design, and talks about the value of repurposing podcast content with the help of AI. He also highlights the global tech site restofworld.org.
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Takeaways
Introduction of New Series: Open Tabs Bob Dunn announces he is bringing his voice back regularly with a new series called “Open Tabs,” where he explores topics that are currently on his mind, drawing from his experiences in business but focusing on present and future ideas.
Preference for List Layouts Over Grids Bob Dunn expresses a personal preference for list-based website layouts instead of grid layouts, particularly for presenting podcast episode archives. He finds lists to be easier to navigate and more reminiscent of podcast apps, believing they make it simpler for users to find and scroll through content.
The Value of the Human Touch in Podcasting Bob Dunn emphasizes the importance of preserving the nuances of human language in podcast production. While AI tools can enhance audio and streamline content, he prefers to retain natural elements like pauses and filler words to maintain authenticity.
Extensive Content Repurposing Using AI Bob Dunn details how Open Channels FM repurposes original, human-generated podcast content into multiple formats which include show notes, intros, takeaways, question summaries, mentioned links, timestamps, transcripts, blog posts, newsletters, and LinkedIn articles which with AI making the process easier and more effective.
Transcripts as Essential Content Bob Dunn strongly advocates for providing full transcripts with each podcast episode. He believes it makes content accessible in multiple formats and helps listeners absorb the information in the way that suits them best, contrary to the notion that it “gives too much away.”
Curating and Sharing Insights Bob Dunn points out that valuable quotes and topics from episodes are highlighted in standalone blog posts, newsletters, and LinkedIn articles, further broadening the reach and usefulness of their content.
Recommended Resource: Rest of World Bob Dunn recommends restofworld.org as a valuable, globally-minded tech news resource, praising its editors and writers for delivering well-rounded perspectives on technology developments around the world.
Travel and Upcoming Episodes Bob Dunn shares that he is traveling to Krakow, Poland for WordCamp Europe, with regular scheduling to resume the following week, and encourages listeners to look out for future episodes of the “Open Tabs” series.
Questions Answered in this Episode
Q: Why might someone choose a list layout over a grid layout for podcast archives or episode listings?
A: According to Bob Dunn, a list layout feels more natural and user-friendly for presenting podcast archives, as it mirrors the way podcast apps display episodes. Lists also make it easier for visitors to scroll through content and quickly identify what they’re looking for, without the distraction or need for featured images.
Q: How does Open Channels FM repurpose podcast content for different formats?
A: Bob Dunn explains that Open Channels FM repurposes their podcast content into show notes, blog posts, newsletters, and LinkedIn articles. This includes extracting key quotes, creating detailed transcripts, and drilling down on specific discussion topics to deliver value in multiple formats suited to their audience’s preferences.
Q: What is the value of including full podcast transcripts on a website?
A: Bob Dunn believes transcripts are crucial because they allow visitors to consume podcast information in a written format, which can be more accessible or convenient for some people. Transcripts also enable deeper repurposing of content and help listeners find and revisit important points discussed in the episodes.
Q: How does Open Channels FM use AI in their podcast production and content repurposing?
A: Bob Dunn shares that while the original episodes are human-generated, AI tools help with tasks like creating show notes, extracting key takeaways, and repurposing transcripts into other content types. AI streamlines the process but doesn’t replace the original human voice and nuance central to their podcasts.
Q: What is the human touch in podcasting, according to this episode?
A: Bob Dunn emphasizes the importance of retaining natural language, nuances, and imperfections in audio content rather than over-editing with technology. This ensures the podcast maintains a genuine, relatable human feel, which can be lost if too much is edited out by AI tools.
Q: Why might images be unnecessary in podcast episode lists?
A: Bob Dunn mentions that not every list or episode archive needs featured images, as they sometimes add little value and can clutter the user experience. For some sites and users, clear titles and easy navigation are more useful than accompanying images.
Q: What kind of web content does Bob Dunn recommend for staying updated with global tech news?
A: Bob Dunn recommends the website restofworld.org for its comprehensive, well-edited global tech coverage. He appreciates its broad perspective and insightful reporting on technology developments from around the world.
