Hello, friends and listeners. I have good news! The Talking Portraits Show has officially moved to ITConverstations. You'll need to go to www.ITConversations.com. Look on the left column of their site for the link to Talking Portraits. All new shows will be there. I have a new interview that you'll want to catch. It's a kind of case study with Lulu.com about their use of social media-based marketing strategies to grow their business. You'll want to catch this one.I am very  grateful for the opportunity to have my show hosted to such a wide audience. It's a pleasure to be part of a larger community.  Remember to expect the unexpected with regards to interviews, so stay tuned.  There is a new RSS feed, so please visit the ITConversations site to get your regular dose of Talking Portraits shows into your computer or iPod or favorte MP3 player. As always, send me your thoughts and comments [tom.parish AT gmail.com].  I want to know how you're doing and hear any feedback you have on your mind about the shows or any ideas for future shows.Live life fullyTom

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Do not attempt to adjust your mp3 player. For the next 45 minutes the control of your mp3 player is in the creative hands of Matt Jones - electronic music artist whom I've come to know over the last couple of months. Music on this Podcast is from his album Sunset Birth and from his podcasts at www.bluestonejones.org.Hi, this is Tom Parish in the Talking Portraits studio in Austin, Texas.   I'm going to spare you the long intro and just let you get into a bit of Matt's music before we roll into the interview. My idea is to have you learn about Matt the musician and get an inside look at how he creates electronic music.  eknow more about him as a person and his experiences in writing music during the birth of his first child, how that impacted his career, and his life as a creative young man in Montana.  So ... here we go.   Put your headphones on now ...

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We're going to have a conversation with Matt Snodgrass, Dave Kawalec and Chris MacDonald about a new initiative called OpenMetrics.org. Matt and Dave are from Porter Novelli and host the "The Dave and Matt Show." Chris is from Libsyn and is the co-founder of the Association of Music Podcasters and the owner of Indiefeed Podcasts.The domain name, openmetrics.org, says what it is: An organization whose purpose is to define standards in an open manner with collective input from numerous groups, mainly podcasters and advertisers.Here's the deal - whether you're a podcaster, podcast distributor, advertiser, audience-identity advocast, or PR firm, etc., you have an interest in finding a consistent way to create metrics for this new media,  podcasting.  If we can solve this problem, there will be more trust and more opportunity for advertising dollars. I'm for that.The problem is - everyone's metrics are different and, well, it's complicated.  Traditional web metrics are more about unique visitors or visits per day and, if you're lucky, some way of measuring downloads. Of course, the next problem is "What constitutes a download?" What about RSS feeds that are constantly hitting your website and skewing the numbers way up?  But that's just one issue. What about metrics of the kinds of people that listen to your show? What's the reach? What countries? How long do visitors really listen?You get the idea. Even if you're new to podcasting or if you've been around a while, it's a vexing problem. This is a large set of unresolved issues that make it difficult for podcasters to present solid, consistent numbers, and difficult for advertisers to know how to trust the numbers for shows originated by different podcasters.This has been an issue I've wrestled with for my own shows and my clients' shows, so during a conversation with Chris MacDonald of Libysn I found out about a small group of people interested in making this problem go away.  This group is growing quickly, and you can learn more about it at http://www.openmetrics.org. What is openmetrics.org, and how can we work together to solve these problems? Let's speak with these guys now - Matt, Dave and Chris.Intro and Outro music is from Matt Jones's Sunset Birth album from http://www.bluestonejones.org/

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Recently an Internet security newsletter article caught my attention. It's by David Utter, who is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews. He listed the Top 10 security risks for 2007 that were published by the McAfee.com folks from their Avert Labs data. I thought I'd ask Deb Radcliff to comment on this because she is an award-winning investigative writer and speaker on information security.  She's spent the last 13 years writing about what can go wrong with software and firmware applications. What is it with software and hardware manufacturers on security? Seems they have created a never-ending cycle here. Ever wonder why devices aren't more secure before they are shipped?Deb recently joined forces with Mark Kadrich and Rodney Thayer to start a closed-loop security process testing company, the SecurityConsortium.net, in San Jose, Calif.  They will conduct stress tests on new applications and publish their findings.  Rodney heads up testing, where he'll put applications under real-world pressures and report how they act.Rodney sat on many historic IETF standards working groups, including IPsec, PGP and x.509 digital certificates. He is a member of several security testing and research groups, including Network World's Test Alliance, and the Schmoo Group ( www.schmoo.com).Deb invited Rodney to this podcast to chime in on how testing of new applications in real network conditions is critical to protecting enterprises proactively, as compared to today's typical reactive measures that rely on knowing or accurately predicting where the vulnerabilities are and what an attacker's going to do. ok .. so let's get rolling on this list of the Top 10 security threats for 2007

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Say the word technology, and most people think of gizmos and gadgets.  But there's another kind of technology - one that involves the inner workings of the heart and soul.  Warren Kahn has mastered both.  He's a musician with his own California studio full of machines capable of putting together best-selling recordings, and he's a Senior Trainer with the More To Life program, which uses trainings to bring people home to their hearts.  Warren and my wife, Sharon, also a Sr. Trainer, were good friends, and he composed an evoking song, Now She's Gone, upon her passing.  Soon Warren will release an album of the songs of his heart.  Let's listen as he talks about the technology of his studio and the technology of his passion for life.  We'll also listen to his new album, "To the Middle of What Matters."  The Label is Let's Planet Records.  Visit www.BeatingHeartsMusic.com

