A Week Later would be nice until it becomes popular. Then someone would have to come up with a week laterer. So if you have a 2nd phase to that, its a great program and something I would probably start on.
Pros: 1. It would get you instant popularity (I think) 2. There is an opportunity for speculation (from you, an expert and the audience) 3. It can be a source of information (if you have intelligent analyses instead of plain reporting)
A week later video provider B shutdown because they didn't follow Youtube's model of...
It doesn't have to be all negative and only about products/services. You could show Scoble a year later, too. How people changed in a year, for good or worse.
You could have prizes/polls for - what happens to Google Checkout "@ w33k l8r". Have audience send in a short - I will shave off my hair if MS doesn't announced MS checkout in a week.
gwhiz
· 3 years ago
Number 1 with an Outside the Valley on the side gets my vote. Everybody and their dog can/does interview the existing crowd. The emerging layer is always going to be far more interesting/entertaining. You could have an "EdgeCase" show :)
Speaking of getting on iTunes... Did you see the email from them outlining how to refine your RSS feeds for maximum distro at the iTMS? If not, lemme know and I'll forward it to you.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
met: great idea about the polls and prizes. See, I would never have come up with that idea on my own.
"A Week Later" sounds great, and may very well spark more reflective and thoughtful discussion in certain corners of the web. Discussion which, ironically or not, should surface again at Techmeme! (Giving rise to "A Week Laterer"? Good call "met"!)
Jonathan
· 3 years ago
"Don't Tell Anyone Until Tuesday" seems like it could be a promising show. I do love to hear about exciting new products and services that are coming out. However, I think all of them could be really good shows.
Dave Winer
· 3 years ago
Scoble, I think you should travel around the valley teaching people how to blog and podcast. You'd learn a huge amount, and as you learn, of course you would share with everyone. Then take the Scoble show on the road, and in 2012 you run for President of the US. What do you think??
I'm going to post something like that on Scripting in a few minutes.
And thanks for the BBQ yesterday, I had a great time!!!
rick gregory
· 3 years ago
Another vote for Edgecase/Outside the Valley. In fact, I could see that expanding beyond tech - what's happening fashion outside of NYC/Paris/London? What's happening in music outside of the hot city of the moment?
Expand this beyond the US - we're not the whole world. For example, we know what's popular in music here - but what about Brazil? Look at Tony Bourdain's show No Reservations on the Travel Channel - every week he's in a new country and all he basically does is eat and drink. Yet, because he goes beyond the normal touristy stuff and into the slightly wierd, it's usually compelling TV and you learn a bit about the country he's in beyond what we get out of normal travel shows and magazine articles.
And this goes beyond the style/music/arts axis... I'm probably not the only one who was surprised to hear that Brazil claims to be energy independent due to local ethanol production. What else is happening on the environent front that we don't hear about? Or with women around the world? Or...
Yeah, there's a lot out there. Have fun!
You co
Marcus
· 3 years ago
Robert,
I like all of these and would listen to each... probably the one that interests me in the least is the "week later" thing - It's typically a few weeks until I've found what I really don't like about new offerings.
Another thought: outside of the Valley, a lot of us work at getting traditional businesses to embrace new technology - I'd like to see content developed about technology reaching traditionally non-technical industries.
Jacob Gower
· 3 years ago
I'm giving a vote for "Outside the Valley". At Gnomedex this weekend, everybody I met was from the west coast. I live in Arkansas for example, and loved meeting the few people and hearing about what they did that lived semi-close to me. Can't wait to see what you produce, I'm sure it'll be good whatever it is.
Hank
· 3 years ago
I'm all for the Outside the Valley show. I'm in Texas, and I can tell you that there is a heck of alot going on in this area, but no-one ever hears about it because we don't exist in "The Valley". Small shops are coming up with the next big thing everywhere, I'd totally like to be inspired by that type of garage industry information.
Jan Karlsbjerg
· 3 years ago
I think the "a week later" would be good, only I'd call it "where are they now". :-) And I'd make it more general both in time and breadth of topic.
If you only talk about the new new thing from last week, you'll still only interest the super geeks. In order to get business people to listen, you need more general, overview discussions of technology or online business.
Here are a few example topics:
- So, this AJAX thing we've been hearing a lot about, what (business) difference has it made so far? E.g. did it make or kill any companies? Were the "old" companies able to update their "old" websites to this new technology and thereby save themselves?
