The PodcastNYC.net blog says that PodTech is "boring" and "corporate."
I said it before and I totally agree. Although I do have to defend them a bit — John Furrier got on my radar screen by doing awesome interviews with executives. Now, I doubt we'll do a "Dawn and Drew" show. Sex talk just isn't my style. I'd rather listen to an executive from Seagate talking about their new hard drives than Dawn and Drew (although I've met Dawn and Drew and respect a lot what they've done — they are far more likely to get rich because of their format than I am. Anyone miss the commercial success of Howard Stern?).
Anyway, I talked about the 21 things that I'd fix about Podtech's podcasting and videoblogging Web site and several people emailed me and asked me to post the list. I sent this the night before I decided to take the job to the Web 2.0 Working Group. John Furrier had asked the list for suggestions about what to improve.
I thought it'd be interesting to post that list here and see what kind of discussion it'd start.
Obviously I'm doing a lot of brainstorming on what kinds of shows we can do together, and also how to build a network of videobloggers and podcasters. More on those soon.
1) I can't tell which podcasts are "paid advertisements" or are true editorial. I would spell this out very clearly so no one is confused about which things have been sponsored and which things are being done without any financial renumeration.
2) The About Us page desperately needs its own podcast, and needs much more info about your mission, who your team is, why PodTech is interesting and/or more relevant than other podcasting networks.
3) The UI is confusing. Tabs along the top, and nav choices along the left side all make for too many choices. Simplify.
4) When I pull down the category list I see a ton of categories I don't see elsewhere. I want a guide where I can go and see all your channels, all on one page, all with an explanation about what they do, how often they'll be updated, the team working on that channel, and ways I can give feedback.
5) If I only have 30 minutes to listen to one of your offerings this week, which one is your best? I can't see any hierarchy of importance. Is there any way for me to tell you what kind of person I am and have the choices change, for instance?
6) Why isn't there a "load up my iPod" feature. For instance, let's say I got one of those new 30GB models and I have 5GB of music. Why can't I tell your system "I have 25GB free, load me up" and leave my iPod plugged in overnight and have your system fill up all available space on my iPod? That way I'll always have something to listen to when I'm on a plane somewhere. For extra credit, let me delete each podcast after I listen to it. Next time I hook my iPod up, your system should know I've already listened to the Network Neutrality podcast, so no need to load it up again.
7) I'd like to hear what people think is a better approach, 20 videos on one page with no scrolling like On10 does it or 15 audios on one page with a ton of scrolling. Compare at http://www.on10.net/media/ and http://www.podtech.net/
8) Where's the "contact us" links?
9) The blog sucks. Doesn't look like a blog. Doesn't smell like a blog. And is missing personal touch.
10) Subscribe page is WAY TOO HARD. Drop down list boxes? That's SSOOO Web 1.0. Heheh. Where's the orange XML icon or the Firefox RSS icon?
11) Can you match Odeo's benefits stance? http://www.odeo.com/ I love how they explain the benefits of diving in further. I don't see any payoff promise that you guys are giving us.
12) You do realize the most looked at realestate on a web site is the top left corner of your page, right? So why is your logo so dominant there? Why do you waste an inch of the top of the page without putting anything valuable there?
13) Lots of users might visit you to learn about podcasting yet there's no links here to anything explaining what a podcast is or how to do one yourself. Also, why aren't you linking to your competitors? Everyone will be able to find them anyway, why not become an authority on podcasting since you've tied your network to that meme. Most humans have no idea what a podcast is or why they'd want one.
14) Poor search engine optimization. How will people find your podcasts? I doubt they'll be looking for podcasts. If I were at Google searching I'd be looking for "audio to put on my iPod." Your title tag has none of those terms in it. And, in fact, has many terms that no one really would search for. Is anyone searching for, say, "Silicon Valley" and expecting to find anything useful on your page? I seriously doubt it. Same for "Technology." Too generic of a search term. I'd think your title tag and SEO strategy out a lot more.
15) I hear your ID3 tags are messed up in iTunes (I have to check that out for myself, but someone told me your podcasts aren't displaying well in iTunes).