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Up next, a conversation with Lynda Wienman - CEO of Lynda.com on Talking Portraits.I had a conversation recently with a friend and mentor Larry Seyer about how to grow a business online in the area of online education.  It seemed to me there is huge opportunity globally for businesses that can provide useful education on current topics. Larry had just built www.learngigastudio.com which produces online lessons for GigaStudio in both text and video form. It's a great niche that he knows well, and it fullfills a need in a the electronic music area where samplers and synthesizers are getting more sophistacted to learn.You're about to hear an interview with a woman who epitomizes the true Internet entrepreneurial spirit. Lynda Wienman - CEO of Lynda.com.  She has a solid core of truth about what's important in her life and how she wants to run her business. Authentic is the word that comes to mind - 100% real deal.  You'll hear that in her voice.She's originally a teacher by training, and she brings that skill to her online business. She has learned by trial and error, and gives attention to the details and her presentation of herself and her services so her customers get exactly what they're seeking.  She really really really LISTENS to what her customers want, and finds ways to make that happen. She took a HUGE risk at putting her course material at $25 a month - wait until you hear what happened on that!Think about your life. Aren't you constantly needing to learn new tools and new software? How do you keep your skills honed, competitive, and creative in today's service economy? You can buy expensive books, but hey, we all know how that really works: marginally at best.  We could go to classes, but that takes time and a lot of money.Why not have a private video tutor right in your computer, teaching you exactly what you want to learn, chapter by chapter? That's what Lynda.com training is about.-- Tom Parish - Hosttom.parish @ gmail.com

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Why am I reposting again from my EnterpriseLeadership.org show? Because this is one fascinating group of people at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?.How many times have you heard about a great idea for an invention or a business and said, Gee, I wish I'd thought of that? Well, prepare to add another to your list: 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. This brainchild of a high school grad who was more interested in starting a business than going to college was launched with $700, an old pickup truck, and a lot of nerve. Today, it boasts more than 260 franchise locations in 38 states, four Canadian provinces, and parts of Australia and the UK. Interested in finding out more? Listen in on this podcast interview with Cameron Herold, COO and (another) company wunderkind, as he talks about what makes 1-800-GOT-JUNK? so unique (besides the name), from its innovative Web-based JunkNet system to "huddle" meetings to rubber chickens hanging from the ceiling. This podcast is sure to add an interesting new flavor for the word entrepreneur.Reposted with permission from BMC Software.

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This Podcast is with Brian Magierski of Kalivo on new thoughts around customer engagement on the Internet for lead generation and brand development. Could this be Web 2.0 marketing? (Alright, I know this Web 2.0 thing is getting a little worn out, but bear with me here ...)Have you ever wondered how to get your company's marketing and product management into the conversations going on OUTSIDE the company via blogs and forums throughout the Internet? Do you find you are overly focused on drive-by traffic or hoping for click-throughs from search engines for capturing leads?Maybe you are more comfortable with pouring millions into a 90- to 120-day traditional marketing campaign with a highly targeted focus, hoping to flood your specific demographic with enough media angles and different types of media that you burst into a person's attention.  It's expensive and wasteful and short-term - a point you worry about nowadays. It's hard to build a brand that way, much less an ecosphere of communities supporting your products and services, feeding you valuable, competitive information. I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, and I recently connected with a company in Austin that is on to something.Maybe you have one or more blogs at your site and you're seeing an increase in traffic, but here's the deal - you're still hoping for drive-by, incremental, 'like-minded' people to find your doorstep.  Sure, broadcasting email is some help, but given spam filters and the spam-sensitive readers ... you have your doubts. Have you given some consideration to the fact that there are millions of blogs now?  Blogs are no longer new.  Blogs and forums are where users, consumers, prospects and experts interact with each other.  Ever notice how silent most companies are when things are written about their products and services, rarely offering any rebuttal? What if you could find 'nests' of on-going conversations about your company and its products, and you could listen and engage in those conversations to learn, and, when appropriate, respond? This, my friend, is one of the next steps on where all this blogging stuff is going - especially for companies looking to leverage the benefits of social media.  Getting out there on the edge of the internet and engaging in conversations to cultivate leads and suss out the ultimate set of features for new products driven from real feedback.   This is the essence of this interview with Brian M. from Kalivo. Think of it as the new way of finding and engaging vocal prospects and customers and pulling them into YOUR ecosystem.   Let's speak now with Brian.

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I'm here with Patricia Seybold to talk about her book, Outside Innovation. Patty wrote this book as a sort of call to arms for CEOs and CXOs about the next wave of innovation that's happening in the marketplace, an innovation that maybe happening with -- or without -- their input! Let me give you a hint here: We're talking about innovations that can come directly from your consumers, your prosumers and dedicated supporters for your products and services.  Innovation that will give you a highly competitive edge, bringing you what she refers to as "organic growth."Join the parade, folks, before it passes you by, and let Patricia Seybold lend her years of experience and knowledge to help you! Let's move now to our conversation with the author of Outside Innovation. NOTE: This podcast is reused, with permission from BMC Software, from the www.EnterpriseLeadership.org show that I host each week.  As I mention in the podcast introduction, I'm going to be interviewing more people that have insightful contributions emerging from the application of social media-based systems, environments and ecosystems onto the more traditional business-oriented websites.  ------------------------------------------------------

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This is episode 47. I'm talking with Jensen Walker about life as a freelance photographer-- his career and artistic vision --the calling he has to help change the world and how he gets close to the story he wants to tell.Airplane ticket. Check.Rental car at the airport. Check.Quad-band cellphone. Check.Level 4 Kevlar personal armor. Check. This isn't my business trip packing list, but it was for photographer Jensen Walker's last out-of-town trip to the Middle East to cover what CNN said was the less-photographed side of the Israeli-Lebanon war. That's what Jensen is about -- telling stories with images, each one opening a window to history and getting the viewer close to the story.  He's a young guy, 29, married, fit, filled with a sense of adventure and guided by a personal vision to tell stories as only photographs can: capturing a moment in time for all time. He bears witness so we can see ourselves reflected in the humanity of others.Jensen Walker's photography is creatively diverse, and his work crosses a number of photo genres, including documentary, advertising and portraiture. From the frontlines of northern Israel to the frontlines of Hurricane Rita, to a shoot with the hip-hop music artist Ludicris, the thread through all of his work is the passion for story-telling. Whether in a single picture or through a project spanning months or years, Jensen's driving force is the desire to create narrative and visual discussion. His first book, "The House of Grace: A Girl's World," about child prostitution in Thailand, is now in its second printing, and Jensen is proud to report that the proceeds of this book helped build a second shelter for rescued girls.We catch up with Jensen in our studios here at Talking Portraits Productions in Austin, Texas.Tom

