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.
Rumprs are hopping about what Steve Jobs will announce Sept. 7. Will it be a video iPod or an iPod phone? Industry watchers and Apple insiders say that each is a possibility.
`A big flash iPod? The Motorola iTunes phone? Let the rumor-mongering rule,'' wrote one bloger on TechRepublic.com.
Apple-watchers say the debut of the much-anticipated iTunes phone is just as likely as a video iPod. The iTunes phone would allow callers to buy songs using a mobile version of Apples's music software. Tracks would be stored on the phone's flash-memory chip.
LearnOutLoud.com, a portal site for audio and video learning products, has added a podcast section featuring shows with an educational slant. Their press release says that they're focused on podcasts that can be used as learning aids, and "all podcasts have been hand-picked to ensure quality of content and production."
LearnOutLoud.com, a portal site for audio and video learning products, has added a podcast section featuring shows with an educational slant. Their press release says that they're focused on podcasts that can be used as learning aids, and "all podcasts have been hand-picked to ensure quality of content and production."
rbitron has tested its "portable people meter," to measure podcast listenership. The test is part of an effort by Clear Channel to develop a new electronic measurement system.
From Billboard Radio Monitor:
In a test with Clear Channel during the week of July 18, Arbitron encoded several podcasts from WHTZ-FM (Z100) in New York that were uploaded to the podcast section of Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The podcasts were then downloaded to an MP3 player and played over headsets using the PPM headset adapter.
The PPM, which tracks media exposure by detecting inaudible codes embedded in programming can now add podcasting to its list of media platforms that the PPM has the ability to measure, including radio, TV, cable and the Internet.
It's looking like Canada is creating the perfect storm for podcasting: their public TV and radio network's own locked-out workers could create the biggest podcast network as leverage in their labor dispute.
Tod Maffin reports that the locked out CBC reporters will create their own network, at least while the strike is ongoing. They will produce a daily newscast to be made available for download and in podcast form, and are talking about going local, and even producing video for distribution online. The CBCunplugged site has already been created.
CBC has already been on the leading edge when it comes to podcasting (and in Quebec, baladodiffusion), so they're not exactly pushing the envelope, as I recommended of the NHL. What's happening in this case, however, is even more advanced: these reporters are circumventing their own medium. And what an opportunity to do so: 5,500 producers, technicians, writers, and on-air personalities are on the picket lines.
This could be the first instance we will see of a professional newsgathering network springing up from nothing, using the podcast distribution method. It may also be the biggest move ever in terms of socializing the podcast, as millions of Canadians who choose CBC for news coverage will be looking for something to match the quality to which they are accustomed.
I can't help but wonder what would happen if the lockout goes longer than a month or two. With the Canadian Media Guild counting their volunteer work on this project as part of the labor action, this new entity could be Canada's largest news-gathering operation overnight. In only a couple weeks' time, they could organize their own labor against their current employer (as newspaper workers have done when they are locked out), and produce their own programming as they see fit. They would only get a fraction of the CBC's audience to begin with, but over time, the listeners' loyalty to a given host or show would accrue to this new network, not the CBC. They have an opportunity not only to endure a protracted labor dispute, but to come out on the other side having reprogrammed their former network. CBC management may not notice this now, but once they do, they could realize what kind of trouble they're in.
Part of the daily task in the newsroom of most daily newspapers means writing a budget or your story ideas for the day. You write a one-sentence description, how many inches the story would fill in the paper and if it has art, such as graphics or photos.
The editors gather all the story ideas, look at the size of their news hole and then decide what goes in the paper. Editors debate, look for angles and then add or cut stories that they decide can wait another day or never see black ink on white paper.
I listened to an enhanced podcast last night from G4: Attack of the Show. To me, it showed what newspapers and other big media could do to show the people behind what stories run and the thinking that goes into the process. Big media seems so impersonal. These are the kinds of meetings where the personailties show.
An enhanced podcast, as demonstrated by Phil Torrone, essentially allows you to show images and create chapters in your podcast. The chapters are like a playlist. You can skip to the chapter you want or listen to it as it progresses. If you have an iPod, you would see the images for each chapter appear on the iPod screen.
