Category: Podcasts

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Podcast Ready vs. Apple vs. the telephone game

It’s been interesting to watch this unfold over the past few days. There are some folks that have been waiting for the moment to jump on Apple over everything they are doing within the world of digital media, DRM, copyright, trademarks, and so on. This is no exception.

Apple Computer has slapped Podcast Ready with a “cease and desist” letter, claiming that the terms “Podcast Ready” and “myPodder” infringe Apple’s trademarks, and that they cause confusion among consumers. The company has been cracking down on use of the word “pod” by all sorts of parties, even though its trademark is for the word “iPod.”

Podcast Ready CEO Russel Holliman said he’d consider dropping the name myPodder if he had to, but “Podcast Ready”? If that’s infringement, Apple is claiming that it owns the word “podcast.” Sure, the word originated with the word iPod, but most people now see it as a general term for downloadable audio shows that isn’t affiliated with one brand more than another.

Coincidentally, Apple’s letter arrived the day before Podcast Ready unveiled a new version of its software — one that works with the iPod. [wired]

The full version of this letter to Podcast Ready can be found on their site here. The debate is beginning to subside, and the way it has unfolded opens up a couple of observations.

The majority of folks reporting this took this as Apple making the move to trademark the term “podcast” so that no one can use it without their permission. Upon reading the full text of the letting from Apple’s lawyers, this isn’t exactly what this action is intending to do. However, people jumped on it and began bashing the move without getting the full story. In fact, the words “cease and desist” never appear. That didn’t stop the bloggers and podcasters from slamming Apple’s legal action against Podcast Ready.

Podcast411 released a special, soapbox episode[listen] about this issue, and it digs deep into the issue. In fact, Rob did his research, got a copy of the letter, talked to people at the U.S. Patent Office, and reviews how media organizations poorly reported this news. I had a feeling that there was more to this story, and this appears to be the truth. Adam Curry examined the issue as well on a recent episode of the Daily Source Code[dsc#468] and echoes what Rob said on Podcast 411.

Simply put, Apple is defending their right to what they have legally trademarked. “Podcast” is not under threat, and no one can trademark something that exists in the public doman. That’s like someone trying to get a patent on “television” or “radio”, and there is no way that will happen.

There are some folks that take issue with the word “pod” itself, as Apple claims trademark over it. To that, some say the name for the medium should change. I’m sorry, but “netcasting” is the worst thing I have ever heard. It sounds too similar, in meaning, to streaming. Podcasting is what it has come to be. You’ll be hard pressed to change it now.

The last thing I take issue with is the way that so many reporters took up this story without getting all their facts in check. Wired.com posted a follow up to the story above, with a copy of the letter to Podcast Ready. Not once did they mention anything about getting clarification on the matter by actually seeing a copy of the request from Apple’s legal team. There’s poor journalism going on here.

Regardless, Podcast Ready now has more publicity than it could have ever imagined.

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RadioZoom Episode #113 – Hockey Talk: Canucks Hockey Blog (canuckshockey.blogspot.com)

Another adventure with interviewing bloggers who publish content about my favorite hockey team, episode #113 is served.

A Skype interview with blogger J.J. Guerrero from the Canucks Hockey Blog, Rebecca and I learn more about the guy behind the blog, why he loves the Vancouver Canucks, and gather some insights about the team. The other interesting thing to note about J.J. is that he worked at GM Place for about nine years as an usher. He has a lot of knowledge about the team other that just loving the guys like we do. We don’t spend a lot of time setting up the episode because it really speaks for itself. If you dig hockey, then you’ll really enjoy this one.

45:02 minutes
radiozoom.net

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RadioZoom Episode #112 – Slurpees; Birthday Weekend; Canucks Hockey Talk; Vancouver Trivia; MySpace; Weird Al; Miss604 In Print

Recorded in haste, late this afternoon, episode #112 has been posted.

Back to the studio, Rebecca joins me for an episode that we are squeezing in before a busy weekend starts for the both of us. My birthday is coming up on Sunday, and we’ll be attending the Canucks game againt Anaheim in celebration. We get into a variety of topics, including Vancouver Trivia as my one year anniversary in Vancouver is quickly approaching.

As you will learn in this episode, we were crunched for time as we were getting ready to see Snow Patrol in concert a few hours after recording this. Check back to these show notes in case I forgot to add something at the time of posting this. I’ll do my best to update later if I have.

45:33 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Taking a look at the Global National Podcasts

Global National PodcastI was originally thinking of making this a W.I.L.T., but the Global National Podcast isn’t something that I’m regularly checking out. I’ve caught enough of their commercials to gather enough interest in seeing what they’re doing.

