Well, to join in all the other iPod giveaways on the market these days, The Media Swamp is going to draw straws, roll dice or whatever is necessary to select from registrants to the ‘Swamp podcast network on August 15th. Make your way over there and register before it’s too late. Check out the latest podcast for The Reach while you’re putting your name in the hat, so to speak.
Well, this is not necessarily timely, nor is it very earth-shattering. July 19th, in announcing Apple’s Q3 earnings, Peter Oppenheimer makes a subtle, yet strong statement. He admits that phones will be the media player of choice eventually - but that for the time being, the iPod is player of choice. Can’t disagree with him there, at least in terms of U.S. adoption.
He teases the audience by insinuating that Apple will have a phone on the market that will be the best media player too. Will it be a good phone, though?
After a firestorm of angry bloggers picked apart the new Nielson//Net Ratings’ report on podcasting, host Ed Weaver and producer Giovanni Gallucci discuss the accuracy of the report. Are the Nielsen//NetRatings figures skewed when they say that 6% of the US adult online population has downloaded an audio podcast? Probably so. On Media Swamp
In this episode host Ed Weaver talks about how corporate podcasting works and what makes it successful. Whether it’s for training or educational purposes of employees, Weaver believes corporate podcasts can provide a less formal learning environment for an ultimately more educated and involved workforce. On Media Swamp
After looking at new information now provided by FeedBurner, host Ed Weaver discusses the global reach a podcast can have (and how sometimes you forget it does). On Media Swamp
Nielsen/NetRatings gets us excited with a report showing robust growth in podcasting and then qualifies it in subsequent conversations when asked questions by, well, people who can ask questions. The right ones, that is. Frank Barnako pops the balloon here. Many interested parties are incredulous, such as Robert Scoble. I, on the other hand, think the report shows such a high degree of fascination with podcasting and therefore the need for speed in releasing the report that a lot of approvals got rushed. Facts didn’t get checked, appropriate comparisons were not made. I know none of us have ever made mistakes like that. 
Let’s look past the obvious errors, though and consider what makes a report like this hit the streets a review or two early. Something is going on in podcasting and everyone knows it - even Nielsen/NetRatings.
“The gloves come off”, as we would say here in the U.S - in other words, a fight has begun. Competing specifications for content syndication, long thought a dead issue, have been revived by this post from DeWitt Clinton and response by Robert Scoble. DeWitt then follows up with another response, for a good ongoing discussion.
Atom may be a better specification - I’m not an engineer, so I can’t comment intelligently on it from that point of view. But, from a marketing perspective, let me say this:
Sony’s Betamax was a better technology than JVC’s VHS. Does anyone remember that battle?
I’m not claiming to be prophetic here. I’m just noticing that buzz and adoption of RSS has swamped Atom. Is that a guarantee of widespread adoption? It could be - only time will tell. I’d be wary of basing my business decisions only on the fact that Atom is a better specification, though.