By using an enhanced podcast, the guys at G4 turned a meeting about what to run on their site into an entertaining glimpse of what stories get presented, which ones the editors like and which ones they don't. (Word of Zoolander II with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson got groans from the group.)
I kept the chapters open the whole time. A little icon of a book appeared in iTunes, which allowed me to see the different images. I could listen and see what they referred to in their meeting. True, these guys are entertaining and their topics are eclectic but more so I received a new insight into how they make decisions about what to get on the site.
Could big media do this? Podcast their budget meetings? Make them enhanced? The mass media get a lot of grief these days for their ways of reporting the news .But if they did podcasts of those morning budget meetings, then we'd get an idea about what they were thinking about covering that day. Take it a step further and you could have the reporters podcasting as they research and interview. The community gets involved each part of the way up to the time the story actually goes to the press and gets delivered to your door.
Within a month or so, North America will regain its fourth major sport. Or will it?
After a year-long work stoppage, the National Hockey League is returning to the sports scene. The league will now be forced to deal with what Major League Baseball faced after its season-ending 1994 strike: an apathetic and in some cases angry fan base. Hockey fans are disgusted with both sides of this labor battle, as baseball fans were when the '94 World Series was canceled (robbing the then-Montreal Expos of their only real chance at a title).
It only gets worse for the NHL: even before the strike, popular interest in hockey within the United States was waning. Relocated teams like Carolina and Phoenix, and expansion clubs like Tampa Bay and Atlanta, were already finding it hard to attract warm-weather crowds to the game, even as many of them were advancing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. (Tampa Bay won the Cup in 2004.)
This week, the NHL suffered its latest indignity: ESPN, which had hosted its regular season along with ABC, refused to pick up NHL coverage for the next several seasons. The league signed with the Outdoor Life Network, which will use hockey to fill in the holes in a schedule which consists of the Tour de France in July and, I believe, every fishing show known to man. NBC had already scooped up broadcast rights for the next two seasons, paying no license fee and offering the NHL a profit-sharing deal similar to its deal with Arena Football. These are desperation deals. One step lower, and soccer will be the number four sport in the US.
That's all great, you say, what does this have to do with podcasting? If the NHL is smart, plenty.
The NHL is going to need a full-court press to get and keep the fans' attention and interest. OLN will also need to increase its exposure, as it treats its NHL content as a draw for its other programming. And Comcast, which owns OLN, is heavily invested in digital cable and broadband Internet. Comcast will be pushing NHL content on its on-demand cable services as well as online.
So, we're most of the way there: a sports league and a television network both with a vested interest in reaching people more people than they currently have access to. This is a great situation for podcasting, and even better for video in RSS enclosures. I don't think we're quite ready for full-game feeds, and we may never need them, given the real-time nature of sporting events. But OLN will be creating hockey-related content around their coverage, and that's no good to them if nobody is watching it at 11pm. They will already be offering it on demand. Why not serve an MPEG for download on their own broadband network?
Even more interesting are the place-shifting opportunities. A large number of fans in the southern and western US hail from colder climes. Many, surprisingly, are even Canadian. I, for one, grew up a Boston Bruins fan, but over the years, I couldn't find any Bruins coverage after I moved away, and so I'm limited to what ESPN gives me in the morning. But what if there were a daily podcast of, say, five to ten minutes, for each home team? Many of these shows could be hosted by Comcast's regional sports network personalities -- who, naturally, would have access to the players themselves via the OLN deal. And finding podcasters to cover each of the Canadian teams would be like trying to find a cat who likes to watch mice. These are low-cost activities that would bring real fans in, wherever they may live. Fans who buy tickets, gear, and Internet access.
While the other major sports in the US are all still swirling their toes in the online water with monthly subscription charges for streaming content, the NHL has a real chance to rebuild by letting more people in. There are millions of monthly impressions to be had. Even OLN and Comcast stand to benefit in this arrangement by increasing their own profile. It would be fascinating for everyone involved to see the league and the network take such a bold step.
But is this an old story? One that the blogosphere just got wind of? Could very well be the case.
Apparently, MacObserver started reporting the story in June.
This is the kind of stuff you see in the media biz all the time. A story breaks and it gets ignored. Then, a few weeks later, its recast by a competitor and treated as breaking news.
