Audio and Podcasts

I recently commented that perhaps heat stroke was affecting a major tech blogger. Bing, bang, click! I don't monitor his feed anymore; no big deal. Sometimes it just makes sense to move on.

I probably monitor as many feeds as Scoble but so what? He could read more too but he has probably stopped reading more feeds than I ever have. I think it's likely that Robert has a low tolerance for feeds or podcasts that don't remain interesting when they originate from strangers or acquaintances. With friends, Robert Scoble is truly more accomodating and forgiving; it's a real measure of the man and I only got a glimpse of that when we spent some time together last February.

In the past few days, my belief system has been tested by another blogging and podcasting original, someone I've come to know fairly well. In a manner that took me by surprise because of its sudden graduality; I found myself stung by a calm and graceless piece on his moderately popular podcast. I was struck by how affected I was at the commentary I was hearing as I drove down the road. I felt chastened by the sense that I had even bothered to download the podcast.

And now I don't because I've stopped downloading from his feed and I've stopped listening. In the back of my mind I knew this was coming and I knew that he was losing an affinity for his listeners.

What I am discovering about my tolerance for opinion is that it should never be disguised by a belief that it is fully substantiated by fact. Opinion should be a sampling of the known and the surmised at a point in time. That makes opinion fungible and it allows regular folks to be able to grow, change and develop. Denying oneself of growth by not utilizing reason and education seems kind of lazy to me. Sure; you will never know everything, but that's hardly an excuse to not try to know more. The thing that really turns listeners on to podcasts is the opportunity to know more -- that's a real winner for audio. Visual media can do that too but the effort requires far more work because great visuals require great poetry and vice versa. That's a rare combination as we know from watching decades worth of TV and films.

Very few things are immutable -- maybe someday I'll even listen to that guy's podcast again -- but it's rarer than a lightning strike that you will get a chance to have a listener come back once they have stopped listening. It's okay to lose listeners by being uninteresting; people change. It's another thing altogether to lead them down a road of contempt and disrespect. If you didn't start podcasting, in part, for the listeners then please get out of the business. If you don't feel a growing respect for your listenership with every piece you produce then consider stamp collecting rather than podcasting. If you really want to know what a tree sounds like when it falls in the forest then don't be around... Your podcast is a crazy rant in the shower if you have no listeners and good listeners are not interested in crazy rants.

Things are changing here at Current Thinking from Brad Gibson. So here are some news items you need to be aware of:
1) Effective immediately the Bradcast brand is no more. There are too many other Bradcast's out there and since I did not trademark the term when I originated my podcast back in 2004, I cannot get anyone to respect the title. Other Brad's have decided to usurp the name and, frankly, I don't want the Bradcast to become associated with their product. So you will soon be hearing your last Bradcast. Fear not there is something far better that will replace it.
2) Current Thinking Radio is "On the Air". That's right, you can reach my re-branded podcast over at www.currentthinkingradio.com or at www.ctiweb.net. I'll have more to say about Current Thinking Radio in the coming weeks and for you late switchers on the RSS feed, I'll be offering a double-helping of Current Thinking Radio both at the home site and here.
3) Full feeds are probably going to go away. I have been relentlessly pilfered from on a regular basis and I'm sick of seeing my feeds being mugged by sploggers. They are systematically stealing and reposting my content. That, and I have become the target of some pretty predicatable site attacks that have managed to cause my feed to hiccup on occasion over the past few months. If you have any ideas I would be glad to hear them, however I think most of the automated stuff will be easily defeated by going to partial feeds. That will mean you will have to click through to the site to read my full text. If this offends your sense of RSS purity then please unsubscribe. I am also personally annoyed that Google Reader does not count the number of subscribers in its feed, so to get an accurate count, it's time to come and visit the site.
4) Current Thinking from Brad Gibson will be getting more personal, more musical, a little more theatrical and somewhat more friendly over the next little while. I figure a namesake blog should be, well, more namesakeical. What about the tech wit, business acuity and trenchant comment though, you ask? You of course were thinking of another blog. I will still be attempting to put some kind of focus on technology, business and leadership over at currentthinkingradio.com and currentthinking.net. Both of those sites will explore themes that matter to technical business types, tech workers, creative marketers and managers. It's time to break out some of these topics and this little domain was just too small. There are feeds galore at all of these sites so get your feed reader warmed up.

