Looking for some video to fill that Ipod of yours? Seattle based Searchformedia just might have what you need. With over half a million videos indexed on their network of 
search portals per quarter, you will be able to fill your day with media if you so choose. There are two sites of interest; searchforvideo.com and searchforipod.com. Both sites do a good job of finding media content. Searchforvideo has recently added RSS capability (allowing subscriptions to topic areas and keywords), however, it does not support enclosures, so don’t expect to be able to download content automatically. 
SearchforIpod supports downloads (and interoperates with iTunes), but does not seem to have any RSS capability. So it looks like the most usable site would be a combination of the two (SearchforIpideo or SearchforVipod perhaps?). That said, both sites are pretty cool and provide access to countless pieces of multi-media content, so definitely take some time to check them out.
Archive for March, 2006
Search for… Stuff
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006How to build a podcast
Sunday, March 26th, 2006
Eric Rice — podcasting pioneer, evangelist, and entrepreneur — has put together a cheat sheet of sorts for building a podcast. If you run a short show, you may find Eric’s recipe a perfect template for your needs. Whatever the length of your podcast, though, you’ll likely find it helpful to have at least a rough outline of your show before you start recording.
As Eric points out, paying attention to tried-and-true presentation techniques and building on your audience’s conditioned expectations for the flow of an audio show will help you keep them engaged and interested. For example,
- A consistent opening theme will help “brand” your podcast.
- Give a high-level overview of the show right up front so that your audience knows what to expect.
- Put the most important information in the first third of your show.
Read the whole thing here: How to build a 10 minute podcast.
What do you think? Is there anything Eric left out?
Podcast and Portable Media Expo 2006
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006Registration is now open for the 2006 Podcast and Portable Media Expo. The event will be heald in Ontario California (as it was last year) on Sept 29th and 30th. Track specifics have not yet been posted, but they will fall into five categories:
Track 1: Podcasting 101
Track 2: Podcasting as a business
Track 3: Corporate Podcasting
Track 4: Podcasting as a Hobby
Track 5: Portable Audio and Video
Admittance to the conference sessions is $199 if you register before May 5th. The exhibit hall and keynotes are free.
While the information shared during the two day conference is certainly a draw; in 2005, I was more impressed with the many podcasters from around the globe that I was finally able to meet face-to-face (in the conference halls during the event and in the lounges in the evenings). There is certainly a lot of energy and excitment flowing through the podcast community that is fun to be around.
Near the time of the conference, the second annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards will also be heald (voting opens on July 1st). While this event is not part of the conference itself, it is certainly a key component of the experience that is not to be missed.
Following the 2005 expo I wrote a brief summary while the event was still fresh in my head. That summary is available on the CrapMonkey blog.
Pluggd Enters Into Beta
Saturday, March 18th, 2006Pluggd (born and raised in Seattle) is now in beta. The site aims to be a 
podcasting directory, and then some. The folks at Pluggd are working on some innovative features to help audiences plug into podcasts of interest. While the beta is currently only in limited release, they will be expanding the beta soon, so be sure to hit the site and sign up.
The Push for New Feed Icons
Friday, March 17th, 2006New RSS feed icons are being adopted across the net. Late last year, the Microsoft RSS team announced the following:
“…we’re adopting the icon used in Firefox. John and Chris were very enthusiastic about allowing us (and anyone in the community) to use their icon. This isn’t the first time that we’ve worked with the Mozilla team to exchange ideas and encourage consistency between browsers, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.”
Since that time, this Icon has been showing up on more websites and within more applications. The icon is a particularly suitable design because it does not contain confusing acronyms, but still fulfills the need to create a common identifier for feeds on webpages. Likewise, it also has international appeal since it contains no specific language. Additionally, the image lends itself nicely to being republished in multiple variations while still maintaining ease of recognition. Feedicons.com has made a zip file avaialble that contains this logo in a variety of different sizes and border colors.
PodcastPromos.com gets a Facelift
Wednesday, March 15th, 2006Podcast Promos has relaunched with a new look and a new set of features. This site has long been a great resource for exchanging promos with listeners and other podcasters, however, it is now more useful than ever. In addition to it being nicer to navigate, it now supports features such as “mycast” which allows users to customize their own promo feeds based on the programs thay are interested in. Likewise, feed categories are also available for subscription (business, comedy, education, etc.).
Podcast Promos is a joint venture between Trucker Tom and RawVoice.
One Small Step for Portable Media…
Sunday, March 12th, 2006Dada footware has launched a new wireless footwear system called
“Code M” that is designed to bring mobility to the original mobile platform, your feet. In the first release, the application is built into the shoe’s heel and toungue, has about a six hour battery life and can hold about 100 songs (which equates to about 15 to 30 of your average sized podcasts). A USB port on the side of the shoe allows for music download and recharging of the battery. The Shoes come with a wireless headset that has a range of about 30 feet, so even the average giraffe should be able to sport a pair of Code M’s.
The obvious target market is with workout enthusiasts that don’t like carrying a device around. Additionally, while the primary use seems to be portable audio, the application should also be able to support other scenarios down the road (pedometer, altitude, time, etc). To that end, there are a couple valid reasons for creating a product like this, however, there are also plenty of things wrong with this idea.