16) Next to the word "subscribe" put either the orange XML icon or the newer Firefox RSS icon. Icons are important. The feed list is way lame, though. I should be able to right-click on each feed and subscribe (or click on it and subscribe in Firefox or IE 7).
17) What's the payoff to listen to your news channel vs. say, reading Memeorandum or Google News or CNET? You don't tell me, so why should I be able to figure that out on my own?
18) You put "upcoming events" on your page along the right. What does that mean? Are these events Podtech.net will be at? If so, tell us. Is it just general tech events? Well, why not just link to a better and more complete calendar. And, if it's so we can meet you at these events, put more info on how to find you. Include cell phone numbers, etc.
19) I would add a much more personal touch. This looks like a corporate advertisement. What sets you apart from News.com or any other site? What makes you an authority on all this stuff? Is your stuff more entertaining? More in depth? Exclusive info you can't get anywhere else? What's the payoff? I don't see one and I have to listen to too many things to figure out if there's one here. I'm going to go elsewhere.
20) Why are the coolest looking things on this page the ads? You need to spend a lot more time on the photography and artwork. Compare your artwork to Engadget and it isn't even close: http://www.engadget.com/ — Engadget pulls me in and makes me click on things.
21) Where are the John Furrier interviews? Those are the ones I loved PodTech for yet you don't make it easy for me to find them. Speaking of that, why can't I find all your podcasts by interviewer?
22) Where are the shows that break the rules? Are there any? Are there shows I'm going to learn something from? Or be challenged by? Or be entertained by? Or concepts like "Dawn and Drew" that are only going to be available from you? (IE, something different than I can hear anywhere else) I can't figure that out here.
23) Any way to listen to just the parts of the podcast YOU think are important? Again, I don't have time to listen to podcasts. So, can you give me a 30 second "best snippet" for me to sample each one by? Or, can I download one show from your network a week and get your favorite pieces of each one?
Can you come up with any others? The team is already working on each of these, I've noticed improvements over the past week.
Oh, and sometime soon I'll explain the business challenges that are facing nanomedia content networks. They are deep too.
Scobleizer 
Hiya Robert…
I’d like to add my half a cent…
There isn’t any bandwidth information next to the podcasts. This makes it very nasty for people who live in countries where bandwidth is NOT free.
I live in South Africa. I operate off a package that allows me one gigabyte of bandwidth traffic. Once I go over that limit, I pay through the eyeballs!
So… how about an ultra-low resolution option for non-Americans?
Blue skies
love
Roy
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Hiya Robert…
I’d like to add my half a cent…
There isn’t any bandwidth information next to the podcasts. This makes it very nasty for people who live in countries where bandwidth is NOT free.
I live in South Africa. I operate off a package that allows me one gigabyte of bandwidth traffic. Once I go over that limit, I pay through the eyeballs!
So… how about an ultra-low resolution option for non-Americans?
Blue skies
love
Roy
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Excellent idea!
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Excellent idea!
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Point zero ought to be: “(0) Where are the transcripts of all these podcasts?” No one has time to listen to speech in more than short snippets, it’s incredibly faster to read. The transcripts would also be indexed by search engines. In short, podcasts have no future. They are just an intermediate format on the way to posting the transcript.
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Point zero ought to be: “(0) Where are the transcripts of all these podcasts?” No one has time to listen to speech in more than short snippets, it’s incredibly faster to read. The transcripts would also be indexed by search engines. In short, podcasts have no future. They are just an intermediate format on the way to posting the transcript.
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Vintner: transcripts are incredibily expensive to do. That’s gonna be a hard one for the industry to handle.
Podcasts are for times when you are listening to your iPod and not in front of your computer. For instance, when you are exercising, or driving your car, or walking around town.
But, it is something I’d like to do, if only to make it easier to use Google to find podcasts.
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Vintner: transcripts are incredibily expensive to do. That’s gonna be a hard one for the industry to handle.
Podcasts are for times when you are listening to your iPod and not in front of your computer. For instance, when you are exercising, or driving your car, or walking around town.