What also happens: The story doesn't get any play and when it does get attention, it is treated as breaking news because people think it is a hot, fresh story.
In the blogosphere, though, to me at least, there is no such thing as a breaking story as the link trail goes long and about. Who broke it first? Does that matter? It's such an old media game. I want the insights.
...The main problem will be what in sales they call call "channel conflicts", which are more political than technical. NPR essentially wholesales programming to local stations, which retail them to listeners. The new strategies will need to help, rather than hurt, local stations and networks, which are the final "sales channel" of programming to listeners (and sponsors)
...Here's my review / HOW TO of Audible with their podcasting features...and on that note, I've been using CD audio books for the last month, and so far, working out great.
PodcastCon UK is set for Sept. 17 at the Berners Hotel in central London.
PodcastCon UK 2005 is the first conference in Europe dedicated to podcasting. The conference will include an exciting combination of presentations, practical sessions and debate on all aspects of podcasting as it moves into its second year.
Libsyn is getting some attention for problems with their podcast hosting service. Like other services that cater to podcasters, Libsyn is finding that podcasting is a monster in some ways, growing so big, so fast that they need to focus on just the core essentials to make the service work. To make it more challenging, these guys all have day jobs.
From Libsyn at the Yahoo! news group on podcasting:
Podcasting is a monster, and when something goes wrong, it is an all encompassing balancing act to remedy the problem while minimizing interruptions.
For Libsyn customers, the stat service the hosting service offers makes it possible for people to measure their audiences and recruit sponsors. But the periodic outages are taking their toll. Some customers are leaving all together.
Warren Ellis writes:
Well, I checked the stats on the system provided by the host I use for the Superburst Mixtape, Libsyn, last night, and it seems like they’ve gotten the stats system working again. The bad news is that Libsyn’s outages, so many people moving to iTunes for their podcast-catching (where people are still telling me they’re having trouble finding the thing) and, presumably, people losing interest have taken their toll.
Regular visitors will have seen the Player in the right-hand menu come and go at random over the last fewweeks. Libsyn provide a great service at a reasonable price, but if it doesn’t work reliably, and if I can’t give bands stats that show the word’s being spread, what’s the point?
Hell, they’ve been promising me they’ll take commenting off the download page for the best part of three months…
So Superburst Mixtape 25 will be the last one. I’ll give people a week to grab any they don’t have from http://warrenellis.libsyn.com, and then I’ll terminate the PayPal subscription, and the page will go away soon after. I’ve got other uses for the money.
Libsyn admits its faults. In their post at the Yahoo! podcasting group:
Secondly we'd like to apologize for the state of the stats. Our
number one priority is always that the media gets to your listeners.
Stats is number two. If the media delivery network doesn't stay up,
there are no downloads to record anayway, so that's our reasoning. We
understand how important statistics are to the podcaster. It is the
audience that feeds you, and seeing that audience grow is what pushes
you to improve your show. And not only that, sponsors are right
around the corner, and your success with them relies on your ability
to verify your audience. From the beginning we wanted to provide
folks with the a stats system that was tailored to podcasters. Our
display engine has been a mess, but we're getting closer to having it
locked down. We've brought in some help to make the stats scalable to
the proportions we need them to be.
Where doe all this lead? To consider is the sudden venture capital interest in podcasting. Both Odeo and Podshow announced funding this past week.
They ask why would Libsyn make a good investment. Answer: No matter what podcasting grows up to be, their service is going to be needed. And while I haven't met the individuals who run the company, I've seen how they've dealt with trouble, they're a class act. Summary -- they picked a starting point that makes sense, they run a high integrity business, and they treat their customers well. That's a business with a future, imho. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
Perhaps the folks at Libsyn may not have to keep their day jobs after all.
Apple has lost an attempt to patent its menu-based software interface for the iPod. Apparently they lost out to a fellow named John Platt, a senior researcher in the Knowledge Tools Group at Microsoft.
According to AppleInsider, The Apple application lists lists Apple vice president Jeff Robbin and Apple chief executive Steve Jobs as two of its primary inventors. Robbin came to Apple from Casady & Greene, a small software company which developed applications for the Mac OS platform.