A basic background to the program, Global National is a half hour news program that is broadcast across Canada. Kevin Newman is the guy behind the desk, and I have to add that the guy is huge. He must workout between commercial breaks.

There are two ways you can get the program in podcast form. The video version makes the most sense because, afterall, this is a television program. If you would rather get your daily dose in audio, you can do that as well. The interesting thought here is that the audio is exactly what you hear on the video version of the podcast. Basically, it’s TV without the pictures.

They promote this podcast with the slogan of, “Missed the Global National newscast on television? Now you can watch or listen to Global National on your portable media player!” This stands to reason because you are getting a carbon copy of what they aired on TV. At the same time, this is a lot of content to be pulling down everyday, and being national news, there is a lot more that you can get from surfing into a couple of websites, like the Globe and Mail or CBC, in the amount of time it takes to download just one of these podcasts.

This is another example of big media trying to get into the realm of what’s new and independent. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but there seems to be poor elements within Global’s effort. Kevin Newman might be pretty to look at on your iPod, but do you want to spend time staring at a head on a screen telling you the news? There are much more effective ways to have this done, but to each their own.

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Compression is not in the NPR dictionary

Dear National Public Radio,

I really enjoy listening to your podcasts. Being someone who used to work in the network, I understand the content that you guys offer with your podcasts. The new is incredibly informative and a great addition to my playlists when I go running. The five minute updates clue me into news happening around the world that I’ll usually look into future among my many RSS feeds.

I also like the other content that you guys offer. The Whad’Ya Know stuff is great. I’ve been listening to Mr. Feldman for as long as I can remember. Although it’s just a small portion of the weekly program, his satire is quite humourus.

What I was to know is… why do I always have to crank up the volume when I listen to your podcasts? It’s annoying. I get that there is a certain “style” to the way NPR does things. I have also run into a number of arguments in the broadcast engineering world to know about the dislike for compression among public radio enthusiasts. To each their own, but this is podcasting we’re talking about.

When I’m in the shower, CNN podcasts are perfect. Once your news update hits, I get nothing but some mumbling. And if I decide to switch my playlist up when I go running, my ear drums get blasted when music follows said news update because I have to turn up your stuff just to understand the content. Listening to Feldman on the podcast produces some of the same mumbling followed by laughter from the audience. I completely miss what was funny and shouldn’t have to rewind to catch it.

And for the love of god, shorten up the intro and outros. That beginning music is one thing, but you can be way more brief in telling me thanks for downloading your five minute news summary. Perhaps it’s the ads that drive me even more nuts. The non-commercial rule of thumb doesn’t apply so much to podcasts, and I doubt the FCC is going to or can regulate that.

Just give me the news, and let me be able to hear it without having to crank the volume all the way up.

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RadioZoom Episode #111 – Six Song Donut Spectacular: September 2006; Farewell to WOXY.com

A little late getting an episode out this week, but I’ve been battling an all out attack on my sinuses for the past six days. That being said, #111 is up and ready for download.

WOXY.com ends a long running history of being one of the best sources for alternative, independent music today. In this six song(plus two), I pay my respects to one of the greatest radio stations, terrestrial and internet-only, to have ever existed. All songs in this episode were artists that I discovered through WOXY, tracked down, and received permission from.

Today marks another page in rock and roll history. Septmber 15, 2006 will forever be the day that the music stopped, for good, from WOXY.com. Even if it begins again, it will never be the same as it ever was.

56:00 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Podcasting and the Meta Argument

At BarCampVancouver, Ryan Cousineau[wiredcola] led a session called “Sturgeon’s Revelation”[wiki]. The idea that “ninety percent of everything is crud” was the center piece of this session, applying it to pretty much everything that exists in the world of Web 2.0[wiki]. The main topic of focus, however, was podcasting[wiki].

Darren Barefoot made a recent post regarding social networks and podcasting, citing that the resources are not there for the medium as there is for photo, video, or link sharing. This idea speaks a lot to what Cousineau was getting at with his session, and much of his thoughts on the topic is posted on his blog.

When it comes down to it, there is not an easy way to share content within a podcast unless you listen to it. You can’t Google search for information that can be found in a podcast. There are such things as show notes and tags that people apply to the material that they publish, but not everyone does it, nor does everyone do it the same way.

The only solution to this problem is to transcribe podcasts in their entirty so that anyone searching for a topic can locate it in your podcast as well as anywhere else on the web. Quite often, this is where people with low opinions about podcasting derive their argument, and I’ve heard this thought propelled by a lot of bloggers. Yes, blogging is a very quick way of publishing information for the world to read in nearly real time. It is instantly indexed, searchable, and archived.

