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.

My list of podcasts is long. When I add a new one, it’s either because a show or category has gotten “buzz” of late, or because the topic is interesting or useful to me. To find new shows, I usually head to Google, or to a podcast directory like Podcast Pickle. I rarely search iTunes.

I point out my search method here because it illustrates a problem some podcasters have with perspective. Many producers feel that having their show pop up in an iTunes search is enough, because most podcast listeners use iTunes to subscribe. I’m here to tell them that they’re wrong. iTunes search is slow and not very good at pin-pointing the content I want. I won’t find web sites about a topic I’m interested in, but I will find music and TV shows that have nothing to do with my search. So when I’m looking for podcast content, I don’t go there.

Focusing exclusively on iTunes search serves neither seasoned podcast listeners like me, or a potential listener who barely knows what a podcast is. If I’m looking for, say, podcasts about college baseball, coin collecting, or skateboarding, I start on the Web because I know that I’ll have several shows to choose from, and I want to see the producers’ sites and use what I learn there to determine whether your show is right for me. I’m not gonna subscribe until you convince me that I’m going to benefit from what you offer. On the other end of the spectrum, non-podcast listeners who want to learn about a topic may have no idea that they can subscribe to a half-hour weekly update on a favorite TV show. All they know is that they want information. They aren’t going to iTunes to find it. They’re using the Google! If your podcast appears on the first results page, they’ll find you and the podcasting medium, too. If it doesn’t, they’ll be reading fan sites and message boards.

The points I’ve made here will seem painfully obvious to a lot of podcasters, but if my recent experience is any indication, plenty of my fellow producers are guilty of myopic thinking, and perhaps a little laziness. Just because most of your listeners use iTunes to subscribe, don’t assume they all found you that way, or that everyone who would enjoy your show is searching there. You’re a content producer first, and an audio producer second.

I am happy to support the “conventional wisdom” of my new media-savvy friends and colleagues when it comes to the bone-headed behavior of the music industry. This month alone, we’ve watched the threat to raise royalty rates for webcasters take center stage. And though a reprieve has been granted, it ain’t over yet. But today I’m taking time off form being smugly confident that the attempts to suppress content that wants to be in the wild always indicates stupidity or malevolence. Sometimes, knowledge should stay under raps, and sometimes, decisions about sharing should belong exclusively to the content’s creators and distributors, not for their benefit, but for the benefit of content consumers.

Various leak and hacker rumors about the ending, or even the full contents of J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have been flying around the net for a couple of months. This week, bad copies of the book apparently found their way to BitTorrent sites, having been photographed by pinheads with too much time on their hands. While this is annoying for Potter fans like me who do not wish to be spoiled, avoiding the leaked information has been relatively easy. But yesterday, a New York Times review apparently based on an early copy of the book found in a bookstore, changed all that. Details of the book’s plot are now a mere click away, and easily stumbled upon by accidental readers. The review also appears in today’s Audible NYT digest, my usual first source of news, each day. This is not good.

And isn’t it interesting that The Times managed to show restraint while David Pogue carried an iPhone, weeks before its release. That review didn’t appear until Apple’s embargo was lifted. I guess Steve Jobs is more intimidating than J.K. Rowling and all of her magical characters.

Harry Potter fan sites have begun a letter-wiring campaign aimed at shaming The Times. I’m with the fans.

A few people have made the sanctimonious and self-serving argument that J.K. Rowling and her publishers’ insistence on complete secrecy about the contents of Deathly Hallows is an unrealistic attempt to stifle free flow of infuriation, akin to the RIAA’s obsessive crackdowns on licensed music performance and distribution. Are they afraid they’ll lose book sales?

I don’t think Rowling and company are worried in the least about revelations of Deathly Hallows plot points harming book sales. I cannot imagine a scenario in which a person who would otherwise buy the book would choose not to do so because the text was available via BitTorrent, or because of the contents of a Times review. To be sure, they’re preserving the anticipation of the seventh book, and pumping the hype associated with its launch into the marketplace, but lose book sales? No way. I think the extreme security measures, and threats of lawsuits are all about giving fans what they want, a spoiler-free experience. For once, the interests of the content distributor and the content consumer are the same.

Dislaimer: In the following paragraph, I make an allusion to someone I know who is more famous than myself. I tend to avoid that practice and believe it should be employed as sparingly as possible. I have now exhausted my quota for July.