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Now and again I get an opportunity to have a "birds of a feather" discussion with another podcaster. I'm speaking with Chris MacDonald today who has the following leading edge credits to his name:      - EVP Business Development and Operations, Liberated Syndication (Libsyn) - President, Loud Results, parent company of IndieFeed Networks - Co-Founder and General Counsel, Association of Music Podcasting This guy is a trailblazer - and I can identify with that ...  So why am I speaking with him?  Two reasons. The clients that I work with are seeing tremendous growth in their podcast shows, which is putting a strain on the current way the mp3 files are being served up to the Internet. There is no room to scale and NOW we're seeing acceleration in growth. This btw is also happening here at Talking Portraits.  Instead of buying more hardware and bandwidth I recently recommended a service I've used in the past called Libysn.  It's the ideal way for a podcaster to start and now there is a path to grow big, REALLY BIG.  I found out there is a LibsynPro version and that is exactly what I wanted because my client wants an enterprise solution.  The newly released LibsynPro service looked so promising I figured I would just get on the phone and learn more about it. The person I've been working with is Chris MacDonald and HE is a podcaster - big time. I like that - he's knows the business.  Chris MacDonald has been deep in podcasting since releasing IndieFeed Networks in September 2004.  A former rich media email and streaming media executive, toady Chris' IndieFeed project boasts the highest collective download rate for music podcasts, with 750,000 unique downloads per month, and consistent rankings on the iTunes top 100 list.  At Loud Results, Chris has advised corporate business executives, Washington-based politicians, and PR firms on effective ways to harness podcasting as a mix within communication initiatives. I don't get a chance to meet someone too often that does exactly what I do - so this was a real treat.  Chris recently joined the management team at Libsyn to help the premier podcast host and solutions provider become even more successful, with a focused emphasis toward new user services and enterprise solutions.  He helped launch and runs Libsyn Professional Services at www.libsynpro.com  Let's talk with Chris now!

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This is a Tribute to my wife, Sharon Rose Parish, with special thanks to Sara Eskew, owner of Music of the Spheres Inc., and to 3 special women from Houston who gave me a gift that lives on  ....This podcast is unusual in that it's as much to be felt as heard.  Many of you know that my beloved wife, Sharon, died suddenly on May 31. The large chimes you'll hear and feel were a gift from Jeanenne Tucker, Jane Lawson and Lavita Marks, who came from Houston to attend Sharon's memorial service. The chimes hang on my patio and when the breezes nudge them, it's as though Sharon is talking to me. We're going to start by listening to Sharon on a conference call she held this year for the Way of a Warrior course for the More To Life Program. I want to add that for those of you close to Sharon, this is not going to be easy to listen to. I found myself in tears as I re-experienced the quality of her voice speaking about life, and heard the beautiful way she brings herself forward to everyone on the call - and to us right here, right now. The chimes are another way I hear Sharon.  They're very personal for me, but there is something else about them -- their presence--they way they speak--their effect on friends who hear them--you know, the mind-body-spirit connection. I wanted to know more about these amazing chimes, so I went to the source (well, the people who made them, anyway). They're exquisitely handmade by a company here in Austin called Music of the Spheres. I met its co-founder, Sara Eskew, at their warehouse. The other co-founder was Larry Roark, Sara's husband who, it turns out, also died suddenly and unexpectedly, like Sharon.  These special chimes help me remember the grace and beauty of my wife, who gave me and so many others around the world so many gifts. Sara took me on a bit of a musical mystery tour, which I would like to share with you.  So take a few deep breaths, sit back and relax and let this podcast in ...

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Today I am having a conversation with Maria Trombly.  Maria is an award-winning journalist and is currently the Asian Bureau chief and global technology correspondent for Security Industry News. She has quite an exciting background--born in the former Soviet Union, raised and educated in America, served as a war correspondent in Chechnya, then returned to the US to cover another type of revolution: how the Internet is changing the way the world works.In 2004 Maria moved her family to China, and she is now based in Shanghai, reporting on tech issues and China's evolving securities markets. Here's what fascinates me: What is it like---really--to be a Westerner living and working in a country the size of China?  Incidentally, China is the 4th-largest country in the world, is the size of the US and has a population of 1.3 billion--and they are just now coming online and growing as fast as Silicon Valley grew in the '90s. China is the biggest news story of our time and it is attracting entrepreneurs, visionaries and investors of all stripes--Maria is in the middle of it all. This is the first of what I hope will be several conversations with Maria about what it's like to be an American journalist, a Western woman working and living in a rapidly growing China rich with opportunities and challenges. What are the myths and the realities? The food, the taxis, the language, the business customs? Be prepared to be surprised and inspired.