Generating audio for a podcast can be done in the same way, but often is delayed and ineffective with being timely. The podcast itself, in its raw form, is a bunch of ones and zeros, and no one has developed a way to index the contents of a podcast so that it is searchable across the internet. No matter how great of material that you have in a podcast, some one finding that gem of information inside forty minutes of a mp3 won’t happen unless they download it and listen.

This is where I start to agree with the point that Cousineau is saying and the thoughts presented in Barefoot’s post. The conversation that you can get from podcasting is vastly different for the ones that happen through blogging, Flickr, or YouTube. “Feedback” is the better word for what goes on with a podcast. Continue reading “Podcasting and the Meta Argument”

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Sticking to a schedule for podcasts

Allow me to continue a long standing discussion among podcasters and critics out there in the medium, but when is the best time for putting out podcasts?

It all comes down to a schedule, right? There should be certain things that people can count on with your podcast. Content, style, quality, frequency(as in how often you publish new material), and location. I could have said five, distinct elements, but there is way to much to consider or even begin to argue over what is and isn’t more important to think about. If you’re not careful, you can fall into a vicious circle, and I’m saying that based on experience.

For the most part, I like to have subscribers and listeners count on me to publish one, new episode every week. That is not as easy as it sounds. No matter how much or little that you create, you are constantly fighting with what is coming up for your next production.

RadioZoom is what it is, and I love creating content for it. The name itself will never limit me from doing what I want with it. It’s my creation to do what I see fit. Even that doesn’t make everything that much easier.

Continue reading “Sticking to a schedule for podcasts”

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RadioZoom Episode #110 – Vandigicam Flickr Group: Portrait Throw Down Meetup

I feel like I should write a little more about the fact that this episode is up and ready for download, but that’s enough material for its very own post. One re-dub and hundreds of edits later, episode #110 is ready for download.

I was invited to join the Vandigicam Flickr Group on their “Portrait Throw Down III” meetup that gathered in English Bay on August 30, 2006. Vancouver photographer, Rachael Ashe, contacted me with the idea that this event that she was leading would make for interesting podcast material. The location and people apart of the group were an excellent setting for documenting what a Vandigicam gathering is like. Rebecca joined me but participated in the photo-festivities while I ran around with a microphone. Yet another adventure into the people that make up Vancouver, and here is a portion of those people who share a passion for getting behind the lense.

I would love to have linked to everyone’s Flickr accounts that I met at the meetup. Gladly and unfortunately, there were just way too many people to recall nor would it be fair to list the few people I do recall while forgetting the rest. If you were there, feel free to post a comment with a link to your photos. Regardless, it was great meeting everyone!

55:39 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Here, there, and I swear I’m forgetting something

This week has been full of various projects and events. For starters, the concert at the former home of Matthew Good is still having some ripple effects. More so, the podcast Rebecca and I did to document the occassion after the fact is still going strong in terms of downloads. It was the most downloaded episode that I have released in a single day, on the day that it was published. A lot of that is in part from Good linking RZ#109 that from his website. Can’t thank him enough.

The Flickr Vandigicam meetup was a resounding success, and it appears that many of the past meetups are just as much so. There was nearly 30 people who showed up for the Portrait Throw Down III, and Rebecca even got in on the fun[miss604:post] while I recorded audio for a podcast to released next week. Lots of really fun people and just as many pieces of camera equipment. Be watching the RadioZoom website for that episode on Tuesday.

Darren Barefoot also put a call out to Vancouver bloggers to go check out his play[db:post], Bolloxed, during the Vancouver Fringe Festival. I sent him an email, and he graciously put Rebecca and I on the list. Being that we’re getting in for free, Barefoot is asking that we blog a review of the play. Of course, I offered to do some podcasting about it as well. I’ll take the mobile rig along with, capture what audio I can during the play, and even try to get Darren, the playwriter himself, on the mic.

I also want to encourage people to check out the “Fringecast” that is being put on by xpodradio.com. It’s a podcast about, you guessed it, the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Darren sent me a quick note to also inform me that he’d be appearing on there.

I’m also in the process of planning a new podcast, and that’s, once again, another hint drop. We hope to launch the project in the next few weeks, but everything is still in the planning stages. Listeners of RZ won’t be too surprised when it does land, but the scope of the podcast goes a little beyond what many podcasts are doing. Keep checking back as we get things off the ground.

Needless to say, without having any source of income coming from anything of what I just listed, I’m keeping busy.