More adventures in Web 2.0

I just got back from Ottawa where I did a workshop on podcasting and was able to talk to others who might be interested in hosting this workshop in the future.

My suitcase is still packed, it's a snowy day and I need to get to work. Since I'm not really geared up to get working yet, and thinking about the results of the last couple of days. It's a good time to collect some of my thoughts about the work I'm doing and the results of the last couple of days.

The Ottawa experience was a great way to find out why people are interested in these new technologies, and also why maybe they're not. My meetings were full of people both supportive and skeptical ... some very good questions were asked, which helps me understand what people know and don't know, where they're receptive and not.

a) who's listening to podcasts? Stats are needed. Those of us in the business know that this medium is growing, but hard information is needed for those who aren't in the loop. So I, and anybody else working in this field, need to do a lot more work on looking at the numbers. Who is listening, where are the areas of growth in terms of distinct sections of the population? More research. I'm working on it.

b) There are so many fads on the internet ... things come and go all the time. So how do we know this has staying power? I was more prepared for this one .. it is true that individual things come and go .. ie. last year it was Facebook and Youtube. No doubt its effect will diminish in the new year when the next big thing comes along. Likewise with all the individual services and applications.

Regardless of which applications come and go, it is clear that the internet will be increasingly used for moving images and sound. What we know as TV and Radio is going to be changing and a lot of the things we go to TV and radio for now are going to be moving over to the internet. Podcasting and vodcasting as we know it now may not be "the thing" in a couple of years. But people will still be listening and watching things on the internet in increasing numbers, regardless of what we call it.

What I am teaching is production skills ... and a good grounding in media production is becoming more and more necessary for people in the communications business.

c) Why should I, as a communications director, spend my money on internet multimedia production? I'll follow up later today with the stats once I crunch them. Overall, though, I would say it's because that's the way communications is moving. More and more is moving over to the internet. From a cost perspective, it's cheaper than spending money on traditional media and print. And anybody working in media relations these days knows it's getting more and more difficult to grab the ear of editors and producers in traditional media. Organizations and businesses will do well to take charge of their own message and bypass the gatekeepers. For a whole bunch of reasons ... you can send out WHAT you want to send out WHEN you want to send it out.

All good questions. For those of you who asked them, thanks for keeping me on my toes. I'll get back to you .. and you'll want to book a workshop .. it's a good time to start your journey on the learning curve.