nobody reads this …
At last!! Flickr have launched a way to hook up flickr and Yahoo! Maps.
I started work on a system like this for podcasts, but had stopped work when I saw that they didn’t cover Europe. Now I see they cover the whole world, so it’s time to dig out that flash file and knock out a version for podcasts. Hurrah! 😉
Here’s a map of photos in Antigua. And watching the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Cooool!
Evan Williams, founder of Pyra – which became Blogger.com and head honcho of Odeo has got some Alexa results of podcasting sites out there and provides some feedback.
Good job. Nice to see Libsyn pumping away at the top. I really like those guys.
So, I’m not surprised to see the results for podcast.com 😉
We opened up the doors of the site back at the end of May, as an ‘alpha’, based on some of the early foundation technology we’re building, simply because we couldn’t bare to look at the old horrible greenish page that used to be there any more 😉 The feedback we’ve had has been positive.
Since then, we been going like the clappers, not sleeping much, slowly but surely bringing together a whole load of features you haven’t seen yet. The list of subscriptions in the directory there are basically *mine*. As in my user account. There’s two actually – a user called kosso curates the canada.podcast.com directory and the secondlife.podcast.com directory (they’re actually folders within koz.podcast.com). Soon you’ll be able to create your own version of the site and have access to a load of tools and info to get you going in podcasting, whether it’s as a listener or a podcaster. We have publishing tools too – and some pretty nifty urls and data for you to play with. Some original content too! (I can’t wait to let you in on all that 😉 )
I often use the analogy of the book industry to describe what we’re up to:
To start, we want to help people find books they want to read and let the author know what they think. Moving along, we want to help people build bookshelves to put all these books on. Then give people the tools to build whole libraries – and connect them together.
Back the other way, we naturally want to help people publish books. And help promote their hard work. Then back, we want to help teach people how to write a book and provide nice and easy tools to do so. Even further back to the core, we also want to help people make paper and ink and even research new types of paper and ink, which might make a book easier to read or understand and hopefully more popular!.
As the people running the generic domain, we intend to DO THE RIGHT THING. What else would you do with the generic domain? I left the BBC to work on this, as I’m incredibly passionate about podcasting having fiddled with building tools and systems since it started. Becoming a podcaster (but not as frequently as I would like – that’s why I’m builfing tools 😉 ). Meeting the likes of Dave Winer and Adam Curry last year was a real motivator. Still is. Respec’.
I really didn’t want the site to end up squatted or parked or simply wasted. I’m on a mission (from pod). ‘With great domains comes great responsibility’. We have some interesting things coming up soon which might perk up your ears 😉
I’ve just got back from Boston after a great time with the rest of the boys – making sure we’re all on the same playlist and getting the new hands on deck up to speed with the system, ethos and roadmap for the whole place. It’s been very reassuring.
We still have alot to do to get the site open as a public beta, where people will be able to join up and have a go at using the tools we’re putting together. It won’t all come at once. We intend to listen to what you think and iterate. We think it’s going to be an exciting resource for anyone interested in podcasting.
It’s going to be a few more weeks, but now we can all see the next checkpoint. There is no finish line 😉
Well, it looks like things are going well for DanMac and Dave on the SYO project. Things are moving on.
Good for them. 😉
Maybe if things between Dave and I had been different, well, maybe things would be *different*. 😉 SYO shares among other things like OPML and RSS, some similarities to the core of the podcast.com / treedia system, I've been developing (on my own) since back in November.
I'm just putting some finishing touches to the search facility here, then I hope to able to reveal more at the OPML Camp which starts in a few hours.
It's a shame that CCTV (Cambridge Community TV) aren't involved, or we could stream a video of the event to you all, and through to the Second Life Berkman Center video screen. Hmm , maybe they are? I don't know, but they did a grand job at the Beyond Broadcast event last week.
