Podcasting a fad eh?

Wow. How the media is doing everything to get air and mind time in and
around the whole iPod and Apple. Now podcasting, having hit the top of the
media meme and stampede within a year of debut, it’s now accused of waning
as quickly and thinning ridiculously rapidly to only a few elite ‘casts.

Wow. Again. How the heck is that news? That’s what always happens, but
with the normal myopia defined by what I believe to be western thinking
of “winners” and “market leaders”, these same reporters probably don’t
think that we can have more than the top two auto companies in the
world, or more than one computer operating system, or to bring the
analogy closer to home, independent music labels and specialty markets.

Podcasting is going exactly where the music industry is going, but with
a bit of luck, will also give rise to vectors of content review that
aren’t major labels or media outlets, and point the way for the
post-MPAA/RIAA world in having independent review “clusters” giving
reviews of content along the lines the editor likes. Then you find an
editor you have similar taste to (or perhaps multipler editors, and
possibly through an editor-directory for yet another meta-organizational
layer) and that gives you a recommended list of content to check out and
possibly subscribe to.

Hopefully the rich diversity will survive as well as it has in the music
industry. iTMS features some indie labels in the Canada store at least,
and I tripped on the group “A Northern Chorus” which is fairly mellow,
but melodically and rhythmically intricate to a good extent, and having
a very cool and blended sound. Very neat stuff. iTMS just had them as an
indie feature. That’s a start.

Another aspect is multicasting…. if anyone remembers the old “Geek of
the Week” multicasts out of MIT, tag me an email at dallas at hockley
dot ca. That’s another idea around blogs and podcasts coming together
that’s running through my head. Live blog debates online via multicast
with a question period. Dynamic seminars…. why not?