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I'm having a conversation with Bill Boothe, a city project planner and skilled facilitator.  This isn't really so much about the nuts and bolts of city planning as about people.  Do you sometimes get the feeling that, as a human trying to navigate around a city, you're not really the priority? That it's the cars, the buildings and the flow of stuff that counts - not people?  Bill Boothe has some insights and answers.Talking to me today from his high-rise home overlooking the urban community of Houston, Texas, Bill is someone I've been acquainted with for years through our shared interest in an organization whose focus is to help us learn to live a more conscious life - the More To Life Program. Bill and I recently found ourselves deep into the topic of how we live our lives in the spaces created for us.  Whether these living and working spaces are consciously or unconsciously created, they affect our behavior. I wanted to know more about this with regards to past, present and future city planning.Bill is a public and private project planner and skilled facilitator with a diverse background. For 30 years he has been working in architectural design, regional planning, behavioral sciences, and personal and organizational development. He is all about creating conscious environments, and he's an advocate for having a deliberate context for growth--any growth. In this conversation, he takes us on an exploration of how we got where we are--the whole fabric of society, if you will--through the lens of private and public planning of the spaces we live in. And, even more interestingly, the ways in which we are affected by our surroundings and how they guide our behavior and subtly hardwire our choices. So today Bill and I explore a broad range of public-planning topics and see how they are indeed expressions of our cultural values. He'll take us through examples of urban life in major US cities to see the long-range impact of rapid growth, automobile dependence, and "not in my backyard" thinking. And the dehumanizing effect this has on society--oftentimes leaving us feeling isolated, less secure, and disconnected from our humanness.So sit back and enjoy this multi-faceted conversation about how we live with our environmental design and material assets--our stuff. Perhaps you will see aspects of yourself in the mirror Bill holds up to our consumer behavior and environmental design. I know I did.

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Today I interview Philip Nicholson on Teenagers and their use of Social Networking.Have you ever bought a book or music at Amazon and read the reviews before you bought? Those reviews are user-generated content, meaning you can add your bit in there, too - for free! Do you look at review sites before buying entertainment electronics, or cars? Kinda hard to imagine not having that kind of peer-level review and grassroots feedback on practically anything you buy these days. Users (of all ages) now want to participate in the buying, selling and reviewing of products online. But ... what exactly is going on with our teenagers these days in these social networks that are evolving and growing so rapidly and pervasively?OK, here is the punchline: Philip is a teenager, and I asked him to help find some answers from his teen friends about Social networking.Over the last year Philip has been working for me part-time as he completes high school and prepares for college. This very bright, insightful and well-spoken young man asked me if I would assign him a 10-day. real-world project for completion of his high school curriculum.  I was delighted he asked and had an idea I hoped he would both enjoy and could dig into. He did just that - big time.His results were delightfully insightful and in many cases quite thought-provoking.  Some of his thoughts are summarized in three blog articles at 4webresults.com/blog.I think what he as to say is helpful to all of us in grasping various social computing and social networking issues that really should be discussed and fleshed out for all successful websites in the near future. Because these computer-happy teenagers will be young adults very very soon.So let's have a conversation with Philip now and learn what he learned.

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This is a Talking Portraits show - Episode 41 for May 14 - I'm Tom Parish, your host, and today I'm having a conversation with Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus. One of the fun aspects of Talking Portraits is meeting people and learning about their motivations and why they do what they do, their contributions to others, maybe their legacy in life.  Bob "Dr." LeVitus is one of those individuals with a vibrantly visible career path. In his case, it's in writing about and consulting with Apple products ... He's a computer columnist, Mac geek, and author of 48 books, including Mac OS X Tiger for Dummies, GarageBand for Dummies, and dozens more.  And now he's offering consulting services if you need troubleshooting, training, or technical support for your Mac. He has a crew of people that can help you globally 24/7. He affectionately calls it, "Making a mouse call." This makes a lot of sense to me with the proliferation of Apple products in the home offices of solo professionals who work all over the world. When they need help, they need it right away -- and not just for repairs, but for advice on what to buy when upgrading or adding peripherals. Bob's 'vibe' just sitting here in the studio is one of excitement. When I look around I'm seeing so many people starting to make a shift to Apple. For some of us, like me, it meant taking a hybrid approach - buy a 12" Powerbook and continue using my PC like I do for audio editing right now, and wait until the time is right to change over completely. Why are people changing? Well, listen to these two recent ads from Apple that are just hilariously accurate.But what about Bob? That's really what the interview is about - Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus and how he combined his passion for Macs with his desire to help and created a career that brings joy to others and to himself ...

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Here's the backstory on how this interview came about. More than a year ago my identity was stolen. What a miserable process to go through, not to mention how helpless and vulnerable I felt when I realized what had happened.  Ever since then I've jumped at opportunities to speak with people who know what's really going on in this area.  I recently interviewed Marcus Sachs, director of the Cyber R&D Lab for the Department of Homeland Security. You'll hear this interview on EnterpriseLeadership.org in a future show.During that interview I learned that breaking into computers to steal the monetary value of what it holds is much more alluring than creating a virus to disable it. Think about it - what value is a computer that can no longer function? Identity theft is a worldwide problem, a significant and deliberate movement by an underworld of shadowy business arrangements. In fact, these groups have developed sophisticated ways to reward computer-savvy teenagers to be their "mules" to write and distribute code for nefarious purposes - in a way that keeps the organized crime groups anonymous.That opportunity to interview Marcus came from a new-found contact and friend - Deb Radcliff - who has been in the business of writing about computer security since the early '90s.  I wanted to spend more time talking about these topics from a down-to-earth perspective. One that any person and any small business owner would understand.Here's something I gleaned from Deb's bio:     Having been a general assignments newspaper reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and other daily papers, Radcliff had no idea what she was getting into in 1994 when she agreed to do research on a best-selling book about Kevin Mitnick, an infamous hacker who was on the run from the FBI at that time.      "From Mitnick's friends, I learned that computers -- and people -- are easy to trick into giving up information that they shouldn't," she says. "As such, our identity information has become fair game to every thief and stalker who really wants it."      Since then, she's written hundreds of articles that have appeared in business and consumer magazines, is working on a book, and teaches online safety education for dummies.     Now, Radcliff says, computer crime has reached a critical turn that could cost businesses their online revenue channels. Alright ... this is where you, the listener, and I, the interviewer, come into the picture. Let's speak with Deb right now and learn more about the changes that are occurring in computer security and how all of us will be affected.Music on this Podcast is from the album Shiva in Exile. Stefan Hertrich is the composer and responsible for all arrangements on the album. You can get this music at Magnatune.  

