The good folks over at Freematrix Radio are streaming a ‘best of’ IT Conversations show every day at 7pm EST (0000 UTC, or GMT as we used to call it). If that’s more convenient for you than downloading or podcatching, check it out. You’ll get the benefit of their editorial selection of our greatest hits.

For the past week I’ve been playing with a new Compact Flash recorder, the Marantz PMD660 ($499 street price). Based on the others I’ve bought or tested, I think it’s the best compromise for a portable device for podcasters and those who want to record long-format sessions such as conferences.

Jeff Towne over at transom.org has an excellent review in which he picked up on almost all my concerns. Comparing it to other similar devices of interest to podcasters, Jeff wrote:

The Marantz PMD 670 is larger and more expensive, and while it offers more recording options, such as recording to MP2, and a limiter, the 660 does most of what its big brother does, and provides a simpler, less intimidating interface and more convenient form. The Edirol R1 is a little smaller and less expensive, but does not offer XLR mic inputs or phantom power. The Fostex FR2 is about twice as expensive and much larger and heavier. The Sound Devices 722 is more than 4 times as expensive, but offers a large dedicated hard drive and superior input sonics. Any of those recorders will do the job, and might fit someone’s specific needs better, but the PMD 660 is a well-designed tool, especially for remote interviews and other newsgathering-type activities.

I just ordered a 4GB SanDisk CF ( another ~$300!) that will give me nearly 13 hours of recording capacity at 44.1kHz/16-bit PCM (WAV) in mono. Half that in WAV stereo, and a whopping 71 hours if I was willing to record in 128kbps MP3 stereo, which I’m not if I can avoid it.

Eric Rice (EricRice.com) and Bill Flitter (Pheedo) have put together a paid-placement deal with Warner Brothers that I think establishes an historic milestone in the short life of podcasting. According to the story by Zachary Rogers in ClickZ News”

[Warner Brothers will give Eric] exclusive interviews, banter and impromptu jams featuring “The Used,” which were recorded on the band’s current tour. Starting on Thursday, that material will be made available on Rice’s podcasts. “The Used” is on Warner Brothers’ Reprise label. When Rice uses the content, he’ll disclose the financial relationship between the show and Warner Brothers.

I spoke to Eric a few minutes ago to learn more and to clarify a few points. This is an experiment for all involved. Eric previously participated in another paid-placement test with Marqui, in which bloggers were paid just to mention the company and its products. (Disclosure: IT Conversations was a beneficiary of this experiment when Eric kindly donated $500 of his revenues from the experiment to the IT Conversations tip jar.) But this is a bigger deal, not because of the dollars involved (undisclosed), but because it’s a deal made with a major markeing organization outside of the pod/blogosphere. This deal moves podcasting into the marketing limelight, at least for the next 15 minutes.

I’ll also be announcing at least one major sponsor for IT Conversations in the next few weeks, but it won’t be a paid-placement deal. Our sponsors will be treated like public-radio underwriters, and will not be involved with the content or editorial decisions. Don’t take that to mean that I’m critical of the paid-placement model; I think it’s great. It’s just not what I want to do on IT Conversations.

Eric may not get as much press coverage as Adam Curry (PodShow) or Evan Willans and Noah Glass (Odeo), but he’s someone to watch. Of all the people in podcasting/blogging/video, he is pushing more boundaries at once. If anything, he may not sit still long enough for any one of his projects to realize its full potential, but there’s no one out there doing more in the way of experimentation than Eric. And now I think Bill Flitter may also have established his credentials in podcast marketing as well.

Getting ready to work with our team of independent editors and engineers, I had to document the audio workflow I’ve been using here in the studio. It might be of interest to others, so I’ve posted it to the IT Conversations wiki.

Two weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and move my life from a Windows XP desktop to a 15″ G4 Powerbook. Thanks to all the readers that gave me tips on their favorite apps and utilities.

I thought it would be a big deal. As a long-time Windows user who’s used to all-day rebuilds and migrations, I figured I was in for at least as much work to switch to Mac OS X and a new computer. I was wrong. I’m sure some will disagree with me, but IMHO, it’s easier to move from a PC to a Mac than it is to move from one PC to another. One reason is that when you move from one PC to another — which I’ve done many times — you like to take the opportunity to re-install most of your applications, a time-consuming process. The alternative is to use some utility to replicate everything. But one of the reasons for moving to a new PC is that you don’t want to move everything. In particular, you want to start with a fresh registry, not one filled with all the junk you’ve collected over a period of some years. Mac OS X has no registry, of course, so when you want to remove an application, you just delete it.

