Tag: podcasting

Portable Media Expo Day 1

Post ImageOverall I’d say that today was a very productive one for Paramagnus! We didn’t arrive at LAX until around 9:30 AM, which meant it was near 11:30 AM by the time we made it to Ontario – an hour and a half after the Expo opened. We rented a car in Los Angeles to drive into Ontario, and I must say, it was an experience! Once I did the first merge onto the freeway it wasn’t so bad, but that initial merge was a little scary – so many lanes, so many cars, such fast speeds! The freeways really are a good idea though, as it doesn’t take long to get where you need to go.

This is the first year for the Portable Media Expo, so we didn’t know exactly what to expect. As it turns out, the event has been a huge success! There were lots of people roaming the floors of the exhibit hall today, so we got the chance to introduce ourselves and our podcasting stuff to a pretty sizable audience. The feedback we have received thus far was all very encouraging – so much so that all we really want to do is go back to Edmonton to continue coding!

We’ll be in the exhibit hall all day tomorrow, and we’ve also got the stage for thirty minutes tomorrow morning starting at 10:15 AM. We’re planning to give an overview of the company and our products, and do a couple of quick demos. Unfortunately we won’t have the Podbot on hand – the robot is in need of repairs that we just can’t do in the hotel room.

I posted up a quick sample episode tonight to my podcast, so you can take a look at some of the features we’ve got working. Obviously there is much to be done, but you can see the audio conversion and the dynamic segmenting, for example. More to come soon!

Paramagnus Podcasting

Post ImageI just posted an introduction to our podcasting solution over at the Paramagnus Blog, so go check it out to find out what we’ve been up to for the last few months! I am glad that we’ve finally released some bits, but there’s still so much more to come. I can’t wait until we get everything finished – it’ll be great for podcasting!

So far we’ve released Podcast Tags and Podcast Spot. Both of them are in beta, though Podcast Spot is really more of an alpha and Podcast Tags is closer to completion. We wanted to release something though, to demonstrate what we’re working on and where we’re going with it, and to hopefully get some feedback. So take a look and let us know what you think!

If all goes according to plan we’ll be posting some demos and other information tomorrow to better explain the two products, so stay tuned!

Still in Calgary

Post ImageWell as some of you are aware, and as Dickson posted, we’re still in Calgary. I knew that leaving from Calgary instead of Edmonton would be a problem, and it turns out that we missed our flight, for a variety of reasons. After evaluating all of our options (because the later flight was booked solid, so we couldn’t get bumped), and after some great help from our travel agent (thanks Wendy!) we found a flight leaving Calgary early tomorrow morning to LA. Once there we’re going to rent a car and drive to Ontario, which means we should hopefully arrive just after the Expo floor opens at 10 AM.

We’re quite excited about the Expo, despite the travel problems we encountered today! I am really looking forward to meeting podcasters, listeners and others. And I’m also looking forward to sharing our products and services.

So we’re slightly delayed, but that won’t stop us!

The Podcast Network

Post ImageIt has been a while since I last looked at The Podcast Network, but I was quite impressed when I did wander over to the site today. They recently relaunched the site, and gave it a much needed makeover. Seriously, the old site was just terrible. I like the new layout, colors, and logo.

The site has some interesting new features too! There are tags on the front page, a news section, and a list of the latest shows. I really like the number of shows they have – shows great progress. I don’t think the network has evolved enough to meet a fate similar to Weblogs.com (which was recently purchased by AOL), but I do think they are on the right track. I’m going to have to check out some of the new shows – The Guy Parenting Show looks interesting for instance (and it’s such a specific market, they must do well on the advertising).

With the recent podcast directory craze going on, it’s interesting to see a project like The Podcast Network take a different route.

Read: The Podcast Network

Preliminary Podcasting Survey Results

Post ImageVia Derek I came across Peter Chen’s preliminary statistics from his podcasting and videoblogging survey. He makes it clear that the results are preliminary, and that follow-up data is being requested with more analysis to come. Having said that, the results are quite interesting! Here are some highlights I picked out:

  • Looks like the majority of podcasters publish content weekly. (48.77 %)
  • Average episode length is just over 29 minutes.
  • The average number of minutes spent producing an episode is almost 260! That’s an incredibly high number that we hope to reduce with our solutions. I know how much time it takes – that’s one reason I stopped BlogosphereRadio to focus on building the tools!
  • About 61% of respondents say they have no business model – they do it as a private endeavor. Sounds like my Average Joe Podcasting post was spot on!
  • English is overwhelmingly the most commonly spoken language. (85.75 %)
  • One stat that surprised me – around 83% of respondents were male. For some reason, I expected that to be a little lower. I think it’s because of the recent push in blogging to find female voices; I probably figured that podcasting would benefit.

Very intriguing results. I look forward to seeing what Peter comes up with next. I also wonder just how representative these numbers are – there’s no margin of error or anything posted (probably because they are preliminary results).

