So here I am in Luso, outside of Mealhada, outside of Coimbra in Portugal, and I finally get some WiFi connectivity after a week of none in Lisbon. (Great GPRS and mobile roaming, but very little free WiFi.) I go to The Google, and it thinks I speak/read Portuguese based on my IP address. Reasonable. I open Preferences looking for English — should have been Ingles — and I stumbled across Elmer Fudd as a language option. I don’t know — maybe it’s the wine. Maybe it’s my wife, laughing over my shoulder — but it cracked me up. Now I have choices like Hungawian, Awabic, Cwoatian and Fwench. The rest of The Google’s are that way, too.

Whether you’re already a podcaster, videoblogger or maybe just a wanabe, check out the spreading worldwide phenomenon of PodCamps created by our friends, Christopher S. Penn and Chris Brogan. The Conversations Network will be “represented” through postcards, buttons and other handouts at many of these over the next few months:

• PodCampCapeTown – October 20th 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa
• PodCamp Perth – October 27 – 28, 2007 @ Perth, Australia
• PodCamp Boston 2 – October 26 – 28, 2007 before VON Boston
• PodCamp AZ – November 3, 2007 – UAT, Tempe, AZ | podcampaz.org
• PodCamp EDU Washington, DC – November 10, 2007 – Washington,DC – Focus on Educational Podcasting
• PodCamp Seattle – Novemberish, 2007 (in planning) – Seattle

It was a pleasure to again be invited to appear on Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech. I filled in at the last minute for Patrick Norton, who’s wife was about to give birth. I wish I’d had more time to ramp up on this week’s topics. Still, it was an honor and a lot of fun.

Today we’re launching a new channel, Media Conversations. The first series is Future Talks, an interview-style program with experts Gerd Leonard and Glen Hiemstra. And a big first for The Conversations Network: Video!

http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmediaconversations%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F419092&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf
Today we’ve published two long-format (55-minute) programs. Starting next week (10/16/09) we’ll publish a short-format (12-minute) program each Tuesday for nine weeks. Great stuff!

Special thanks to Paul Figgiani (editing, titles and a lot of video help), Steven Ng (production audio) and Dorothy Yamamoto (channel website graphics).