I don’t know how many of you know the amazing Glenda Watson Hyatt, but she is my personal hero and I have a holiday request on her behalf. Glenda, despite living with Cerebral Palsy, is an amazing person who completed a college degree (with a major and a minor!), wrote her auto-biography, and is a prolific blogger - all by using only her left thumb to communicate! Watch this video on YouTube, it’s unbelievable. She is, however, as she puts it, non-verbal. Her main way to communicate effectively is through typing with her left thumb on the computer. Glenda is entered in a contest called Blog For A Year. If she wins the most votes, she will be given money from a fund they are collecting so she can be “paid” to blog. What she would really like to do with the money is get a special software that will help her communicate both verbally and in writing. I would like to help her, and so I’m asking if you would like to help as well. Here’s what I’d suggest: for the next 26 days until the contest ends on 12/31/07 go to http://blogforayear.com/profiles/glenda-watson-hyatt and vote daily for Glenda (which the rules encourage) — Or make this page your homepage so you can do it without too much memory strain. If we all spread the word and vote daily then getting the EZ Keys with Voice software (which would enable her to interact more effectively when in face-to-face groups too). Let’s do a good thing and help someones life a little easier that is so deserving. Thanks in advance for your kindness.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine

Bloggers Unite is a great charitable effort. Check out this story on Digg … and help the cause by “Digg”ing it so it can get the audience it deserves. Then give a little something back by joining in on 12/17.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine

Last week was a very exciting one for us as we launched The Blogger & Podcaster Guide in USA TODAY. The guide is designed to expose our industry’s great content to mainstream America who isn’t familiar with how to easily find the kinds of blogs/podcasts that would interest them — think TV Guide for Blogs/Podcasts. Well all was peachy until the volume of traffic from usatoday.com homepage (where the guide is accessed) overwhelmed our servers. Our tech team is working with USA TODAY’s .com folks to remedy the situation.

For those of you signed up, no worries, we are not beginning your program until these bugs are worked out. All the exposure so far - and until we get this fixed - are on the house.

For those of you not signed up, who’d like to promote your blog or podcast to USA TODAY’s 10 million+ audience, the first month is on me. Here’s how you get registered:

1) Go to www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/usatoday
2) Select “New User” and go through 6 Step registration process
3) In “Step 2” be sure to enter ‘BP’ in Coupon Code box under Option #4. Then click “Option #4”. If you don’t enter this code, you’re going to be charged the regular price ($49.95 per month).

This will give you a month to test it out and see how it works for you without cost. Just remember to suspend your listing before 30 days or you’ll be billed for the next month.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine

OK, OK, “tomorrow” is obviously a term I use ambiguously. In any case, some thoughts about PodCamp Boston2.

First and foremost, I have to say the Podcamp Boston2 was extremely well-run, and easy to navigate. All of the sessions occurred in one enormous hallway, making it easy to find just about anyone you wanted to find. The technology mostly seemed to work, and there were plenty of seats. Registration was easy and painless. From an attendee point of view, the logistics worked.And frankly, given the remote and unfriendly venue, and the dire warnings about convention center security and the need to show IDs at every turn, I was apprehensive. But none of the potential badness materialized.

The quality of presenters, which is, of course, controlled by the people who sign up, themselves, was very good. Knowledgeable people took the time to make informed, useful presentations, and I learned a few things and copied down a few very useful URLs.

In the wake of the discussion here and elsewhere of the revocation of the “PodCamp must be free” rule, I’ve been trying to put some of my initial reactions in context. Rather than construct a narrative for you, I thought I would just put down some observations:

