Podcast Companies Join Forces

Association for Downloadable Media Aims to Standardize Audience and Ad Measurement

By Shelly Brisbin

Fifteen organizations that produce or promote podcasts, or sell advertising in the podcast marketplace, have formed the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), a trade group whose goal is to standardize the measurement of podcast listenership and advertising. Founders include representatives from Apple, Libsyn/Wizzard, NPR, PodShow, and Nielson//NetRatings.

According to Personal Life Media founder Susan Bratton, who brought the group together, the ADM (www.downloadablemedia.org) will address standards related to revenue generation from podcasts and other content distributed via syndication, peer-to-peer networks, or other means. ADM intends to work with related organizations, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), both of which track audience and advertising statistics for traditional media.

ADM committees will divvy up the work of building standards and cementing the organization’s role in the community. Initial committees address five areas: advertising standards, measurement, outreach and education, terminology, and membership.

Most of the ADM’s initial members are companies in the business of providing podcast content or selling advertising. The organizations forming the initial advisory board are: Apple, BlogTalkRadio, Kiptronic, Libsyn, IndieFeed, NPR, Nielsen//NetRatings, Personal Life Media, Podbridge, PodTech, PodShow, Podtrac, Porter Novelli, Rev3 and Vogele Law.

Cry Foul

By Elisa M Welch

Listen up, sports fans. Every so often a large, bureaucratic organization announces a policy so ludicrous it turns out to have a silver lining. In this case said lining comes in the form of an open debate about blogging and the First Amendment.

Perhaps you’ve guessed that we’re talking about: the NCAA’s decision in June to ban live blogging from its tournament events. Ever since the announcement, the blogosphere has been awash in wisecracks from would-be wags of all stripes. Sports writers. Gotta love ’em.

The ruckus erupted on June 10, when Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Brian Bennett was ejected from an NCAA Baseball Tournament game in Louisville, Ky. His offense? Shouting obscenities at an umpire? Hurling trash onto the field? Punching out a fellow reporter? No no and no.

Bennett was live-blogging during the game. NCAA regarded blogging about the facts of the game as a de facto rebroadcast of copyrighted material, and had said as much in a memo circulated two days prior. Here’s an excerpt from NCAA’s June 8 memo:

“…any statistical or other live representation of the Super Regional games falls under the exclusive broadcasting and Internet rights granted to the NCAA’s official rights holders and therefore is not allowed by any other entity. Since blogs are considered a live representation of the game, any blog that has action photos or game reports, including play-by-play, scores or any ingame updates, is specifically prohibited. In essence, no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game.”

The official broadcast rights owners in this case were ESPN and CBS.

The memo came as a surprise to Bennett, who said he had blogged throughout the NCAA Columbia Regional playoffs and that he saw at least three other media representatives doing the same. So with his paper’s blessing, Bennett took his usual place in the press area on June 10 and proceeded to live blog about game three. He continued until the bottom of the fifth inning when an NCAA representative came to his seat on press row, asked for his credential, then asked him to leave. Bennett complied.

Here, for the record, is a sample of the offending material:

“Book your trip to Omaha. Whiting singled to left, and Alfonso scored before Cates was thrown out at third.”

Bennett’s case got plenty of publicity, though not necessarily of the flavor NCAA would like, from The New York Times to the Washington Post, from the Editors Weblog to Bloggapedia.

Perhaps reacting to the negative press and countless angry blog posts (dare we call it a blog swarm?) about its hard line, NCAA softened its stance accordingly. A statement issued on June 20 referred specifically to Bennett’s case:

“Following this incident, the NCAA issued incorrect information to credentialed media which stated that in-game updates of any type are prohibited. In fact, in-game updates to include score and time remaining in competition are permissible by any media entity whether credentialed or not.”

Meanwhile, the Courier-Journal is considering legal action. The moral of the story: Go ahead and take your laptop out to the ball game, but be careful what you type.

Politics Makes Strange Blogfellows

By Elisa M Welch

As the 2008 Presidential campaign looms, apparently every contender and/or his/her handlers has decided that they need “one of those blog thingies.”

In many cases the candidate’s blog turns out to be a standard templated affair with a smattering of not particularly fresh content. One might hope to find personal posts from the candidate in question. One might be disappointed to learn that in most cases, the blog appears to be just another page on a website, a campaign tool administered by staffers or supporters with little evidence of direct input by the candidate.

In most cases, the aim is clear: use New Media to reach a broader audience.

One of the more effective examples is Republican Ron Paul, whose celebrity on the Internet long ago eclipsed his single-digit poll numbers. Through YouTube videos with more than 250,000 views, and stories that supporters have pushed to the top of Digg’s rankings, Paul has become the summer’s online political star, and landed on The Daily Show with John Stewart, and ABC’s This Week, for good measure.

Paul’s campaign site features a section called Daily Update, which turns out to be, surprise, a blog (blog.ronpaul2008.com). Each entry ends with its Technorati rating, a Digg score, an option to share on Facebook, and more. There’s also a social-networking section on the main page, including links to Meetup, YouTube, MySpace, and others. Clearly Paul’s campaign is embracing “the tubes.”

At Democrat John Edwards’ site (blog. johnedwards.com), the candidate, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Cate appear to post personally, via their “diaries.” However, the candidate’s last post was in May. Elizabeth Edwards, who has been making a name for herself (perhaps she should run, instead?) seems the most proactive and articulate blogger in the Edwards clan. Her posts average just one a month, but it’s something.

Fellow Democrat Mike Gravel, whose enigmatically squinting visage engages viewers in a full minute of stony silence on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rZdAB4V_j8), also has a blog (www.gravel2008.us/blog). This one is populated by many supporters providing fresh content on a regular basis. Ralph Nader even puts in an appearance.

