The Herald Sun (from News Limited), my states local newspaper and the highest circulated paper in Australia recently launched a new website. They have columnists doing posts on their own blogs, news, videos and everything else you would expect but I do have on problem. It isn’t with the site itself, it is with how they wrote about the site in today’s (24/7/06) paper. First of all plugging the site and doing a 2 page spread about it is bad enough, but what grates me even more is who they misused the word “blogâ€. Dictionary.com says the word “blog†means;
An online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
Now the way they used the word was referring to a Question and Answer piece with musician Billy Joel. It features reader submitted questions and Joel answered them. It is a one off piece for their website. How is this a blog? Is it yet another example of the mainstream press still struggling with the new media. Do they not know the meaning of a blog, or are they dumbing themselves down for readers who may not understand a blog is an online diary or a way as I do, post articles on a regular basis? There is no way a one off article online can constitute the use of the word “blogâ€. I don’t know why they are misusing the word but they definitely are in my opinion.
Mike Beckham, a regular poster on one of our fansites, RoveOnline, emailed me saying, “I am loving the vidcast/podcast material. As a podcaster myself it is nice to see some bigger places getting into the online media arena. I have to wonder though will these be kept up with updates and content or [not]?†Well Mike, you can be sure that we’ll try to do our best to not only give everyone some of the usual “best of†material you would expect from a podcast, but some exclusive material as well. Online at the moment is my podcast-only interview with Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother and our houseband Famous by Association. Plus, coming soon will be some behind-the-scenes material of Pete and I before the show as well as footage of what happens during the ad breaks of Rove Live – again, available ONLY to podcast subscribers. For the rest of you, don’t worry, we will be updating some new video blog material and exclusive downloads for our site as well.
Rove McManus 3 time Gold Logie winner (the highest award in Australian Television) from the talk show “Rove Live” posted in his section on his shows website this week. Guess who was mentioned? Little old me. This post is definitely self indulgent so tune out if not interested. I have been a long-time viewer of Rove since about 2001. I have enjoyed his show on and off and emailed him after he started a vidcast for his show with extra features etc… So I sent him an email some of which is included in the above quote. He replied, I was happy with a reply. However I was emailed by the RoveOnline webmaster that I was mentioned on his site. I went there and saw that as part of his weekly post. Nice surprise to end the week.
See the full article from Rove here.
Yep, I am doing another review for Chris Fitzpatrick’s Podcast “Tomorrow’s Coffee“. He has been on The PloyCast before and will be doing a segement for this week’s return of The PloyCast on Video! Anyways I reviewed The Tyler McKenzie Experience. Please remember it is done as a comedy piece not an actual fair review. Like how Fox News does “news”.
So Check it out.
PodTech, a technology podcasting network, has announced that it has acquired Geek Entertainment TV, a technology video podcast. Geek Entertainment TV’s Irina Slutsky and Eddie Codel will be joining PodTech and working with Robert Scoble. “We’ve been talking for a few weeks and actually signed the contracts today,” according to PodTech.
I am suprised at this, not the particular acquisition but that acquisitions are happening at all in the podcasting world. I guess I never thought podcasting reached a stage where this sought of business would take place yet. I mean think 12 months ago, could you imagine a podcast network buying out a podcast. Not to mention this podcast network has “the” Robert Scoble as part of the management.
That alone could not be imagined 12 months ago. Yet a
recent report from Nielson has found podcasting is still a niche market and has not hit the mainstream yet. It found that just 6.6 per cent of the U.S. Adult online population or less than 10 million users have recently downloaded an audio podcast (in the last 30 days before the survey took place).
Well the latest popular blogging tool around lately is VOX. It offers a community based service where you can add a “neighborhood” and the intergration other sister blogging tool TypePad. So basically it is Blogger with some web 2.0 features with the whole “social networking” fad to it (which by the way was patented by the fledgling social networking siteFriendster, thats right they patented “social networking”). One of the things I believe is helping it become so popular like many web 2.0 companies is the invitation system. Only letting some in and giving out invites to users to give out. Look how well it worked for Gmail, it worked so well for them that more than 2 years after launching it is still “private” although invites are extremely easy to recieve.
I have a account (click here to take a look), however I use it only for commenting on others VOX Blogs like Leo Laporte’s.My blog page just has one post linking to here. Some of the big downsides to this service is Google ads at the bottom of pages and VOX internal ads at the top. Much worse than Blogger’s toolbar and non-removable unlike Bloggers. You cannot edit code, or use themes other than the ones offered by VOX. It does a good job implementing services like Flickr. However really doesen’t offer much more than Blogger and MySpace combined. I personally will stick to Wordpress and what I like is controlling my site entirely and hosting it myself (with help from Ben May). You may like it, however I do not.
Well the Negative Penguin Media website redesign is up, thanks to our web designer Ben May! Although right now not completely done, with some content absent. It looks alot better than previous versions and adds functionality for non-network podcasts to access help with production and listening through our new “labs” section. With Podcasting tips and more and our new forums.
I think it is a huge step forward and when all content is completed and it is running 100% I believe it will be a very good site for the network, shows and a awesome resource for all podcasters and podlisteners.
