Michaelangelo Matos from the Seattle Weekly is going to be my chewtoy for the moment.
From: Pod People (Seattle Weekly)

"Pacing in front of a screen displaying his talking points, Rice informed us that the Triple Door "is gonna be in the top 10 of Google for a long time because of this" before uttering the inevitable, "I think of podcasting as the new grunge," to very loud groans."

Hi, the ACTUAL CONTEXT was in reference to the heavy use of K7.net's 206-areacode-based voicemail system by podcasters. BZZZT. No journalism cookie for you. And apparently, no sarcasm cookie either.

"Later, he showed us some freshly shot homemade video of a handful of clichéd Seattle images (coffee! A Starbucks sign! Pike Place Market!), edited to the music of a mediocre hardcore band. THE FUTURE did not look bright."

That 'mediocre hardcore band', The Parkdale Hookers, was the opening music to the Podcast and Videoblog Roadshows, illustrating creative opportunities of getting music, podsafe music at that, synched with video podcasting and videoblogs. Next time, I'll show Portland instead of the old Seattle one (Oh, wait that was freshly shot, duh me). And hey, sorry for showing a little nod of respect to an EPIC DAMN EMPIRE THAT STARTED IN YOUR CITY. And yeah, for all you flower growers and farmers and fisherman, how DARE you do anything at Pike's Place Market. You should be more indie.

So, THANK GOODNESS Michaelangelo was *actually* paying attention to the ACTUAL topic of what I was talking about: a stream of consciousness stroll through history and promotions and rule breaking, and all the things people might not have in their arsenal yet.

And that's THE FUTURE that we're working on--blogs, podcasts, videoblogs, and anything else that lets the people stand up and shout. Keep doing a shitty job like this article, and we'll keep being motivated. It's a choice between being part of the problem or part of the solution. And while I don't have all the answers-- by god, I'll keep working until I drop.

And you have absolutely NO say in that.

One of the spiffy things we're addding to our show is music. We're not a music show, but we sorta like to rock, so hey. Good enough reason. In the latest installment of our podcast, we chill with Brian from AMP (Association of Music Podcasting), and talk about various things (Podcast Hotel II being one of those things) in our usual slack-ass fashion.

At the end of the show you'll hear a track from KRS ONE (trivia: KRS stands for 'Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone'). "Illegal Business" from his 2004 album, "Keep Right". (Grit Records)

We're doing this to also coincide with the launch of the new podcast on KSSX, Four Deep, a music-only show that hits as many genres as we can muster. Powered by IODA's Promonet, Four Deep will bring you four shows a month, 30 minutes each. (Those of you who hung out in the demo room got to see us start from scratch building the podcast--- we had nothing but the name.)

Four Deep will also include tracks from Rob Base, Kentucky Prophet, Young Buck, and Detroit's Most Wanted. Join us when we launch and put us in your playlist.

In the meantime, check the latest show, and if you like, have it delivered for free in iTunes. (iTunes or RSS)

Feedback welcome at 1-800-978-KSSX or 1-818-237-5533 (studio line, you ain't gettin' a human)

More people taking it to the streets.

A few of us had talked about this, and realistically, it makes sense. See, the Bay Area is pretty darn huge. Eleven million people in an area with about five microclimates and stretching nearly 100 miles.

So why does it always have to be in San Francisco? (Okay, plus, maybe it's a bit wearisome driving 72 miles for some of us). After all, LA has a few meetups. (Orange County, please do not email me for calling you LA. LA = Southern Region that is Not Bay Area and Not Fresno)

So I'm throwing it out there--- for those of us Valley-based, or those who are in the area ranging from Hwy 84 south (Fremont to Redwood City/Palo Alto all the way down to Morgan Hill and San Jose (the *capital* of Silicon Valley uhnn)-- who is interested in having another podcasting meetup (audio and video), somewhat closer to home/work/Krispy Kreme/abundant parking/abundant meeting space/no-winter-parka-required type of place? And, since we have things actually OPEN on the weekends, what about weekend days?

Drop an e-mail or call to the office (408-612-3427) if you're interested (or are interested in hosting coughcoughyahoocoughaolcough) and let's all get the meetup thing happening down here. Choices! Choices!

A zillion emails and phone calls await after a killer week in Seattle. In other news, KSSX is launching a new podcast called Four Deep, that's got some new names and familiar names (like KRS One and Rob Base for starters ;-). KSSX did announce Deriveo, a little somethin somethin to bridge the gap between podsafe/rights-cleared music and videoblogging and video podcasting.

