Matt May is a Web accessibility specialist, and has written on the interaction of people and technology since 1995. He keeps his own weblog at bestkungfu.com, and produces a podcast called Staccato, which features Creative Commons-licensed music.
Alex Williamsblogs, consults and produces unconference style events, where people immerse in DIY media. These are fun occasions, designed for people who want to get together with authors, artists, technologists and leading thinkers to converse, eat, listen to music, write, shoot photos and post podcasts and videoblogs. Alex also works with companies to establish DIY approaches, where writing, photography, voice and video come together to create new conversations and communities. Alex is currently fascinated with digital photography. His girlfriend calls him a Flickrholic. Send Alex a nice message: alexhwilliams at gmail.com.
Nicole Simon loves blogging and podcasting, dashed with an European view. As consultant she helps to facilitate such tools for business purposes or personal publishing empires. She can be found at cruel to be kind and on her private blog Useful Sounds.
Roland Tanglao is a well known podcasting enthusiast and a passionate advocate of blogs, RSS, and social software as a means of online expression for people, organizations and businesses. He is a prominent participant in the blogosphere and online communities and one of the founders of Bryght and as Bryght's Chief Blogging Officer reads hundreds of blogs daily. He graduated from the University of Waterloo, worked at Nortel Networks where he ran its first internal corporate blog, has has been blogging since 1999, and was the first business blogging consultant in Canada.
Loyal Ears, a media rewards company, has announced an independent podcasting platform that allows traditional radio stations to turn their broadcasts into revenue generating podcasts.
Loyal Ears President Jimmy Risk remarked, "Clear Channel's entry last week into podcasting underscores the urgency for radio to connect beyond the dial. Fortunately our technology makes sure that Clear Channel stations won't be having all the fun. At low cost, we'll arm their competitors with everything they'll need to spread brand and revenue by podcast and beat them to the punch in most markets."
Loyal Ears will provide stations with a platform for free podcasts with sponsorship opportunities or an on-demand model with download revenue. By including Bridge Ratings, Loyal Ears will also offer advisory services to advance commercial podcasting efforts.
A Corante event
(Registration and more info coming soon. See below for special offer.)
The Podcast Hotel is a different type of event. Our plan is to turn a hotel in Portland, Or,. into a podcast and videoblog studio. It's a place where people come to learn and share how these content creation tools can be used in any way they want, be it for their personal use, their business or their community.
Guests at the Podcast Hotel will create podcasts. They'll create videoblogs. They'll spread out into the city of Portland. I look forward to riding bikes with video cameras attached to our helmets. We're planning a podcast music jam. We're thinking about a fashion show for independent designers where the models are the podcasters and videobloggers.
Experts will be there to share and show how the tools can be used. Newbies will be coached and get the chance to learn how to produce sharp, authentic works. There will be "how to," discussions, "think tank," talks and demonstrations.
The Podcast Hotel is about sharing this huge passion for creating new works through podcasts and videoblogs while simultaneously creating a platform for people in other parts of the world to participate. We will actively involve the city of Portland in the event and will seek people from other cities to participate, too.
When: July 15-17, 2005 in Portland, Oregon. Heck, we want the world to participate. And will provide ways to do so.
Where: We'll announce the name of the hotel this week in our first podcast, brought to you from the hotel.
The Basics:For a few days in July, a funky, retro hotel will become a podcast and videoblog studio. Rooms will be for recording, editing and producing. The court yard will be a media lounge. The underground club will be for podcast concerts. And the city of Portland, along with the rest of the world, will become our stage.
Why? Our goal is to create art, be observers, create new works, new styles that reflect society and the world. As Mary Hodder said to me: we'll be hackers, experimenters. In a way, we'll be having our own podcast and videoblog rave.
Special Pre-Release OfferIf you want to reserve early and get a special discount rate, contact Alex Williams at 503-473-6237 or by e-mail: alex at corante dot com.
Sponsorships: Sponsorships are available. Please contact Alex for details.