In any case, I’m now entirely living on the PowerBook, and here are some of the applications I’m using:

• Outlook2Mac from LittleMachines ($10) is amazing. I used ot to move all of my email, contacts and calendar data to the Mac OS X utilities. The best $10 I ever spent on software.
• NetNewsWire from Ranchero Software is not only a terrific RSS aggregator, as of version 2.0 (beta) it’s also one of the best tools for receiving podcasts. Brent Simmons has always had a great sense of intuitive UIs, and NewNewsWire is in that caegory of ‘it just works’ programs.
• Microsoft Office: Mac — yeah, I broke down to support the old habits.
• Quicksilver from Blacktree, Inc.
• Skype now works pretty well on OS X.
• Stuffit was one program I had to buy (Stuffit 9) because the version that I brought over from my iBook didn’t work on the PowerBook.
• Firefox, which I like better than Safari.
• iSync Palm conduit to synch my Treo 650 to the Mac OS X utils.
• Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, both from Apple, $59 each, are excellent. I just wish the mouse had a way to do window scrolling like you can do by dragging two fingers on the touchpad.

One other thing that blew me away: When you start OS X for the first time, you’re asked if you want to move from another Mac. I’ve been using an iBook — which will now become my wife’s as a replacement for her XP box — so I said yes. One Firewire connection and 20 minutes later, and everything I cared about on the iBook, including all of my personal configurations, was moved to the PowerBook.

And other than a few reboots in order to install applcations, the PowerBook hasn’t been turned off since I bought it. It just works.

[Qualification: I’m still using a few XP boxes as the workhorses in the IT Conversations studio. Mac fans will argue this, but for the type of hard-core post-production audio work I do, fast Pentiums and some of the Windows-based apps are superior to what I have on the Mac. So while I moved my personal stuff to the PowerBook, all of my audio and imaging apps stil reside on XP. I could move Photoshop, etc., to the Mac, of course, but I’d have to buy all-new copies for some big $$, so for now I’m happy keeping those on XP.]

Just two complaints:

• The touchpad ‘click’ bar requires just a bit too much pressure, and I find if I drag/drop something across the full width of the screen, I tend to drop it prematurely. I’ve taken to using two hands, with one finger on the second hand to jold town that bar.
• I haven’t for the life of me figured out how to get to ‘end-of-line’ in most text applications. On most Windows apps, the ‘end’ key does this, but on the PowerBook, most apps interpret this as ‘end-of-page.’ Maybe I’ll figure this one out.

Wednesday night I’ll be at the first dinner meeting of the San Francisco Podcasting Meetup Group organized by Michael Butler. If you’re local, or just visiting this week, come on by Tommy’s Joynt at 7:00pm. Michael has reserved the back room. See you there.

(Hear the MP3, which contains far more detail.)

New Shows

I posted three particularly popular sessions this week:

• Brewster Kahle (rated an amazing 4.7 by IT Conversations listeners), Digital Librarian, Director and Co-founder of the Internet Archive, has been working to provide universal access to all human knowledge for more than fifteen years. Advances in computing and communications mean that we can cost-effectively store every book, sound recording, movie, software package, and public web page ever created, and provide access to these collections via the Internet to students and adults all over the world. By mostly using existing institutions and funding sources, we can build this as well as compensate authors within what is the current worldwide library budget. The talk offers an update on the current state of progress towards that ideal, which would allow us to bequeath an accessible record of our cultural heritage to our descendants. [A presentation from the terrific SDForum Distinguished Speaker Series]
• Dan Gillmor (4.1), author of We, the Media: Journalism By and For the People and former Business and Technology Columnist for the San Jose Mercury News at the Accelerating Change 2004 Conference. Grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media’s monopoly on the news, changing it from lecture to conversation. Dan Gillmor discusses the importance of this emerging phenomenon, a deep shift in how we make and consume the news. We the Media is essential reading for all participants in the news cycle: Consumers learn how they can become producers of the news through web journals (weblogs or blogs), Internet chat groups, email, and cell phones.
• John Buckman (3.9), the founder of Magnatune Records, is interviewed by Dave Slusher on Dave’s series, Voices in Your Head. Magnatune Records is an online record label with the slogan "We Are Not Evil." As a company, Magnatune has embraced Creative Commons licensing, internet streaming and distribution of music, and introduced innovations such as customer-chosen pricing for albums. As of this writing, their catalog consists of 185 artists with 356 albums available and climbing. In this interview we discuss his motivations informing Magnatune, his experiences and surprises in the first years of operation, the potentials for online distribution of music, and much more.

