by Lee Gibbons, CEO

For the past two years, Podango has had a major (some say, “overwhelming”) presence at the New Media Expo (or at its equivalent under the titles of Podcasting and Portable Media Expo, and Podcasting and New Media Expo). We have received a boatload of emails, phone calls, and other electronic communications asking why we are not at the expo. The most common assumption/fear is that we are dead.

Quoting Monte Python and the Holy Grail, “I’m not dead YET…”

As a matter of fact we ARE at the show. You may see Podango people walking around in our white shirts with the logo on the chest. We just do not have “the unconference booth” as in prior years.

There are four good reasons for our choice not to have a booth:

1) Our needs have changed. We do not have a need to make a splash at NME for branding purposes. Especially, in that we are very likely to changing the name of the company within the next couple of months, and those branding dollars need to be spent to promote the new name/brand. (Got any great ideas for a new name, please email me at lee AT podango dot com.) I will post more about the impetus for the name change later… (And it doesn’t have anything to do with wanting to emphasize video. I am pretty determined not to have veo or vio in the name!)

2) We are finding some remarkable success with a subtle shift in our emphasis and placing greater energies into selling sponsorships to the channels and shows on the Podango network in a new, more lucrative way. I am looking forward to saying more about this in the future… Just know that the station or channel model that has been the core element of our value proposition is yielding some fruit that I believe significantly changes the monetization game for online show producers. This change in how we sell means our approach to recruiting shows for our network is more targeted and, therefore, requires less of a show presence.

3) Tim and Emile Bourquin, the organizers of the show, have decided to create a great educational theater on the show floor, so our style of community serving and good-will building booth was not needed. They are great community players and offered a great rate on a smaller booth, or even a booth wherein we could also do our “unconference,” like they did last year. But, we just don’t see it, and want to conserve cash this year.

4) Perhaps most compelling and important is that we are right in the heat of raising money for our next round of investment, and that effort is consuming our time, requiring us to be very fiscally conservative so as to show the very best possible earnings picture. With those constraints, spending money on this particular show at this particular time, especially considering the above reasons, is not prudent in our judgment.

So, there you have it. Choose your favorite answer above. Any two of them in combination would be reason enough for us not to have a major presence at New Media Expo.

Please, look for us around the show, and grab us if you would like to talk. We would love to sit down with you in person to discuss your show, answer questions, or just get caught up with what has happened in your world since the last Expo.

by Lee Gibbons, CEO

As mentioned in his “Sign off” episode of the Apple Phone Show (Episode 63), Scott Bourne has reached the decision to leave Podango Productions to fill a post as strategic advisor to Photrade. We love that Scott is following his passion and dedicating his energies to is deep love for photography.

The San Francisco based studio will remain open and be managed by Liana Lehua, who will take on the hosting duties for the Apple Phone Show and continue her terrific work on Girls Gone Geek, Moms Gone Geek, Unboxed Sessions, and other shows.

I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank Scott publicly for the mentoring, leadership, and expertise Scott brought to his role at Podango Productions. There are few people I have worked with that have the integrity and drive I witnessed in his daily workings.

So, from the entire team at Podango, and especially Doug and I, thank you, Scott, and good luck in your future efforts with Photrade! We look forward to our ongoing affiliation with you and your influence as a shareholder and mentor as we go forward.

by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO

The Podango team are getting excited about the opportunity to learn that we are about to dive into as we open our “closed beta” of Podango Press. This bit of work is the third manifestation a fundamental shift in vision our company embraced over one year ago. (The first was the development of our API set, and the second was the release of our embeddable, viral players). That paradigm shift was from a paradigm of Podango as a walled garden, destination site where people would interact around easy-to-create podcast-centric pages to Podango as a set of useful, easy-to-use services and widgets that can enable other points of interaction across the web with rich media.

Our brand is subservient to the brands that are the shows hosted on Podango. We are an enabling set of components, sometimes more closely tied together than others. But, fundamentally, our mission is to make rich media communications easily and affordably distributed and socially interactive both by context and function. That means our technology is enabling content everywhere and anywhere, and can also be reflected through Podango.com.

Back to Podango Press. One of the realizations we have had over the past year is that people struggle to create rich-media capable blogs. They also need a center, or hub, from which to anchor their new media publishing activities that takes advantage of the properties of blogging, while being SEO enabled and rich in new media functionality. Setting up such a blog is hard work and requires way too much expertise most people with expertise in areas other than web development just shouldn’t have to worry about.

Podango Press is based upon WordPress, podPress and a set of themes, plugins, and best practices that the most proficient podcasters and bloggers have taught us how to configure. It is a turnkey service that is designed to make setup and maintenance “stupid proof.” The goal has been to make it easy enough for newbie users, yet complete enough that pros won’t hesitate to embrace and endorse it. We think we are hitting the mark. We look forward to learning the truth about that and making it true.

