Podonomics

Liz Dreesen (seen on left), a surgeon and student at University of North Carolina in the United States recently wrote that she doesn’t support podcasting of her anatomy lectures because it means that students will no longer attend her class.

I hear this argument alot from educators. They’re worried that the podcast will come to replace the in-class experience, with students relying on them to get their information as opposed to physically being in class.

While I can appreciate Liz’s arguments, I also want to remind her that the goal should be to avail herself to the changing needs of her students. Inconvenience to a student can mean having to miss class due to illness, childcare, a death in the family or even stress. A video recording of Liz’s lecture will aid these students so that they don’t have to rely on 2nd hand information to still stay on top of the lessons.

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No, not London, Ontario. I’m talking about London, England. Home of Big Ben, crisps and Prince William.

I’ve teamed up with a London-based blogging expert, Claire Raikes to help entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers, writers and other solopreneurs discover how to turbo-charge their businesses using blogs and podcasts in a special 2-day workshop happening on March 23 & 24, 2007.

We are hosting a series of preview calls where we’ll be answering questions about business blogging and podcasting that have been submitted via our preview page.

The first no-fee preview call is on Wednesday December 13, 2006 at 2:30pm ET. Claire & I will talk about:

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Andrew Kantor sent me an email boasting about a new bumper sticker he just got. He knew that I’d give up my fifth-born for this one. Here it is:

So, do you know where it comes from? Not the bumper sticker, but the actual quote?

My pal (he knows I call him this) and mentor (he doesn’t know I call him this), Scott Bourne has partnered with Podango as an executive strategic advisor, according to their press release.

Exciting news for podcasting since Scott, who hosts a couple of podcasts on Leo Laporte’s TWIT network, has a serious passion for this field. The guys behind Podango, Lee Gibbons and Doug Smith, both of whom I met at the Podcast & New Media Show have one of the coolest podcasting platforms out there.

What makes Podango so unique?

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Leave it to John C. Havens, the About.com Podcasting Guide, to come up with these clever titles. He’s hosting a live podcast recording on Talkshoe to answer your questions about Podcamp.

John is one of the orgainzers behind Podcamp New York and he asked yours truly (I’m one of the organizers behind Podcamp Toronto) to join in on this interactive podcast, along with 2 more Podcamp organizers. They are:

• Bryan Person of Bryper.com, online media guru, podcast consultant, and co-organizer of Podcamp Boston (”original flavor”).
• Vic Podcaster of Hot From Silicon Valley, new media/startup expert and co-founder of Podcamp West.

If you’re interested in learning more about Podcamp and why you should attend, join us on this interactive podcast recording live on Wednesday December 13th @ 10pm ET. Here’s the details on how to join us.

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So, I’m getting up to speed with Typepad. It’s a great blogging tool, but lousy for podcasting.

First step, I login to Typepad. I create a category called Podcasts. I now want to create a category-specific RSS feed for the category called Podcasts.

I’m having a devil of time understanding this. Something about creating an advanced template, then changing some code, copying it into the template, then publishing the template. Even though I have the Pro membership, I can’t even find this “advanced template” feature.

How irritating. Why can’t it be as simple as Wordpress where I just click on the category, then add /feed/ to the end of the URL?

More to come as I fumble down this confusing path. Wish me luck or provide some advice.

Update: I just realized that my Typepad blog was using the Mixed Media Template, which to me seems to be the template that a podcaster would want to use anyways, but unfortunately, this template meant I couldn’t create a category-specific RSS feed. Ah well, I converted the Mixed Media Template to the Advanced Template. Then I followed the instructions here to create my RSS feed.

By way of The Last Podcast, I found out that a major newspaper in the United States reported that 89.73% of all email in your inbox is now spam.

From a business standpoint, this means that people are less likely to get or even read your email due to all the spam blockers and filters they’ve set up to avoid all the promises of wealth creation and the lengthening of your member.

Is it any wonder that podcasts are such a powerful marketing tool? You create it and listeners choose to consume your content. And so far, podcasts have remained spam-free. I mean, it’s not a perfect medium, but at least the listener can choose what to consume and when.

Instead of running or hiding from your message, people now welcome it.

Update: Paul Colligan weighs on this topic saying that email will never die, even as podcasting becomes popular simply because we still need to use email to communicate. Ask anyone who receives an email on their Blackberry.

A year ago, I wrote this article on how podcasting will shape the coaching profession. I can’t really tell if any of them came true, but hey, a futurist typically isn’t around to see most of their predictions come to light anyways, right?

So, what are my predictions for 2007 in podcasting? Here are just a few:

• The fight to change podcast to another name will finally be put to rest.
• A global body of podcasting professionals will take shape to help develop standards and become an influential voice in all things that affect podcasters.
• One company will develop a tool that will make podcasting so easy to understand and produce that the number of podcasts will explode.
• Mobile podcasting will grow so much that it will cause many to abandon iTunes as the podcast directory of choice.
• An influential podcaster will call it quits due to burn-out and lack of funding.
• One radio or TV station will build a podcasting conglomerate online.

Agree, disagree with any above? And, what are your podcasting predictions for 2007?

Technorati: futurist, technology

One person who has a new widget on his blog everytime I look is Mathew Ingram. I marvel at how this middle-aged dude can be so much more ahead of me with how quickly he pimps his blog.

So, I’m using Wordpress and I’m looking to pimp my blog. Any suggestions on cool widgets and plug-ins I could be using? Also, should I go to a 3-column format or just stick with 2? And lastly, is there a plug-in I can use so I can add tags to my posts right from Wordpress without having to head over to Technorati and copying and pasting them everytime?

Yes, I could easily look at the list of plug-ins on the Wordpress site, but I’m asking you which ones are you using and why are they your favourites?

Technorati: wordpress, Plugins

Too many times, bloggers and podcasters act like their conversations aren’t being heard. I’ve stumbled upon public spats that started because the author posts something on their blog or says something in their podcast about someone else, then when the target leaves a comment on that person’s blog, suddenly, the “attacker” becomes complacent.

I liken this to elementary school when a classmate talks about you behind your back. Only, you’re hiding around the corner and hearing every ugly word that person is spouting off about you.

Here’s a recent blog post that I found by way of Bryan’s blog. Apparently, the blog’s author didn’t take too kindly to the fact that Podcamp New York is considering paying for some of Robert Scoble’s expenses to attend the event in April. The blogger went as far as to suggest that with all the money Podtech has in their coiffers (Podtech is Robert’s employer), Robert should be able to pay for his own way to New York.

Guess who the very first comment is from? Mr. Scoble himself.

What’s the lesson here kids? Because both blogosphere and podosphere is so tiny, whatever you say “behind someone’s back” will be “overheard” by your target.

Technorati: Robert Scoble, podcamp, podcamp nyc, bryan person, social media