I posted three more sessions from the Web 2.0 Conference this week:

• Cory Doctorow (3.5) of the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented "Does Web2.0=AOL 1.0?" in which he explains how the sneaky forces of darkness are criminalizing the Web in smoke-filled rooms that you can’t get into.
• Dale Dougherty (2.6), VP, Online Publishing and Research for O’Reilly Media, asks and answers the question, "What happens when books become online platforms for learning?"
• Marc Benioff (3.3), the bombastic and outspoken CEO of Salesforce.com is always entertaining and surprising, In this conversation from the Web 2.0 Conference, Marc describes how his company has become a force in the enterprise platform space.

And of course, we have three new Tech Nation shows from Moira Gunn. The first two are about gaming and how gamers and gaming are changing the world.

• Dr. Henry Jenkins explains how video games will revolutionize education. Dr. Jenkins is the director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-editor of Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition (Media in Transition).
• John Beck, a Senior Research Fellow at USC’s Annenberg Center of the Digital Future, warns that the "Gamer Generation" is about to enter the workforce — and that means change.
• And in this week’s Biotech Nation segment, Dr. Belinda Clarke talks about her beliefs that scientists have a moral obligation to communicate science. Dr. Clarke is Science Liaison Manager at Norwich Research Park, Norfolk, England.

Since I publish the Tech Nation segments too late for reviews, from now on I’m going to tell you avout the previous week’s shows instead of those just launched on the same day as these announcements.

• David Bodanis (3.7). This week on TechNation, Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with David Bodanis, a writer for Popular Science and the author of Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity. This time around he’s explaining man’s fascination with electricity — from entertainment in the courts of French Kings to the modern day.
• Sir Roger Penrose (3.5). Moira also speaks with Sir Roger Penrose, Emeritus Professor of Mathmatics, Oxford University. He shares the Wolf Prize with Stephen Hawking. They discuss his new book, Road to Reality — A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe.
• Tim Cook (3.1). And in this week’s BioTech Nation segment, Moira speaks with Tim Cook, managing director of Isis Innovation. Tim tells us how university scientists view industry, and vice-versa.

And a matched set of two of my favorite shows from the archives:

• Joe Trippi (3.8), the man whose ground-breaking use of Internet-based campaigning propelled Howard Dean from obscurity to early front-runner, takes Teach-In participants inside the campaign’s unconventional experiment in Internet politics, and looks at both victories and lessons learned. The other candidates are rushing to emulate Trippi’s Internet strategy–as Wired News declared, “Internet politics is dead. Long live Internet politics.” This presentation was followed by a Q&A session (3.8) [recorded live at the O’Reilly Digital Democracy Teach-In].

Other Stuff

• Sound Policy: A new IT Conversations series with Denise Howell. The first edition features Cory Doctorow, Robert Scoble and Martin Schwimmer in a heated debate over Google’s AutoLink feature. Look for it within 48 hours.
• Help Wanted: Producers, Editors and Engineers. I’ve had a good response, but I still need more volunteers. Help produce IT Conversations and make some spare change, too.
• SXSW/ETech Double Header. If you missed one or both of these great events this past week, you’ll be able to hear the best presentations here on IT Conversations over the following months.
• A Creative Commons Update: Yes, I’m keeping the CC license. It’s just a matter of which variation.

According to a survey by Blogads, 92.1% of those who read blogs say they never listen to podcasts. What percentage of the people in the world read blogs and could have participated in this survey? Perhaps 5%? Less? Your guess is as good as mine, but in any case — despite the recent rash of mainstream-journalism coverage of podcasting — podcasting isn’t even a speck on the head of a pin yet.

(Hear the MP3, which contains far more detail.)