• Presentations tended toward the marketing and “new media” integration side of podcasting. New media has become fully buzzword-compliant, and speakers (and I would assume some portion of the audience) seem to be trying to figure out how to integrate podcasting into an overall nm strategy, rather than focusing on the practice of producing audio and video itself. I actually think that a tighter focus on podcasting is one of the great opportunities for the PodCamp model, and the thing that is most likely to keep new people who want to learn how to podcast interested in these events. I would also like to see organizers, to the extent they get involved in programming, work to encourage experienced podcasters to take on nuts and bolts topics of interest to new producers.
• Session interactivity seemed pretty low — at least when compared to other PodCamps I’ve attended. I blame this in part on the size of the audiences. It’s hard to get interactive with a couple hundred people. But PodCamp Boston2’s session culture seemed a lot like a typical tech conference. Is this because presenters were asked to submit session topics weeks in advance, and because last year’s “let’s put on a session” aesthetic was not promoted? Don’t get me wrong: every session I attended had ample opportunities for q&a, but there wasn’t much banter back and forth between presenters and audiences.
• Much has been made of the high (50 percent) no-show rate among attendees, and the 10 percent of speaker no-shows. I completely sympathize with organizers who expended funds for name badges, t-shirts and, other items that went to waste. Folks who register should understand the impact their absence has, and understand that solutions like charging an admission fee, or doing away with attendee freebies like shirts, will be the result. As an attendee, however, the size of the event felt about right, if not a little bit larger than would have been ideal, mostly because of the size of some of the more popular sessions (see above.). The concept of no-show speakers in the PodCamp model is interesting, though, because as originally practiced, the looser structure allowed for impromptu sessions, led by people who happened to be on hand, and based on the ebb and flow of audience interest. Again, I think this is among the benefits of the PodCamp structure. But the advantages of loosey-goosey structure grow harder to defend when the number of attendees goes over 500-600. Perhaps one option would be to establish a core curriculum, with trusted speakers pledging their participation, but leaving some sessions “open” til the day of the event. this would allow for more organic programming, while ensuring that attendees would have a good experience with sessions on topics of broad interest.

I enjoy PodCamp in all of its forms: I’ve been to four of them, each with its own personality and quirks. There is no one way to do a PodCamp event well, and different participants have different expectations. The openness of the model, as set out in the PodCamp Rules, is its real strength, however. I hope that continues, and that PodCamp remains a place where people new to the podcasting medium can learn how to do what they do better, and retain their excitement. PodCamp is at its best when it is not trying to duplicate the model of major conferences like New Media Expo and BlogWorld Expo. Those events have a very important role to play, and so does PodCamp. It’s just not the same one.

I’d been working on a series of blog posts about PodCamp Boston before finding C.C. Chapman’s blog post regarding the changing of a rule that PodCamps should be free to attend. Kind of turned my blogging plans upside down.

In the beginning, the PodCamp organizers wrote seven rules that define what a PodCamp is and is not. The original seven are still on the main PodCamp page. But according to C.C., Rule 4, which states

All sessions and events must be free of charge to attend

has been revoked. Since I didn’t attend the announcement yesterday (had to catch a plane), I can’t comment authoritatively on how Chris Penn and Chris Brogan came to the conclusion that the “must be free” rule needed to go, but I did attend a session on the future of PodCamp where the issue was discussed by organizers of previous “big city” PodCamps, along with the folks who run Podcasters Across Borders. Many of the 20 or so participants noted the large number of no-shows in Boston, and the costs associated with venue, staff and t-shirts for all. More than once, and it is also a theme in the comments on C.C.’s post today, I heard people proclaim that a nominal fee of say, $20, would discourage very few people from attending a one or two-day event like PodCamp. A few also pointed out that charging attendees would lessen the need for reliance on sponsors who usually expect something in return for their money.

There is some merit to these arguments, especially in terms of getting people to show up to events they’ve committed to. But the changing of a founding principal, much more than simply charging for a particular event, has wider implications for PodCamp and the unconference model of community-led learning that it’s supposed to represent.

Twenty bucks won’t break many people who would attend PodCamp, that’s true. But the difference between free and not free represents a line in the sand. Cross it and the rules and ethics by which you organize such an event become blurrier. How much can you charge? What should the fee cover? Should press people like yours truly, along with speakers and sponsors get a certain number of free tickets? Should there be a “deluxe” package for companies who want to send lots of people to PodCamp? How about an “executive briefing” or “workshop” day that costs $200 a pop and essentially funds the free stuff? Will answering “yes” to any or all of these questions change the content and community and grassroots aesthetic?

You bet it will. and it will do one more thing: it will result in at least two tiers of PodCamp events, to a greater extent than is already true.