Jade Walker, a Seattle-based author, has always had a passion for obituaries. Since beginning the obituary tribute site Blog of Death in 2003 she has published over 1,300 obituaries with over 10,000 tributes. Earlier this month, Blog of Death began podcasting audio obituaries as well. Get the feed.
Here come the corporations. In recent weeks, podcasting as a story has evolved from basement hobby and curiosity to untapped market, and it's no surprise what comes after that. Virgin Radio, following the lead of a number of public radio outlets, has started a podcast of its morning show. Warner Bros. is not only sponsoring Eric Rice's podcast, but has cleared music for the show as well.
Now the 800-pound gorilla of American radio, Clear Channel, has jumped into the fray. Yes, folks, in a Reuters article, a bigwig at the radio conglomerate has said the P word. (Hat tip: Dave Hodson)
Clear Channel announced its online strategy yesterday. Starting next week, the company will be offering original video programming on 200 of its 1200 outlets. As early as July, says the Reuters article, the company plans to sell subscription services, digital tracks, CDs and ringtones.
Oh, and make podcasts. Did we mention podcasting? Still no hint on what they consider to be a "podcast", however. Will they charge a fee? Will the product be a standard MP3 file? Will they use RSS enclosures? Sources hazy. This could be a sign of big media starting to get the concept of the distribution model, or it could be another exercise in buzzword-compliance.
"Online is radio's for the taking," says Clear Channel executive VP Evan Harrison. Such big talk. I wonder if they realize just what they're getting into. A radio-sized market for podcasting is certain to benefit independent podcasters. Those listeners who are already bemoaning the cookie-cutter uniformity of terrestrial radio will soon discover podcasts that offer compelling alternatives to Mitch and Marty's Wacky Morning Drive. The question isn't whether moving online will slow radio's downward slide. The question is whether it will accelerate it.
BlogMatrix Sparks claims to be the first to market with an integrated podcasting/podcatching application. "BlogMatrix Sparks! 2.0 makes podcasting easy and affordable”, says founder David Janes.
The press release goes on to say that BlogMatrix Sparks!™ podcasters can:
* Record podcasts directly on their computer with a microphone and a mouse click.
* Mix music with the podcast.
* Record up to 8 tracks for a single podcast.
* Automatically store their podcasts on the BlogMatrix server for others to enjoy
A quick review of the website shows that even if all of the claims are true, they may not tell the whole story. It appears that Sparks preferentially publishes bit torrents rather than mp3s and it publishes entries to a proprietary directory that is read by their Windows software client rather than standard xml feeds.
A review of their website turned up few sample podcasts and they were even scarcer if you weren't willing to download via bit torrent. I eventually found one that allowed me to download an mp3 and took a listen. It was clearly someone's equipment test, their very first podcast. The podcast was simple, consisting of just one person talking. There was no music, no apparent need for mixing, and come to think of it, it wasn't even really a podcast. The show was internet radio as I had downloaded an mp3 file from a link, the simple directory offered bit torrents, html host pages, and mp3 files, but no RSS feeds. I scanned the site again, but didn't find anything that looked like an actual podcast. (I'll try to check back in a month or two.)
My thoughts: Sparks might be easy to use -- you'll have to load the software on a Windows machine to know for sure and quite frankly I wasn't willing. But even if you do load the software and find it easy to use, the question remains "Without mp3 as standard and without RSS feeds that can be loaded into any aggregator, is Sparks really podcasting or is it an odd configuration of cobbled together software that in the end serves to create proprietary internet radio?"
Miss the first podcast from Senator John Edwards? Never fear, his One America Committee has pre-announced their second podcast which will be delivered April 20th. Get the feed.
