I originally posted this one over at PodCrawl. It's an audio of the opening keynote address of the Portable Media and Podcast Expo delivered by This Week In Tech podcaster (among other things) Leo Laporte. Enjoy folks!

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A very long recording about the state of podcasting. I recorded this while driving up to Massachusetts yesterday morning. I talk about the general state of podcasting and provide a review of some of the current podcasting tools. I also talk about my thoughts on RSS. I believe that RSS will eventually disappear into the background as software companies develop smarter applications that support RSS.

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A rambling post with thoughts on the word "podcasting," podcasting business models and the commercialization of content syndicated over the internet.Mentioned on the show: Odeo, iTunes, Gnomedex, Mark Cuban Weblog, Feedburner, The Podcast Network, Hacking Netflix, Our Media, Audioblog, LibSyn.

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It's a first look at the forthcoming podcast management website Odeo. That's pronounced like rodeo. Odeo's tag line is Listen, Sync, Create. I've been beta testing for a few days now and I give you my thoughts on the Listen and Sync portions of the sites services. I'll talk about the features that matter for podcast producers in part II to be published very soon.You can check out screen shots and another review courtesy of Jared Hansen over at his Backdrifter.com blog. Thanks to Jared for taking the time to pull that together.Also, I've announced my participation as a member of the NYC Pod Squad. Find out more about it at http://nycpodsquad.blogspot.com.

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Part II of my Odeo overview. This time I focus on what's available for producers at this time. In short, there's not much available since you need to request special access to the "create" portion of the site. There are some features that you should know about though, including how to make sure your feeds are included in Odeo, how to get them into Odeo and what to do with them once your podcast feeds are present. I also talk about the plans that Odeo has for recording functionality within the system.

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I'm back after a bit of a hiatus. Lots of content creation happening on the other channels and other life related stuff as well. I also wanted to collect my thoughts for this posting. The end result is not exactly how I wanted it. But what is ever exactly what we want it to be? In any case, I'm speaking on the business of podcasting. Here are the main points that I make: People need to stop asking the question, "How can I make money from Podcasting?", and start asking the question, "How can I add value?" Podcasting is not a business in itself. Podcasting is a new method of distribution. Three of the main businesses related to this new method of distribution are: Content Creation/Distribution Enabling Services (i.e. AudioBlog.com, LibSyn, SlapCast) Ancillary Services (i.e. Feedburner, PodScope) A fourth business type revolves around providing the above mentioned business types as services to corporations, small businesses and artists. The rules of doing business haven't changed. You still have to understand the different pieces of the puzzle. You also have to understand how these things can help a particular business. Finally, you need to be able to sell your ideas and then deliver! The tools we use to to business have changed and they should be used accordingly. Content creators/producers/distributors can make money from what they do provided they take the time to understand the business and create valuable content. Don't protect your main content because you'll end up chasing your tail and reducing the size of your audience. Find ways to add value. Advertising needs to be relevant to the audience or it takes away from the experience. Remember that the audience is worldwide. Comments on this post are greatly appreciated. Also, I've added a "Super Feed" that splices together all seven Podcast NYC channels into one RSS feed. You can now subscribe once and get all of my content. Go here to get the link for the feed.Happy podcasting!

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I attended the geek dinner last Monday night at Grand Central Station and had a wonderful time meeting and talking shop with some very influential bloggers/podcasters/content syndicators. I also put a new Griffin Lapel Mic through it's paces and did some recording. I picked up a lot of background noise but I was able to get a few good snippets after playing with input volume levels. The three short snippets from the evening are:1. Robert Scoble and Mike Dunn talking about Scoble's role at Microsoft as a tech evangelist.2. David Parmet discussing splitting his blogs between family and business.3. A humorous story involving Bill Gates.Then I present a few thoughts on how podcasters can learn something from the development of the blogging community. And how major media support is not needed to take podcasting to the next level. Do we even know what the next level is yet?

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A bit of a ramble this week to flesh out some thoughts on law and podcasting. The ethics of soundseeing and playing of copyrighted music come to mind. Can you legally record and distribute recordings of people without their knowledge or consent? Where is the line drawn on the playing of different music in podcasts?Comments on a Wall Street Journal article on podcasting that was pretty weak. Also, a few thoughts on the NYC Podcasting Association meeting.