Most of the veterans in the Saturday discussion of PodCamp’s future had put together big city events on the east coast. Their potential attendance,and their costs are higher than those of regional events like PodCamp San Antonio or PodCamp Arizona. And it is in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and other big markets, that PodCamp will cost money to attend, because the visions of the organizers will be grander, the venues spiffier, the sponsor deals bigger. On the flip side, regional organizers will still find community colleges wiling to loan a classroom or two, the presenters will be podcasters with more to say about how to code an RSS feed or choose a mic than how to brand yourself in new media way, and folks might just decide that they don’t need another t-shirt. Personally, I’d like to retain some middle ground, where local podcasters can listen to and participate in great discussions, but not feel burdened by the trappings of industry conferencing. That’s valuable in Philly AND San Antonio.

I’m disappointed that the revocation of the always free rule was not announced early on, or at least made an announced topic of discussion at the sparsely attended PodCamp’s future session. If ever an idea needed community discussion and perhaps further refinement, this one certainly did. Here are a few points I would have made;

• Alternative funding options exist, including charging for “extra” events such as parties, lunch and t-shirts. Attendees could also be asked for an optional donation at registration, or encouraged to donate to the umbrella organization, which could distribute money to help local PodCamp organizers get going. More creative people than me can surely think of additional means of raising funds.
• Rules and ethics for the acceptance of sponsorship money, the maximum price of PodCamp admission, etc. should be discussed and drafted.
• Organizers who feel they need to charge attendees should examine their own expectations and those of likely attendees, to be sure that the two match, and that the organizers are in touch with what potential attendees want to get from their local PodCamp.

Tomorrow, I’ll have a few things to say about content and aesthetics at PodCamp.

Did you hear? Google bought Jaiku. I learned of this latest Google gobble while reading — you guessed it — my Twitter stream. Friends have been popping their Jaiku pages into Twitter posts left and right, while others ask one another, high school style “Are you going to Jaiku, because if you go I’ll go. But I don’t want to go if no one else is going.”

Actually high schoolers aren’t usually that straightforward. It’s good to be old.

The idea that Jaiku is all of a sudden more appealing than it was yesterday, just because Google owns it, is part of the point. If Joe’s Software Shack, or even my fearless publisher, Larstan, let’s say, had purchased Jaiku, no one would be re-evaluating their social networking and blogging activities. It wouldn’t even matter that the new owner had paid a lot of money. Jaiku would be Jaiku, and if you’re a Twitter person, it would require some convincing to get you moved over, not to mention a whole lot of friends and followers doing the same.

Google has not (yet) changed the service, or integrated it into its other offerings in any way, but most Jaiku users know/hope they will. And even if updates to Jaiku are awhile in coming, no one knows better than the Twitter crowd that the place you want to be is the place everyone else is, and Google, like Apple, has the power to create such a place in a way few others do.

But as all this craziness plays out, don’t underestimate the power of social network fatigue. I know plenty of people (wait, maybe that was just me) who ignored all attempts to get me into Yahoo Mesh.

If you laid out the features and tools available on Twitter versus those on Jaiku, the latter service would probably come out ahead. And Jaiku has (and has had for some months) powerful and influential fans. But people have stuck to Twitter, despite its sporadic downtime and lack of big upgrades. to drive home the point yet again, you stick with Twitter because that’s where your friends are. The question of whether Jaiku will cause the death of Twiter, or make it irrelevant does remain open, however. How many people will actually leave Twitter, and will the prospect of Google-ku affect the folks at Twitter to get to work on improving the mousetrap? I think these are unknowns at this point. Google has a way of integrating things so you can’t ignore it. But for the moment, I’ll stick with Twitter, and watch Jaiku out of the corner of one eye, just in case it makes any sudden moves.

College Scholarships.org announces an opportunity for college students to compete for cash via The Blogging Scholarship.

The organization will award $10,000 to a student whose blog contains unique and interesting information about her or himself or the things she or he is passionate about. To compete the student must be a US citizen or permanent resident currently attending full-time in post-secondary education in the United States.

Important Dates:

* Submission Deadline: Midnight PST on Oct. 6th
* 10 Finalists Announced and Public Voting Begins: 9am EST on Oct. 8th
* Public Voting Ends and Winner Declared: Midnight PST on Oct. 28th

Let the blogging begin!

