NosillaCast 11/13/2005 Show # 17 Podcast Expo

how long should a podcast be?

20 min

25-35 min, people won’t listen longer than that

great value to have something in the 10-20 minute frame. people have time for a couple of short ones instead of a big long one.

30-45 min – if your inteviewee is entertaining let them keep going (guy who designed the Haunted Mansion was great with the back stories). Had all 10 of the original Mousketeers were on for the 50th, we weren’t going to cut them off. our goal is 30-45.
5 minutes – Witchita Rutherford – he’s very entertaining in just five minutes
really brief – treasury likes 10-15 minute range. Auctions on Tues/th – 2 hours, but the critical time is the last 60 seconds, so we use that content to get people excited.

How important to have a really ‘radio’ sounding podcast

• American Family they don’t want something too polished, not soundbites
• Engadget sounds like they’re at a kitchen table with a cheap mic – and I listen to every one. don’t edit out every uh and baby crying in the background. Quality of the production – the type of mic, the reduced echo does make a diff in the long run to stay competitive.

Interview the “thought leaders” because they want to be heard. they will promote their content.
WP – I want our brand out there with people in a feeling of comfort. We were the Tin Man and we needed a heart. What differentiates your brand from everyone else?

how did you sell to podcasting to the treasury being a gov’t group? if an idea fits into the organizations goals, then it will go through quickly. I started with the CIO, discussed cost efficiency, which gave us some cost measurement, showed the value early. goes through a serious review – not exactly spontaneous with us!

Secrets of iPod and iTunes (well, sort of)

Paul Griffin – Griffin Tech, Chris Breen – Playlist Mag, Leo, Dan Frakes – MacWorld Magazine
iPod Economy, gear and goods, preferred podcasts, potential of portable video, now and into the future

PG – before iPods, USB adapters, mostly Mac products, but excited when the iMacs came out it started to get exciting, then iPods even more exciting. Probably half of our development is now iPod products. we make the products WE want, and we use iPods. Apple has the right pieces for this to continue to grow – the Nano is stunning hardware. Don’t see them losing in the forseeable future.
CB – what if Apple changes a connector? or if they want to get into your products?
someone is always higher in the food chain, but we’ll always be in someone’s mercy. they do sometimes say “you might not want to make a lot more of those 9 pin connector devices…”
Leo – why aren’t people upset with them about the way they closed the market with iPod and iTunes? it’s a testament to how great their products are that people aren’t incensed.
CB – Dan – do the hardware companies go nuts when Apple changes things?
DF – sure, but it’s an opportunity to sell more new products! Now you need a new remote because they got a new iPod.
Leo – there’s a reason there’s chrome on iPods – this is now a disposable commodity. I think Steve Jobs keeps the desktop locked down so you’ll be tired of it after a couple years and then buy a new OS.
User – new iPods will record 44.1kHz, not just 8 bit any more – is Griffin doing a new product for a mic?
PG – don’t expect anything soon, first of next year.
CB – how can we make money
Leo – that’s the wrong approach. there’s money to be had, but we get $10K per month just from donations to the site! If Apple will let us sell video on itunes, that could start to work. we’d like to sell TWIT for $1.99. they said they will, they’re working on it in the next couple of months.
Leo – the self actualized people have self deprecating senses of humor, not hostile senses of humor.

Gear
Paul’s favorite was a thing they did for the iMac – they made a video serial interface for the bondi blue iMac.
Leo’s gear for podcasting – constantly messing with it. Radio show is easy because I use their professional equipment. I use Adobe Audition to do a LOT of compression – reduces the dynamic range. AM radio is heavily compressed, and people are used to it. this punches it and makes it easier to hear. For TWIT it’s crazy. Nightmare to record 8 different people. Steve Gibson – Better Late than Never software to record pdocast when there would be latency normally, Skype call would sound bad to you but it will record high quality. BLTN to be released to the community. PC only. well…there will be an Intel version so it WILL be for the Mac. in the mean time, Audio Highjack Pro does 2 way skype calls.
PG – Griffin to make anything for podcasters – new iPod accessories for sure, but podcasters need to do more in software.
Alpine – ipod dock KCA429 goes in the back, control from the screen.

11/12/05 – Day 2

Keynote address – Angel Gambino VP Commercial, Strategy, and Digital Media at MTV

Doug Kaye – IT Conversations
Team ITC – volunteers do all the podcasts
Create not wealth, but value through podcasting
IT Conversations started in April of 2003, long before podcasting started. Idea was to post online the recordings of interviews during events. It grew from IT to Technology to Science to Big Ideas. not a plan, just happened that way because it was what I was interested in.

ourmedia.org for hosting your site for free – see what else it does.

podcast academy – training podcasters how to be good recording engineers. This will be our farm team for IT Conversations. you create the content, produce it, and then post it. We’ll have a rating system for how good the production value is.

“Value of Free” – when you charge for something or making it hard to get to, you reduce it’s value – it can’t be reused, it can’t be remixed, it’s reduced value. Free is highly scalable.

It’s all built on passion – volunteers will bust their butts if they’re passionate on something but not if you’re making money from it.

“Value is measured by the number of lives you touch and how deeply you touch them.” P = # people touched, V = value to each person, total value = P*V.

Bryan Walls – Podcasting for NASA
http://science.nasa.gov/
Section 508 says anything funded by the Federal Gov’t must be accessible. No advertising revenue, and no copyright concerns. Started in Dec of 2004 wiht Science@NASA podcast – first Federal podcast. in September we brought out our Spanish version Ciencia@NASA podcast
http://ciencia.nasa.gov/

they automated their process which he recommends, using mySQL and perl scripts, but still recommends using feedvalidator.org – validate your feed every once in a while. Just recently found new rules in there and found some problems with his tags.
When asked how they decided how long to make their podcasts, he said it was related to how long the story was on the website, and you only want a web page so big. “We wanted people to get enough to chew on, more than a bite but not enough to choke on.”

He walked us through all of the podcasts both audio and video that they’ve created and talked about the advantages of each one. new podcast on it’s way is This Week @ NASA which is more of a newsreel.
[email protected]

Paul Figgiane – Podcasting and Advanced Post Production on the Mac Platform
production engineer for IT Conversations
the.point podcast
podcastrigs.com showing the gear he uses. This guy was over my head from the minute he got up there!

Mike Trainor – Chief Mobile Technology Evangelist

Delighted to be here because it’s rare that someone in their lifetime can be at the very beginning of something – the energy level here shows that.

Eric Rice – Selling the Renaissance to Everyday People
ericrice.com

there’s a button at the expo that says, “there is no “i” in podcasting, it’s all about me”

best thing to do with criticism is to repeat it back to your critics over and over as humor. it works really well, you have free show material, and they also stop criticizing.
Avoid tech speak at all costs.
separate the content from the technology. emphasize how it’s at THEIR time.
How do you make money bowling?

That’s it for now – send feedback to [email protected] and stay subscribeed!