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I want to start out with a very special shout-out to Marjolein Hoekstra from the Netherlands who spurred me to contact Alex Bosworth. Marjolein planted the seed of an idea in my brain and pointed me in Alex's direction because she knew I was keenly interested in topics that Alex excels in. Alex works at SourceLabs in Seattle, Washington.  He's really interested in AJAX, RSS and Webservices in general, SocialSoftware, wikis, open source, Rails and ... well, it's a long list.  As he puts it, "I just like making cool stuff." Maybe you've heard of these projects:    * LiveMarks: Watch as bookmarks are posted to del.icio.us    * SWIK : A wiki for the open software community    * priv.at: Hack to allow anonymous bookmarking in del.icio.us. This hack takes advantage of del.icio.us' for: tag feature, which allows users to bookmark URLs invisibly for their friends     * BozPages: OPML RSS Web Pages (example: Web 2.0 Blogs)    * Delimages: Image feeds from del.icio.us    * Referendum: Create and vote on ballotsWant to learn more? Listen in ... Tom

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We're talking today with David Swedlow, who is hosting the panel discussion on Beyond Folksonomies at the 2006 SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, March 11-13.I'm going to borrow the panel description from SXSW because it sheds some light on the topics we're covering with David.As the web evolves, contextual navigation is increasingly necessary. The top-down, authoritarian, Semantic Web approach is way too restrictive, and the bottom-up, free-love, rebelliousness of folksonomies is way too permissive. What's next? A compromise of extremes? A middle-out approach? Something completely different?David and I jump into the deep end of the pool on a variety of topics that are at the edge of the computing scene. If you've been playing around with Delicious bookmarks, technorati tags - social tagging, tag clouds and memetrackers like Memeorandum, TailRank, Megite, etc. - then you'll find this conversation interesting. If you've been following Steve Gillmor and the Gillmor Gang discussions on Attention Trust, then keep listening. We delve into that as well. That topic led us into a discussion around one's identity on the web and what that will mean in this new web environment.David also talks about a shift coming in website marketing, away from counting page views or unique visitors to learning more about a person's attention and focus at a website. This is more than just recording what they visit at the site; it's more two-way. We talk about how you might log your web activity and make this attention log available to others upon request. Maybe they pay you for it! Listen in now to get in on all this. I totally enjoyed my time with David. I hope you do too. Be sure to check out David's blog at http://www.opposablemind.com/ for more of his creative and insightful thinking.

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What's Happening with RSS in an enterprise? With me today in our TalkingPortraits studio is Charlie Wood, the founding principal of Spanning Partners, which is an independent consulting firm specializing in enterprise applications of RSS and related technologies. I'm delighted and excited to dig in on this topic and learn more about what's happening in this area.There seem to be two groups right now: Those that are using RSS (developers, bloggers, podcasters and forward-thinking business-marketing types), and those that don't seem too excited or informed yet about the impact of RSS. Where do you fall?  Lately I've become keenly interested in the deployment issues around RSS in enterprises - the big companies with IT groups that have significant investments in legacy CMS or CRM systems. I've run into a lot more difficulty than I would have predicted, mainly because the large system vendors aren't too interested in RSS. Why is that?These are the issues Charlie and I talk about. We have a concern that management in major enterprises is going to suddenly wake up one day to the fact that the use of RSS is all over the place, internally and externally, both in enterprises and throughout the groups their customers do business with. All of these people and groups would be using a hodgepodge of free or cheap online services that provide various types of RSS capabilities, and in ways that circumvent the in-house IT group. That's not a good thing - yes ... no ... what do you think? Are you seeing this becoming an issue in your organization? We touch on these topics, and I would appreciate hearing your comments.Charlie has wide-ranging experience with content management and syndication, including roles in software development, presales, sales, and product management. He intimately knows RSS at a marketing perspective and a programming level as well. A rare breed. Most recently Charlie served as vice president of enterprise solutions for NewsGator Technologies. Previously he was director of enterprise solutions at Stellent. Charlie also served as group product manager for content management and syndication at Vignette. Since June 2004, he has operated Moonwatcher (globelogger.com/moonwatcher), a blog covering the emergence of RSS in enterprises. Charlie holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of Texas. He lives in Austin with his wife and twin boys.

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Open Source Data Center Management Platform - with Will Hurley CTO of QlustersWelcome back to the Talking Portraits studio in South Austin. This podcast has a fairly technical nature to it so I'm going to set the stage here for a broader audience. I think you'll find this interesting. I sure did.Have you ever wondered what a IT data center looks like or how it operates? There isn't much to really see these days. It's not like the olden days of a single huge computer with blinking lights.  It's more like racks of computers that look like really thin PCs, and the center is more like a collection of locations around the world in rooms or small closets.  Ten years ago, when I was an IT manager at Motorola, I managed mulitple servers for the semiconductor design team. It's a 24/7 job where you carry around a pager just waiting for something to go wrong. You then jump in your car in a hurry to your data center and start moving cables around, bringing new servers on line whenever there is a problem. OK, that was 10 years ago, but sadly, for smaller businesses with multiple servers, it's gotten only slightly better. What was true then is true now, to a degree: You hand-code some Pearl scripts to lash together servers in various ways, hoping this will hold you for a while, until problems or peak service demands hit you - often unexpectedly.This afternoon I have Will Hurley with me from OpenQRM.org to talk about his company's technology that is an Open Source management platform for managing data centers. What's fascinating is how his business is structured and how they have zeroed in on a marketing opportunity with business value that is easy to identify. OpenQRM has a very creative approach, generating profits and supporting the open source community at the same time. I like that.Their goal is to help small to medium-sized businesses more efficently manage data their center(s). Qlusters' product is Open QRM and it includes the same kinds of features you see from the big vendors in this market - automatic, Policy-based Provisioning - only their tool is open source, so it's more easily extensible. I learned a lot in this interview and hope you do too. Let's speak with Will (or Whurly) now.TomSpecial thanks to Andreas Haefliger's playing of Chopin for the intro and outro on this podcast. You can find his CD on Magnatune: Andreas Haefliger: Mozart on the Piano