Watching Podcasts on Your iPhone

By Bill Palmer

For the tech world at large, the iPhone is a mighty innovation. For podcasters and their isteners, it’s just another video-enabled iPod. Or is it?

Getting your favorite podcasts loaded onto your shiny new iPhone is essentially the same as it was with an iPod: sync the phone to your Mac or PC and you’re done. But the iPhone uses a completely different playback interface from any iPod ever released. You start by tapping the orange iPod button on the main screen. Tap the More button, then the Podcasts menu item. You’ll see a list of your synced podcasts (both audio and video) in alphabetical order, complete with artwork.

Once you’ve started podcast playback, the artwork will occupy most of the screen. Tap the artwork to see a track scrubber appear above the artwork; tap the artwork again and the scrubber disappears. A three-lined button in the upper right hand corner will “flip over” the artwork, displaying a list of all of the podcast’s episodes on the back, making it easy to jump to the next episode.

Podcast video won’t appear if you begin the show from the Podcasts menu. You’ll need to use the Videos button instead. Once you begin playing a video podcast, the iPhone’s screen will automatically rotate 90 degrees, so be prepared to turn your iPhone sideways as soon as you begin video playback.

To see video podcast controls, you’ll have to tap the screen. Additionally, a button in the upper left hand corner lets you toggle between full-screen and widescreen modes. One final new trick up the iPhone’s sleeve, perhaps motivated by the fact that its capacity is so much smaller than that of a video iPod, is the dialog box that appears following video podcast playback, asking whether you want to keep or delete the episode. However, if your iPhone is set to autosync a certain number of “most recent” episodes (as opposed to syncing only unplayed episodes), the deleted show will be copied back onto the iPhone the next time you connect it to your computer. This appears to be a bug.

If video podcasts look fairly impressive on the video iPod, they look positively gorgeous on the iPhone’s high-resolution screen.

Although the iPhone’s small built-in speakers aren’t ideal for listening to music, they do a nice job with spoken word, meaning that you may not need your earbuds to enjoy your favorite podcast, something that can’t be said for the iPod.

BILL PALMER is founder and publisher of iProng (www.iprong.com), an iPod news and reviews site.

Euro Podcasters Set up ’Camp

By Chris Brogan

PodCamp Europe brought over a hundred podcasters and listeners to Stockholm, Sweden, in June. Attendees came from all over Europe, including France, Denmark, UK, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. PodCamp Europe was technically the second in the series to cross the pond (Denmark was first). The event was a great opportunity to gather leaders from several established podcasting communities to talk about the issues and challenges facing the medium.

It was especially eye opening for me and fellow PodCamp founder Christopher Penn. We learned a lot about the European audience and its use of technology. For example, we noticed people in Sweden listen to audio on their mobile phones, rather than iPods.

The goal of the event was to share the unconference experience with community leaders from Europe so that they can build strong events of their own. From all the smiling faces and all the exciting new conversations in the halls, it seems clear that the excitement around new media and podcasting is alive and well on the continent.

CHRIS BROGAN cofounded PodCamp (podcamp.pbwiki.com). He is passionate about personal media and keeps a blog at chrisbrogan.com.

Podcasters Across Borders Emphasizes Community

By Bruce Murray

What started as an excuse to get a few podcasting friends together for a beer blossomed into a full-fledged conference, attracting producers representing more than 110 shows and several countries to Kingston, Ontario. Podcasters Across Borders (PAB) 2007, held June 22-24, marked the second annual gathering anchored by the Canadian podcasting community.

Bob Goyetche and Mark Blevis, who host The Canadian Podcast Buffet (www.canadianpodcastbuffet.ca), organized PAB 2007 (www.podcastersacrossborders.com), which emphasized community and the relationships between podcasters and listeners. PAB 2007 featured more sessions and more attendees than the first event, with participants coming from as far away as Argentina and the UK.

PAB is a not-for-profit venture, and attendees paid $75 (Canadian) to attend. All of the money raised went directly into the weekend’s events. PAB also received corporate sponsorship this year, most notably from TD Canada Trust. “It let us do the little things that turned a good conference into a great conference,” said Goyetche.

In 2006, PAB consisted of an evening keynote, followed by a day of hour-long sessions. The 2007 edition was expanded to two full days, with session times cropped to half an hour to accommodate more topics.

One of the big differences between PAB and other podcasting conferences is that there was little talk of “monetization.” Instead the topics tended to revolve around community, mentorship and even a session by Hugh McGuire of LibriVox entitled, “How Podcasting Will Save the World.” Panel discussions focused on podcasting and education, authentic voice and using podcasting to leverage personal and professional ventures.

Two highlights of the weekend came from opposite ends of the public-speaking spectrum. Tod Maffin, a CBC radio journalist and de facto patriarch of Canadian podcasting, presented a condensed version of his “From Idea to Air: Making Radio Stories That Don’t Suck” seminar. Firsttime speaker Neil Gorman of the Comicology Podcast electrified attendees with a session entitled “Broken Toasters, William Shatner and Podcast Burnout.” Gorman spun these seemingly disparate subjects into an entertaining treatise on how to avoid podfading. Among the key concepts, and a PAB catchphrase for the ages, was repeated throughout: “Your podcast is not a f**king toaster!” If your toaster breaks, Gorman said, you throw it away. But you and your listeners have an emotional investment in your show. He offered several suggestions for reviving a burnt-out podcast.

Audio from PAB 2007 sessions will appear throughout the summer on the Canadian Podcast Buffet RSS feed. Podcasters Across Borders 2008 happens in Kingston, Ontario, June 20-22.

BRUCE MURRAY is host of The Zedcast (www.Zedcast.com) and The Running Shoe (www.TheRunningShoe.net).