- So, I hear some people got fired for blogging, what was that about, and where are they now? (Note: I'm not really asking you right now, I know your take on this, but it would be a good topic for an overview show to this audience).
- When is it a good idea for companies to open up for customer feedback and customer-to-customer discussions on the company website... and when is it not a good idea? (May want to tone down the evangelism on this one and keep it a "sober" discussion :-))
- A couple of years ago it looked like Amazon.com would become the platform for ALL online sales. Did that happen? Why / why not? And what should I choose if I'm facing that decision right now? (Include inputs from a company whose online sales are hosted on Amazon.com and one whose sales are on their own site)
Cheers from Vancouver, Jan Karlsbjerg
Chris Brogan...
· 3 years ago
Being that you've written a book with "conversations" in the title, you might be just assuming, but let's not. Conversations are truly the fruit of great podcasts. The reason Diggnation is so infectuous is that you (the listener/viewer) feel like the "third guy on the couch." That's POWERFUL.
At Podcast Academy 2, Tony Kahn of public radio fame and producer of WGBH Morning Stories showed how developing good, intimate-feeling conversations was an evergreen model for building audience.
I just realized that I don't specifically know what people mean when they refer to Silicon Valley or "The Valley". Sure, I know the purist definition as exemplified by the authoritative Wikipedia, but that doesn't tell me what you mean by inside or outside "The Valley".
Would you consider "The Bay Area" as synonymous with your intention for the scope of "The Valley"? Specifically, would downtown San Francisco, Sausalito, Santa Cruz, or even Half Moon Bay be inside or outside "Silicon Valley"? And how about Sacramento?
One could consider "Silicon Valley" as anywhere within an "easy" commute of San Jose/Santa Clara/Mountain View/Stanford. What about Marin County or Santa Rosa?
Or, is "Outside Northern California" roughly synonymous with your intended meaning for "Outside the Valley"?
Any of this delineations can work, but the question is what your intention is.
-- Jack Krupansky
Adrian McEwen
· 3 years ago
I think "Outside the Valley" is the best idea - it'll stop you from falling back on an easy these-guys-are-just-round-the-corner approach. But I'm biased, I'm outside the Valley so would be able to star in it ;-)
Paul Gladen
· 3 years ago
How about "Geek Eye for the Biz Guy" where Robert Scoble helps tech-wary business owners figure out how to make use of emerging technologies?
Some of the tech-businesses launching right now seem like solutions looking for a problem - so it would be good for you to go hunt down some business problems and then show how these technologies can help.
Tom F
· 3 years ago
Robert,
Idea: a show called "Cover Your Assets." A podcast helping people protect themeselves from identity theft, fraud & scams. It won't be about scaring people (that's no fun). We could make it useful and maybe a little fun. A combination of useful tips, some topical news, and an interview with someone interesting in the space.
Do you think PodTech.net would want to produce it (is that what you folks do)? I know you could get loads of sponsors (i.e., security software/hardware companies).
If you're interested, my blog has all my contact info (I'm fully scobleized).
Thanks, Tom
shel israel
· 3 years ago
I think you and I should interview one interesting person each week. We'd call the program Naked Conversations. What do you think?
Paul B
· 3 years ago
I really like the "Outside the Valley" idea. For me, someone who lives in Australia, I feel somewhat removed from the whole Web 2.0 scene. It'd be great seeing some emerging companies from across Europe, Asia and Australia as well!
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
Shel, I like that idea.
Outside the Valley has tapped a nerve! I'll work more on that.
james
· 3 years ago
You know what I like about rocketboom? It was a success by accident. They didn't over-think the show structure, they just got on there and pretended to report goofy shit. I think you've forgotten what having a vblog is all about. Being yourself, making mistakes, being spontaneous and having a structure without structure. Please don't waste peoples download time with predictability and gibberish. Shake shit up and be yourself about it. No need to reinvent the wheel with what people want to see. Good luck
Vasanth
· 3 years ago
+1 for “A Week Later.”
Many times I wanted to know what happened to these products after the hype dies down. I even considered opening a blog like that...
Justin Hayward
· 3 years ago
I always wanted to do a programme called 'Round the Ashtray', as, before the Internet, this was where the social, word of mouth activity, including breaking news and hot gossip, was spread and, even though it was a dirty habit, people who didn't smoke always felt that the people who knew everything found out around the ashtray.