From the website of PodGuides.net through which you can access "detailed spoken descriptions of what you see while visiting the city (museum, ...) of your choice.":
"A PodGuide is a very simple thing. It's the combination of a map (PDF) of a certain place and a series of audio tracks (mp3) which you can download for your iPod. Think of an audio tour in a museum, but not limited to just that. You could have a PodGuide about the 10 coolest pubs in London for example, or a PodGuide which shows you the most known historic buildings in Bruges. But it might just as well be about the most strangest front doors in Kleit (no you don't know Kleit)."
Smart Feed: podcasting client for Microsoft Smartphone
Info on Smartfeed, an open source "iPodder-like" application for Microsoft Smartphone. Check out Smartfeed's website for details and to download the app.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on Austereo's embrace of podcasting. The company's directory of strategy: "We're very aware of the fact there's a growing generation of people who don't think radio when they think music and audio content..."
And here's how they decribed the service in a post to the Yahoo! podcasting group:
The main thing to understand is that we're tagging episodes, not podcasts. What's the difference? A podcast is your entire feed. It's your radio station, so to speak. An episode is each show. So if you record and post something every day, you'll end up with seven episodes at the end of a week. If all seven of those episodes had tags, you'll appear on Podcast Tags seven times.
Hopefully you like the service and find it useful! Give it a shot, and let us know what you think. Feedback, suggestions, questions, complaints are all welcome. A good way to get in touch is via our blog at http://blog.podcasttag.com.
As reported in ClickZ, Warner Bros. is dipping its toes into podcasting by sponsoring the Eric Rice show. According to ClickZ, Warner Bros. will sponsor podcasts of the Eric Rice Show and provide exclusive audio content from one of its bands.
An open source project has started at SourceForge that allows anyone to build a web-based podcast directory. From SourceForge: "It supports parsing, creation, maintenance and presentation of linked OPML & RSS files. It also has an API for podcast clients to query the directory."
Why is this important to do right now? I am curious to see how this develops and why the podcasting community feels it is so important to develop this effort right now.
Adam Curry is keynoting Gnomedex. Chris Pirillo also posted a note at the Yahoo! podcasting group that podcasters are welcome one and all:
We've got Wifi, a dedicated outlet for you in the main hall, and
unlimited food / beverage throughout the day. Consider this an
invitation to join us, and to grab guests for your own efforts.
Everybody here is welcome.
You, go, Portland! The Portland Podcast Meetup group has 22 members, second only to Southern California. I'm going to my first meeting this week, March 24 @ 7 p.m.:
Noodlin'
3487 SW Cedar Hills Blvd
Beaverton, OR 97210
503-924-1444.
Eric Rice is a showman. He loves the stage. He is the founder of Audioblog, which provides an audio service that allows people to record podcasts and post them to a blog or anywhere for that matter. I consider Eric a friend. He is a contributor at EventLab, a Corante blog. We have produced podcasts together.
Over the next few months, a bit of a chess match will unfold as Eric goes toe-to-toe with Evan Williams, an Internet celebrity and a magnet of the media world with the launch of his latest venture: Odeo, a podcasting service. Evan, as you probably know, started Blogger and sold it to Google. He left Google last October. I don't know Evan but respect him for launching a company and successfully seeing it bought by such a mythic giant as Google. Now, he has a new quest. And so it makes sense that he'd be watched pretty closely by the media to see how he does with start up two.
(Adam Curry is probably the biggest personality in this space but his effort BoKu Communications seems to have a different, more top-end approach. We'll look at his service in more depth in future posts.)
Odeo received a lot of attention at ETech. Evan presented at the conference. In late February, Just before TED, where Evan spoke, the New York Times gushed over Odeo.
But across the Bay from the San Francisco apartment where Evan launched Odeo, Eric and his colleagues have been running Audioblog for about a year, pulling in revenues, showing that an audio service can make money and sustain itself.
Odeo is still in beta, with plans to start offering its service to a small community.
Odeo is in beta right now. We plan to be inviting people to the system, um, real soon now. Sign up to get an invite when available.