But, it is something I’d like to do, if only to make it easier to use Google to find podcasts.
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Remuneration, Robert. Remuneration. Not renumeration. I’d cluck my tongue but I’ve never been good with emoticons.
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Remuneration, Robert. Remuneration. Not renumeration. I’d cluck my tongue but I’ve never been good with emoticons.
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Robert: Think about cellular. That means podocasts/videocasts of about three to five minutes.
Cellular operators around the world are very interested in mobile TV. (I even started a new weblog to cover it.)
Think about a package of three to five minute shows packaged around a specific topic.
This is just the tip of the mobile TV iceberg and you might consider getting a handhold on the ice!
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Robert: Think about cellular. That means podocasts/videocasts of about three to five minutes.
Cellular operators around the world are very interested in mobile TV. (I even started a new weblog to cover it.)
Think about a package of three to five minute shows packaged around a specific topic.
This is just the tip of the mobile TV iceberg and you might consider getting a handhold on the ice!
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I sure hope I’m wrong about Podtech for your sake, but what I see looks like the HMS Titanic leaving port.
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I sure hope I’m wrong about Podtech for your sake, but what I see looks like the HMS Titanic leaving port.
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Here’s my take on the johnny-come-latelies to tech podcasting
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Here’s my take on the johnny-come-latelies to tech podcasting
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Podcasts are not just for the road Robert. I listen to podcasts on my computer. I am going to load a good aggregator on the Media Center that we have.
I am glad that you have considered a smaller (in file size)version for those people with bandwidth caps. In New Zealand its the same.
I thought if podcasts are going to kick off in these countries you would have to either have the podcasts smaller so that they have enough capacity or have bigger bandwidth.
In regards to transcripts, while I agree with no transcripts, its still a good idea to have shownotes. On podtech its just a exercept, but if you have a look at the other podcasts, some have simple show notes in the blog post with linka to particular points of interest. Some even have wikis for the finer details.
Through this blog, I think you’ll get a lot of feedbackthat will make podtech.net a better site to visit. keep up the good work
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Podcasts are not just for the road Robert. I listen to podcasts on my computer. I am going to load a good aggregator on the Media Center that we have.
I am glad that you have considered a smaller (in file size)version for those people with bandwidth caps. In New Zealand its the same.
I thought if podcasts are going to kick off in these countries you would have to either have the podcasts smaller so that they have enough capacity or have bigger bandwidth.
In regards to transcripts, while I agree with no transcripts, its still a good idea to have shownotes. On podtech its just a exercept, but if you have a look at the other podcasts, some have simple show notes in the blog post with linka to particular points of interest. Some even have wikis for the finer details.
Through this blog, I think you’ll get a lot of feedbackthat will make podtech.net a better site to visit. keep up the good work
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Why can’t I change tabs in Firefox & still listen to the podcast as background info.
My read is you need to categorise your 23 things, seems to me it’s really 2 or 3, each with components.
– Web Site Navigition.
– Using Pods.
– Pod Search
It’s to hard to use currently, but it has the content :), not a bad place to be IMHO.
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Why can’t I change tabs in Firefox & still listen to the podcast as background info.
My read is you need to categorise your 23 things, seems to me it’s really 2 or 3, each with components.
– Web Site Navigition.
– Using Pods.
– Pod Search
It’s to hard to use currently, but it has the content :), not a bad place to be IMHO.
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I think Podcasts that cover a variety of topics (for instance, reviews of several pieces of hardware) should be broken into “tracks” – like CDROM music. Basically think of a single podcast like an album, all by the same bad, but the songs are unique. If the “tracks” are seperated (and tagged appropriately) I could easily and quickly find the stuff I want to hear, and not have to suffer through the rest of the static.
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I think Podcasts that cover a variety of topics (for instance, reviews of several pieces of hardware) should be broken into “tracks” – like CDROM music. Basically think of a single podcast like an album, all by the same bad, but the songs are unique. If the “tracks” are seperated (and tagged appropriately) I could easily and quickly find the stuff I want to hear, and not have to suffer through the rest of the static.