Obviously, now we live in a regulated environment, the Internet becomes the ashtray for those people still wanting to be in the know - especially in a working environment where surfing the web and reading blogs is still seen as a dirty habit!
Chris
· 3 years ago
"Outside the Valley" sounds great to me. You could easily have a show or two dedicated to the companies of Technology Triangle (the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge) in southern Ontario. Hey, I work for one of said companies [shameless plug] :) But please, don't make it all about Research In Motion ;)
Dave Chase
· 3 years ago
Outside the Valley struck a chord with me too but it also triggered an idea assuming your new company would like to appeal beyond the tech crowd. There could be a angle of what the Internet has enabled lifestyle-wise. When I first learned of the web in the early-mid 90's, the first thought was that I'd found the enabler to let me choose first where I wanted to live and then find a way to make a living from there. Though most of my life was spent in Silicon Valley and Seattle which were areas I enjoyed, the places I loved were in the mountains. The publisher of Forbes wrote a book (Life 2.0) on this phenomena. You see places like Bozeman creating highly successful companies as well as individuals working from a variety of places. These aren't people just in tech either. The time I used to spend in my car is now spent with my family, recreating, etc. One ironic facet of the tech industry is how we tout the benefits of compressing time/distances on the one hand yet on the other hand say you have to live in a tech hub to be a part of the action. Shouldn't blogs, IM, podcasts, etc. negate that need to some degree? It does for me.
S. Kroeker
· 3 years ago
"Ideas that failed". On one hand good ideas that havn't made it. Perhaps a bad implementation or marketing or the idea was only a pertial soultion. Or a bad idea that was over sold. The goal is to spark interest in something that could be but isn't.
S. Kroeker
· 3 years ago
"Computer history". Geeks tend to be focused on the here and future but the past is also rich. What if http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/SRC/technical-no... had been recorded and made available as a set of PodCasts? How much of the current DB environment can be traced from this focus? Or the story of WinFS, early browsers, transition from cmd line to GUI with the role of Lisa and the IBM-Microsoft partnership (where IBM got OS2 and MS did Windows NT 1.0)
Dorai Thodla
· 3 years ago
Hi Robert, How about an "Innovation Log". Focus on little innovations that make a difference. We all hear about "AJAX" and mashups. But I find simple ideas in every product.
Take "wikiness", for example. It just does not belong to a wiki alone. "The Ten Faces of Innovation" by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman has many of these innovations in various areas.
Eddie Dickey
· 3 years ago
Hi Robert, I vote for 'Outside The Valley' as well. It may be interesting to see how people are using new technology - outside the valley.
PodSlug
· 3 years ago
Podtech uses MP3 audio which makes it very easy to have a clean Flash-based playback interface for the mp3 audio that is also used for the iTunes podcasts.
Do you plan to use Flash or Quicktime for video on the webpage? Or another?
I am eager to see what video codec choices you make and what platforms you are targeting with these.
Maybe we should vote here ... What formats/codecs should Podtech video be distributed with? Why?
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
PodSlug: The main distribution mechanisms are:
1) Web. Flash for that. 2) Windows. WMV for that. 3) iPod. MPG4 for that. 4) Mac. MPG4 for that. 5) Playstation Portable. MPG4 for that. 6) Cell phone users. WMV for Windows, MPG4 for others.
The real answer is you gotta do all the formats. That's what http://www.on10.net does.
Chuck
· 3 years ago
One more vote for "Outside the Valley" with "A Week Later" coming in at a close second.
My participation in the PodCast world has been limited at best. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can teach me about this industry and how best I can use it to simply make my life better.
Christopher Coulter
· 3 years ago
Boy, do you sooo need to hire me...
“Don’t Tell Anyone Until Tuesday.” - wheee, Insider Baseball games, and Friends of Scoble. I can just see Time Warner making a bid. FOS Bar Camp Geek Podcast.
“The Dish” - Circular serious. Circle that circled circle. TWIT and IT Conversations redux. My toes are tickling.
“A Week Later” - Discussions about now old news, no one cares much for analysis shows, breaking news is all the rage. Analysis is a paid profession. Tech Week in Review, as just as deathly boring as Washington Week in Review.
But they are ALL the same...just name it the Weekly Tuesday Dish and you will grep all.