First of all, assuming the device is built to stand the impact and weather elements that the average shoe endures, what about the shoes themselves? Shoes are the fastest item in my wardrobe to retire due to wear and tear, especially those I use for working out and hiking (the target uses pointed out in the press release). Secondly, I typically choose to leave my shoes at the door, rather than drag them into the house and throw them on the desk next to my computer (especially after hiking). Finally, I haven’t seen much information regarding a remote control or perhaps the ability to control the player from the headset. If that component is missing, it could be quite annoying to select tracks from the toungue of your shoe (and they would just have to put volume control somewhere more convenient, right?).
So what’s the genesis behind this product? The press release goes into a story about developer being personally frustrated with not being able to carry data in his shoes (I’m paraphrasing, so you may wish to read the article for yourself). However, I would make a different assertion. I remember in the 90′s when it first dawned on footware manufacturers that shoes were beginning to be seen more as symbols of status then they were as necessary footware (thus the birth of the Marketing powerhouses behind Nike, Adidas, Reebok and others). In the late 90′s and early 2000′s, market research indicated that portable devices like cell phones, pocket PC’s, Palms and Portable Media Players were becoming the new status symbols and carving into shoe sales (yes, as strange as that sounds, portable electronics compete with shoes in the market place). I can imagine that the pitch for Code Ms was driven by this data (or at the very least, could not have excluded this data). From that standpoint, this concept has the potential to become the ultimate status symbol if consumers can get over just how impractical these appear to be.
So for me, I think I’ll stick to listening to podcasts on my iriver and leave the shoe folks to worry about making my flat feet less sore at the end of the day. While I love the concept of data in my clothing, I think I’ll keep an eye out for a truely functional data enabled belt or watch. That said, jogging nudists have a lot to look forward to when these shoes launch on April 6th (MSRP: $199.00)
The March ’06 SPN Meeting: Where a Buzz in your podcast is a great thing
Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Seattle Podcast Network meetup last night at Pyramid Ale House. Special thanks to our featured speaker, Buzz Bruggeman of Active Words. Buzz favored us with his insight and a few stories about the impact of podcasting and blogging on Active Words. Buzz’s talk stimulated an impromptu round table discussion of podcasting and the future of technology.
Part of the round table discussion had to do with the issues of promos. We thought that the usual habit of sending a generic promotion to another podcaster as an ad for your site might be a little stale. It was suggested that more relevant content would be more interesting and effective, which led to….
Assignment: America: Create a 30- to 60-second snippet from your own podcast that you think would add something of value to someone else’s podcast.
So, for instance, if you can talk about birds, submit a little snippet to On the Wing. Have you made something? Send a 30-second blurb to I Make Things. Feeling jazzy? Swing a little something over to Red Raspus Radio.
Be creative, be clever, be interesting, but most of all, try to make sure your promo adds something of value to the podcast that will be promoting your show. And be sure to send an email to us here so that we can let everyone know.
Again, thanks to all for the great meeting. Hope to see you again next month!
In attendance were: (If I’ve misspelled a name or gotten a URL wrong, please leave a comment or send an email so that I can fix it.)
Travis Petershagen: The CrapMonkey Podcast
Michael Lehman: Mike’s Manic Minute, Business-Podcating.com
Andrew Schlichting and Mario Bonilla: PRWeb and the new PR Web Podcast
Bre Pettis: I Make Things (and impromptu shill for k7.net and Dreamhost
Jake Luddington: JakeLuddington.com, PodcastingStarterKit.com, Chris Pirillo Show
Luke Stapley: Game Addict Hotline
Buzz Bruggeman: Buzznovation, Active Words
Stuart Maxwell: Seattle Real Estate Talk
Kevin Maude: Life Reviews (launch pending)
Eric Weaver: WEAV.FM (and Flickr Meetup organizer)
Cielito Pasqual (sp?): Elle Empire Entertainment
Jerry Narvaka (sp?) does a Spanish mysql podcast (Jerry, I wrote your url wrong; will you leave a comment with the address? -stuart)
Gail Hunt & David Dawson: On the Wing
Steven McCandless: Caution Zero Network, Annex Theatre
John Calderon (aka Xen): The Xen Show
Leif Hansen: Bleeding Purple Podcast
Podcast ad networks get a big endorsement
Tuesday, March 7th, 2006The concept of podcast advertising networks got a big validation today as HBO announced its decision to advertise its new series, Big Love, on the Podtrac podcast ad network.
HBO will run the campaign, the biggest deal Podtrac has executed, for two weeks, airing 30-second audio spots as well as providing scripts to be read aloud by podcasters at the beginning of their shows.
From an advertising perspective, this represents a giant leap of faith on the part of ad agencies, as they attempt to determine the viability of podcasting as a new communication channel.
More on the story at MediaWeek.
Podcast Station Launches
Sunday, March 5th, 2006Last month, the folks from Audion Labs demonstrated their beta product “Podcast Station” to members of the Seattle Podcasting Network. Last Friday at noon, their product site went live and the release version was made available for purchase.
The tool enables the creation of a podcast in real time with features like cross fadable music beds, virtual carts, Automatic gain control, clip padding, keyboard shortcuts, and the list goes on. Some of the features that distiguish this from similar products include insert editing, scrubbing, pitch and tempo adjusting, unlimited undo (so long as you are comfortable with all that media taking up hard drive space), and a robust built in RSS editor and upload wizard. Given the feature set, I believe the $59.95 price appropriately maps to the application’s value. I have been using the product for a month now for CrapMonkey and the SPN Podcast and have been very pleased. A free trial version as well as video tours and tutorials are avaialble on the Podcast Station Website.
