I went to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo 2006 in Ontario, Ca-lifornia. Yeah, I know! Who knew there was an Ontario in California?

Keynotes

Leo Laporte (Call for Help) and Ron D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) were there for the keynote on Friday, and Andrew Baron (RocketBoom) came out for the keynote on Saturday. So what did they focus on? Well, Leo focused on the word Podcast and the recent legal ramblings by Apple to control the use of the p-o-d letter combination. Ron focused on how cool it was for him to drink and smoke at home while recording the audio commentary podcast for the BSG episodes. Andrew focused on how good his numbers were: See how much money we can make?

But what about the undercurrent?

1. The focus of most of the session and most podcasters? Money. How do you monetize your podcast?!
2. How do you improve your podcast (eg. better interview techniques)
3. What's the video story going forward? YouTube owns you, Revver has a file size limit... seems nobody has got the magic formula for video hosting. Or so I heard...

Podcast Host Services - Blubrry vs. Podshow

Create an account, upload your podcasts, be listed, "friend" your favorite podcasts (if they are listed), and... where were they? No podshow booth, a small little blubrry booth. If it wasn't for a podcast I listen to pointing over to Blubrry... I wouldn't even have known they existed (except maybe the cheap blue stress balls they were handing out). Oh, and podcasters listed on Podshow were told to delist themselves from Blubrry - ostensibly because "they are (just?) now a competitor".

The big unanswered questions remain:

1. How is the format war going? I listen to podcasts in AAC, MP3, and M4P. I watch podcasts in MOV, AVI, M4V, MP4. I can only watch half in every PC media app. Half must be used in QuickTime/Apple. With TV you can watch every show on any TV - why is this still so crazy in the internet space?
2. Where is RSS2.0 vs. ATOM? What is the evolution of the technology?
3. Where are the discussions about media ownership? Podshow, Blubrry, Podcastready, Libsyn, YouTube, Revver, Amazon Unboxed, Google Video, etc. What are the limitations of each services? What are the advantages of each? Maybe someone will review them - I'm just too lazy.

The Forgotten User Story

WHAT THE HELL is the USER STORY? WMP11b2 has no podcasting support, and as a recently reformed Mac user I'm done with iTunes - even if it supports podcasting. I'm going to try out Democracy Player and Juice soon. Anyway Podcastready had a huge presense on the expo floor, but were barely able to explain their product. It's a Java app, that does *not* require the JRE... and treats MP3 players as USB drives. Playlists? Don't know. Playcounts? When do the files roll off the device? It's all basically some sort of technomage magic.

Company to watch?

Podango had a huge presence - and potentially have a huge idea with radio-station like managers that aggregate other people's podcasts (aka OPP) in a "station" feed. But despite all of their hype... and presentations... there was no product. How do you aggregate those podcasts? What's the UI like? Where's the social aspect of your app that makes it viable? Nothing. I didn't see one demo just a lot of hot air.

PodcastAward highlights:

• Comedy -> Distorted View [rss]
• Entertainment -> PotterCast [rss]
• Gaming -> Podtacular [rss]
• Movies/Films -> The Signal [rss]
• PodSafe Music -> Accident Hash [rss]
• Political -> Free Talk Live [rss]
• Mature -> Should have been PolyAmory Weekly  [rss] :)   ...   but instead was Dawn & Drew

Next up... I'll talk about who I met, and what podcasts I've started listening / watching because of it.