Conversation starters, not conversation pieces

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has shown support, either publicly or privately, towards the concept we’re developing to enhance the scope and capabilities of audio commenting on podcasts. I have been thinking about this for a long time, and so to have it start up is really exciting to me.

For those that missed the first round, I will try to summarize what we’re trying to do:

We want to leverage already powerful podcast creation, tagging, and podcast aggregation (1, 2, 3) infrastructures to create a system of audio comments that will relieve the workload on the part of the podcaster, and increase the diversity and reach of audio commenters’ voices. The elements are already in place – all it takes now is to connect them with RSS.

I think we can agree that the system has potential – what we need to do now is address how to get people involved. This mean simplifying the process (recording > uploading > tagging) for sure. Michael and I brainstormed for a bit, and we think that a simple way to do this would be to convince Odeo to add a ‘tag this comment‘ button onto their recording studio.

By the way: I also think this has the capacity to make podcasting itself evolve. It takes podcasting out of its press conference-like stage and into an un-conference-like environment, much like Dave Winer intended with BloggerCon. Let podcasters get off their soapbox and be part of the crowd; let podcasters become conversation starters, instead of conversation pieces.

Anyway, I’d like to once again thank everyone for their participation in the process. Anyone who makes an effort to record a comment, to subscribe (please do, via XML or iTunes), or to spread the idea by blogging or whatever, thanks very much. (Particular thanks to Michael, who got the whole thing started, and Mark Pavlidis, for brainstorming about this before it really became something.)

How to get involved.


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10 responses to “Conversation starters, not conversation pieces”

  1. mtl3p Avatar

    but what about me?!!

    hehe.

  2. hugh Avatar

    hi julien,

    I’ll have something for you soon that might just help, I think. stay tuned!!

  3. Ella Avatar

    I know you only used the word ‘leverage’ to piss me off. Well I’ll let you off with a warning…this time.

  4. […] in over your head » Conversation starters, not conversation pieces […]

  5. […] More reading about this topic, can be found here, and here, and here. Technorati Tags: inoveryourhead, audiocomment, podcast, podcasting, howto, del.icio.us, odeo […]

  6. […] Skype with Julien Smith on a new concept in “participatory” podcasting […]

  7. […] Mark has created a specific feed for the development of the ideas we’ve been talking about. […]

  8. […] I got a call today from Neil Gorman asking me how to produce content for the del.icio.us audio feeds I’ve been talking about in the past couple of days. This is a serious problem; I want this system to be so obvious that you can’t help but think that it’s the easiest, most efficient system to produce comments that will get heard by both the podcaster as well as the largest possible audience (both inside and outside of said podcaster’s sphere of influence). […]

  9. The Dirty Dutchman Avatar

    I’ve been working on a hip hop podcast that allows listeners to post audio comments, using loudblog.

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