Q: What kinds of content does Open Channels FM create from each podcast episode besides the audio?
A: Bob Dunn details that each episode produces show notes, detailed transcripts, blog posts focused on specific topics, special newsletters with highlighted quotes, and LinkedIn articles featuring longer quotes. This multi-format strategy helps reach audiences with varied content preferences.
Mentioned Links and Resources
- Rest of World (Recommended Website) – Broad global tech news site offering well-rounded reporting from diverse regions.
🔗 https://restofworld.org/ - The Human Touch in a Podcast (Featured Post) – Bob Dunn’s reflections on repurposing content and the value of human-created podcast content.
🔗 https://openchannels.fm/the-human-touch-in-a-podcast/
Timestamped Overview
- 00:00 Starting my Open Tabs series
- 03:56 Choosing a list layout
- 09:23 How we repurpose content
- 11:01 Discovering Rest of World website
Episode Transcript
Bob Dunn:
Hey Bob here and welcome to Channel 4. Have a few things I’m going to be dropping, especially since this is my new series, which I’ll talk about in just a moment. Before I do that, I would like to thank our sponsors, OmniSend. If you’ve been thinking about switching platforms, here’s one more reason to actually do it. Omnisend just dropped their SMS pricing and now it starts at just 710 of a cent per message. It’s not a gimmick is just the way they do things. So do check them out and you can get 30 off your first three months by visiting omnisend.com forward/open channels and our newest sponsor, Blackwall. Well they are actually sponsoring me to go to WordCamp Europe which is a flagship event that’s done every year for WordPress. And in addition to sponsoring me to go to that, they are sponsoring us this June. So you’ll be hearing more about them. Who’s Blackwall? Well, in a nutshell, they keep the bot scrapers and that nasty traffic away from your sites and your clients before it becomes a problem. If you’re a developer or agency, it’s worth a serious look, so check them out at blackwall.com.
So as I mentioned, I am introducing my own series. Yes, I’m bringing my voice back regularly, but I am going to be calling my series Open Tabs now. Think about that centrally. I want to talk about. Yeah, there’s things I’ve experienced over my almost four decades of running my own business and I don’t want to dwell on that because I’m always going to lead into what’s happening now and of course in the future and, and it’s really literally open Tabs. I will probably have 1, 2, 3, 4, whatever open tabs. I’ll be talking about something that I am looking at on the web but at the same time it kind of refers to my brain which has I don’t know how many open tabs it has. It has a lot of tabs in there open, but I’ve kind of left them open, haven’t visited them for some time. So kind of the open tabs in my brain. Anyway, that’s why I’m calling it Open Tabs. So I hope you enjoy this.
And I’m going to start by going to my first tab of looking at my own site Open Channels fm. And the reason I bring this up is a little bit to do with design and layout. Yes, I was a designer years ago. Kind of lost that over the years the ability to do a lot of design, but I’m over the grid layout, you know, I don’t even know when it started. I don’t know when I started using it, you know. You know what I’m talking about. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just saying personally, from my side, I’m over it. And here’s a reason why. It’s not anything against it, you know, it’s going to be used forever and ever. But as I was looking how I present my archives or a series of episodes, I thought, well, you know, when you go to a pod app, they list your episodes, they don’t put it in a grid. And I kind of miss lists in the sense of, you know, having something you see, scroll down, having something you see, so on and so forth. And also lists without a featured image or an image by it. I don’t always feel like I need images all the time on my site. So, needless to say, this first open tab, as I look at it, and if you go to our site, even on the homepage now, I am using a list versus a grid layout. I’m doing it on my channel pages, I’m doing it on my archive for episodes, archive for news, archive for the blog. So anyway, that’s just something I wanted to mention and I just like it. I just like how it works better. And of course, you know, there may be some grid aspect somebody thinks is still there, but essentially I list what you can find and I try to make it easy. You know, you see the title, you know what it is, you move on in any direction you choose to. So that is my first open tab.
