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(2006-08-22 — Updated again to troubleshoot the script timeout errors.) Today is a special interview edition of Podcheck Review. We welcome Jason Van Orden, podcaster, podcasting consultant, entrepeneur, husband, all-around nice guy, and author of the new book, “Promoting Your Podcast,” in stores August 28th, 2006. Jason’s podcasts: http://www.podcastingunderground.com/ and http://www.gothamcast.com/ Jason joins us via double-ender from Alaska for 23 minutes of conversation about promoting podcasts and stuff. We only pimp the book a couple of times, so you know that it’s a good read if you’re serious about promoting your show (unlike me). In fact, here’s my quote:
“A must-read for anyone serious about promoting his/her podcast.” - Scott Fletcher
I also hint about my new hobby website: www.BarNapkinWarfareDesigns.com, and mention some other stuff about the next episode of Podcheck Review.
If you’ve tried to post comments or do trackbacks with the PodCheck web site for the past several weeks, you might have experienced a timeout error. (I still don’t know why exactly it’s happening, but I am narrowing down the culprits.) In the meantime, please excuse any spurious re-downloads of postcasts, etc. ALSO, please let me know via e-mail show [-at-] podcheck [-dot-] com if you have trouble posting a comment. I will be happy to post your comment for you.
I hope that the latest ‘fix’ that I applied will solve the problem, but I suspect that the cause is a bit more venemousslyevil persistent than that. Time will tell…
Meanwhile, coming up on future episodes of Podcheck Review:
Also, a return to the rapid-fire news format of yesteryear in order to catch up with the goings’-on in the podcatastophere.
Also, a word about some upcoming appearances of my voice on Chub Creek’s hilarious DarkSpeed sci-fi radio show, an upcoming guest spot on “Today in Podcasting,” and my new website for releasing pent-up frustrations - www.BarnapkinWarfareDesigns.com
Thank you for your feedback, and for staying subscribed! —-Scott
This will be my first post to the Podcheck Blog using Microsoft’s new WYSIWYG blog editor, called (appropriately enough) “Microsoft Writer.” They have released the beta in conjunction with their “Onfolio” release.
I have been looking for a good free off-line editor that I could use with WordPress, and I’ve been impressed with this Microsoft Writer app. I just doodled a stick figure image, clipped it, and pasted it into the Writer document. We’ll see if Writer is able to upload and imbed the image for me!
UPDATE: Holy mother of pearl - It uploaded the copy-pasted image to the blog server automatically! MMMmmm! Now that’s good app! Nice work!
We all wondered when this would happen - when would Apple Computer, Inc. go completey meglo-nutjob-trademark-crazy and assert that they owned the name “POD”?
Use “POD” in your trademark, get sued. Has Apple gone too far? by ZDNet’s David Berlind — Has Apple gone too far? Even if the product you make doesn’t look, smell, feel, or do anything remotely close to what an iPod does, and even if consumers can’t buy it on the shelves in a store, that apparently doesn’t mean Apple won’t release its legal dogs on you if […]
When Apple’s legal team moves on from ‘devices’ to ‘concepts,’ will names like Podcheck, Podshow, and PodSquad be next? There are lots of other Trademarks that include the word Podcast, so how about Paul Fowlie, the guy that claims the trademark on the word “PODCAST.” I couldn’t find anything on Mr. Fowlie, so I hope he doesn’t turn out to be an ass-clown.
It’s clear that the USPTO is overworked, overwhelmed, with a profound lack of understanding of how spontaneously-generated markets that create their own common terminology.
The division for which I churn out insanely genious ideas every day has been spun off into a new company and changed it’s name. I now need new business cards, but I’m having trouble with my job title. The “org chart’ is somewhat flat and I don’t know what the HR system will indicate as my job title. In the meantime, I need business cards.
I’m having a hard time with what my new business cards for my real-life job should say. Here are some of my ideas so far:
Scott Fletcher Chief Bottle Washer
Scott Fletcher Not smarter than you
Scott Fletcher Wizard’s Workshop - Mop Technician
Scott Fletcher Light-Seconds ahead of his time
Scott Fletcher Admires simplicity
Scott Fletcher Gadget and Gizmo Freak
Scott Fletcher Makes software softer
..and potentially my favorite:
Scott Fletcher Insert self-important non-descript job title here
I like them all, so it’s difficult to choose. I am injecting some “startup whimsy” into our new, smaller company while being sensitive to the need for a sense of propriety and professionalism demanded by our target customers. I’m not the CEO, and I only hand out business cards to customers during tech and engineering meetings, so I’m usually handing the cards to people who appreciate/envy a relaxing of the rules.