Read: Peter Chen

Average Joe Podcasting Revisited

Post ImageYou might remember that way back on August 18th, 2005 I wrote a post entitled Average Joe Podcasting. Let me highlight the main point of that post for you:

Not everyone who starts a podcast is going to want to make money from it, just like not everyone who blogs does so with the intention of making a living. I read a lot about podcasting – news articles, blog posts, etc., and I can’t help but feel that far too many individuals and organizations focus on the “making money from podcasting” idea.

As soon as starting and maintaining a podcast is as simple as starting and maintaining a blog, I think we’ll see the same breakdown in podcasting [as in blogging].

You should read the entire post to get the full argument in context, but that’s the main idea – that individuals will likely start to podcast for themselves, and that they’ll become a major segment of the podcasting world.

Almost exactly two months after I wrote that comes a post from Odeo’s Evan Williams, entitled Podcasting for Regular People. Here’s the main idea in his post:

While blogging can be about playing on a world stage to influence, gain audience, and, potentially, monetize (the same goals as most other media), there are millions of people who are happily pubishing daily without those motivations. For them, it’s more about expression, self-reflection, and communication.

I call these people “casual content creators.” It’s not just that they’re amateur or part of the great, unwashed, Long Tail. It’s that they’re playing a different game.

The idea of casual content creation in the realm of audio is a powerful one. And I think it’s a yet-to-be-duly-recognized segment of the (potential) podcasting world.

Sound familiar? I thought so.

Read: Odeo Blog

Podcasting to benefit from MP3 player growth

Post ImageI came across an article on CNET News.com today which cites an IDC report and proclaims that shipments of MP3 players are expected to hit 124 million units in 2009. That’s an incredible 370 percent increase from the 26.4 million units that were shipped worldwide last year. Podcasting is surely going to benefit from the surge in mobile devices, and it may become an even richer experience too:

The report also explored the revenue potential of three other portable devices that play back compressed audio: DVD players, mobile phones such as the Motorola Rokr and gaming devices such as Sony’s PSP. This category of “other” portable play-back devices is expected to exceed 700 million units shipped with an estimated $114 billion in revenue in 2009, IDC said.

Combined with the MP3 player category, all compressed audio players are expected to reach 945.5 million units shipped and $145.4 billion in revenue worldwide by 2009.

Combined with new devices that also support video, such as the new video iPod, the potential market for both audio and video podcasting is huge. I don’t know the numbers, but I would expect a large majority of podcasts today are simply played on the computer, not on a mobile device. As more people acquire these devices, and as the devices themselves become easier to use and update (like wireless transfers of audio files, support in all major automobiles) I think that trend will change. More and more people will listen on the go. The main potential problem that I would predict is poor battery life – it needs to drastically improve from where we are today.

It will be exciting to watch podcasting grow in the coming years! So far 2005 has been a big year for podcasting, but I am certain the best is yet to come.

Read: CNET News.com

Yahoo! Podcasts

Post ImageI’ve been so busy lately that I missed the launch of Yahoo’s new podcast directory. I had read about it last week, but only got a chance to finally look today. What can I say? It is very much a directory and nothing else – but at least it’s a very good directory.

The directory has a section where Yahoo! editors pick the podcasts they like and display them. There is also a “what other people like” section that can be viewed by “Most Popular” or “Highly Rated”. Finally, you can browse around on your own if you’d like by category and tag. Once you find a podcast to look at, you can either listen to it or subscribe and download (using a third party application or Yahoo’s Music Engine). You can rate the podcast, add comments and reviews, and also tags.

Yahoo’s Podcasts directory is put together very nicely, I think. The layout and organization make intuitive sense, and the search functionality seems to work quite well also. They currently have an information section called “Publish a Podcast” which contains information on how to get started. Makes me wonder if they might one day add some sort of publication tool.

I’m not sure how many podcast directories we need, but I’d have to say that Yahoo’s is a welcome addition to the bunch.

Read: Yahoo! Podcasts

Winamp Supports Podcasts

Post ImagePodcasting News is reporting today that popular music player Winamp has added support for podcasting in their new version, 5.1:

WinAmp lets users play music and video files, features a media library, SHOUTcast radio and TV, skins, visualizations and an integrated podcast directory.

I don’t use Winamp, so the new feature doesn’t really make a difference to me. Except, it means Winamp and iTunes both support podcasts now, so it begs the question:

How long until Windows Media Player supports podcasting?

My guess is sooner rather than later.

Read: Winamp

UAlberta Podcasting?

Post ImageDoes anyone know of any podcasting projects taking place at the University of Alberta? If you do, leave me a comment or drop me an email or something. So far the only “podcast” I have found was created by the Libraries:

iPod Walking Tour – Main Floor Services
This is an audio tour. Please download the file to your iPod (or any other mp3 player), and then come and explore the Main Floor of Cameron Library.

You can get to the mp3 file (which comes in both English and Mandarin -language versions) at http://www.library.ualberta.ca/podcasting/. While this technically is not a podcast (as there is no RSS feed to subscribe to), it’s a step in the right direction, and the URL is clearly indicative of more content in the future. And it should be noted that the Libraries provide a number of other RSS feeds already.