Ordinarily I’d be a little sheepish about admitting that BlogDay completely snuck up on me. I should be on top of these things, right? The trouble is that the blogs-about-blogging I’ve been reading this week are so full of negativity and self-referening that there doesn’t seem to have been room for a positive thing like BlogDay to pop up onto the radar. We here at Blogger & Podcaster want to do our part to help.

BlogDay is a great opportunity to recommend blogs, hopefully blogs that others in your circle don’t read. In short, it gives us the chance to make a completely positive impact on the blogosphere by introducing new writers to our own readers. In the interest of sharing the love, I asked my B&P colleagues to weight in with some blogs they thought you should know about.

From our Podcast Producer, Adam Raimer

Joey Interactive

Kevin Kelly: Cool pictures and articles of people using everyday items and re-purposing them.

Advertising Age Magazine: keeps me up on the rest of the “big media” happenings-since I don’t listen to radio or much TV anymore

Gary Leland: Cause I like Podcast PIckle and love Gary Leland.

70s Child: Not updated often enough, but because I am a child of the ’70’s, I like it.

From your humble editor

Romenenko: Media industry news with an attitude, and a deeper understanding of the profession of journalism than most bloggers celebrating the demise of newspapers can offer.

Wi-Fi Net News: Wireless networking was one of my pre-new media interests. Glenn Fleishman is always on top of the industry, and has been for several years.

From Publisher Larry Genkin

TechCrunch: Keeps me on top of new media better than any other source I know.

Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog: A great
read about publishing and new media.

Well, it had to happen. At some point, any blogger writing industry commentary will get a request for disclosure of some type. I got mine yesterday.

My post Tuesday regarding the two groups attempting to form industry associations for the podcasting community did not sit well with Scott Bourne, who is leading an effort to provide an alternative to the Association of Downloadable Media. Scott asked me in email to disclose any relationships with ADM, and then a commenter on the original post asked some fair questions about Blogger & Podcaster’s relationship with the International Blogging & New Media Association (IBNMA).

All righty, let’s proceed.

I interviewed ADM leader Susan Bratton in early July, prior to the launch of the organization’s web site, and the opening of paid membership. Podcasting is still a relatively small community, and it seems that we know lots of the same people. It also turns out that Susan currently serves on the board of a company I worked for six years ago. I no longer have any connection to that company.

The news story I wrote was a pretty straight recitation of the ADM’s announcement. Not a very exciting article, but a basic explanation of what ADM had planned. At the time, I didn’t know of any controversy surrounding ADM or the idea of an industry association for podcasters.

There was and is no business relationship between Blogger & Podcaster and ADM. I suppose it’s possible that ADM could choose to purchase advertising in B&P, but that hasn’t happened, and if it does, it will have no effect on our coverage of ADM, just as it has no effect on our coverage of other businesses and organizations in the industry.

Last week, I received an email inviting me to join the ADM. It was not a personal note, but a formatted invite. The invitation did not mention a “press membership”, a “discount”, a seat on the board, or a free cocktail at the organizational meeting. I did not respond to the invitation, partly because I had become aware that an alternative organization was forming, and that it would not be appropriate for me, or our magazine, to give the appearance of advocating one organization over the other.

As I prepared the news section for our September issue, I made a note to learn more about Scott Bourne’s alternative podcast trade group. I read his blog when I can, and it was apparent shortly after ADM’s launch that he distrusted the means by which ADM was organizing itself, and that others agreed with him. That sounded like a pretty good news story.

I began working on the news section this Monday. Coincidentally, I got an email from Neil Vineberg, a PR person I have communicated with before. He told me about a survey that podcasters could take about the direction of the proposed industry association, currently called The Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers. He asked if I would like to speak to Scott Bourne, and if I would consider writing about the group and the survey in my blog and in the magazine. This was great timing, and I arranged to talk to Scott on Tuesday afternoon. By the way, I once appeared on a panel with Scott, and though we didn’t talk about it, I think we also know some of the same people.

I asked Scott about his goals for the Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers, about next steps, about how it would be organized, etc. I asked whether it was possible or desirable to work with ADM, and what the main bones of contention between those who supported the new group, and ADM were. Scott was emphatic that he would not seek any office in the group, and that all podcasters would have the chance to join it at no cost. He also pointed me to some of the group’s leading backers.