“Outside the Valley” - The name itself is wholesale CONDESCENDING -- like 'Outside the Beltway'. We will cover the REST of the country, all those moronic uninteresting peons that somehow have made a choice not to live here, and not be part of the action, like the entire state of Montana.
It's just geek rot, geeked up all over again.
PodSlug (Erik Herz)
· 3 years ago
Wow ... supporting all of those video formats seems like an unreasonable burden. I do see content owners dealing with the "codec silos" problem (http://podslug.com/blog/?p=32) by encoding their content into each silos' format. I think that this limits market growth for online video in general, however, as it raises the bar of cost and complexity.
This is an opportunity for you to lead the way to bring more interoperability for online video by pushing one format that will reach your primary audience and by building consensus around a single video standard.
The success of audio podcasting is partially explained by its use of open and standard technologies (http, rss, mp3) ... video podcasting does not share these open and interoperable attributes.
This can change if the content owners vote with their feet and rally around interoperable standards.
My idea for you and John is the "Podtech Hot Seat", a short (video?) interview espn style. I am a fan of keeping whatever you do short, but issued every day (produce a week at one time). The idea of listening to people walk the Dish doesn't sound so great to me.
All Comments
Pros: 1. It would get you instant popularity (I think)
2. There is an opportunity for speculation (from you, an expert and the audience)
3. It can be a source of information (if you have intelligent analyses instead of plain reporting)
A week later video provider B shutdown because they didn't follow Youtube's model of...
It doesn't have to be all negative and only about products/services. You could show Scoble a year later, too. How people changed in a year, for good or worse.
You could have prizes/polls for - what happens to Google Checkout "@ w33k l8r".
Have audience send in a short - I will shave off my hair if MS doesn't announced MS checkout in a week.
Speaking of getting on iTunes... Did you see the email from them outlining how to refine your RSS feeds for maximum distro at the iTMS? If not, lemme know and I'll forward it to you.
gwhiz: hmm, I don't remember seeing that email. Can you send it to robertscoble@hotmail.com ?
I LOVE the "EdgeCase Show."
I'm going to post something like that on Scripting in a few minutes.
And thanks for the BBQ yesterday, I had a great time!!!
Expand this beyond the US - we're not the whole world. For example, we know what's popular in music here - but what about Brazil? Look at Tony Bourdain's show No Reservations on the Travel Channel - every week he's in a new country and all he basically does is eat and drink. Yet, because he goes beyond the normal touristy stuff and into the slightly wierd, it's usually compelling TV and you learn a bit about the country he's in beyond what we get out of normal travel shows and magazine articles.
And this goes beyond the style/music/arts axis... I'm probably not the only one who was surprised to hear that Brazil claims to be energy independent due to local ethanol production. What else is happening on the environent front that we don't hear about? Or with women around the world? Or...
Yeah, there's a lot out there. Have fun!
You co
I like all of these and would listen to each... probably the one that interests me in the least is the "week later" thing - It's typically a few weeks until I've found what I really don't like about new offerings.
Another thought: outside of the Valley, a lot of us work at getting traditional businesses to embrace new technology - I'd like to see content developed about technology reaching traditionally non-technical industries.
If you only talk about the new new thing from last week, you'll still only interest the super geeks. In order to get business people to listen, you need more general, overview discussions of technology or online business.
Here are a few example topics:
- So, this AJAX thing we've been hearing a lot about, what (business) difference has it made so far?
E.g. did it make or kill any companies? Were the "old" companies able to update their "old" websites to this new technology and thereby save themselves?
- So, I hear some people got fired for blogging, what was that about, and where are they now?
(Note: I'm not really asking you right now, I know your take on this, but it would be a good topic for an overview show to this audience).
- When is it a good idea for companies to open up for customer feedback and customer-to-customer discussions on the company website... and when is it not a good idea?
(May want to tone down the evangelism on this one and keep it a "sober" discussion :-))
- A couple of years ago it looked like Amazon.com would become the platform for ALL online sales. Did that happen? Why / why not? And what should I choose if I'm facing that decision right now?
(Include inputs from a company whose online sales are hosted on Amazon.com and one whose sales are on their own site)
Cheers from Vancouver,
Jan Karlsbjerg
At Podcast Academy 2, Tony Kahn of public radio fame and producer of WGBH Morning Stories showed how developing good, intimate-feeling conversations was an evergreen model for building audience.