In the too-cool-for-Harry Potter tech world, this week has brought more speculation about the identity of Fake Steve Jobs, ginned up by more people with too much time on their hands, and a desire to stir things up for the sake of site traffic. A decent percentage of the blogosphere churn continues to point to Mac author Andy Ihnatko as the man behind the very popular and very funny FSJ blog, but the evidence seems awfully flimsy. I know Andy slightly–back in the day, I interviewed him once for my podcast. And I have absolutely no doubt that being Fake Steve Jobs is completely within his talents. But I’d just rather not know who’s been writing all that great FSJ stuff. And judging by commenters to this post, I’m not alone. It’s a pulling the mask of the Lone Ranger moment. And if it is you, Andy, deny deny deny.

OK, OK, I didn’t manage to get this post up yesterday. We had a busy time proofing our excellent August issue. The irony of blogging taking second place to making the magazine is not lost on your humble editor.

Now let’s get back to the notion of social networks taking over the world, specifically, replacing email.

It’s natural, especially in a blog culture that, like journalism, values “new and improved” as much as any advertising slogan writer. Myopic visions of the future, and the belief that today’s “big thing” is tomorrow’s “game changer” are part and parcel of a 24/7 blog cycle. I wish more people would give these ideas some thought before jumping on these faddish trains of thought.

So now social networks like Facebook, Pownce and Twitter are supposed to be replacing email, just as they are supposedly undermining traffic in the blog world. I say bull puckey.

From where I sit, the elephant in the social networking room is that while folks feel quite comfortable predicting that networks will turn existing communication methods on their heads, they’re also whining about social network fatigue. Which is it guys? Do you love the synergy, interactivity and other buzzword compliant attributes of Facebook, or are you sick of fielding friend requests? Have you turned your email client off in favor of Twitter, or do you still need Outlook or Apple Mail to read corporate memos or links to forwarded YouTube videos? It’s way too early to draw any conclusions about how social networks in general will supplant email or anything else. We still don’t know which metaphor or technology will “win”.

I’m not a social network curmudgeon. If you read this blog,you know I’ve had a public infatuation with at least two social networks. And lately, I’ve been using them to communicate with people who write for this magazine, or whose stories I would like to tell you, our readers. My Facebook profile effectively answers the questions generated by so many cold emails “Who are you?” And that saves time. I’ve also been able to “put the word out” on Twitter in a couple of cases. That’s very cool, but highly dependent upon the people I need watching their Twitter stream, or surfing over to Facebook. I submit to you that many people are more likely to do these things today than they are in six months or a year.

Much more fundamentally, email works! Everyone knows how to use it. Filters make it possible to keep messages organized, threaded, flagged and (hopefully) spam-free. Email is available everywhere. Email is easy to use. Email does not depend on a friend request. In short, email isn’t broken in a way social networks can fix. I think I’ll hang onto my accounts for a little while longer.

Like the provocative headline? I’ll break every rule and tell you right off that I don’t answer the question in this post. I can’t. And neither can you, or your favorite A-list blogger.

There’s chatter in the “big think” part of the tech blogosphere about social networking. It’s not just about how bloggers have discovered (as I have) Twitter, Facebook et. al. The buzz is all about how blog traffic is down, and social network traffic is up. Coincidence? Those who have been commenting on the trends don’t think so.

I don’t feel qualified to speculate on the relationship between those trends, but I will point out that the observations and come from the tech blogging world, where social networks are not just tools, or alternatives to blogs: they’re tech companies and interface innovators, run by people the tech blogerati hangs out with while they’re in line for their iPhones.

I’m not sure, for example, whether business bloggers, knitting bloggers, empowerment bloggers, music bloggers, cat bloggers or sports bloggers (to pick some categories at random) are observing the same traffic pattersn, nor whether their readers have defected to social networks. It sounds, especially in areas like music, where MySpace has a demonstrated pre-eimant position, like an interesing hypothesis, but I think it’s too big a generalization, too, and perhaps one that could stand some time (maybe six months or so) in the oven allowing it to become fully baked.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with some observations on the questions: “Are social networks replacing email?”

(This blog post contains an allusion to a four-letter word near the end. If this offends you, please take evasive action.)

I’ve been experimenting with a new kind of news story in the pages of Blogger & Podcaster. I debuted the concept with my own South by Southwest wrap-up observations in our April issue, and carried it forward with a piece about Balticon 41’s podcasting track. I reported it by talking to the organizers and a participant in the podcasting events. But I learned there was a story to report by spending time “in the community”. You can read about it in the July issue, due next week.

The idea is to report on the community aspects of blogging and podcasting, and, by extension, the culture and social networking that’s endemic in these forms of media. We do this either by talking to people who attended a given event and reading all we can in the blogosphere, or by asking attendees to write their own versions of events, which then become news stories.

