Some interesting stats here:

• Awareness of podcasting grew from 37% of Americans to 43%
• Podcast listeners are extensive social network users.
• One in four Americans indicated that they have ever downloaded and watched/listened to an audio or video podcast
• The number one reason given for podcast consumption was time-shifting–the ability to consume content whenever the consumer desires.
• Podcast consumers continue to be attractive advertising targets; yet are increasingly unreachable through traditional, interrupt advertising
• Podcast listeners are a highly educated and affluent
• Podcast consumers spend more than 7hrs per week on line.
• 18-44 male listeners tends to be the major consumer demographic
• Power watching is an interesting term

The suggest that 27M Americans have listened to a podcast because they want to listen or watch content when ever they want to. They (Americans) lke the time shifting convenience.

With recent sales calls that we at Knowledge Hemispheres have made in the UK, we notice that there is still limited awareness of what a podcast is! However, this may change as the purchase of MP3 players continues to rise. It is also worth considering how much is downloaded Vs how much is watched/listened to ondemand.

It would also be interesting to see what type of podcasts are popular.

Let us see what the shifts will be in 2010?

I’m confident that popular podcasts are probably sport, politics and movies.
In addition, I’m encouraged by the following statement:

Twenty-four-year-old advertising student Prachi Ganjedra says that the medium is “kind of cool” and has also started attracting commercials.

I would consider the term, ‘narrow’ as being a reality, for example:

The demographic is certainly focused on those who can afford access to technology, albeit that there could be a big student population (hence the Hindustan Times article possibly mentioning Orkut).

Another area to consider would be the Non-Resident Indian listeners (NRI’s – a common description by Indian’s describing those that have migrated typically to the West) – Who & how many also applies.

Interestingly, the following article: http://web.mit.edu/ist/podcasts/podcasting_user_guide.pdf
focuses more on tagging.
In the opening paragraph it states:

Many websites contain links to audio and video, but mere links do not a podcast make. Podcasts require metadata that describes and organizes the audio and video files. Librarians or other information professionals often supply this metadata for large-scale podcasting projects. But podcasts are not only for projects with massive resources. Individuals can podcast and are encouraged to do so. Individuals can and must become familiar with the idea of producing their own metadata, a process often called “tagging.” Fortunately, tagging is easy to do. Tags are user-supplied labels that record certain pieces of information about the audio and video files—(librarians call these pieces of information “properties”). Librarians call the sum of all the tags about a video or audio file its metadata, since the file is a piece of data and its tags are data about it. Metadata means “data about data.

The suggestion is that tagging is related to Metadata. To a certain extent this is true as metadata is defined as information about information. In my article I suggested that metadata as related to podcasting has to include the attributes of the content in question rather than by subject.

Tagging in my view is concerned with labelling rather than detailed archiving. From a social booking marking perspective, tagging is fine.

However, feed tags look a lot more like what I call metadata, for example:

• Identifier = <id>
• Copyright = <rights>
• Title = <title>
• Link = <link>
• Contributor = <author>
• Description = <subtitle>
• Subject = <category>
• Language = <dc:language>
• Date = <updated>

Media RSS, is a new variety of RSS 2.0 that was developed by Yahoo and Google for use in their audio and video podcast search services – it has defined it’s own tag to capture contributor information. In Media RSS, multiple tags are allowed, one for each contributor. Also in Media RSS, you are required to be more specific in defining the nature of each individual’s contribution. An interesting example is the media:credit tag, it requires you to specify a role for the contributor. Now that is even more detail.

There maybe a number of factors that should be considered:

1. The current state of the download market in terms of total cost of service it relies on.
2. Should there be a separate model for on-line sales?

Clearly, technology moves over time and so does dependable business behaviour. However, business models take time to adjust because organisational models are mapped to them. In the case of the entertainment business it is an irony that music can be innovative, yet many outlet channels relied on are staid.

Last night I was talking to an agent of an up and coming fusion/folk band and it was fascinating to hear his perspective on how inconsistently podcasts are rated. He wondered how some content was being promoted by PR. For example, Sometimes it is difficult to see how selective bands, movies and general entertainment is truly promoted. This is because the market consists of many people/organisations that dependant on each other, e.g: Public Relations, Concert Ticket sales, Commercial outlets and of course the performers and composers/writers – everybody wants a bit of the action.

Downloading via itunes is quick as a click and if offered you can even download the CD cover (Although I still prefer the ascetics of the Album cover).