I had some Podcheck cards printed for last year’s Expo. How could I resist for only $65? It seemed like everyone else had cards, too. As podcasters, do we really need business cards? It’s not like I have an opportunity to hand out business cards for my HOBBY very often.
I get tired of seeing people try to fight the nature of this expanse, trying to push the river with their bare hands while the consumers let the current carry them past those who would control the flow.
I received an e-mail from someone for whom I have much respect, and he asked what I thought about this upcoming Podcast Expo. Specifically, he asked if I thought that last year’s overwhelming “sense of community” would be present again this year, or if it would be naturally diminished by the success of the medium. He wondered if we should stop thinking of ourselves at podcasters and start thinking of ourselves as media producers (like some prominent business people suggest).
With his questions, he managed to turn (what should have been) a quick note into a Podcheck Mini-Manifesto. Endless thanks to him for spurring this, and thanks be to you for indulging me on this blog. Here was my reply:
On Community: The sense of mutual respect is alive and well in the podcatastophere. Hard to say how many posers will be at the Expo this year, but it is our job as the Grizzled Ancients to moderate and guide the innocent through whatever we perceive as being threats to our vision. Media producers can be people, too. I would much rather think of myself as a “brand” than a “media producer.” It just sounds so much more immense. :) Whatever we are, this IS our media and all are welcome. I look forward to seeing some old friends and making some new ones. If this year’s expo doesn’t have a great sense of community, it will be because we failed to foster it.
The Worst Best Awards The “awards thing” signals a bit of chaos ahead. The disintegration of the “awards model” is significant because markets/consumers DEMAND leaders and recommendations. Where will the consumers discover new shows/music/blogs/authors/whatever? I’ve always said that word-of-mouth will rule the earth again, but the marketplace will sort it out and I will enjoy watching people try new concepts. I think that the consumers will take control with collaborative filters and affinity indicators. I get tired of seeing people try to fight the nature of this expanse, trying to push the river with their bare hands while the consumers let the current carry them past those who would control the flow.
New Media River: The new media marketplace is what it is to each person that consumes it, with no mandatory protocol for experiencing it. Each consumer is affected differently depending upon where they are standing in the river, but it is the river that consumes them and not the other way around.
Odd thought: To borrow from TMBG – “When the consumers stand in the media river, do they get wet, or does the river get ‘them’ instead?” Eskimos have many different words for “snow.” Might there me a time when we need many different words for “watching TV” because there are so many different ways to experience it, and to let it experience us?
On the near Future: I’m very glad to hear that (your show) is steaming ahead. There are other people who are wondering what the hell they are doing, resting so much hope for themselves in this podcasting/citizen media thing. I don’t know what the next two-three years will bring to the industry, but I know that it is too soon for talented producers to be either frustrated or complacent.
The End
Thank you for your compliments about Podcheck. It means a lot to me that (you) actually tune into this thing.
Fight the good fight, and hope to see you at the Expo.
I stumbled across this GREAT short song by Jason Ouwallleleettte… Owlettey… Walletee… whatever, over at his blog. Very well-produced, and very creative, and VERY funny.
You owe it to yourself to hear Jason’s song (set to the Beatles “Paperback Writer”) about his disdain for Mark Yoshimito Nemcoff - the host of Pacific Coast Hellway, his love for Keith and the Girl, and a funny/cheap shot at podshow and the podfather.
To be clear, I don’t have feelings one way or the other about PCH or KTG, and I don’t hold any personal grudges against Adam or the Podshow crew. Jason has some mad skillz with music and editing, I’m just a sucker for great self-produced music and bits, and this one is a home run. Now THEM’s good parody!
Note: If your podcatcher downloaded any of the referenced mp3 files, my apologies. WordPress automatically included them as enclosures in the RSS feed.