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Meet Tim Downs, founder of RFID-World.com.  During a recent set of Podcasts I produce over at www.dbazine.com, I started hearing Oracle and DB2 database administrators talking about the coming tidal wave of data storage and data management originating from the increase in use of RFID tagging technology. This got me thinking. I meet a person a while back who actually started the first and largest RFID conference -- Tim Downs. I wondered if he'd be interested in doing a teaching piece on RFID.So I called him up to get his perspective on the topic and this is what we have to listen to this week. I hope you find it helpful.Here is the Wikipedia definition of RFID:--Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is a small object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person. RFID tags contain silicon chips and antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver. Passive tags require no internal power source, whereas active tags require a power source.--Guerreiros da Noite by Luis Claudio  from the Pod Safe Music NetworkEnjoyTom

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What's up for RSS feeds in 2006? That's what I wanted to know, so I contacted Peter Cooper of www.feeddigest.com. I've been a fan of his RSS-focused, web-based tools for almost a year now. I wanted a down-in-the-trenches perspective, and I got it!Peter Cooper is a developer and entrepreneur from the United Kingdom who loves developing new technology solutions from few resources. He's the owner of FeedDigest, a Web application which processes, filters, and redistributes RSS feeds for about twenty thousand users. Most people use FeedDigest to put automatically updating links and posts from their Web feeds onto their own Web sites. One of the first commercial Ruby on Rails developers, Peter continues to use the principles of Agile development to develop services that users love, as proven by FeedDigest's user base. With a recent investment in FeedDigest by a Seattle-based "Internet Software Lab" called Curious Office Partners (www.curiousoffice.com), FeedDigest's future is set, and a relaunch with a new design and many new features is expected in the coming month.Eager to see the RSS industry mature, Peter is focused on bringing RSS-powered technologies to the masses, although not necessarily using the term "RSS." Peter enjoys leveraging his eleven years of Web development experience and six years of blogging experience to provide solutions that users, businesses, and fellow developers find useful and fun.In this podcast from the Podsafe Music Network:Rocket Science by Brain BucketandLonnie Brooks, Long John Hunter, Phillip Walker - A Little More Time

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In the studio with me today is Rod Amis, and I'm delighted to catch a few minutes with him ... this guy is busier than I am - even stays up later at night than I - so I feel lucky to have a podcast with him.Rod is a writer and visionary who has contributed to the changes we see on the Internet now.  Back when most websites were about America and American subjects, Rod tilted his head and said, "Something's wrong with this picture!  It's name is the WORLD WIDE Web.  I want to use the web to encourage international contact and communication."He took his paper zine and put it on the web, actively seeking writers from around the world.  He gave it a name that would generate energy as well as move toward the 21st century: Generator 21, The World's Magazine.  Originally printed and mailed on paper, the zine became G21 when Rod launched it on the Internet in March 1996.A globe-trotter, Rod spent several years in New Orleans before moving to North Carolina.  In love with The Big Easy, he wrote lots of stories for G21 about his experiences while on the Gulf Coast.  After Hurricane Katrina, when lulu.com asked him to write a book, he took material from his zine, added a heaping helping of research, and created Katrina and the Lost City of New Orleans.  The book is now available through lulu.com and amazon.com. ... let's talk with Rod now.Intro - Rubber Band Banjo by nonabot  Outro - Guerreiros da noite by Luis Claudio      from the Pod Safe Music Network

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If you are the kind of person who is into fitness, practices martial arts, bowls, runs, does triathlons, bicycles, plays tennis or just walks and hikes a lot - you'll want to listen to this podcast with Dr. Doug Kelsey and Christine Springer.These two people are healers - physical therapists who know what it means to stay healthy longer and live a more active life. I have the honor of having helped them launch their podcast called Ready Radio at www.readyradio.com, and it's already getting attention.Why am I doing this podcast? I want you to know about them and how they helped me heal a significant injury I sustained while practicing martial arts.  What I learned applies to any person who wants to stay active and fit. I'm a converted fitness nut, I suppose, but I see now that prior to my injury I was operating under a lot of assumptions and myths about how to take care of myself, how to stay healthy and how to heal injuries.Dr. Doug Kelsey is Chief Physical Therapist and Founder of Sports Center, a physical therapy practice in Austin, Texas, devoted to rebuilding active, athletic lifestyles. He is regarded as one of the world's leading experts in orthopedic physical therapy and is a former Clinical Content Expert for the American Physical Therapy Association. His concepts and methods are used throughout the United States by universities and physical therapy programs.Christine Springer is co-host of Ready Radio and a Level 2 orthopedic resident at Sports Center. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Psychology and completed her Physical Therapy graduate studies at Texas Woman's University in Dallas. Clients rave about her warm, engaging style and her uncanny sense of  humor. Christine also has a passion for cycling.Let's go meet them.Music on this show is from Jami Sieber's Hidden Sky album found at www.magnatune.com