AppleInsider reports that Casady & Greene was widely known among Mac users for its SoundJam MP3 player software, which Apple eventually took control of and re-branded as iTunes after hiring Robbin. In his first role as an engineering manager at Apple, Robbin was credited with leading the iPod's software development in the early days of the project.
From AppleInsider:
Platt's application describes his invention as a system or method that "generates playlists for a library collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one which is an undesirable seed item." The process by which the iPod's software displays its own menu-based interface is very similar to the process Platt's filing goes on to describe.
In an attempt to trump Platt's application, Robbin through his patent lawyer petitioned the patent office to review an amended set of claims last November, shortly after his initial filing had been rejected in light of Platt's.
Upon review, the patent office in July issued a 6-page document pointing to prior claims made by Platt and offering its final rejection of Robbin's application. In forming a basis for the rejection, an examiner for the patent office began by citing Platt's preexisting claims:
"Platt discloses an apparatus and a method of assisting user interaction with a multimedia asset player by way of a hierarchically ordered user interface, comprising: displaying a first order user interface having a first list of user selectable items; receiving a user selection of one of the user selectable items; and automatically transitioning to and displaying a second order user interface having a second list of user selectable items based upon the user selection."
What leverage does this provide Microsoft? Anyone have any idea where this may lead?
Odeo announces an investment round of its own. It features Charles River Ventures and a number of individuals, notably Mitch Kapor and Tim O'Reilly.
Hmm. Does that mean Foo Camp is going to be podcast this year?
By the way, Odeo is hiring. If my memory of this time in a company's corporate finances holds, you should totally demand the maxed-out PowerBook when you get the job.
Saw this at Scripting News. Podshow is receiving $8.85 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the big boys of the VC world.
On the board are folks like John Doerr and Ray Lane.
Dave, on his morning walk, saw Doerr on his bicyle. Doerr rides a bike? Now that's my kind of VC. What kind of bike? I expect it's a standard, ten speed, but I digress.
Dave's encounter with Doerr seems bit foretelling in this day of podcasting. With such an investment, Doerr seems like a believer in the read/write web, the Web 2.0, which seems more fashionable to talk about these days then even the Long Tail.
Is this the next evolution in the VC world? Millions more invested into companies developing the Web 2.0?
The stakes have been raised. Podshow, Adam Curry's new-new-media startup, has reportedly secured $8.85 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (Hat tip: Podcasting News) The proceeds will give Adam more than enough money to pay his bandwidth bill for the year.
It's not terribly reasonable to believe that this will spawn a long series of podcasting companies entering the pipeline. If you look around, there are only a few folks who aren't already publicly traded, are lashed to the podcasting sail, and may be shopping for VCs: namely, Odeo, Audioblog.com, and the podcast directories. But it is a significant step forward for the business end of podcasting.
If the facts on this are straight, this means that Podshow wants to go public. That's what KPCB does. If they paid in almost $9 million in an early phase, they're probably valuing Podshow in the hundreds of millions, either now or in the near term. Time will tell whether another big investor agrees. If you see a name like Softbank, Benchmark Capital, or Hummer Winblad jumping in with Podshow, then a lot of Silicon Valley dollars are betting that podcasting is ready for the stock market, and that will open up a lot more room at the trough.
Keep pressing the subscribe button to get higher iTunes rankings. From PlasticTrees.net:
I had to click on the subscribe button of our podcast a number of times. I noticed that shortly after I had done so our rank on the iTunes Canada music store had gone up.
He tested it with a buddy and sure enough, higher iTunes rankings.
They're looking for a DJ, really. From the CBS web site:
The network is searching for an amateur DJ to interview CBS stars and create a podcast about the new fall season. The podcaster will join the nation’s top DJs at the CBS Radio Junket on September 10 in Hollywood to interview CBS talent for the podcast, which will be made available to millions via CBS.com and Infinity Broadcasting’s San Francisco-based KYOURADIO, the world’s first-ever podcasting radio station. For consideration, you'll need to upload a mock three-minute interview.
Here are two major media companies looking for amateur podcasters to interview CBS stars as a promotion for the Fall season.
