About these Authors
Matt May is a Web accessibility specialist, and has written on the interaction of people and technology since 1995. He keeps his own weblog at
bestkungfu.com, and produces a podcast called
Staccato, which features Creative Commons-licensed music.
Alex Williamsblogs, consults and produces unconference style events, where people immerse in DIY media. These are fun occasions, designed for people who want to get together with authors, artists, technologists and leading thinkers to converse, eat, listen to music, write, shoot photos and post podcasts and videoblogs. Alex also works with companies to establish DIY approaches, where writing, photography, voice and video come together to create new conversations and communities. Alex is currently fascinated with digital photography. His girlfriend calls him a Flickrholic. Send Alex a nice message: alexhwilliams at gmail.com.
Nicole Simon loves blogging and podcasting, dashed with an European view. As consultant she helps to facilitate such tools for business purposes or personal publishing empires. She can be found at
cruel to be kind and on her private blog
Useful Sounds.
Roland Tanglao is a well known podcasting enthusiast and a passionate advocate of blogs, RSS, and social software as a means of online expression for people, organizations and businesses. He is a prominent participant in the blogosphere and online communities and one of the founders of Bryght and as Bryght's Chief Blogging Officer reads hundreds of blogs daily. He graduated from the University of Waterloo, worked at Nortel Networks where he ran its first internal corporate blog, has has been blogging since 1999, and was the first business blogging consultant in Canada.
Alex Williams
Matt May
Nicole Simon
Roland Tanglao
1. mike dunn on June 4, 2005 11:04 PM writes...
podcasting is doing fine for what it is - a nascent, compelling network enabled global communication capability...
for the enlightened in media, it should not be seen as a threat but rather an opportunity to engage in a more meaningful way w/ those interested in their traditional product offering, whatever it is...
as for audio graphics, my sense is he fears the change that podcasting will mean to his livelihood - and that is understandable, but he'd be better served to embrace it rather than constantly showing how resistance he actually is to that change...
Permalink to Comment2. Adrian Pegg on June 5, 2005 06:43 AM writes...
For me, there are three emerging models for obtaining money directly from listeners of podcasts. By that I mean excluding the opportunities for syndication to other media - which is more of a B2B activity. These are the models of 'faith, hope & charity'...
Read more...
Permalink to Comment3. Skater69 on June 5, 2005 08:19 AM writes...
Im 19, and NEVER listen to commercial radio (and wouldnt even think of paying for it lol).
Permalink to CommentI have a 1gb iPod shuffle which is my main use player with a dock station w/speakers and an fm transmitter, (and zen touch for my large mobile library & files), all bought on ebay for about 70% of normal price in stores, and I listen to mp3's, podcast shows for new music and podcast talk shows . Its cheap, and its 10x better than radio. What IS radio? I don't know ANYONE who listens to a "radio" lol! This blog is for old people lol.
4. Cameron Reilly on June 5, 2005 09:34 PM writes...
Let's look at some facts.
Fact 1. There are already 25+ million portable mp3 players in circulation. That number is expected to double in the next 12 months. Those devices need to be filled up with content.
Fact 2. Gen X, Y, and I are increasingly disenchated with mainstream media. Read any recent survey. They are turning away from TV, radio and newspapers in droves. Mainstream media has very little credibility with younger generations and is losing more and more every day. The opportunity exists to fill that void.
Fact 3. Advertisers want a better ROI for their marketing dollars. Radio advertising is not targetted or set up for tracking. Podcasting can provide niche content and track responses.
Fact 4. Radio is increasingly losing its role as the means to introduce audiences to new music. iTunes and P2P are replacing them. If I have thousands of hours of music I like with me all of the time, why would I listen to radio?
One caveat: revolutions take longer than we expect them to. Podcasting won't replace radio this year or next year. In ten years though it will be a serious industry. However, it will go through the usual hype curve. We will see lots of hype (as we are at the moment), followed by a trough of disillusionnment, followed by an steady, ongoing upswing.
Permalink to Comment5. Chris Brooks on June 6, 2005 12:07 AM writes...
Over the last 10 years newspapers have have seen many of their profit centers (want ads, job postings, real estate ads) migrate en masse to websites such as Craigs List, Ebay, and Monster. Did this happen because newspapers failed to provide interesting and accurate news? No -- it happened because the internet provided readers with tools to finely tune the news that they read and (more importantly) it provided advertisers with tools that do a dramatically better job of getting products in front of the right people at the right time.
The technology of podcasting is analogous in that it enables its users to listen to highly personalized content and advertising. Will listeners and advertisers prefer that? Without a doubt. Can radio adjust? Sure -- the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Time magazine are all still around. But I would emphasize that the adjustment is not about allowing people to download existing "professional" radio shows onto their iPods. No single radio network can possibly create the range of content that listeners will demand. (Just as no newspaper can simultaneously be Slashdot and Kottke and Corante and 8 million other content sources.)
Podcasting allows audio content to be treated the same way that the web treats text content. The threat to radio is not, as Audio Graphics notes, that "amateurs" will produce "regurgitated radio shows". The threat is that people can tell their iPod that they want to listen to today's weather, their personal calendar, the latest posts from Robert Scoble, and news about developments in European intellectual property law on their way to work _every morning_.
Permalink to Comment