And as reported in Silicon Valley Watcher this week:
As of this writing, though, it's not clear if Odeo will be able to make good on that offer on Thursday. However, it won't linger in beta for years. he plans to have it out of invitation-only mode after a few weeks before going to open beta and then to full 1.0 release in a speedy fashion. "We won't be like gmail and be in beta for a year," Ev said, referring to his former employer Google, which bought his Blogger.com business.
Eric and his team announced their own podcast service this week, which allows you to create a podcast by phone or by recording within their service. Here is a list of their features:
# Create multiple RSS feeds (podcasts)
# Compatible with most major blog services.
# Podcast by phone (up to 60 minutes)
# Record over the Web using our BlogRecorder™
# Add and configure multiple weblogs
# Upload MP3 or WAV files
# Organize your audioblogs with playlist
# Customize your players style and color
How does this compare to Odeo?
Here is what Phil Torrone wrote from ETech, after Evan presented yesteday:
Users will be able to play audio from any page (from the source location via Macromedia Flash) use tags, subscribe, add to queues, share queues, post comments, download for iTunes, WinMedia, etc.
He continues:
On the creation side users can record through the web using ODEO studio (using Flash again) upload mp3 files directly, use a phone to call in and record, and import an external feed. User can also add notes, sound "elements" then publish. Possible future features may include Flash based voice conferencing.
And concludes with a summary of the business model:
Evan spoke to the business model. The main opportunities hosting (some free some more robust), publishing (some free some more pro) and enable users to charge for content (Audible sold $19mm worth of downloads last quarter). and lastly advertising (matching shows with advertisers).
So, in summary, we have Audioblog and Eric Rice, who is all about the show. His service is up and running. He provides tools that anyone can use to create podcasts.
But Eric, though he is quite good at getting attention for his product, will face a formidable force when Evan and his team officially launch Odeo.
How will these two brands evolve? How will they approach the markets differently?
I look forward to watching these two companies develop.
And seeing how the stars align in the podcast universe.
Blog Matrix launched what they are calling a one-stop solution for podcasting.
They write:
"BlogMatrix Sparks! 2.0 gives you a one-stop solution for recording, sharing and listening to podcasts. In one package, you get:
* a multi-track recorder and mixer designed especially for the needs of podcasters
* automatic uploading of your podcasts to the BlogMatrix server
* a full featured podcatcher for listening to other’s podcasts
Sparks! 2.0 removes the technical and financial barriers to podcasting. Now everyone can easily share their views, experiences and interests in the classless podcasting community. "
My question: What is the "classless," podcast community?
Another podcasting company launches - this time it's podcasting pioneer and evangelist Adam Curry with the debut of BoKu Communications. Says Curry in a CBS Marketwatch newsbrief: "We will be making investments in a number of shows and Podcasters so people won't be stuck in irons, not making enough to quit even half the day job..." See Podshow for more.
Doug Kaye points out that Blogads survey says people who read blogs rarely listen to podcasts.
Doug writes:
According to a survey by Blogads, 92.1% of those who read blogs say they never listen to podcasts. What percentage of the people in the world read blogs and could have participated in this survey? Perhaps 5%? Less? Your guess is as good as mine, but in any case – despite the recent rash of mainstream-journalism coverage of podcasting – podcasting isn’t even a speck on the head of a pin yet.
What's the mission of this blog? Simply put: comprehensive coverage of podcasting in all its nascent glory.
In addition to news and commentary about podcasting developments, product launches and trends, we'll also be producing audio shows, too (duh!).
We'll experiment with different tools, talk to people about the cool tech out there for podcasters, and look inside the movement to identify emerging trends, stars and applications.
We are looking for contributors to write news and commentary, plus host a show on the state of podcasting and where it is headed.
Interested in being a Corante contributor? Contact alex at corante dot com.
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
Guests at the Podcast Hotel will create podcasts. They'll create videoblogs. They'll spread out into the city of Portland. I look forward to riding bikes with video cameras attached to our helmets. We're planning a podcast music jam. We're thinking about a fashion show for independent designers where the models are the podcasters and videobloggers. 