Update 2006-08-07 12:58pm - STILL can’t get the attachment out of the Feedburner feed. My ‘authoritative’ feed is corrected, but the cached feed at Feedburner still contains the attachment. I’ve pinged Feedburner a couple of times, to no avail. My apologies to Jason, and to anyone else who was not prepared to hear the song as part of the Podcheck feed. I’ve seen some very positive feedback about the song, proving again that Jason rocks. Hard. — Scott
(Updated 2006-08-21 to make shorter, change frmatting. Sorry if this shows up in your newsreader again, but I am troubleshooting a WordPress problem that is causing the admin and posting system to freeze and time out.)
Doin’ the show solo today, letting Jeff enjoy his summer, and giving myself a chance to pace myself in this swealtering heat.
From February 8th, 2006 - Merlin Mann posted a great response on the 43 Folders site regarding the Wired article about podfading, and he unknowingly created Podcheck’s new slogan.
Raising the bar for quality, and way lowering the bar for frequency.
So, we have a new slogan/tagline, and we’re going to use it until we get bored with it. Thanks to Merlin!
(Removed the ‘more’ link for troubleshooting)
I am reveling at smiling at life in our little corner of the world.
…and finally, the word Podfade made it in. Feel free to augment the very short article over at Wikipedia.
Certainly, not important enought to land me a Nobel Prize: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1738511,00.html Back in March, Lennart Carleson, an 80-year-old Swedish academic whose work on the complexities of soundwaves has subsequently been used in the electronic components of iPods, won a Nobel prize for his efforts, as well as 500,000 francs? (What is that little curlie-q L symbol, and why aren’t we all using Euros now?)
In the 1960s Carleson showed that any sound, no matter how complicated, can be represented as a series of sine waves. “That translates in the real world as the idea that any sound can be reproduced using the sound of a tuning fork,” said a University of Oxford mathematician, Marcus du Sautoy. “The sound of a lion roaring can be broken down into just simple tuning forks.”
http://www.tekrati.com/research/News.asp?id=7434 The study says that young people between the ages of 18-25 are twice as likely than older people to publish a podcast, but… how old are the hosts of YOUR favorite podcasts? Are the hosts of your favorite podcasts under 25 years old? We must ALWAYS question these statistics and seek out the deeper meaning, beyond simply the “so-and-so ages are more likely” or “less likely” to do something. The full news article is available here: http://www.tekrati.com/research/News.asp?id=7434
Buzzwords created, even if you don’t agree with them.. According to the CBS story, the term “Mobcasting” refers to a podcast created on a mobile device.
Thee aren’t any Mobcasts nominated for the 2006 Podcast Awards. Voting opens July 28th, 2006 and closes August 28th. Todd Cochrane and crew will then very anticlimatically announce the winners weeks before the Podcast Expo, and everyone will *sigh* See my July 30th post for my Miss America rant.
Much more relevant to a ‘community’: In July, The Mep Report, a podcast about emus, beat out 9,000 others to win Podcast Pickles’ “Cast Wars.” http://www.podcastpickle.com/app/cast_wars/
Holy crap - Rob Walsh wrote some glowing words about me and Podcheck Review in his latest book “Secrets of the Podcasting Masters,” Read the sample chapter here
Big milestones for podcasters - Christoph Marquardt reached 150 episodes with Tips from the Top Floor,, Scott Johnson and crew will be at 100 episodes of Extra Life Radio on Saturday, and many other shows are reaching similar milestones. I’ll just be happy if Podcheck makes it to Episode #34.
Podshow… Podshow… Podshow… all you had to do was ask. -I tried out the new Podshow web site, and I must say that it has all of the pizazz of an abacus with none of the pesky hinderences of being particularly innovative or useful to me. Really. It’s main attraction is the fact that it (wait for it)… recommends a handful of ‘approved’ podcasts in a handful of categories, all without considering who I am or to which podcasts I’m already subscribed? Did I miss something? OK, I must have missed something. More about Podshow in a few minutes.
