Carrying the Lantern

Dave (50) Winer says:

More comments on the Curry-Sirius deal.

Om Malik posits that the deal is really about broadcasting not podcasting.

When you combine yesterday's announcement with the weekend strategy-cast that becomes obvious. Some talent is leaving the podcastosphere, and joining the broadcastosphere, where the issues are different. They don't have to worry about podsafe music up in satellite-land because they've made their deal with the RIAA. That means that there will be new content created for the 4-hour broadcast that can't be played on the Internet.

The scaling issues that confront a popular podcast like DSC go away in the satellite system that already has its scaling worked out. But also gone is the breathless freedom, the DIYness of podcasting. As one of Om's commenters points out, the satellite people will want some control, the kind of control that isn't present in podcasts.

The BitTorrent corner-turn is nowhere near as hard as some think, but it is a corner-turn, and will require careful work with developers. Now that the air has cleared, and we can see that there are two distinct approaches, one which is a revisit of an old medium (radio), and the other a continuation of the new (podcasting), it could be time for the podcast community to get moving again.

But there's still another shoe out there,which has yet to drop. Odeo. In the spirit of "we do what we know how to do," it seems fair to assume that Ev and company will look at podcasting and see Blogger plus some of the community improvements of Flickr. I suspect that will further clear up what podcasting is, and isn't.

Comment here.

- Posted by William A. Riski - 10:20:56 PM - comment []

Doc (58) Searls says:

I agree with what Dave says here about what Om says here about what The Times says here about what Adam's doing here, among other things.

Sez Om:

what is being offered is "broadcasting" not podcasting.

Sez Dave:

Now that the air has cleared, and we can see that there are two distinct approaches, one which is a revisit of an old medium (radio), and the other a continuation of the new (podcasting)

I'd like to add a couple things.

First, Adam is a radio guy. He was a radio guy before he was a TV guy, a celeb guy, a pilot guy, a pod guy or any of the many other kinds of guys he (and we all) are. I know what it's like to be a radio guy, because I'm one too.

What I do here on the blog is a kind of radio. At some level, it's a way to sublimate my lifelong interest in doing radio. When I get around to podcasting (which I will, eventually), I'll be a radio guy, talkin' at ya. Won't be able to help it.

We don't need no steenkin' transmitters! Adam's Daily Source Code intro still says. But, truth be told, we radio guys do need transmitters. We're not being Real Radio Guys unless we've got one.

That's why it makes complete sense for Adam to go on Sirius. Even if the show can't be broadcast (or podcast) on the Net, thanks to the nasty-ass restrictions the RIAA led the Copyright Office to impose on the infant Internet broadcasting industry.

Second, what Adam will be doing at Sirius, and what Howard Stern will be doing as well, is restoring radio to what it used to be, and should have been, all along. But it's not podcasting. It's new life for an old sphere.

Third, what podcasting is doing is Something New and very different. I like Dave's expression of a "corner turn." Craig Burton used to use the term "knife-edge rollover" for a similar kind of change. Podcasting is a whole new system, a whole new class of activity. It may be like radio, but we make a mistake if we understand it in terms of radio.

Think of it instead as a new life form that's native to the Net. That some of it can be leveraged, or harvested, for the radiosphere, fine. But understand that the pioneers here are blazing new trails, opening new frontiers. Not restoring old burned-out cities.

- Posted by William A. Riski - 9:27:46 PM - comment []