Also, I'm pleased to announce the mashup of KSSX and Podcast Hotel, namely Alex Williams. Together, we'll be building KSSX's event arm to bring the Podcast Hotel and other concert/confs styled venues worldwide.

For those curious, we haven't announced Audioblog.com new name yet. But it cometh soon.

I love indie and I love pop cult and always the twain must meet. Here's your daily reading:

Industry Note - The Great Divide: Why is the Valley Afraid of MySpace?

Dave Dederer from the band that brought us "Peaches" (Presidents of the United States of America, w00t) points out with Sony, the best distribution company in the world, they (Presidents) we able to sell 1000 albums a month of their back catalogue with no promotion. Same situation in iTunes (after getting their rights back), they sell 10,000 tracks and get 70 cents of the 99 cents to buy music.

I'm gonna go buy some Peaches now. Millions of peaches. Peaches for me. ;-)

Others writing about: Podcast Hotel

The second night of the Podcast Hotel has ended with a long, live, loud series of performances all night at the Thinkspot in Seattle. The show, due to some unforseen circumstances, had to start later than scheduled, however, the fire and intensity made up for it. I'm exhausted.

I've blown through yet another 200 photos tonight and will probably try to get just the one of Alex, our esteemed conference organizer, um, well, 'rhythmically-looking-for-a-contact-lens-while-Brymm-and-Lonnie-rapped-on-stage'. Heh. Where's our homecheese Kris Krug when you need him?

This conference is huge. Things are happening, and best of all, there are SOOOOO many new faces. There are some new pioneers in the making. Cuz the way I see it, if you look at American History, we all know about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founders of the country. But that didn't stop many more *after* them, (think Abe, Teddy, FDR, MLK, JFK et al) to make tremendous impacts on the landscape.

I sense the winds of change are blowin' and it's not from the people you think. And so, the game begins.

Here at the Triple Door in Seattle, with a great turnout for the Podcast Hotel. It's day one of the conference and day two of the live shows. Check it out!

Tons of Podcast Hotel photos

Update: Diggnation is not on Podshow apparently--- see the notes on the flickr photo... they are listed with actual *.podshows like Gillmor and DSC

This came up in conversation... Aside from the lack of delineation between who's on the podshow network and who's just listed in the directory, we noticed that podcast pages there have no direct links to the podcasts' respective home pages.

And then you see WeblogsInc's Engadget (owned by AOL) with an Earthlink ad on the page.... and you gotta wonder, how much cover do we need to take when this hits the fan? Cuz you know what they say... when shit hits the fan, it's *never* evenly distributed.

Coined when talkin' with The Kid AG from the Goin' Deep podcast (NSFW), when the acronym GYABFI came up.

"Grab your ass and brace for impact"

Context: Hard Drive Storage Solutions.

So, after almost two years of providing super easy, solid, and flexible (most flexibility of any other service--in some cases, service(s) combined) audio and video publishing services, we have reached the crossroads. Recording by phone (60 minutes), record in the browser, uploading files, automatic posting to YOUR blog software or service.

Number one question I get (and believe me, I *get* the irony), "Audioblog.com does video, too?"

Yup. Upload almost any video format and bing! It's converted to Quicktime, ready for the iPod. Post it to your blog in flash format, post it to your podcast feed, or for all you lucky feedburner users, post flash video to your blog AND video file to your feedburner feed. All this, and audio podcast, with new unmetered bandwidth plans.

But enough of all that.

The question is..... will Audioblog's new name have the word 'pod' in it? Hmmm.

Oh man alive, we're up here early for the conference this weekend in Seattle... it's going. to. be. uncaged.

New buzzwords for 2006, the Eric Rice edition: uncaged. unfuckwithable. web 7.0.

Podcast Hotel; keywords/tags for your favorite web sites: podcasthotel, tripledoor, podcasthotelseattle

I wonder what will be announced... you know, that under-the-radar like stuff that steers clear of the empty hype bubbles.

ROWRA. /pacino

In the big dance hall of podcasting, there's an elephant. And its name is bandwidth. And he causes problems. Especially if everyone wants to dance with it.