Blubrry, Blubrry, Blubrry - Al you had to do was ask… and I would have given you a couple of spare vowels I had laying around the house (sound of russling through desk drawer…) Again, ditto on the Podhow comments. The Blurbrry website is so advanced that you have no idea how cool it is or how to use it until you log in, because all it seems to do is list… uh… some podcasts. So, I logged in and I was about to sign up for the Blubrry service, but decided to read the Terms of Service. So, they admit that they are not a “podcast directory,” but their slogans at the top of the page display sayings like “The Mack Daddy of podcast sites” and “Cool as a cucumber.” It looks like its built very much for PODCASTERS to pat each other on the ass and sniff each others’ advertising farts, and not at all built for listeners to discover podcasts.
Everyone just stop and listen. If you are not stealing Dav Slusher’s idea for Amigo Fish ad integrating his collaborative filtering idea into your system, you are wasting your time.
Podshow Pro - Press Release here. It’s a cross between podcasts, voicemail, blogs, audio newsletters, and other stuff that I can’t think of. They’ve got some major-league buy-in from AOL:
PodShowPRO is also the Podcasting module within AOL’s new AIM® Pro service, which is available free of charge at http://www.aol.com/aimpro.
I had a much simpler, more centralized version of this idea last year, and couldn’t get anyone excited about it. “Podcasting? What the heck’s podcasting?” - So I’m glad to see someone getting some traction with it.
I have signed up as a member of the Podshow community, and I am considering listing the Podcheck Podcast over there.
Calif., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ — Dow Jones VentureWire announced today that PodTech, a social media company dedicated to delivering Fresh Voices(TM), has been selected to be the official podcasting company for two upcoming conferences: HealthCare Innovations 2006 and Consumer Technology Ventures 2006.
Funny, I was just looking for a healthcare-related podcast for my day job, and voila! Scoble’s company comes through for me!
I heard Leo over at TWIT say that this last week marked the lowest TV ratings for the major networks… ever.
Heaven knows that I’m only watching a few shows on TV, and they are NOT network shows. My favorite New show - Eureka - also has a podcast. Clerks II has a director’s commentary from Mr. Smith that you can listen to on your iPod/player in the movie theater NOW.
Too busy to do anything but doodle! See my doodles at www.mydrawings.com - I even bought a couple of domain names related to Bar Napkin Warfare, but I have no idea what I’m going to do with them yet. (UPDATE: www.barnapkinwarfaredesigns.com
Amanda Congdon of Rocket Boom is going to L.A. Best wishes. I guess that now they can call the show Rocket Bust without worrying about any possible double entendre. Amanda, getting an extension on her 15 minutes of fame, soon to be seen on VH1 Best Week Ever… or the future installment of VH1’s “I Love the Zero-Zeros…
Frappr Map Sightings: Welcome the (ALL)! NOte about the Podcheck map. Theirs ME, and then there is the Podcheck GROUP. Be sure to sign up for the GROUP!!! www.frapper.com/podcheck
From Brandon Rosage:
“How did you get the old-time radio sound for the “Yes, We have no Podcheck” song. You mentioned that you removed the bass and the mid using your EQ, but what else did you do?”
I use Sony ACID Music Studio to mix my audio productions. I can usually achieve any audio effect that I want through a series of EQ and distortion filters, combined with multiple layers/tracks. One of my more memorable uses of Sony ACID Music Studio was my re-enactment of an imaginary 2005 Gnomedex speech.
Got my Redboy Podcast Refridgerator Magnet in the mail a few weeks ago.
Speaking of inanimate objects related to podcasting - how about an actual PC computer that is shaped like a giant Sure microphone? http://slipperyskip.com/page20.html
A reminder to each of us who have experienced that “hightened focus, oblique serenity, and acute awareness of others” that comes as the result of losing someone close: Be good to yourselves, and be better to strangers.
Clinton from The Comedy 4Cast and minx from Polyamory have every right to be PROUD that their listeners enjoy their shows enough to go OUT OF THEIR WAY to nominate their shows in the contest. Without backpeddling, I will sum up my July 30, 2006 post in a much more clear and succinct manner:
“Never before in the history of podcast awards shows has the winner of the ‘Best Produced Podcast’ award been less likely to be the best-produced podcast. How do you pick the prettiest grain of sand in a jar of sand? No one has time to examine all of the candidates!” — Scott Fletcher
Clinton and minx have another reason to feel proud about their shows - They are still producing their shows, and they release their shows MUCH MORE FREQUENTLY than Podcheck Review! That makes them golden in my book. New Podcheck still planned, but no firm release date….
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