Podonomics

Okay, enough of the bellyaching, Leesa.

Yes, there are way too many wacky lists out there that say they’re honouring women in tech, but do nothing but provide a good laugh (or a vigorous head shake). It’s now time for women to put together a list of savvy women in technology.

Tara Hunt has started a very good list of women in Web 2.0. She’s getting alot of help through her readers who are leaving their own suggestions. While listing great women in Web 2.0 is a monumental feat, I will focus on the Top 10 Savvy Women in Podcasting (Connie, your suggestion of “smart women” triggered this list, so thank you).

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Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian are trying to answer the question of whether you should use a podcast to focus on communicating with your audience or to earn money in Episode 44 of their Internet Marketing Podcast. I won’t tell you what the final word is, so you’ll have to head on over to listen.

I look at it another way. I believe you should be using your podcast as part of your funneling process. Since podcasts are offered free, this should be the item that pulls prospects in. Your podcast is the breadcrumbs and you use it to lead them to your website to purchase the full course meal.

So, in a sense, I’m saying that you are using your podcast to communicate in order to monetize later on. Yet, you should think about your podcast as feeding your product funnel so that you’re clear about the action you want listeners to take after listening to your podcast.

Technorati: alex mandossian, paul colligan, podcast monetization, funnel, sales

By way of Rob’s blog, I found out about CNET’s Top 10 Girl Geeks list.

(**sigh**) What can I say? It’s as silly as Adam Curry’s 7 Hottest Women in Podcasting.

No wonder women aren’t taken seriously in the technology field. Because of silly, dumb lists like the one by CNET and Curry. You gotta be half naked (see Adam’s list), half crazed (Daryl Hannah on CNET’s), not real (Lisa Simpson?), mostly expired (Mary Shelley) or all ditsy (Paris Hilton) to be considered a force in technology as a woman.

Rob said I should be added to a Top 10 Geek Girl list (thanks Rob). And no, not because I’m half naked, half crazed, not real, mostly expired and somewhat ditsy I’m just half crazed.

Technorati: paris hilton, lisa simpson, daryl hannah, adam curry, women, women in technology

Confused by the title of this post? Good. That’s how I feel when I see podcasting mis-defined.

Unfortunately, people are still getting the definition of podcasting wrong. I was on this site reading their review of the recent Pew study on podcasting and I saw this paragraph:

“Podcasts are typically sound files that can be played on personal computers, TiVo Inc.‘s digital recorders and music players such as Apple Computer Inc.‘s iPod. Many are regularly scheduled and automatically delivered, and more recently some have incorporated video.”

As I continued my quest to review the coverage of the Pew podcasting survey, I stumbled upon MSNBC and unfortunately, someone plagarized the other because I found the same lame, silly definition of podcast in their article.

What’s wrong with the definition on MSNBC and copied word for word on the other site (or vice versa)?

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So, Pew has come out with its own podcasting statistics. And why the heck not since everyone is doing it.

The report (download here) states:

1. Some 12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time.
2. However, just 1% report downloading a podcast on a typical day.
3. Men are more likely than women to report podcast downloading (15% compared to 8%)
4. And those who have used the internet for six or more years are twice as likely as those who have been online three years or less to have downloaded a podcast (13% vs. 6%)
5. 972 adult Internet users were surveyed over the phone (not a far cry from the 928 Canadians who took the Canadian Podcast Listeners Survey online back in May of this year)

Unbeknownst to me, Pew released a similar study back in April, but somehow, I missed it. What’s interesting to me is the weird contradiction between points #1 and #2 above. So, I went to their website to find out more.
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Last week was an exhausting week.

Anyone will tell you that I typically give a summary of every event I attend usually the very night I get home. However, getting home late, then leaving before the sun comes up the next day 3-days in a row has left me with very little time to update this blog.

I want to sum up 2 events - the Mesh meetup that happened on November 15th and the BBPA event the following night where I had a chance to shake hands with Bill Osburn, CEO of Ford Canada.

First, Mesh. Attending the Mesh meetup on Wednesday night was great. No, it was amazing.

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I was over at Michael Port’s blog reading a post written by Elizabeth Marshall called Do You Ask Permission? Your Credibility Depends on It. In this post, Elizabeth surmised at the number of times people add her email to their distribution list without asking her permission.

I responded to that post with my list of do nots. And since everyone’s doing ‘em these days, I call this my Ask Me Don’t Spam Me Manifesto.

Here’s my list.

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Borrowed the title of this post from Rob, who borrowed it from Leo. The Mesh mini-podcasts are coming. Seven in total, all under 10-mins. Not sure when they’ll be posted, but I’ll link to them once I see them on the Mesh blog.

Unfortunately, I was using an omnidirectional mic which picked up everything. Silly me, I should’ve taken my condenser mic instead. Because of this, there was little I could do in post-production to remove the background chatter and music.

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Jason Van Orden, author of Promoting Your Podcast, put together a list of his Top 7 Recommended Blogs for Podcasting Tips. My friend, Scott Bourne, made Jason’s list twice, along with yours truly.

What I like about Jason’s list is that each of the blogs he selected focus on something unique. For example, I focus on podcast as a lead generating tool for businesses. You will infrequently find gear reviews on my blog. For that, head on over to Scott’s blog.

Scott will hardly focus on promoting tips for your podcast, for that, you can go to Jason’s blog. And if you want monetization tips, head on over to Paul’s blog. And if you’re looking for corporate podcasting tips, or for an insider’s look into the goings-on at Gigavox, head on over to Mike’s blog.

What I would improve with Jason’s list is to call it a Top 8 and include Jason’s. His blog is excellent and any would-be or experienced podcaster will find valuable tips on his. So, Jason, you have my thumbs up to add your own.

Any others you would add?

Technorati: scott bourne, jason van orden, paul colligan, Leesa Barnes, Michael Geoghegan, john c havens

I heard through the grape vine about 3-months ago that DigitalEve Toronto, the rebranded Webgrrls founded by a few Canadian women about 5-years ago to encourage women to pursue careers in technology, was going down the tube.

Wired Woman seems to be going strong with 2 chapters (although they had about 3 or 4 chapters about 2-years ago).
Well, rumour no more. I just visited the DigitalEve Toronto website and they have a final message from the board of directors. The final word?

It has been decided by a unanimous vote by the board members to officially close the Toronto Chapter due to lack of interest and income.

Jeepers, Batman! Although frankly, it comes as no surprise that Digital Eve Toronto has closed up shop. In my opinion, women’s technology associations are no longer relevant for many reasons.
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