For those interested in applying to be part of the closed beta, please shoot us an email at beta AT podango.com and grovel and plead your case. We are looking for a variety of users with varying podcasting and blogging prowess, so don’t hesitate to jump in and get really wet with us in figuring out how this product needs to change to meet your/our objectives.

by Lee Gibbons, CEO

We are very excited about the announcements we are making at PNME this year. They not only represent Podango’s overall direction, they reflect where podcasting is going, and they also illustrate leadership in the industry on the part of our wonderful partners. Let me explain.

Our announcement regarding GigaVox is key to our success in assembling a robust platform for hosting audio and video. The GigaVox Audio Lite system is arguably the best new media content management system available today. Married with Podango’s station model and aligned with our product offering in the right way, it will not only give us superior content management, but also expand our product line in very useful and exciting ways. More on that later. But, these types of enabling, time-saving tools will have on how podcasters, podcast consultants, and old-media folks finding their way into podcasting organize and manage their content can be very helpful in improving the quality of content, and that will help grow the industry.

MommyCast’s decision to join Podango and extend their reach with a podcast network based upon our infrastructure is huge for us for several reasons.
1. They are a well established trend setter in the podcasting world.
2. They have chosen us after leaving our top competitor.
3. They are forming a podcast network on our infrastructure, showing other successful podcasters how our model can make that process relatively easy because Podango was built from the ground up to be not just an ad network, but an ad network of podcast networks. This is a key differentiator that makes Podango a preferred choice not only for podcasters but especially for marketers who want to more effectively reach niche audiences. MommyCast will continue to be a flagship for us in showing other podcasters how to do a network on Podango the right way.
4. They will teach us a ton about how to work with podcasters to make them super effective in dealing with marketers/sponsors and helping them build their brands and grow brand enthusiasts.
5. MommyCast is one of the top podcasts that actually breaks out of the geek bubble. (No offense to those we love who do tech podcasts or podcasts that appeal to the more technical folks) I just think this is key for the podcasting industry’s growth. And, having a complete podcast network formed around content that appeals to families extends that goodness.
6. The influence of MommyCast will raise all boats on the Podango network, not just Podango itself.
7. We are learning a ton from these bright, capable women! Not only about podcasting but about how to conduct business in a classy, down-to-business, fun way.

The impact that well-formed, well-run networks will have on the industry is important.

Launching Girls Gone Geek, a tech show by women for women that I view a mix between The View and Motor Cycle Maintenance, represents another key milestone for Podango that extends the success we have enjoyed with Scott’s Apple Phone Show. This show is “owned” by Podango as a Podango Production. And this one, uses one is built by one of our bright, rising stars, Staci DeGagne. This young woman, if she doesn’t mind me referring to her that way (she just graduated from film school, and she is young enough to be my daughter), is the show’s producer, and I’m telling you she is going to go places and do things. And I really like the chemistry of the team of women she as assembled. Each brings a unique twist and view to the show. i think it will do really well. And, again, this illustrates that the industry is morphing slowly in the direction of the pragmatic. These women talk shop. They cover not just tech news but the intersection between women’s lives and technology from a practical, very applied perspecive–or should I say, perspecives. I love it.

Finally, but certainly not least importantly, FarPoint Media joining Podango represents what we hope is a fulfillment of our primary value proposition: Podcasters form networks. They produce great content. Podango is the ideal infrastructure for them to use to manage their content and revenue flow as they grow their network. I have joked with Michael Mennenga that while have have been out building the infrastructure for the vision of Podango, he actually went out and lived it. He, Jefferey Willerth and Summer Brooks, along with their great team of podcasters, have created the social and financial structure that is a podcast network in the grandest sense. They actually have caused us to expose, for the first time, the top layer of our infrastructure: a Network Layer. (Now don’t let the terminology confuse you. Podango is made up of Networks that contain Stations, and each Station contains several shows.) FarPoint Media is now a Podango-hosted Network. Within that network they have 13 stations, each serving a niche market. Basically, Podango’s unique network, station, show, and monetization model attracted them and we are building a solid relationship of trust.

I will write more as we continue the roll-out of our announcements this week.

I hope you get my point. The podcast industry is changing into something very different than where it has been for the past three or so years. I believe that change is significant, although gradual. It is a change for the better, in the direction of pragmatics and better quality. It is really not a revolution but a bit of natural market evolution that is bringing podcasting into the realm where no one will recognize it as podcasting. More people will see it just as a new way of getting old media shows and a great way to find information they are interested in, along with the old media stuff. It is just going to be audio or video, when and where and how they want it. They may or may not call it a podcast. Why should they? It is just a show. It is just a show they love. The stuff does have to be distributed very effectively and cost efficiently. That is what we do.