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I'm feeling a little nervous today because I have a question on my mind about this interview topic - the Plone CMS and one of the orginal developers, Alan Runyan. Namely, how do I do justice to the work of hundreds of developers around the world who have put so much of their time into creating a content management system (CMS) for the Open Source community? On this show you will meet Alan Runyan, CEO and President of Enfold Systems Inc. in Houston, Texas. Alan is one of three very creative and highly motivated individuals who spawned this 'Plone CMS' idea and helped build a global community.  In this interview I ask Alan:  - What was your personal motivation for creating a content management system (CMS) like Plone?  - What's the buzz about the Plone community?  - Why didn't you use PHP and mySQL?  - What's new in Plone versions 2.2 and 2.3 this year?  - What's the history of Enfold Systems Inc., and how does the company interconnect with the Plone community?  So what's this Plone thing anyway? From WIKIPEDIA on Plone:  A content management system written in the Python programming language. It is based on Zope. Plone is free software and is designed to be extensible. It can be used as an intranet or extranet server, a document publishing system, and a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located entities.  The Plone project was started in 1999 by Alan Runyan, Alexander Limi, and Vidar Andersen. It has quickly grown into one of the most popular and powerful open-source content management systems in the world. In 2004, the Plone Foundation was formed to protect and promote the use of Plone.  Plone is released under the GNU General Public License. It is built on top of the open-source application server Zope and the accompanying Zope Content Management Framework, which has thousands of developers around the world supporting it. Plone development is often furthered by periodic Plone Sprints.  The name Plone is in homage to the Warp Records band Plone from 1996, an electronica band.  So why in the world did I pick Mozart piano music from Magnatune for this podcast? Well, I just did. I wanted this to be less driven and more contemplative, I suppose. The artist is Andreas Haefliger - I hope you enjoy his playing as much as I do.  Enough of all that! Let's talk with Alan and get to know him and this CMS called Plone better. Tom

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Tonight I'm here with Bjorn Fogelberg, a musician from Sweden who caught my attention from an album called Karooshi Porn that he put on the Maganatune.com site .I've used a number of his "podsafe" tracks in my previous interviews. There is a depth in his music that seems to carry me away to another place when I listen, and there is a youthfulness that I find attractive, and there is the beat ... ah, the beat.1969 was the year when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and Bjorn FogelBorg falls from the stars to grace the world with his contributions in music - well, ok, maybe 30 years later, but he's here, making an impact and getting noticed. Check out his website at http://www.fogelberg.com for all the latest news on his career.Bjorn has been exploring a range of musical styles, from ambient and soft electronica to house and trance dance -- I attempt to weave as much of his creativity as possible into the show.Bjorn is an experienced self-promoter on the Internet for his music. We talk about what works and what doesn't with regards to promoting and selling his music on the Internet, and how to get recognized and played, especially as an independent artist.Enjoy.

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And now for someone completely different - once again ...Meet Jack Miller, a technology consultant who works primarily with small to medium-sized business and specializes in the real estate industry.  Jack does all of his consulting virtually (via the Internet), and works with clients all over North America.  He utilizes some specific software tools in effective ways to make things easy for his non-technical clients in the real estate industry.  In this interview he talks about how these tools and practices help his clients, and describes some specific things virtual consultants can do to create more value for their clients. We talk a lot about Basecamp, a web-based project management tool for small businesses - an innovative solution to managing virtual teams and very reasonably priced.Jack introduced me to Plone a couple of years ago and said it was the future. He's right -- Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) are the wave of the future. This website is 100% done in Plone. Takes me about a minute to post a new Podcast.Music: I used a couple of foot-tapping tracks from Bjorn Fogelborg's Karooshi Porn album which can be found at www.magnatune.com

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Ann McMaster is a psychotherapist, a devoted grandmother, a friend and a Senior Trainer for the More To Life global program.Ann's life path has put her in contact with people and cultures around the world ... from Zulus in Africa to the Maoris in New Zealand, from Brits and South Americans to Texas inmates.  In the last 20+ years, Ann has given tens of thousands of people the tools to explore the events of their lives, to heal themselves and take heart in their futures.The oldest of eight children, Ann became a self-described helper and initially thought that was her life's purpose.  Only when she heard the saying "Give someone a fish and they eat for a day; teach someone to fish and they eat for a lifetime" did she realize that she didn't want to help people. Instead, she wanted to serve people in a way that taught them how to nurture themselves.

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Meet TC from Rotterdam - the shaman of ambient electronic space music. Treat yourself to his weekly podcast at http://spacemusic.libsyn.com/ which is exclusively for people who seek out the latest in ambient electronic-type music. Or even if you just like relaxing music to calm your nerves and soothe your soul, spend some time with TC.I invited Larry Seyer to cohost this podcast with me. We talk with TC about his inspirations as a fellow podcaster and a musician, and we learn about his style and the equipment he has in his studio. For this podcast I chose music similar to what TC uses.  Featured are tracks from Paul Avgerinos' CD, Sky of Grace, and from Bjorn Fogelberg's Karooshi Porn CD, both on Magnatune.com.It seemed only fitting to use music that TC might pick, though I wouldn't dare attempt to match his style and intuition in selecting artists. I just wanted to create the right mood for you in hopes that you enjoy meeting TC as much as I did. And by all means, subscribe to his weekly, hour-long program of ambient music from artists around the world. You'll feel better, more relaxed, and there is no charge. It's 100% feel-good music for your delight.