New Shows

• True Voice: The Profession of Blogging (rated 2.9). In this premiere show, host Stowe Boyd talks with professional bloggers Darren Barefoot and Jeremy Wright, who originally met by selling their blogging services via eBay. What does it mean to be a professional blogger? How is blogging distinct from journalism or corporate PR? What are the ethics of professional blogging?
• Clark Aldrich – Simulations and the Future of Learning (rated 3.6). Clark is the co-founder of SimuLearn and the author of, Simulations and the Future of Learning. He recently lead the team that created Virtual Leader, the first ever learning experience to follow the development cycle of a modern computer game. It has been sold to some of the largest enterprises in the United States.
• Search is a Platform. Where is it Going? (rated 3,3). Search is an application that binds the web’s economic, interface, and partnership landscape. Through search, companies like Google and Yahoo have built extraordinarily scaled platforms that have evolved into next generation web-based applications like mail, hosting, and, some claim, an entire OS. John Battelle moderates a panel of search-engine experts who explore the future of search as an application platform.
• Kent Seamons – Negotiating Trust (too late for rating). How do you establish trust between between strangers on the Internet? Identity federation is one way to create a community of trust, but it relies on establishing the trust domains before the interaction. That doesn’t work for many Internet transactions. In an all-new IT Conversations series, Phil Windley interviews Professor Kent Seamons who exploes in depth some specific ways of solving this problem.
• David Bodanis (too late for rating). This week on TechNation, Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with David Bodanis, a writer for Popular Science and the author of Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity. This time around he’s explaining man’s fascination with electricity — from entertainment in the courts of French Kings to the modern day.
• Sir Roger Penrose (too late for rating). Moira also speaks with Sir Roger Penrose, Emeritus Professor of Mathmatics, Oxford University. He shares the Wolf Prize with Stephen Hawking. They’ll discuss his new book, Road to Reality — A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe.
• Tim Cook (too late for rating). And in this week’s BioTech Nation segment, Moira speaks with Tim Cook, managing director of Isis Innovation. Tim tells us how university scientists view industry, and vice-versa.
• And one of my favorite shows from the archives: Ito and Zuckerman – Emergent Democracy Worldwide (rated 3.9!) While we’re building great new tools to build communities, we’ve done very little to ensure that people around the world have access to them. And even when we’ve made it possible for people in developing nations to speak, we’ve done little to ensure that anyone listens. How do we ensure that the “Second Superpower” Jim Moore proposes includes the poor as well as the rich? When a new democratic structure emerges from highly-wired westerners, how do we ensure it’s fair and just for those currently unwired? The answer is more complex than bridging the so-called “digital divide” – it involves bridging countless cultural divides. Emerging technologies make it easier than ever to bring first-person perspectives, as well as images, movies and music to people in other nations – is this enough to bring cultures together and ensure they care about one another?

Other Stuff

• Help Wanted: Producers, Editors and Engineers. Help produce IT Conversations and make some spare change, too.
• SXSW/ETech Double Header. You’ll be able to hear both events here on IT Conversations.
• The Washington Post on Podcasting. IT Conversations was mentioned briefly in the Washington Post in an introductory article by Leslie Walker.
• ITC in the Dow Jones Online Retail Report. We’re mentioned there, too.
• Christopher Lydon Returns to Radio and Podcasting. It was listening to Chris that got me started.

The Dow Jones Online Retail Report (subscription required) has just published a story entitled “Podcasts Are The New Blogs Of Alternative Media” by Michelle Tsai. I can’t link to it or quote the whole thing, but here’s where Michelle mentions IT Conversations:

Advertisers Follow The Audience

The podcasting world has already turned its attention to monetization through advertising and subscription fees, and podcast networks are in a land grab to acquire podcasts for exclusive distribution, said Doug Kaye, host of IT Conversations, whose series of shows about technology attract about 50,000 listeners each month. Groups like Podcast Network, which now has about 2,000 shows, [I didn’t say that …doug] have sprung up and are adding to their stable of programming as fast as they can, said Kaye.

Podcasters are not all of one mind when it comes to what form advertising should take, however. Kaye is in discussions with international consultancies and mobile handset makers about underwriting his shows with brief messages at the beginning or end of programs rather than full-on commercials.

…

One obstacle to advertising is the lack of information about who’s downloading the shows. IT Conversations’ Kaye said that while advertisers in most media expect detailed demographic information, those with experience in broadcast media will know that podcasters can’t provide the same.

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