I am having a blast watching it evolve.

Here is a sample of the Embedded Player

Pretty slick, no?

By the way the content of the player is the newest episode of The Latest at Podango. Give it a listen!

by Lee Gibbons, CEO

We are really happy to announce that the player you are seeing on our home page and throughout our site is our new embedded Flash player. It can be embedded anywhere you have rights to embed it in an HTML Page: on your blog, your web site, etc.

To get the embed code, just click the Menu button to get to the Share button. Click that and you will see code for embedding either the full Show (all episodes) or just the episode in the player at the moment.

Special thanks to Shae Petersen for his awesome work on this!

by Lee Gibbons CEO

I was pleased to see that Rob Walch of podCast411 felt it important to correct his blog post and change it to reflect much more accurately where Podango stands on hijacking feeds. He first titled the post “Podango Hijacks Feeds.” Then, upon learning that what he was seeing as clear evidence of same was really a bug, he downgraded his rhetoric to “Podango’s Bad UI Hijacks Feeds.” Now, I see that the title of the post is “Podango’s Bad choices caused lots of pain to user.” I think this is a much more accurate reflection of what is so.

Upon making this change, Rob has also issued this update at the beginning of the post:

Update #2: I have crossed out references to Evil and Malicous as it does look to be an issue of “Don’t blame on Malice what can easily be explained by ….”

Let me complete the quote for Rob, who is basically calling us either incompetent or stupid, depending upon which version of the saying he is quoting.

We are neither. We have responded remarkably well and on the high road to his original admittedly mistaken and unfounded attack on our integrity and now on our competence.
It is just too bad. I have lost some respect for Rob through this situation.

For Ginger Campbell, on the other hand, I have gained greater respect. She has admitted her error and allowed us to say that we were a part of it. She helped me understand that the error I am referring to here actually was NOT part of the reason Rob asserted that we are evil. It was as she suggests, a very separate situation. Due to timing, it did turn out to have a compounding effect of masking our understanding and not reacting as quickly to the actual issue of one of our engineers leaving a temporary redirect tag in our RSS code.

She sent a very kind, supportive email message to Shalon Ironroad acknowledging that Shalon had done everything she could throughout the resolution of these issues. She also had a very open and frank conversation with Dout Smith (Podango President and Co-founder) to resolve the issue and come to a common understanding of resolution steps. She was as gracious as one could expect her to be.

So, onward and upward. I expect this to be the last anyone should need to say about a situation. My take-away from it all is that it might have been handled much more gracefully, and professionally all the way around: Quicker, more precise response on our part. Less rash, more balanced, responses on Rob’s part. As for Ginger, unfortunately caught in the middle, to you again we express our sincere regrets and also our thanks for making us better at what we do.

by Lee Gibbons, CEO
Today Rob Walch, a friend, very capable podcaster, and leader in the podcasting community, latched onto a story that on its face looks like good, juicy news about Podango being evil and maliciously hijacking the feed of one of our valued customers, and posted about it in his blog.
Gratefully, Paul Colligan gave me a heads up, allowing me to participate in this important conversation. (Thank you, Paul.)

Regrettably, Rob, who has been great about advising Podango and participating with us at events such as our Podcasting Unconfernce at PME ‘06, chose not to call or email to try to gain an understand of the whole picture or to confirm his assertion that we are evil and malicious. Hopefully, the response I posted in a comment on his blog will help him, and you, understand the facts and help to remedy the damage done by his post. I applaud Rob for looking out for podcasters and defending Ginger in this situation. Our community needs that. But I hope he will be equally fair as he better understands our actions and the facts.

Here is what I posted there, simultaneos to this post.

First, thanks to Paul Colligan for giving me a heads up about this post and series of comments. Also thanks to Rob for providing such a forum for the podcasting community.

Secondly, an open statement that Podango does not lock people in by using the type of methods Rob accuses us of here. We provide instructions that simply allow users to redirect their RSS traffic to Podango so that we can include their pocasts in stations with minimal efforts on their part and provide them with advertising revenues by stitching short, pre and post-roll ads on their content, just like what is enabled by PodTrack, GigaVox, Kiptronic and others. We never go out and maliciously take people’s feeds and lock them into our service. If the directions we provide for feed redirects are followed, things go smoothly. When anyone wants to leave Podango, we go out of our way to help them redirect their feed, including the Podango feed, to any other universal locator they choose.

Now, to, you, Ginger, since you have brought this matter into a public forum, which is your right and perhaps obligation to do, I feel a real need to reply and help clarify this situation.

I openly acknowledge that you are experiencing difficulties with your feeds since redirecting them to Podango. Please acknowledge that we ARE actively and diligently working and communicating with you to resolve the issue.