The great thing about this kind of news is that it gets below the numbers and names associated with an industry gathering, and aims for the vibe. It also gives us a way to share such gatherings with the majority of our readers who can not attend, in a way that’s meaningful–maybe you’ll find a way to go next year, or perhaps you will decide it’s not your thing at all.

The promise of community-based event coverage is starting to make itself evident to me in a very exciting way. As a podcaster, and friend of many Canadian podcasters, I wished very much to have been at last weekend’s Podcasters Across Borders event in Kingston, Ontario. Maybe next year guys. I hear there was one Texan in attendance. Perhaps next year I can fill the Lone Star quota.

To makes sure I would have the PAB scoop for you, our readers, I asked Bruce Murray of The Zedcast to write a story for the magazine. But I also spent a portion of my weekend listening to podcasts, reading blogs and hanging out on Twitter, taking in “on the spot” reports from PAB. When I emailed Bruce to see how his article was going, I had one question: Where did the phrase “Your podcast is not an effing toaster” come from and who said it? Inquiring minds (mine) wanted to know.

In response, I got a link to the web sites of both Neil Gorman whose presentation enshrined the phrase as PAB 2007’s unofficial motto, and Julian Smith, who actually uttered the phrase that inspired the hook for Neil’s session. Oh yeah, and the session video is here. And it’s very funny.

That, my friends, is interactive news coverage of the kind you couldn’t get before the social media revolution began. And it sure save on my travel budget.

Today, June 26 has been declared Tthe Day of Silence to protest increases in royalty rates that will affect Internet radio broadcasters, large and small, within the next three weeks, and likely drive many of the smaller ones out of business.

The unusual thing about his protest is that it brings together Internet broadcasters of all sizes; from Pandora to NPR, Live365 to Joe’s Internet Jazz Show (I made that last one up for dramatic effect, but you take my point, I hope.) At stake is the ability to deliver audio via the Net, not in MP3 or other formats that can be copied by nefarious music lovers, but simply streamed.

In our jaded, post-modern world, it’s fashionable to smirk at online “protests”. The standard line is that the protest does more to buck up the embattled forces of good than it does to cause the desired change to happen. I tend not to take that line in general, but in this particular case, it seems to me that a protest, or perhaps more accurately, a demonstration project, makes a lot of sense. For one thing, the Day of Silence itself is not designed to change the minds of the copyright board or lawmakers in Washington. Nor is it designed to move a commercial entity to change its ways. No, the Day of Silence is about showing people who consume and enjoy Internet radio what would be lost if royalty rates increased to the point that broadcasters decided to hang up their mics. Unfortunately, it’s not quite working out that way. NPR and many stations are still broadcasting today, as is AOL Radio.. Live365 and Pandora have gone silent. Perhaps today’s “protest” will go down as another futile attempt to move government toward a positive outcome: you can’t get people involved if they don’t perceive a threat to the status quo.

Despite the fact that it’s business as usual for NPR today, the network does offer resources for those who want to take action.

For those of you who may have wondered (I got no comments, but I know what you were thinking) how my Facebook post from yesterday was relevant to blogging and podcasting, I offer this pointer, via allfacebook, to a new app called Flog. You can already pull RSS into Facebook, but this little app allows you to add extended versions of your blog posts to your FB feed.

Social networks are hot right now; not just in that venture capital, big names are talking, new conferences are springing up kind of way, but in a way that users can see and enjoy. We are enjoying that blissful time in the tech cycle when great ideas are turning into things we can play with, and perhaps use to enhance our work as bloggers and podcasters. and they’re coming faster than most of us can track em.

The most visible social network explosion is happening over at Facebook. And by the way, you’ll find a Blogger & Podcaster group there, so please join us.

First, Facebook opened its doors to people without an .edu email address. Some “older” users jumped at the opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues, without all the spam and other baggage of MySpace.

Next, Facebook shared its API with developers who are now adding new applications daily. Facebook isn’t just a place to collect friends: it’s a hub of activity and tools that brings people back, even when they don’t have a new photo to share. The dizzying array of apps may not all stick, but the presence of apps itself is great for users who can customize their experience and bring the things they already do online into the Facebook universe.

For bloggers and podcasters–podcasters epecially have stuggled with, and in some cases, embraced the collaboration possibilities of MySpace–Facebook seems to be quickly gaining traction. Producers can offer listeners membership in a group devoted to the show, message listeners as a group to promote activities and events and even use the new applications to create a collaborative experience with their audienec. How about an iLike channel for your music podcast, that people can join from your Facebook group?

If you want to follow the explosive growth of Facebook apps, try allfacebook, the unofficial Facebook blog.