When we hung up, I checked out the survey and read a few of Scott’s blog posts. At that point, I decided that a post of my own would be a good idea. I could link to the survey and get ahead of the news cycle we live with in a monthly magazine. More importantly, people who read this post would have the chance to take the survey before August 13, and learn about the Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers. Goodness for everyone, right?

In my blog post, I described the organization as Scott had explained it to me. Near the end, I quoted a survey question that I felt was leading, and I said that others were as well. I also indicated specifically that I would not be taking sides in the dispute between the two podcast associations. These two statements do not conflict. I expressed an opinion about a tactical activity of the organizations I was blogging about, and I further clarified that this opinion did not indicate support for, or opposition to, the goals of that group.

Now you know what I’ve done, said and writen on this subject.

To the IBNMA question: I asked Blogger & Podcaster publisher Larry Genkin to give me a quick briefing on our relationship with IBNMA. As editor, I stay out of the business stuff, and I needed Larry’s input to be sure I had the facts straight. Here’s Larry’s comment:

Yes, there is a definitive business relationship between Blogger & Podcaster and the IBNMA. We are their official publication. All of their members receive a free print subscription to B&P, which is a key to our ongoing readership growth. Our advertisers will greatly benefit from this program. In addition we will have a major presence at their tradeshows. Our skin in the game is helping them to generate members, hence the ad in the magazine. And since we are their organizations “house” publication, we wanted to provide a forum for their president to communicate with their members each month, hence the IBNMA column.

Well, there you have it. If some perceive my statement on Tuesday that this blog would take no position in support of one industry association over another as hyperbolic, I apologize. and from an editorial point of view, it still goes. Any industry trade group making news will have an equal chance for coverage. If, like the Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers, there’s a time-seneistive survey in the works, I’ll seriously consider blogging about it and providing a link. If a competitor to the IBNMA decides to hold a conference, they’ll get into the calendar on an equal basis. And frankly, if that happens, we might need to develop some more explicit coverage guidelines. Competing industry groups is not something I ever anticipated. Transparency is a good thing.

I hope this is helpful to those of you with questions. I do hope that whatever philosophy prevails, the fighting and accusations can become a lesser part of the conversation, leaving room for more concrete debates on the future of the industry, standards and so on. We welcome the chance to be an open forum for that debate.

In this month’s issue, you can read a news story about the founding of The Association of Downloadable Media (ADM) a group founded by representatives from 15 major organizations involved in podcasting. the heavy hitters on the steering committee represent Apple, NPR, PodShow, PodTech and others. The goal is to develop metrics for measuring audience and advertising effectiveness.

Soon after the ADM’s announcement hit the wires, some podcasters began questioning whether the ADM’s model (high-powered board, hefty membership dues, corporate-focused mission) was truly best for the nascent podcast industry. Podango’s Scott Bourne blogged about it, and says he received more than 70 positive responses within 48 hours of his first post. That discussion of the need for a bottom-up association for the podcasting industry follows discussions that have been going on since last year’s Podcast & New Media Expo (PME), says Bourne.

Now, the conversation has spawned an alternative to the ADM, under the working title Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers, It has its own list of heavy-hiter backers, including Michael Geoghegan of GigaVox, Leo Laporte of the TWIT.TV, Michael R. Mennenga: of Farpoint Media, and Gretchen Vogelzang of The MommyCast.

The group has put up a survey asking your opinions about how a podcasting trade group should be organized and run. You can take the survey (which asks for your name and affiliations) through August 13. Be warned that many of the early questions are unabashedly leading.

To wit:

An organization serving the podcasting and new media communities should embrace “web 2.0” ideologies of openness, community involvement, and maximized individual contribution as it forms and operates.

Strongly Agree……Strongly Disagree

Survey results will be sent to all respondents, and publicized widely via Bourne’s blog, and via other media outlets. Both the ADM and the alliterative group plan organizational meetings at this year’s Podcast & New Media Expo, to be held September 28-30, in Ontario, CA.

Finally, this blog will not take a position in support of one industry trade group over another. For one thing, the diverging points of view feel too much like a family squabble. Not something to be gotten in the middle of, not by me. Perhaps the two groups will eventually find common ground, perhaps not. Now’s the time for ideas and arguments, organization and goal-setting. We will cover both groups, and any other related developments, and, assuming there are no schedule conflicts, I’ll attend both organizational meetings and let you know how things go.