I do feel you have not accurately and openly represented the facts here. So, I am sure you will understand my pointing out what you are perhaps unaware of or chose not to share here in this forum:

1. You have been party to every step of the redirection of your feeds. You voluntarily and honestly attempted to follow our instructions and wound up in this unfortunate position. Podango did not hijack your feed or do anything willingly you did not consent to. With that said, we are also actively working to meet your request to aid you in reversing your choice.
2. You made an honest mistake in the manner in which you redirected your feed from within your Libsyn and Podnago
accounts. This error, the failure to follow a key final step in the process as documented caused your listeners to be directed to Podango in a manner that caused our system to throw errors and not deliver your content to your users as it should have.
3. Upon becoming aware of the situation, which took place over a weekend, we responded to your email messages and you have subsequently had conversations with one of our support people, whom I am sure you will agree was professional, helpful, and kind, and we have rolled back and hand-manipulated database records to restore things to a healthy state.
4. We have put additional safeguards in place to help our system respond to and prevent this error condition in the future. We have also reviewed our document and made it more clear as to the vital nature of the step you skipped.
5. Independent of this post, and previous to receiving Paul’s email this a.m., I met for an hour with my team yesterday reviewing what we need to do to reset your feeds back to the state you were at prior to this honest mistake on your part and our admitted systematic mishandling of it.
6. We have scheduled a call with you for this morning to understand this general request more specifically. This call will take place between you, Doug Smith (Podango co-founder and operations lead) and Shalon Ironroad (our support rep who has patiently and kindly supported you through out this mishap).

Finally, I want you to know again of our sincere apology for this mishap. We will remedy the situation to your satisfaction, and will support your request to help you restore your settings in Feedburner and LibSyn.

Rob,

Thanks again for being a friend. Your participation in our initial development of Podango, at the Unconference PME event, and your ongoing advice has been helpful. Once again, you have helped us improve. We regret that you have chosen to characterize this situation as you have and hope you will also follow through and help the community understand that we are neither evil nor malicious. As always, you would have been welcome to call and discuss this and get some clarification, but you were probably just extremely busy, as usual.

Sincere, best regards, Rob.

Lee Gibbons
CEO, Podango

lee@podango.com

P.S. I have also posted this on http://podango.com/blog/

by Lee Gibbons, CEO
Scott Bourne, President of Podango Productions and host of the popular Apple Phone Show on Podango, got some fun press, which isn’t new, just interesting because of the story I had heard but hadn’t seen printed about him throwing his Treo into the SF Bay. This article by Julio Ojeda-Zapata of Pioneer Press appeared on Twin-Cities.com. Here is the excerpt:

“It’s your iPod,” says Bryan Brignac, of Minneapolis. “It’s your computer. It’s your map. It’s your datebook. It’s your life in the palm of your hand.”

It’s a device some hope will make their lives easier. Scott Bourne got so disgusted with his misbehaving cell phone - a Palm Treo - recently that, on an impulse, he skimmed it across the San Francisco Bay. “I wanted to see if it would skip like a rock,” he said. “It went three times before sinking.”

Bourne is hoping an iPhone will eliminate those headaches. “The reason I’m so excited about the iPhone is my hope and expectation that Apple will perform as it does with other” hardware, such as iPods and Macintosh computers famed for their elegance and ease of use, said the former St. Paulite, now a San Francisco tech executive and host of the new “Apple Phone Show” podcast.

Knowing Scott as I do, this story made me laugh. He isn’t a guy given to fits of rage. He probably acted on impulse, but I guarantee he got much more glee out of seeing the Treo skim across the water than he from seeing it go for around US$100.00 on eBay.

I would go throw my Treo 600 into the Great Salt Lake, but I don’t want to lose it from my small museum of cell phones that chronicles my cell phone use since 1992. I am in line for the new iPhone. It will mean switching carriers (I have been with Sprint for seven of my fifteen years of cell phone use.). It may also mean that I change my mind about my Treo and the Great Salt Lake, too.

by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO

(above: The Studio, Leo)

Merlin Mann (43 Folders and a million other cool things) was in the studios in SF yesterday recording a new MacBreak Weekly and put up some nice photos on his Flickr account. Thanks, Merlin.

Other really great things are happening with the Studio as well. Not the least of which is that Scott Bourne has give birth to The Apple Phone Show, now #6 in iTunes Store Tech Podcasts.
We are also generating a steady stream of business that is building each week, clients of every shape, size, and purpose are finding out about the studio and seeking more information about how we can help them succeed in their new media efforts. It is gratifying to us that people get that we get it. When they visit the studio, it becomes very clear that we have begun to separate ourselves in good ways from other podcast services providers. I guess is means even more when you read the last post, then this one, because it isn’t as though everything is always roses, either. Just that we are moving steadily forward on multiple fronts.

If you are interested in scheduling a time to see the studio, please shoot us an email (info AT podango.com) or comment here.