Coming up in May at the Berkman Center in Harvard, the first OPML Camp will be taking place. Organised by Adam Green, this looks set to be a interesting couple of days where lots of OPML geeks will get together and talk about some of the stuff they are building around OPML and share ideas and help eachother understand it. [I hear that Tom Morris may be on his way over to that, too.]
It's possible I may be over in Boston at this time, depending on schedules etc. And if I do, I may be able to show some people some of things I have worked on over the years, around OPML and also the stuff we are building over at podcast.com. I have created many products for the BBC in the past, where I used a 'made-up' format of a similar XML structure to OPML, and now I'm using OPML 'proper', along with extending it again, with some 'made up' attributes which I ned to get things done. It's OK – it's doesn't 'break' anything. 🙂
The week before the OPML Camp is anoyther great looking event at the Berkman Center called Beyond Broadcast, which does sound reeeeally interesting indeed. I was told about this, and invited by, Jake Shapiro of PRX.ORG [The Public Radio Exchange] who is also a Berkman Fellow. It was great to meet up with Jake the other evening, over in Cambridge and share thoughts and ideas about stuff like podcasting and public radio. Lots of synergy. I like it.
PRX.ORG is a very interesting thing indeed. It is a "web-based marketplace for public radio pieces. Programmers find and air work from other stations, independent producers and international broadcasters. Producers – station-based or independent – license their work directly to stations."
This is such an interesting idea and the list of shows and content picked up and used by other stations continues to grow, year on year. Impressive stuff. I'd like to see this idea go global and into the UK, since our BBC's 'Nations and Regions' seem to be continually marginalised in what they can do, I hear.
So, I hope I would be able to make both of these events, however it's very likely that Dr. Jo will be able to come over for the Beyond Broadcast event too, as it is right up her street, since she started as Senior Research Fellow in Digital Society & Media for the Institute of Public Policy Research – a thinktank which helps to inform the government on public policy. They set up OFCOM for example, a ombudsman for the communications sector which was much needed as communications and media technology evolved beyond telephones and television etc.
So. Lots going on before the summer time, when we have Gnomedex 2006 to look forward to and possibly SuperNova 2006. Phew! It's a good job that Glastonbury Festival is having a fallow year, this year! 🙂
Is was told to expect changeable wetaher here in Boston. Last week was like a UK summer!! Now it's snowing!!! Madness!
Originally uploaded by kosso.
Just earlier, up the road from the office here in Boston, a large piece of crane holding up a construction gantry on the front of Emmerson College, facing Boston Common came away from the building and fell on top of a car killing all three people inside. A pedestrian was also killed in this tragic accident.
UPDATE: It turns out that the victim count was three. One man in a car and two construction workers. Two shocked survivors, who were friends, were in driving together through Boston in two seperate cars and one car had pulled between them. This was the car which was crushed.
Another man who managed to walk from the accident, after having his car severely damaged from above is the grandson of former Boston mayor, John Hynes.
The were two more people injured in this tragic accident, which could be heard around the area as the lift supports of the construction gantry came crashing down this afternoon.
I was just in Shaws supermarket, here in Boston, USA buying some snacks and beers for yet another night in the hotel, with my head under the bonnet of podcast.com, playing with OPML and RSS (to the POWER of USERS) (ahh yes – thrills on a Friday night, eh?) and I was actually asked for ID to prove I was old enough to buy alcohol!!!
I have not been asked for ID since well before i was 18 (which is the age of ‘alconsent’ in the UK). I was regularly the one who had to go into the Off Licence to buy the booze when we were at school. Even then I was rarely checked, even though I was well underage at the time.
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! Is my ever greying hair and grey-flecked beard not proof enough that I’m over 21??? Jeeeezuuuuuzz!!!!!!
Off back to Boston tomorrow to see the gang. Also for some more
important meetings which I hope can help us gain a bit more traction
here (and over there —mm.. transatlantic…). Still finalising
things. Need to sign things. Show me the money! Heh.
Hope fully
we'll also get a chance to pop down to New York to see someone there
who has been interested in what's brewing over at podcast.com 😉