It's time to ask that pachyderm to step outside. ;-)

At Audioblog.com, we've added four levels of pricing, starting at $9.95, which offer the ability to do the things you've always been able to do: audio and video recording in the web browser, podcasting by phone, on-the-fly file conversion to iPod video format, weblog flash player, creation of unlimited podcasts, unlimited blog configs, iTunes extensions, etc.

Now you can do that with unmetered bandwidth on top of it.

Dang, that was a heavy elephant.

So here's the deal. Four new plans, all with varying levels of storage (and abundant storage at that), starting at $9.95 and currently topping at $49.95 per month. So, whether you're just podcasting for friends and family, or podcasting to the world, we think you'll be able to do the things that you've always wanted to do.

Check out the details of the unmetered podcast bandwidth plans and sign up today for a free trial. :-)

I had to send off a list of our hardware and software to someone today, so here it is for your enjoyment.

Aside from a periodically used TASCAM USB-122 and the pocket sized iRiver 899 (never use external mic) the primary gear we use to do a show (most of which is what we've been using for four years now--- shout out to Damages, Josh, and Franks) is:

Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro
dbx 166a dual compressor
dbx166xl dual compressor (hardware compression r00lz)
Gentner GT700 (phone interface)
(there's a random headphone amp in there someplace)
Dual AudioTechnica AT2025 on swing arms
And yes the rockstar mic is the Shure 55s
Sony Headphones are used, as are various Audio Technica vocal mics

Software used:
Garageband, Audioblog.com, iTunes, Nicecast, Shoutcast (we are starting to do our show live now, concurrent with recording it)

This gear is a whole lot cheaper now than it was back in the day. Luckily, you can find good deals on eBay, just make sure it explicitly states it came from a smoke-free studio.

Technorati got the Magic Middle and Authority thing going. Sifry writes about it in detail. Nice work.

Just cuz something ain't important to YOU doesn't mean it doesn' t have tremendous value and authority to someone else. (I still don't get the Attention thing). And the blogosphere introspective-hype misses that.

I mean, I met someone who is working on Web 2.0 stuff in the telecom industry and this person didn't know the default names. That's a Good Thing.

Testing... お気に入りの音声や映像コンテンツをiPodなどのポータブル・オーディオ・プレイヤーで、「いつでも、どこでも、簡単に」楽しめる仕組みです。

please ignore...

I didn't really think that many people would be interested or ready to talk about Second Life, but man alive, was that NOT the case at the Northern Voice conference. I even was asked about it while on stage (in regards to how my Epsilon model and SL were related).

So, I'll say this for now. I'm not ready to post about it (why I'm there, why it's important---in depth), because I'm not at the point of being able to make it relevant and understandable by a varying degree of audience expertise.

Blame that on the part of me that sees how we as geeks completely lose people when we bust out with the acronyms and jargon. "Web 2.0" for example means exactly jack shit to larger population, along with the plethora of other useless terms. RSS. Great. It's wonderful. What does it mean? Who cares. Make it work and make my life better.

Sell the benefits and experience, not the features.

Because Second Life is so wide-open with the possiblities and because what's going on there ranges from the ridiculous to the noble (and everything in between), it takes time to paint a picture that's clear.

Or, for my fellow geeks, if I'm losing Pirillo and Scoble, then I know, repeat I know that this needs work. I just can't say 'trust meeeeee, you'll like it.' That's not a sell.

I'll tip you off on this though: what's exciting about Second Life to me, is its relevancy to the worlds of collaboration, remix culture, social networking, blogging, podcasting, and vlogging (oh yeah, AND money making), as well as the betterment of the human condition and corporate workflow. Plus, coding, Creative Commons, 3D prototyping, the video game industry, and science and education.

It just takes time. I accept volunteering to be a warrior of the future.

Best quote I'm *so* gonna use comes from Steve Garfield, "Sometimes you need a dictionary of the future to understand what Eric Rice is talking about."

Flattering, however, cautionary. You shouldn't need a dictionary. More in the coming weeks.

I have posted slides from my presentation at Northern Voice 2006 from "EverythingCasting" where I introduced the notion of a simple grid I amusingly call the "Epsilon Construct".

This is a roadmap for making or creating stuff. It lays out the four basic elements that make up everything (many laws of four) and the various types of content, tools, audiences, and sustainability.

Part of my inspiration to work on this over the past few months was to a) provide a roadmap for newbies; b) provide a teaching aid for those that teach and c) a useless-argument killer... It doesn't matter if you make money or don't... both are options. Do whatcha want. It's all good