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People ask me how to pick someone to interview. To a large degree it's an internal process: I wait for something to hit me and I'll hear a little voice that says, "That person is interesting ... let's go learn more about him (or her)."   So that's what I did - I went after an interview with Alex Nesbitt.Alex actually found me first. He sent a note right out of the blue, asking if I would fill out a questionnaire about myself and TalkingPortraits which he could post as an interview on his website, digitalpodcast.com. That got my interest, of course, but when I Googled him I learned that he was the author of an outstanding white paper on podcasting called The Podcast Value Chain Report: An Overview of the Emerging Podcasting Marketplace.  I found it on PRLEAP.com, which is all about accelerating search engine visibility. Now THAT really got my attention because I'm a big believer in Podcasting as a tool for increasing your search engine visibility.Since then I've found out more about Alex, including his approach to marketing and technology management practices for corporations.  You see, Alex has spent years working as a management consultant for groups, including The Boston Group, and now for his own company, Coplenish Consulting Group.  And he's spent years as a technophile, from the earliest days of PCs to the present.Getting back to Alex's current passion: the digitalpodcast.com directory. He's developed a directory of Podcasts, as well as a podcasting forum and a free Web 2.0-style podcast search feature. He shares the API to it for programmers to cook up their own uses of the digitalpodcast.com directory data. Background music for this interview is by Bjorn Fogelberg from his Karooshi Porn album, which can be found on Magnatune.com. The intro track is titled Life in a Tube and the outro track is Wave.

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Have you heard of H5N1?  It sounds like the title of a science fiction book, but it's actually the name of a virus with the potential of killing every second person who contracts it.As the news media slowly bring this virus to our attention, I went looking for someone in the know to interview.  I found Crawford Kilian, who has some information about H5N1 or avian flu, also called bird flu, that you should listen to.  Now, he's not a medical expert on this topic; however, Mr. Kilian is an engaging English professor living in Vancouver, British Columbia.  I found him fascinating and pragmatic in his thinking. His website: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com.He's a published author with more than 20 books on Amazon, and has an insatiable curiosity that delves into science fiction, history, medicine, travel, and technology.  When he learned about H5N1, he put together the puzzle pieces from his grandparents' experience with the Spanish flu in the early 1900s, his own experiences with the polio epidemic in the 1940s and teaching in China in the early '80s, the SARS outbreaks in Canada a couple of years ago, and his knowledge of the current speed of global travel.  An active blogger, Crawford poses some questions and provides some answers in his blog: H5N1. Avian Flu -- What You Need to KnowConnoteaEffect MeasureCIDRAPBird Flu TodayThe Coming Influenza Pandemic?Recombinomics - Henry Niman

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Have you ever wondered what life is like in India as the manager of a software development group? Let's find out from Arun Tanksali, an editor for the ITConversation team who was gracious enough to give me some of his precious time for a short, personal interview. Here's some background on Arun: He is an engineer with a Master's in Electronics and currently working in the area of software development for mobile devices and networks. Arun is responsible for product development at Jataayu Software, a Bangalore, India-based software company focusing on the mobile space. Arun has about 15 years of experience in developing software on a variety of platforms over this period, for both applications as well as system domains. Arun's interests are in Mobile Web technologies, and in his spare time he enjoys reading fiction and tinkering with open source software. Arun and I have some fun and a couple of great laughs during this informal conversation about his life at home and at work in Bangalore, India.

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I met Michael Tchong at a event in Washington D.C. where he was the keynote speaker - on Ubercool Trends. I was to speak the second day of the event. The goal (really for both of us) was to stimulate the thinking of 85 radio and TV station managers about the new trends occuring on the Internet that affect their businesses. See http://www.ubercool.com for more on Michael Tchong.

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Terry Heaton of Donata Communications talks about the impact of Web 2.0 New Media changes on local TV broadcasting and the unexpected opportunities that exist. Terry is a personal media consultant whose passion is bringing new media solutions to local television. He is a 30-year veteran of the TV broadcast industry. In this podcast he talks about his experiences with WKRN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, building bridges between the local blogging and video blogging communities so there is collaboration instead of angst. Find out how both the bloggers and the TV station benefit from this approach.

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Tom Parish interviews Mike Smith on his corporate blogging and corporate podcasting experiences at BMC Software. We talk about the changing perspectives required in marketing, especially looking at the quality of conversations that evolve rather than the numbers of emails sent. We also discuss issues around new outbound approaches to 'web marketing.'

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I am just delighted to bring you this interview with Paul Figgiani - http://www.pfiggianimsc.com/blog/ - where he talks about his experiences as an audio engineer with ITConversations. Paul and I have been emailing each other on an assortment of audio issues since the ITC team first pulled together. Including the biggy: "How the heck do we get this RMS Normalization to work the way Doug wants it?" Paul talks about Doug Kaye's bigger vision for ITConversations and provides some words of wisdom for new ITC Team members doing audio production.

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Austin Texas USA is rapidly becoming the Wireless Capital of the World. In my Podcast, currently featured on WiMAX.com, Erin Defosse (pronounced day-foss-AY) explains why. Where did this technology crown come from? Why are savvy wireless entrepreneurs gravitating toward Central Texas? Erin Defosse lets you in on this quiet explosion.

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An amazing story of how one woman raises six children - two with special needs - survives a near-death experience while giving birth, creates the world's largest online resource for those with autism, and writes several books - without accepting a dime from the government, special interest groups, or corporations! Every cent received from product sales is reinvested into the organization.

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Good news! The new Fostex FR-2 field recorder arrived today. I was rather eager to see the FedEx truck come my way. As you saw from earlier posts, I tried and then returned both the Marantz PMD660 and PMD671 due to extremely noisy microphone inputs among other bothersome issues.  Jenny Meadows (my editor and friend) was visiting, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for an impromptu Podcast with the brand new Fostex FR-2. Jenny and I talk about the benefits of using a professional editor for blogging.  How do you use an editor in a way that you keep your voice and your writing style?I give my first impressions of the Fostex FR-2, which are a combination of joy and relief after all the disappointment with the Martanz Pro (???) PMD660 and PMD671. Bottom line: the Fostex FR-2 works extremely well, its microphone preamps are VERY quiet, and honestly it's easier to use. It's also more expensive, but I have no regrets.

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Rob Miller, who has run the IT group at Burning Man for years, talks about how they use PLONE to coordinate 1,000 people in 70 teams each year. Rob talks about why Plone is such an excellent content management system and the ease with which you can extend it for custom solutions.

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