New Technologies for New Media

This has been a busy technology news week for 'new media' devices, platforms, and services. 

Here are several that are worth mentioning:

I listened to the Engadget Podcast listed above.  There is good info in it about future products from SanDisk and iRiver.


Podcast Growth Analysis

There is a new study (PDF) from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that has some interesting U.S. Internet user stats based on their analysis and survey data with regards to podcasting:

  • 12% have downloaded a podcast for listening
  • 1% download podcasts on a daily basis
  • 15% of the downloading is done by men; 8% by women

This Aug. 2006 survey also tracked ages, income level, technical capabilities, and Internet connectivity; with each area pretty much showing growth since the last survey in Feb-Apr. 2006.

I wonder if the number of daily downloads is low because users of tools like iTunes don't realize that everyday by default, iTunes will do an update?

The good news is that awareness of podcasts continues to grow and listener growth across the medium is increasing.

 

In addition, the coverage of this report has been pretty widespread: PC Advisor, BizReport, smh.au, DigitalPodcast, Playfuls, BBC, SeattlePI, and JordanFalls.

 


Portable Devices The Target Of Many InfoSec Plans & Policies

Portable media devices definitely have a mainstream purpose of enabling consumption of new media, but within business and government organizations they can be a real threat to information security, especially the infiltration of vulnerabilities and exfiltration of propriety or confidential data.

Here are two links of potential interest on this topic: contractoruk.com, and infosecnews.org.

The growing trend from an information technology (IT) management perspective is that more and more enterprise systems will be locked down to dis-allow personal portable devices from being hooked up, and to some degree maybe all personal portable devices will be physically banded completely from work environments.


November 2006 Orange County (OC) Podcasters Meetup

The next Orange County (OC) Podcasters Meetup is going to be Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at Corpus Christi of Aliso Viejo (27231 Aliso Viego Pkwy, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656) starting at 6:30 PM.

I am not sure if my schedule will let me make this months meeting from San Diego given that I have a late afternoon meeting on Wednesday and traffic is always so joyful going up the I-5 coastal route.


GoFish Not Playing Around In The Video Marketplace

Online user-generated video provider GoFish Technologies has announced a new consolidated business operating naming strategy, finalized leadership appointments, a stock-for-stock merger, and $12 million in private placement stock and warrants financing.

GoFish reports having hundreds of millions of videos watched over the last two years, and is also producing and distributing their own original series called "America's Dream Date" (which after watching for a few minutes you might want to hurl like I did).

There is definitely some value in these online video sites ... or Google would not have purchased YouTube.  But at some point, there can only be so many because frankly if the Internet has shown us anything is that we have a low attention span, and attention (ie. via ad revenue) is all that matters for those trying to make revenue.


Google Purchases Wiki Tool Provider JotSpot

JotSpot has announced that they have been acquired by Google.  JotSpot is a popular for fee scalable Wiki service provider who will be moving into a traditional Google free but ad supported business model after this purchase.

You can expect this Google's purchase will mean increased integration of 'wiki like' collaboration services across their current product line which will make for a compelling solutions for distributed groups working online together.


Linking Bands To Potential Concert Goers Via Podcasts

Kiptronic and IODA have announced a new parternship to help connect the dots for bands performing in a specific geographical region with podcasters who provide content targetted for the same region that the band is planning to be performing in.

The only down side to this in my humble opinion (IMHO) is that bands would in theory only get access to 'Kiptronic friendly or associated podcasts.'  Which will be a yet to be determined slice of all podcasts available for a geographic area, and thus potentially limiting in scope and coverage.

That being said, it is a great idea.  I hope it get some traction.


PodZinger Has New Revenue Plan For Podcasts

CNET News.com is reporting that PodZinger has a new plan to share ad revenue with podcasters that would allow PodZinger to make transcripts of their podcasts, and then feed them into the search engine world for discovery. 

The idea is pretty simple, the ads on your transcript pages that are visited would in theory generate revenue which would then be shared between Podzinger as host/transcriptionist and yourself as content provider.


GoDaddy & Podtract Turn To French Maid TV For New Content

French Maid TV has created a new custom four-minute video podcast for GoDaddy.com that demonstrates how to register a domain name with GoDaddy.com.

This effort is also part of a collaboration with Podtrac, a podcasting advertising firm, which notes:

"... French Maid TV audience sizes rivals that of many of cable TV audiences. Each new episode of French Maid TV spikes to the top of the iTunes 100. Podtrac's Measurement Services have determined that the French Maid TV audience is predominantly 18-34 year old males and 82 percent watch each new episode, with 35 percent watching twice. Also, 78 percent of the audience has shopped online in the past 30 days, with 36 percent spending more than $800 online in the past 12 months."

Source: WebHostDirectory