OPAL 2 Podcaster Was a Milky White Gem

In the podcast by Meredith Farkas, why didn't she "get her act together" before she 'cast the pod'? It was as muddled as thinking you're looking at a crystal clear diamond, and you really are looking at a opal (which is a milky white gem).

It seemed like there was to be a visual with it, but there wasn't. She spent the initial part of it seemingly searching for how to do the video while simultaneously broadcasting the audio. But the long pauses and apologies she made, gave away the fact that she didn't entirely know what was happening to her video.

If a lay-person like myself were doing this for teaching others online, I know I would have had all my ducks in a row before I ever began.

This happened again about 15 minutes into the podcast, and she said, "I think I'll give up in trying to add other pages." Why wasn't she more prepared? Couldn't her colleagues help her so she would appear more professional?

To her credit, the audio part seemed like she really did know her stuff. She sounded intelligent and well-spoken. However, she sounded unprepared (like someone just asked her to extemporaneously give a talk on OPAL, but was caught off guard. Her self-interruptions and apologetic mannerisms, such as filling gaps with ummms, made her lose a little of her professionalism. Her podcast gave me the impression that she was giving perhaps a power-point lecture and she was having technical difficulties with the equipment that day.

There were a lot of quite long silent gaps as she thought about the answers to audience questions. Also, there was one particular questioner that was practically inaudible. These needed to be excised before this podcast was made. And it began and ened so abruptly that I wasn't sure if I had missed something, or was that it?

I do hate to be so critical because she was actually an excellent speaker (upon listening further-and I did listen to the entire 54+ minutes of her podcast), but I just felt a little put-off initially by her unpreparedness. I felt like I might just be wasting my time listening to such a long broadcast, because I wasn't sure she would truly know what she was talking about due to do. (Perhaps others might not have been as persistent as I was in thinking this, and turn her off before they finished.)

I am gratified to know that Melissa was very knowledgeable, informed, and eventually a much better instructor than I first thought. From listening to the whole speech, I gathered that this was a seminar on wikis, so I feel they should have announce this at the beginning, and I wouldn't have felt the way I did at first.

Just an FYI for Melissa--Edit this and re-podcast it before you send it out into cyberspace for everyone to hear!