The move follows Fox Broacdcasting's announcement to promote its upcoming shows with podcasts, featuring interviews with their stars.
For Fox, the effort is intended to promote its DVD sets. For CBS, the podcast contest comes in the first weeks following their announcement of a broadband network.
The CBS strategy seems far more compelling. With the Fox podcasts, you get stars talking about their shows with a professional actor. With CBS, who knows what will happen? Will the winner be the first podcaster to become a mass media star? Adam Curry is a celebrity. But if the winner of this contest is entertaining, then we may see someone who receives mass attention.
A strategy that reaches out to indie podcasters makes sense. Indie podcasters are at the heart of what has made podcasting so popular, so fast. The people who make podcasts are bright, orignal and talented people. Their "amateur," status is what makes them appealing. They are authentic.
In contrast, Fox is going the professional approach with actors interviewing actors. Does that seem interesting? Perhaps....If they let Bart Simpson do the interviews. Doh!
"Tell the FCC to stick it...The revolution is on."
Those are just some of the lyrics to: "On a Podcast," a podcast anthem written and performed by Cruisebox a quintet out of Oklahoma.
It's a catchy tune. One of those tunes that gets in your head...."I heard it on a podcast...rock and fuckin radio."
The song is striking for a few reasons. First off, it rails against the authoritarianism of the FCC and towards a government that people recognize as increasingly repressive. Second, the passion you hear in these folks comes from a growing indie movement, fueled by podcasting and a DIY ethos. Third, it's a rally against pinhole distribution systems that all indies face, be they artists, musicians or writers.
Further, these guys seems to be incredibly savvy and fully aware of the times in which we live. How?
They have a clean version of the song and an explicit version. Now, which one do you think is getting more downloads?
The mainstream media's approach to podcasting provides some clues for how independents can succeed. Many of the traditional media's shows are simply repurposed snippets from morning talk shows and elsewhere. Indie podcasters can distinguish themselves by creating something truly different, such as Skepticality's irreverent take on science and space or the infectious enthusiasm for offbeat cover songs found in a show called Coverville. "The way that indie podcasts are going to stand out is to keep providing content that people can't get on radio," says Brian Ibbott, the producer of Coverville. It may not be clear today which podcaster will end up on top. But there's no doubt that the technology is leading to an explosion in content. That should be music to all listeners' ears.
Podcasting is a technology for spreading political opposition. That theory will be tested in Singapore, where an opposition party has launched a podcast to denounce the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) ahead of independence day celebrations.
From the Singapore Democratic Party web site:
The podcast is a way for the Party to by-pass the state-controlled media in Singapore. Airwaves in the country are monopolised, cable television is owned by a government-linked company, satellite dishes are banned, and the press is controlled by the ruling party. The Internet remains a medium that the Government finds it hard to censor, although it has enacted many laws aimed at curtailing the use of the Internet for political purposes.
Welcome to the first podcast for the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Covering the largest Arts Festival in the world, the Edinburgh Fringe Podcast is going to put you right in the middle of all the best clubs, acts, street performers, reviews and news from the Fringe.
Fox Broadcasting is podcasting. But to set itself apart, the network is distancing itself from the "podcasting," term, instead using its own brand to start what it calls: "Foxcasts."
If Fox followed the practice of most media companies and simply re-distributed their shows as podcasts then there would be no reason to instill their brand into podcasting.
But it appears they plan to do more. Starting August 29, Fox will include exclusive material, similar to the premium they offer in their DVD box sets. Not surprisingly, the podcasts will be used to promote the DVD's. On September 19, Fox will offer a recap of the entire season for such shows as Arrested Development for listening before the new season's launch.
For now, the Foxcasts are pretty dull. The Lost Remote puts it well:
But don't get excited just yet. I listened to The Simpsons "Foxcast" and the announcer just rambled through what happened on the show in a little over a minute. Borrrring. But Fox promises exclusive cast interviews and other expanded audio content in the future.
If they do follow on the promise of exclusive interviews and offers such as pre-series recaps, then the Fox strategy seems to make more sense.
They'll be creating original work to supplement their shows. That's not exactly ground breaking but it is using this new distribution medium a bit more creatively than the other big media players.
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