What all sides need to do before things get out of hand, is to understand practical costs rather than replicating from a traditional models. Its time for a re-think and compromise from all that have a vital part to play!

Other innovations that have been impressive this week include Mogulus:

As an experiment with feeds et al I’ve just loaded up the entire set of 20 videos created for Season 1 of the Know Wow show.

Next, I need to see if I can watch them on an i-phone and then consider the true capability of ‘live’ video blogging!

One way to consider this question is to consider what kind of organisations are taking up new ways of communicating.

From a market segmentation perspective let us look at a few:

Education – Already pioneering educators are providing ipod based learning materials, e.g: lecture notes, full audio versions of lectures and selective course pointers. Blackboard Learning Management systems have already incorporated a feature to store educational podcasts. In terms of standards and content formulation self-driven initiatives appear to be the driving force.

Traditional Media -Someone mentioned to me that the BBC TV are increasingly saying , ‘Download the programme / highlights for free’ – I’m not sure that I have noticed this. Interestingly their i-players has been phenomenally successful. This will obviously make the Director General and their governors happy that their direction is on the right path – especially with their recent announcement of building a multi-media portal.

Marketing and Public Relations – I noticed the term, ‘Digital Marketing’ being used instead of Corporate Podcasting.
It could be that this term is wider, incorporating on-line digital mailing campaigns supported by audio content.

The good news is that although new names are being adopted,there appears to be a general acceptance that content in the form of video and audio is increasingly being accepted as useful for organisations to communicate key facts.

This week it is a special.
I really wanted to explore the value of Corporate Podcasting but from a mobile perspective.
Some call it Mobilecasting!
However, what are the real practical applications and potential pitfalls.

For example, apart from the technical issues on quality I discovered the following:

1. For meeting updates, fine and
2. For announcements it is disruptive.

Please feel free to listen and send me your feedback.

I’ve tried to balance this issue with practical corporate podcasting applications for mobile workers.

I’ve always been a bit of a cynic when it comes to networking but was impressed with the turnout and the positive attitude portrayed.
The vids about 3 months old but it shows that there is still more to be done to convince corporations to take advantage of the potential corporate podcasting:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Is Podcast talent not part of a familiar brand being somehow blocked !?
Do role models get defined / constructed or do they actually emerge from hard work and then eventually being recognised?
Are the search algorithms unintentionally working against ‘everyday man’?

In society today the reality is that the Media is king – deciding on what is newsworthy and what content can be tossed aside in favour of sensationalism or simply siding with familiar brands or channels to market.

Is Big Brother (BB) a true representation of what people are really like? The answer has to be a resounding NO as BB feeds the media and vice-versa!

One could blame us for encouraging this behaviour, journalist training or is there something more subtle and suspect going on?

Take for example, recommended podcasts, or the latest CD from an established artist. In both examples newcomers are in my view squeezed out in favour of fine tuned Public relations machines.

Let us now switch our thoughts to role models. Why do we need them? Actually we don’t as many use them as a vehicle to motivate people to achieve. Somebody once said if there are lots of multi-cultural faces on the BBC does this mean that equal opportunities are being exercised? Should not the question really be: Who is allowed to examine news content and also who controls the editorial?

‘Other’ areas to consider:

* Why are the same faces being asked to comment in the media (wheeled out and well oiled)?
* Who really controls the editorial?
* Why are we not seeing the emerging new ‘new media’ talent?
* Is a sports personality a true community spokesperson?

The answer to all of these questions has to be a combination of apathy on our parts but also not campaigning loud enough to bring about a change.

Maybe money talks?

Or, maybe the media is scared of the people’s agenda coming to the fore – something that they will not be easily able to package and then eventually control.

The quality of podcasts is varied but there are many outstanding contributions and subject matter experts that are not getting a ‘look in’. Who chooses the ‘featured podcast’ on some of the podcatcher sites, e.g: through i-tunes? I see lots of familiar operators but very limited new talent being exposed??

I hope that sincerity and goodness prevails – and that quality will eventually ‘shine through’.

CBC Consumer News

The suggestion is that only a rise of 2% was experienced.
To me this implies two diverse findings:

1. Podcast potential exists
2. Podcasts are too complicated / technical or have not penetrated into everyday behaviours.

I call the latter a sense of the technology not being semantic.

The report also says:

The stats come from 1,855 telephone interviews in January 2007. A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project last November put the U.S. podcast audience at 12 per cent and found one per cent of internet users are downloading a podcast on a typical day.