When it's all said and done, we're just cavemen at the fire.
--Chris (come to Podcamp.org) Brogan...
Would you consider "The Bay Area" as synonymous with your intention for the scope of "The Valley"? Specifically, would downtown San Francisco, Sausalito, Santa Cruz, or even Half Moon Bay be inside or outside "Silicon Valley"? And how about Sacramento?
One could consider "Silicon Valley" as anywhere within an "easy" commute of San Jose/Santa Clara/Mountain View/Stanford. What about Marin County or Santa Rosa?
Or, is "Outside Northern California" roughly synonymous with your intended meaning for "Outside the Valley"?
Any of this delineations can work, but the question is what your intention is.
-- Jack Krupansky
Some of the tech-businesses launching right now seem like solutions looking for a problem - so it would be good for you to go hunt down some business problems and then show how these technologies can help.
Idea: a show called "Cover Your Assets." A podcast helping people protect themeselves from identity theft, fraud & scams. It won't be about scaring people (that's no fun). We could make it useful and maybe a little fun. A combination of useful tips, some topical news, and an interview with someone interesting in the space.
Do you think PodTech.net would want to produce it (is that what you folks do)? I know you could get loads of sponsors (i.e., security software/hardware companies).
If you're interested, my blog has all my contact info (I'm fully scobleized).
Thanks,
Tom
Outside the Valley has tapped a nerve! I'll work more on that.
Many times I wanted to know what happened to these products after the hype dies down. I even considered opening a blog like that...
Obviously, now we live in a regulated environment, the Internet becomes the ashtray for those people still wanting to be in the know - especially in a working environment where surfing the web and reading blogs is still seen as a dirty habit!
had been recorded and made available as a set of PodCasts? How much of the current DB environment can be traced from this focus? Or the story of WinFS, early browsers, transition from cmd line to GUI with the role of Lisa and the IBM-Microsoft partnership (where IBM got OS2 and MS did Windows NT 1.0)
How about an "Innovation Log". Focus on little innovations that make a difference. We all hear about "AJAX" and mashups. But I find simple ideas in every product.
Take "wikiness", for example. It just does not belong to a wiki alone. "The Ten Faces of Innovation" by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman has many of these innovations in various areas.
I vote for 'Outside The Valley' as well. It may be interesting to see how people are using new technology - outside the valley.
Do you plan to use Flash or Quicktime for video on the webpage? Or another?
I am eager to see what video codec choices you make and what platforms you are targeting with these.
Maybe we should vote here ... What formats/codecs should Podtech video be distributed with? Why?
1) Web. Flash for that.
2) Windows. WMV for that.
3) iPod. MPG4 for that.
4) Mac. MPG4 for that.
5) Playstation Portable. MPG4 for that.
6) Cell phone users. WMV for Windows, MPG4 for others.
The real answer is you gotta do all the formats. That's what http://www.on10.net does.
My participation in the PodCast world has been limited at best. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can teach me about this industry and how best I can use it to simply make my life better.
“Don’t Tell Anyone Until Tuesday.” - wheee, Insider Baseball games, and Friends of Scoble. I can just see Time Warner making a bid. FOS Bar Camp Geek Podcast.
“The Dish” - Circular serious. Circle that circled circle. TWIT and IT Conversations redux. My toes are tickling.
“A Week Later” - Discussions about now old news, no one cares much for analysis shows, breaking news is all the rage. Analysis is a paid profession. Tech Week in Review, as just as deathly boring as Washington Week in Review.
But they are ALL the same...just name it the Weekly Tuesday Dish and you will grep all.
“Outside the Valley” - The name itself is wholesale CONDESCENDING -- like 'Outside the Beltway'. We will cover the REST of the country, all those moronic uninteresting peons that somehow have made a choice not to live here, and not be part of the action, like the entire state of Montana.
It's just geek rot, geeked up all over again.
This is an opportunity for you to lead the way to bring more interoperability for online video by pushing one format that will reach your primary audience and by building consensus around a single video standard.
The success of audio podcasting is partially explained by its use of open and standard technologies (http, rss, mp3) ... video podcasting does not share these open and interoperable attributes.
This can change if the content owners vote with their feet and rally around interoperable standards.
I am interested in the feedback of others on this issue ... please comment here: http://podslug.com/blog/?p=33