Frequently Asked Questions

Please go to the Contact Us page and tell us about your organization and the kind of events you produce. You can also write to the WGBH Forum Network at WGBH Educational Foundation, One Guest Street, Boston, MA 02135. We would be happy to follow up with you about becoming a content partner of the Forum Network.

We typically feature content curated in partnership with local community organizations. However, we are open to all interesting and educative lecture, panel, interview, interpretive, and salon-style content. Our ability to accept recordings is based on a variety of factors including the type of recording equipment used, the type of release forms used. Our ability to record an event is based on the audio equipment at the event-venue, our videographer availability; and whether it is in the Greater Boston area. Please contact us at least four weeks before the event with these details. If your event meets our initial production and editorial criteria, we are happy to talk with you. In any case, you will always get a response from us.

We are converting our media files behind the scenes from RealPlayer to Flash. During this transition, some of the Real media files may not properly launch if you do not have RealPlayer installed, or if your browser no longer supports these files. Download Free Real Player or try Real Networks' RealPlayer Help. If you still need help, here are a few geeky suggestions:

Solution 1: Determine if the problem is with the specific file.

To rule out a problem with the file itself, try playing sample files:
1. Open Real Test in your Web browser.
2. Click the links that match your connection speed. Dial-up modem users should choose the 28K or 56K links. If the sample files play, then the problem may be with the specific file you were trying to play. If this is a local file, try re-downloading a fresh copy of the clip from its source. You will also receive a "General Error" message if the file you are attempting to play is on a network drive that is not connected. If the sample files do not play, the problem is most likely with the sound card and/or sound drivers on your computer or the RealPlayer installation.

Solution 2: Update older sound card drivers.

RealPlayer requires that you have a sound card. If you attempt to play a clip that contains an audio track, and you have no sound card on your system, you will receive a "General Error." If your sound driver is corrupt or out-of-date, you may also receive this error. If the installed driver is more than six months old, you should update it. Driver updates are usually available as a free download from the manufacturer's Web site. These drivers are usually updated every few months. After installing the drivers, be sure to restart your computer so the configuration changes take effect. If updating your sound card drivers does not fix the problem, you may need to completely remove RealPlayer from your system. [You can reinstall it later.]

Solution 3: Remove and reinstall RealPlayer.

If the problem appears to be caused by damaged RealPlayer application files, removing and then reinstalling RealPlayer can resolve these problems.

Solution 4: Check firewalls and port information.

Firewalls can also corrupt the stream, try disabling software firewalls or configure the firewall to work with RealPlayer.

WGBH is authorized by the speakers and our community partners to offer these lectures on demand after they occur. All lectures are offered as webcasts [streaming audio and video] but only those expressly authorized by the individual speakers are made available for download or podcasting. We are making every effort to offer as many lectures as possible in “portable” format, so we encourage you to check our growing list regularly. Video downloads are available in the iTunesU directory by searching on "Forum Network".

To save an .mp3 file to your computer, right-click on the "Download MP3" link [or control-click for Mac users] and select "Save Link". The file will downloading, but it won't save it to your hard drive unless you tell it to. Next time you're playing one of our MP3s, wait until it is completely loaded in the web browser [the scroll bar on the Quicktime player turns completely gray once the MP3 is fully loaded] and then click on the downward pointing arrow on the far righthand side of the player. This will offer you a dropdown list of options, including one called "Save as Source". If you choose this option, you will be able to name the file and determine where to save it. If you look in the folder where you saved, you will find a copy of the MP3 that you were listening to. From here you can put it onto an MP3 player or burn a CD or just listen to it on your computer without being connected to the internet. Another way that you can do this is to choose "Save Page As" from your Internet browser's file menu.

Forum Network lectures are now available through RSS feeds which allow you to have updates from your favorite sites automatically delivered to your desktop or digital device. To use this service, you must register with a free RSS news reader or aggregator [entering "RSS readers" or "RSS aggregators" in a search engine will produce a list of available services.] Once registered, you will be informed of any new lectures added [depending on the feed you choose] to the Forum Network simply by adding the Forum Network's RSS feed to your customized RSS list. For more information please go to RSS Feeds.

This reading, along with some of the historical recording on our website, comes from the WGBH Radio archives. There are very few recordings in these archives that are cleared for distribution on the Internet, and we have made available what we are legally able to share with you in this format. If additional recordings of this type become eligible for re-release on the Internet, we will add them to our collection as this happens.

WGBH licenses this lecture content for the purpose of webcasting it on the Forum Network. We are not permitted to distribute copies of this material. However, the organizations that sponsored the event often offer video or cassette tapes for sale and may be able to help with your request. To go to an organization's website, please click the partner link or logo on the lecture page or on the Partners page.

Unfortunately, we are not authorized to provide this information, and, in most cases, do not have this information. You may want to contact the organization that hosted a particular speaker to see if they can assist you. To go to an organization's website, please click the partner link or logo on the lecture page or on the Partners page.

We do our very best to make our lectures available online as soon as possible after the actual event. Typically, it takes us a week to turn-around each lecture. However, during the heavy lecture seasons in the Fall and Spring, we do sometimes get a bit behind and we hope you'll be patient with us.

Currently, our Coming Soon page lists lectures that are either coming up at a particular venue, or are in our production queue for processing. A list of upcoming live events in the Boston area can be found on the WGBH Events Calendar.

We currently do not have a formal mailing list, but we do keep track of your email address if you contact us. We do intend to offer a newsletter with registration when we launch our new Website in June, 2009. In the meantime, may we suggest subscribing to one of our RSS feeds for weekly podcasts and new lecture listings.