My second open tab is a post I wrote. And I know this is a bit. I don’t want to say redundant, but it kind of reflects what I’m talking about in this post. I call it the Human Touch in a Podcast. And it really essentially is beyond just a podcast. So don’t let that name turn you off. And what it’s about is repurposing content. I mean, this has been around forever and ever and ever. And now AI has made repurposing a lot easier. As you know, from videos to any kind of media, we have so many options to repurpose it. And I thought it might be interesting just to let you know, or actually talk about what I wrote in this article of how we repurpose content or use AI here at openchannels.fm. Now we have original content. All episodes are generated by these, if you remember them, humans. And yeah, I know, podcasting is going in weird directions and stuff, but that’s essentially our content. But within that content is a ton of information that sometimes gets lost. Or you’re listening to a podcast and you think, hmm, well, oh, that was great. Now, what was that again? Yeah, okay, what’s that middle thing? I remember the first part. I mean, I remember the end, but I don’t remember that middle part. Anyway, it’s nothing new to podcasting, and it’s really nothing new to even writing content is repurposing content. Same with video. Same with it all.
Now, again, I said I start with original content. Now with production in the podcasting space. And probably if you’re doing video and stuff, there’s a lot of tools out there that enhances the sound, removes echoes, removes ums and ahs, shortens long pauses, tightens it up. Find content actually in there that it feels maybe is redundant or something you should delete. On and on and on and on. Now, I don’t use a lot of these tools, and the reason being, after doing this for podcasting for I don’t know even how long it’s been, um, 12 years, I had to think about that. Had to go to that tab. Anyway, I love the human language with all its nuances, and I feel by eliminating too much, you lose the human voice. So that is in my audio and sometimes video. But as far as the content itself, within all those episodes, I said before, there’s a lot of gold nuggets. They’re just hard to find, and sometimes they fly by. And I think it’s important to be able to extract that content or essentially repurpose it. And yes, using AI.
Now, with each episode that we do, we build our show notes, we have an intro, we have takeaways, we have questions that were answered, we have mentioned links, we have timestamps. And of course, as we have done from the very beginning, or even as far back as 10 years ago, including a transcript. Now, some podcasters might feel, or some even content marketers might say, hey, you’re giving too much away in the actual post instead of driving people to listen. Well, I feel differently about that. When someone chooses to head to our site, they may do it through a link somewhere. I want them to absorb what content they want in a format they want — audio or written. From there, we do additional content that is generated. A blog post that drills down to a specific topic of the conversation. We also put out a post and a newsletter called Backtalk, where we pull out some of the standalone quotes that share pretty cool tips and insights from both our hosts and our guests. And then on that same track, we do an article that highlights a longer quote from an episode on LinkedIn. And I really believe it’s all about giving your content in various ways to help our visitors, our listeners, our readers get as much out of any given episode.
Now, a lot of this can be also derived from a transcript. So yes, I really believe those transcripts are very important. And so I just want to talk about that open tab a little bit. Some people have asked me how I use AI, how I actually use it for particular episodes. And you know how you can get the most out of a transcript and you can pull a lot of content from that transcript. I used to do it manually. I’ve always repurposed it. Now again, as I said, AI just makes it a little easier.
My last open tab. Well, it’s just that I’m just going to share something. I found a website that I really enjoy and I think it’s just the topics, the point of view. It’s called Rest of World. So it’s restofworld.org — R E S T O F W O R L D .org. It’s really a pretty broad news type site reporting global tech stories. But I’ve just found the editors, the writers really, I don’t know, they pull out stuff and they are really giving us a well rounded view of tech, you know, not just in one country or another, but the stuff that is happening. So if you’re looking for maybe another site, you at least want to check it out. It may be worth bookmarking, putting in your RSS feed or whatever tool you might use.
So that’s it. So you’ll never know what tab or tabs will be open for the next episode. Again, it’s kind of a crazy week. It’s the first week in June. We didn’t have a lot of hosts do any episodes. As you’re listening to this, I am flying to Krakow, Poland and next week we’ll kind of get back into the regular schedule of things. But I hope that you might consider tuning into Open Tabs, my own series on Channel 4. And again thanks to Omnisend. Do check them out at omnisend.com forward/openchannels and to our new sponsor Blackwall at blackwall.com. So until the next time, take care.
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