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I just attended the ClickZ Online Video Advertising conference in NYC yesterday, and while the focus was on video advertising, the conversations obviously also included blog ads and podcasting. There were a lot of assumptions made about RSS and how easy it is to start a viral fire. I think the industry as a whole could really benefit from some basic training in how to set up feeds across all these new media for maximum search, social-networking power and usability. (fyi – At Zoom In Online we’re also posting a number of podcasts that we did at the show with various panelists, featuring their advertising case studies, content approaches, and technologies.)
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I just attended the ClickZ Online Video Advertising conference in NYC yesterday, and while the focus was on video advertising, the conversations obviously also included blog ads and podcasting. There were a lot of assumptions made about RSS and how easy it is to start a viral fire. I think the industry as a whole could really benefit from some basic training in how to set up feeds across all these new media for maximum search, social-networking power and usability. (fyi – At Zoom In Online we’re also posting a number of podcasts that we did at the show with various panelists, featuring their advertising case studies, content approaches, and technologies.)
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Great list. 🙂
And yes, this Flash 8 specialtitly of stopping to play / load when they don’t have focus is really annoying. I hope there is an option somewhere to turn that off.
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Great list. 🙂
And yes, this Flash 8 specialtitly of stopping to play / load when they don’t have focus is really annoying. I hope there is an option somewhere to turn that off.
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Geez. I didn’t mean to start a whole post on your blog Robert.
I like to hear people reporting tech stuff in a more passionate way. When I listen to (or watch) podcasts I’m motivated by the host’s motivation and the fact that the opinions are unfiltered. Otherwise I might as well be reading copy on the websites of the companies that are talking on PodTech.
As I said in my post I look forward to hearing (and seeing) what’s new with PodTech when you start exerting your might influence on the efforts taking place there.
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Geez. I didn’t mean to start a whole post on your blog Robert.
I like to hear people reporting tech stuff in a more passionate way. When I listen to (or watch) podcasts I’m motivated by the host’s motivation and the fact that the opinions are unfiltered. Otherwise I might as well be reading copy on the websites of the companies that are talking on PodTech.
As I said in my post I look forward to hearing (and seeing) what’s new with PodTech when you start exerting your might influence on the efforts taking place there.
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Rob, I thought your points were right on. Thanks for making them. It was a good conversation starter. Got a lot of work to do.
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Rob, I thought your points were right on. Thanks for making them. It was a good conversation starter. Got a lot of work to do.
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Robert,
One item I’d like to see there is an ability to rate podcasts – so if I think a podcast is particularly good, I can give it a 5/5, for example. Then when I come to the site, I can look for higher rated podcasts to listen to.
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Robert,
One item I’d like to see there is an ability to rate podcasts – so if I think a podcast is particularly good, I can give it a 5/5, for example. Then when I come to the site, I can look for higher rated podcasts to listen to.
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HMS Titanic leaving port…heh.
I personally don’t think it will even make it out of the port, burn rate to the bottom. The tech is already a commodity, and nothing much here that all these lazy companies can’t do on their own in time. In short, you are paying quadruple for some hypespinner Silicon Valley start-up to do it for you.
Nothing wrong with corporate, but boring is always a killer. The geek stuff is wild crazy nuthead college-film-school-quality-enthusiast style, making it forever small small niched. But the corporate stuff is bland, like a Video Press Release. To really get results? Think in terms of the Educational Documentary, over the corporate talking head or the geeky MTV short-attention span. Release a product, do a History Channel style productional kick up, don’t leave it to the shaky cam vbloggers. The problem tho? Podcasts will become infomercials if you aren’t careful. The geeks are too well…geeky, and the corporates are too cement-headed dry, the key is a Discovery Channel style about it all.
And what makes a Podcast a podcast? Just a reduced frame low-res .avi with syncing? Big deal. Sync (poor quality video at that) is not a revolution, it’s simply distribution. Just think in terms of VIDEO in all forms as a method…DVD/VCD, AVI/MOV, 3GP/3G2, Podcasts – whatever…
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HMS Titanic leaving port…heh.
