h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You know what, this could be absolutely brilliant.

If only I had a microphone and a webcam...

It will be absolutely brilliant, Psyc. All I need is some material

I never thought of a webcam.


Not that I have one, mind, but I could try to borrow my son's webcam.

What a good idea

But then - what will I do with it if it works?

Non-techie that I am, I can smell disaster àla lil.

If it works, you email it to me. It's my problem then

I guess I'll have to have a crash course in how to use a webcam first.

If ever I will make something, I'll email it to you.

What kind of content are you looking for - meaning, you mention poems, but the AViator vids are really complements to entries. What would be ideal, and how wold a beeblecast appear?
(Not familiar with podcasts much.)

The first thing to say is that this is separate from the rest of the Aviators' work. Making clips for EG Entries was one idea, and it's worked pretty well, but this is rather different.

Podcasts are basically when you take some of the best elements of a particular show or website and put them together to make something for people to listen to. The Beeblecast will do that for h2g2; capture its whole spirit in a neat ten minutes.

As for what we're looking for, it's pretty open-ended - it's more like the Post than the Edited Guide, and text versions of the Beeblecast articles will form a special edition of the Post. Poetry is an easy example for me to cite. Off the top of my head, say I wanted to contribute something about my wildlife garden:

I could go the whole hog: make AV with some footage of the various visitors and a few bits to camera explaining some stuff about it - the hassles with the pond, the tree I planted for Galaxy Babe, the various plants that have been donated by h2g2 Researchers. I'd then submit this with an accompanying article.

If I didn't want to do the whole shebang, I could write an article and make an audio clip to go with it. I could just read it into the microphone or make a radio-type clip out in the garden itself. I'd submit this, and the AViators would make the visual part of the AV - using photographs or making some kind of animation.

Or I could just write an article about the garden and submit it, leaving the AViators with the (rather tough in this case) job of making the whole AV clip.

Or, seeing as my writing is pretty rubbish, I could say to Websailor - if you're reading this Webbie, I'm just picking an example, not throwing you into this - how about collaborating? I can make a really good clip of my wildlife garden, so why don't we get together and work on an article about the benefits of wildlife gardens that my clip could accompany?

There's all sorts of ways it could go, and you could choose pretty much anything as a subject. Even very short clips and cartoons would work - it would make the whole thing look really chaotic. I've just had a reread of A26666850 - a great article, by the way - and I reckon it would be fairly straightforward to make a clip from the first few paragraphs. Obviously we wouldn't be able to use it, as it's already been published, but it might be fun to play around with. I'll let you know if I decide to have a go

Sadly it's a bit late in the year for the wildlife in my garden - it's too cold for me to want to stand outside and record anything!

Although I suppose I could go and poke around in one of my habitats and see if anything pops out.

I was thinking of recording some of the clicker training I do, but it can take ages and I'm pretty sure it's going to be boring for most people. I'll save that for the EG.

It would definitely take longer than a minute! Having seen your other threads. I'll see what I can come up with. Is there a deadline (I've probably read one and immediately forgotten it) for submissions?

Also, I haven't got any way of making my phone clips into any of the formats you mention, so can you grab them off You Tube? That's where I normally upload them.

I've a load of vaguely awful musical thinggies I've recorded that might be suitable 'background' stuff...? I can get them in .wav or MP3 whicheer easiest, guess I could do some recording on audio with the microphones I've got if that were any use ... don't know what it could be though.... something eratic and random woudl be my best guess as I am eratic and random, cept when I@m random and eratic and then its just weird and strange

It's all about time, you see. The limit is ten minutes, so if people make longer clips, there won't be many of them. Rather than a long clip, though, you could perhaps write about your own experiences doing clicker training and make a short clip to accompany it? I can handle any editing if that's a problem. Just a thought

Unfortunately, YouTube won't let you grab clips. I'm sure I can find a converter, though!

There isn't a deadline, no - when we've got enough material, we roll. I'll keep updating progress here, so keep an eye on this page

2legs, we need original music desperately - and erratic and random, perhaps even chaotic, fits very well into the spirit

As an old UnderGuide Editor, I think there's much potential for prose, poetry and even the odd fan fic (as long as it's 'good'? - it might draw in (or out) the odd DNA fan. Yes, we're all odd us fans

Perhaps an 'Advertisement' in the AWW might be worthwhile...

To wence shoudl I Email the eratic random ... noise.. I mean music?

Good thinking, Matt, but I'm wary of stepping on the UnderGuide's toes. I don't really want to upset the applecart by wading in and nicking their articles Fanfic, poetry and prose are all fine, because we can publish them as Post articles simultaneously and limit the clips themselves to around a minute or so.

2legs, mail them to h2g2aviators[at]googlemail[dot]com I can't wait to hear them!

Rich, there's no reason something selected for the Beeblecast can't be used by the UG aswell. Happens all the time with the Post and the CAC Continuum

I just though some of the creative types in the AWW might like to contribute something else, like music etc. and the Beeblecast is a prime opportunity. Putting a note in the AWW might attract people who otherwise don't circulate around the Post and elsewhere...maybe

Is that right? I thought The Post couldn't use UG Entries and vice versa. If you're sure, I will, but I want it categorically an unambiguously stated by you as a founding editor that I won't get a kicking for it

Emailed a couple.. well three I think JI'll save the other 80odd for another time actually I relaly oughta get round to finishing some of these songs off properly