Extreme Podcasting, originally uploaded by Ed Weaver.We came to India to train leaders how to educate others that cannot read by using MP3 players loaded with informative audio content, rather than handing them books! This is a shot of one of our training sessions.
Greg Sterling discusses the new Pew Research report regarding the segregation of internet users. Greg’s headline is more grabbing than the stats, as it appears that what could be defined as the “Web 2.0″ crowd is 23%, which is more than I would have guessed at this point. Pew’s own report says about 31% - but their definitions seem to conflict, so I’ll stick with the 23% number.
The greater issue, which comes up from time to time is whether there is an echo chamber that is Web 2.0 and will that continue our break out to widespread adoption and purpose? No answers hear today, but a word of caution to consider if Web 2.0 is something you alone embrace, or your entire family, including near retirement “Boomers”…..
Mike Shields, from MediaWeek, posts this today, indicating that eMarketer sees an uptick over the next several years in advertising buys for podcasting.
James Belcher from eMarketer sees Google as the catalyst - with Adsense for Podcasting coming into play. Given that the dynamic duo from dMarc, Chad and Ryan Steelberg, left Google/dMarc last week over strategic differences, could it be this becomes the best platform dMarc is used for? This would assume Google can’t convince traditional media buyers or traditional media platforms to play the game their way - and while podcasting may be a great platform to use it for, I haven’t found anyone that wants to bet against Google attacking the traditional media advertising model.
Tracking and reporting is still an issue for podcasting, but according to the article from MediaWeek, that’s not holding anyone back from including podcast media buys in the mix.
Ignore my sarcastic view of the PR sweet-spot words in this otherwise notable press release from Adobe. Flash has made a big comeback with it’s popularity driven by applications in YouTube and other media aggregation sites.
Some of you may say - “Comeback - have you been under a rock or something? Hasn’t Adobe’s Flash been a critical element of web design, rich media ads, etc for years?” and to some degree, rightly so. Here’s the reason for my choice of words “Comeback”: Flash grew popular in the late 90’s and early 00’s for visually stunning mulitimedia websites. Then came search engine optimization and search engine marketing best practices, which looked down upon the use of Flash in websites, as search engine spiders could not “read” a Flash file. So, it’s been out of vogue if you wanted your website to be search engine friendly.
With the advent of YouTube and other media aggregation sites, Flash has become the new poster child for media distribution capabilities. Now that it has an even newer lease on life on cellphone platforms, it may be here to stay.
So, strategic question - will the use of Flash media files take the place of MP3, MP4, due to the ubiquity of the Flash Player? Of course, you technology strategy geniuses out there are saying “Ed - I had that figured out 2 years ago - what took you so long?”.
This would have just a LITTLE impact on the current technology that drives music, film, podcasting and iPods, etc. If cellphone MFRs implement Flash as their media technology of choice, the ramifications are pretty large…..I’ve already said that cellphones replace the iPod and other MPx players in the end game. Maybe this accelerates the end game.
I guess it’s about time to discuss the iPhone. I’ve procrastinated on writing this post, due to the potential impact the iPhone has on the market and yet weighing the risks to Apple and other phone manufacturers. It’s somewhat difficult to be unbiased on either side of the battle that has begun.
First, let me say that the pictures of the iPhone (check here with my friend Blake Burris of CocoaRadio for some great firsthand shots) look great. The concepts of the OS and Software the phone is built around sound great. Watch Steve present the Keynote at MacWorld for details.
Question - how will we like typing on a completely flat surface (the phone screen)? It may take us a while to conform to a new manner of typing. We’ve all gotten comfortable over the course of our lives with the raised keys with “finger curves” and the feeling of pressing down to create a keystroke. I’m sure we can adjust, but wow - it will take some committed early adopters to stick with it!
Visual voicemail is new to cell technology, but old hat to VOIP users. I’ve had it for 3 years now - a great invention. Glad it’s finally coming to cell phones, although, since I have a Blackberry, technically I’ve been able to do this for a long time.
As usual, Steve blows people away, generally until they walk away and go…”hey - I’ve been doing this for a long time - how come he made it seem so special?” Welcome to the mystique that is Steve Jobs.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m looking forward to seeing this on the market and how it will force all the other manufacturers to get moving on some creativity. We, the consumers, will all benefit. Let’s be glad!
Eliot Van Buskirk writes an interesting post regarding Big Music and MP3 technology on Wired News yesterday. His contention is that Big Music is being forced to adopt MP3 technology just as a weapon against iTunes. He believes that Big Music will ultimately not allow Steve Jobs to run their lives. They’ve played reasonably nice together so far, but maybe Steve has outlived his usefulness to them?
Eliot lists 7 reasons why MP3 has to be seriously considered. I’d tend to agree with him.
So, relative to the title of today’s post, why is that relevant to podcasting? Well, since MP3 is the audio techology that drives the recording and playback files in this podcasting world, it is critical that other peripheral uses stay alive so as to support a standards based audio delivery technology. So, kudos (assuming Eliot is correct) to Big Music for keeping this corner of new media alive!
Well, no great surpise as this from Matt Richtel of the NY Times has been discussed in the blogosphere for several weeks now. But, what I want to comment on here is that Verizon won’t have the lock on this for long (blinding glimpse of the obvious, BGO for you Barbarians at the Gates fans) and YouTube and other aggregation points will be readily accessed by cell phones soon and without too much muss or fuss.
Look for this to be the norm before long WITHOUT Verizon’s $15 surcharge….
Apparently, in the world of Web 2.0 (or other semi-relevant monikers), the rules are changing. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. Back in the 90’s, Mark Cuban was fond of saying “Content is King”. While I can’t say if this slogan is attributed to him, it was and has been the rule of the web. Today, that slogan is officially aged and cracking.
This morning, Rafat Ali, of Paid Content scoops Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang in his research article on how Aggregation and Context is the highest value in the information chain. I use the word “scoop” because it showed up on TechMeme first and now the Bear Stears blog is the headliner. Shows you how I rate and rank my content, eh?
This confirms what I’ve been believing and therefore modifying the MPReach business plan accordingly. Watch this space for announcement of new audio/video/text networks that we’ll be launching (can’t call the digital media “podcasting or video podcasting, as Apple Computer might decide they own me….)
You can take the amount of blog headlines (or mainstream media for that matter, but I wouldn’t expect it too much from them) on RSS one of two ways. Either a) it has now become “table stakes” and the technology crowd assumes you’re using it - OR - b) it is not mainstream for anyone else to use other than the crowd in a). (Which assumes you’re using it, but may be mistaken).
While IE7 makes it “daily life” compatible, this post from Stuart Brown lists all the specialty applications that pick up RSS. The title of his post suggests otherwise, but it really is only a product comparison. It appears that IE7 doesn’t have wide enough spread adoption to make it into his Feedburner list of applications used while subscribing to his blog. Frank Gruber, from Somewhat Frank also comments with a similar discussion, but at least mentions IE7.
My question (formed by running a podcasting business) is what is the real adoption rate of RSS and will the mainstream truly see the advantage that most of us geeks and semi-geeks see? Stay tuned.
Steve Gillmor grabs a great post title today. Great writing too. The landscape is changing fast, even for someone who embraces change as easily as I. I remember hearing the word “disruptive technology” for the first time about 7 years ago, when Nortel had a “Disruptive Technology Group” (before they got laid off, I’m sure). I think we are all experiencing this to a great degree, maybe now more than anytime since the www first broke into our lives.
Both exciting and dangerous, in terms of business planning, eh? Let’s keep pushing forward and get some traction together in this mud. 