I personally don’t think it will even make it out of the port, burn rate to the bottom. The tech is already a commodity, and nothing much here that all these lazy companies can’t do on their own in time. In short, you are paying quadruple for some hypespinner Silicon Valley start-up to do it for you.
Nothing wrong with corporate, but boring is always a killer. The geek stuff is wild crazy nuthead college-film-school-quality-enthusiast style, making it forever small small niched. But the corporate stuff is bland, like a Video Press Release. To really get results? Think in terms of the Educational Documentary, over the corporate talking head or the geeky MTV short-attention span. Release a product, do a History Channel style productional kick up, don’t leave it to the shaky cam vbloggers. The problem tho? Podcasts will become infomercials if you aren’t careful. The geeks are too well…geeky, and the corporates are too cement-headed dry, the key is a Discovery Channel style about it all.
And what makes a Podcast a podcast? Just a reduced frame low-res .avi with syncing? Big deal. Sync (poor quality video at that) is not a revolution, it’s simply distribution. Just think in terms of VIDEO in all forms as a method…DVD/VCD, AVI/MOV, 3GP/3G2, Podcasts – whatever…
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Robert,
I’ll be direct. I think you are making a profound, life-plunging mistake by leaving Microsoft, for at least three reasons:
(1) You had a job you loved at Microsoft. That is a treasure, a bird in the hand, that should not be given up except in exchange for a truly exceptional offer.
(2) Microsoft as a company is at the trough of the wave and at the beginning of its “up” cycle. Exactly the wrong time to leave.
(3) Your critique of Podtech’s website is spot on. Because so much is so fundamentally wrong with the website — and how directly that speaks to the quality of the company! — I am queasy about the choice you have made.
In the end, these are for me the undeniable facts:
Channel9.msdn.com is a fascinating website. I will visit it many times in the future.
By contrast, I doubt I will ever spend even a moment on the podtech website. (It IS boring, like the reviewer said!)
Nonetheless, I wish you the best of luck.
Joe
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Robert,
I’ll be direct. I think you are making a profound, life-plunging mistake by leaving Microsoft, for at least three reasons:
(1) You had a job you loved at Microsoft. That is a treasure, a bird in the hand, that should not be given up except in exchange for a truly exceptional offer.
(2) Microsoft as a company is at the trough of the wave and at the beginning of its “up” cycle. Exactly the wrong time to leave.
(3) Your critique of Podtech’s website is spot on. Because so much is so fundamentally wrong with the website — and how directly that speaks to the quality of the company! — I am queasy about the choice you have made.
In the end, these are for me the undeniable facts:
Channel9.msdn.com is a fascinating website. I will visit it many times in the future.
By contrast, I doubt I will ever spend even a moment on the podtech website. (It IS boring, like the reviewer said!)
Nonetheless, I wish you the best of luck.
Joe
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Joe: believe me, I’ve thought long and hard about it. I started where you are now.
But, I’m more creatively alive right now than I have been in months. So, that alone tells me I made the right decision.
Funny enough I had the same advice going into Microsoft. Heheh.
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Joe: believe me, I’ve thought long and hard about it. I started where you are now.
But, I’m more creatively alive right now than I have been in months. So, that alone tells me I made the right decision.
Funny enough I had the same advice going into Microsoft. Heheh.
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Havencha heard leaving Microsoft is the ‘in’ thing now. Plus the door is always open for a return visit, take a start-up risk when you can. Even if that company crashes and burns, he will have gotten lottsa videography creative skillsets under his belt, and will be able to explore a wider variety over just interviewing Microsoft developers while waiting for the vaporware to turn real. I think actually a smart move.
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Havencha heard leaving Microsoft is the ‘in’ thing now. Plus the door is always open for a return visit, take a start-up risk when you can. Even if that company crashes and burns, he will have gotten lottsa videography creative skillsets under his belt, and will be able to explore a wider variety over just interviewing Microsoft developers while waiting for the vaporware to turn real. I think actually a smart move.
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