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A report on the first meeting of the NYC Podcasting Association meetup group. The first meeting was held on Wednesday 4/22. A very interesting evening. I got to meet some folks who I've either been talking to or listening to on their podcasts. Much of the meeting involved formalities since it was the first meeting. Lots of introductions. There was a fair mix of podcast producers, technologists and marketing type folks. I give some of my thoughts on the meeting and provide some insight to what I think are good discussion topics for any podcasting meetup.Includes a short conversation from the meeting with Mike Dunn of Nomadic Audio and John Federico of Brand Brains (and Audible). We talked a little about the current state of podcasting, soundseeing ethics and musicians getting into podcasting.Some other notes...I've added a Pay Pal donation button to the front page of site. A donation is certainly not required but appreciated if you regularly enjoy the content on this site. At this point I'm just looking to recover the costs of producing the site along with trying to fund new features and content.Along those lines, check out the new Video Extras section. Powered by AudioBlog, I'll be posting short video snippets to go along with some of the audio content on the site.Thanks for listening and happy podcasting!

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I talk about the state of podcast software as I walk across midtown Manhattan. I also comment on the discussion over at Dave Winer's new site podcatch.com about the developments at Odeo and Adam Curry's PodShow. It seems that a couple of very useful podcast apps like AudioBlog.com and phpBB Podcast have been left out of the discussion. phpBB Podcast has been working for me and it looks like Eric Rice has got some features that I've been looking for over at AudioBlog.Also, I wonder how much of the development time for PodShow and Odeo will be dedicated to audio recording functionality. It seems to me that what's really needed at this point in the game are apps that support distribution and subscription. Let's get those into the mix and then people can focus on the much more difficult problem of giving people the ability to very easily create quality audio recordings. I'm thinking of the many musicians and internet radio-philes who already have quality content, but not necessarily the RSS or blog skills. There are a lot of them out there!

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A little primer on mobile podcast recording from my point of view. Mobile recording is a good idea, especially if you want to add variety and ambience to your podcasts. Hardware is important. I've had good results with the iRiver H320 and the Radio Shack tie clip mic. I've also developed a list of things to keep in mind to insure that the mobile recording process goes as smoothly as possible. Do sound checks in the recording environment. Try different volume settings. Be aware of the effects of background noise. Have your equipment organinzed and easy to get to (even in the dark!) Double check to make sure your recorder and mic are on. Turn off mic and recorder when complete to save precious battery life. Recording short segments reduces editing time. Organize, rename and tag audio files as soon as you transfer them to your computer. Those are just some things I've noticed that can make a big difference. If you have other tips, feel free to email me or comment in this space.Happy Podcasting!

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The New York Podcast meetup group is in the process of forming over on Meetup.com. As a result I've decided to listen to and log some info on some of the seminal New York area podcasts. It's an exciting development that the NYC area is finally coming up to speed on podcasting.Here are some of the NYC area podcasts that are leading the way:Bibb and Yaz Take Over The World - link - rssBeware of the Babylon - link - rssThe Daily Sonic - link - rssHoboken Rock City - link - rssThe Ken and Squip Show - link - rssListen Up Brooklyn - link - rssThe Overnightscape - link - rssPodcast NYC - ListenI've set up a new phpBB based forum over at http://www.audiofeedforums.com. It's a place for podcasting news, discussion, debate, etc. There's also a cool mod that I added which I'm calling Podcast Preview. It allows a podcast producer to either link to a full podcast or upload a small sample so that listeners can hear their podcast in the browser. Listeners can rate and comment on the podcasts that are posted there.Also, thanks to Eric Rice, PodCrawl, Adam Curry, Mike Dunn and The Hobson and Holtz report for either mentions or link postings of Podcast NYC.

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Expanded comments on the commercialization of podcasting. Comments on some podcasting related announcements in the last week. Chris Pirillo picked up sponsorship from Citrix. Eric Rice is now being sponsored by Warner Brothers Music. http://www.ourmedia.org is offering free storage and bandwidth for podcasters. I also talk about the importance of podcast planning. As Podcast NYC has expanded I've realized the importance of planning podcasts ahead of time. Good podcast planning leads to more enjoyable podcasts for the listener and saves time on actual production.

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A stream of thoughts on the commercialization of podcasting. It's obvious that this new distribution method s going to stick and there are already a few entrepreneurial spirits looking to capitalize early with their business model. More folks will follow and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm keeping an eye on how product/brand marketing plays a part in the development of podcast business models.One important thing to note is that all of the key skill sets to excel in podcasting, or providing podcast services, currently exist. Creativity, marketing saavy, web development and digital media development skills, etc. are a plenty. The knowledge of XML and RSS may be the only area where there is a shortage of deeply skilled folks. Those concepts are relatively simple to grasp for the technical minded so that gap is small and certainly won't last for long.I believe that honesty and quality will win out in the long run, just like they do in most other industries.

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Two weeks ago I did an interview for Manhattan public access television with Harold Channer. The main subject was, of course, podcasting. We also spoke about general technology, creating digital audio on the PC and satellite radio. Mr. Channer was a very nice guy and he was as eager to learn about podcasting as I was to talk about it. You can find out more about Harold Channer by visiting his website at http://www.channer.tv.

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