So there you have it -- an early spring cleaning. If you have any ideas or suggestions then please get in touch.

Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User podcast hosted a live Talkshoe edition of his podcast on New Year's Eve. The theme of the event was Apple predictions for 2007. I was privileged to take part in the conversation and would like to thank all of the participants for their positive contributions; it was a blast.

You can listen to or pick up the podcast here.

Victor Cajiao is the host of three great podcasts; Typical Mac User, Typical PC User and Immigration Tales. When I sat down with Victor for a chat at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo, he had just finished a fun and fascinating 40 minute interview with author Tee Morris. We were all inelegantly perched in beanbag

Here we go again with another Pew Internet Project data memo. These things get such wide spread hype on the web that I feel my voice may go unnoticed.

Still, I couldn't help but observe that the latest telephone poll indicates that 1% of respondents download podcasts daily yet the poll indicates a margin of error of 3.5% of the sample size of 972 adults.So let me get this right... Either nobody or at least 4.5% of all internet users will download a podcast today. Back when I learned statistics, drawing conclusions from sampled data that was within the margin of error was considered invalid. Perhaps I have mistaken the way they posted their error -- please show me I'm wrong if that is the case.

How about this nugget of information; "Some 12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time." They mean ever. At least once. Not necessarily regularly...That's as statistically significant as asking whether you have ever taken public transit.

Could somebody please start asking the right questions?

How many listen to podcasts each day, week or month? How many listening hours are spent each day or week? How many store and listen later? How many stream?

On your latest Bradcast -- a feature interview with Michael Auzenne of the Manager Tools Podcast. Michael, along with podcasting partner and management consultant Mark Horstman, produces one of the most consistently practical, useful and impactful podcasts in the 'sphere today.

Business advice, management consulting and personal coaching topics have been flogged to near extinction in various books, courses and schools. Despite this, Auzenne and Horstman routinely provide fresh conversational insight on these topics. You won't agree with everything these guys say on Manager Tools but more often than not you will find yourself realizing that they have developed a conversational mentoring approach that makes you feel like you're there asking for help at Mark's office door. This is the kind of approach podcasting was built for.

Manager Tools "Time to Party?" episode... Do the right things at this year's office party.

Update: Sorry for the dropped audio file... It has been newly restored and placed back on the server.

manager-tools auzenne

Have you noticed how popular all the gadget and gizmo sites are? Those sites are always full of upcoming product info; secret photos, leaks from manufacturers, rumours and hoaxes. Well -- in advance of THE most IMPORTANT product annoucement since... well... since the last one -- here is some interesting conjecture regarding product development of the Zune line.

Let's put two and too together; Zune rhymes with tune and, according to podcaster Paul Colligan and Scoble, there is no obvious podcast tie-in for Zune. You want to know why? Could it be that Microsoft will release a Zalk just for talk and that by next year we will all be Zalkcasting? There may also be a further spin-off with a Zame that will only be for gamers. The Zame unit will feature digital rights managed claymation. Sources say these units may be delayed until the plain English EULA's can be re-written so that all legitimate uses of the units can be disallowed. Test units at research locations have also been spotted -- code-named Zribble -- that shake uncontrollably within 10 feet of a person using an iPod.

The on-the-spotters and rapid reporters have already told you how great the Podcast and Portable Media Expo was this past weekend (Sept 29 & 30, 2006). Best general re-cap is available from Leesa Barnes -- who I'm making my "most important podcaster I did not meet". (Expect an email soon Leesa...)

I went with a sense of irreverence -- don't worry I still have it -- but also picked up some great vibes around podcast commercialization, specialization and pure podcast passion.

So; is podcasting disco? I was glad to see that a group at the show had picked up on a thought I had some time ago to create "podcasting sucks" t-shirts -- everybody got a laugh out of it and we need to be laughing. It was Trucker Tom Wiles though who has really articulated what we all hope is the best metaphor for podcasting. Tom says that podcasting is more like email than disco.

That's the difference between history and trivia. Listen to his chat with the inimitable Michael Zwerling on Tom's episode 382 and you'll get the whole American philosopher buzz around Tom. (Update: Tom sent me a link to the show)