Day one of the Podcast and New Media Expo is done. Lots of fun; cool stuff; great people. But of all the things I’ve seen so far, my favorite is a small kit that Susan Kitchens brought by our booth. In one little waterproof case, she’s get everything she needs to record high-quality 1:1 podcast interviews. I went to the soundprofessionals.com website — their name was on the bottom of the case– but couldn’t find more details on this specific setup. Luckily, Susan has everything on her website.

As Michael Geoghegan (co-founder with me of GigaVox) reported earlier this week, we have sold GigaVox Audio Lite — the technology and the website/service — to Podango. The official press release is here (PDF). Tonight at the speakers/exhibitors reception for the Podcast and New Media Expo, lots of people came up to me and asked what was going on. Okay, I admit that it’s confusing. It’s confusing even to me and to Michael! Hopefully this will be sufficient, although I agree that a roadmap might be helpful.

• Podango now owns and operates GigaVox Audio Lite.
• Podango has announced plans to both operate the existing GVAL service as well as integrate it into their future plans. You can expect to see changes in branding (graphics, logos, etc.), but the service will be fundamentally the same for some time. I spent most of last week with their development team in Utah, and I came away very impressed with their knowledge, expertise, and dedication to delivering the best podcasting platform and tools.
• As previously announced, IT Conversations and The Levelator are now part of The Conversations Network, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that I created two years ago.
• Rather than being split 50/50 between GigaVox and The Conversations Network, my full-time and only commitment (other than serving as an advisor to Podango and on the Board of Directors of a few other companies) is as Executive Director of The Conversations Network.
• And to complete the picture, here’s a reminder of what The Conversations Network actually does:
  • We produce three channels: IT Conversations, Social Innovation Conversations, and (launching shortly) Media Conversations.
  • We distribute and support The Levelator for the podcasting community.
  • We run PodCorps.org for podcast and videoblogger “stringers” including an exciting new tape-sync locator service.

Yes, it’s been an incredibly busy summer, between contract negotiations, re-integrating IT Conversations with The Conversations Network — you wouldn’t believe the technical complexities of that one! — and now migrating GVAL to Podango. I think it’s time for another vacation. I think I’ll head to Portugal and Spain in mid October. Yeah…ending up with a week in Barcelona should be just the ticket!

We’ve just posted release 1.2.1 of The Levelator for OS X and Windows. The Linux versions will follow shortly. User’s won’t notice any significant difference over version 1.1.0 other than the change in logos and graphics. The Levelator is now supported and distributed (for free, of course) exclusively by The Conversations Network. And you can expect another bug-fix release within the next few weeks.

Very important: Should we give away buttons or stickers at The Conversations Network booth at the Podcast and new Media Expo later this month? Take the poll on my Facebook profile.