I’ll check out this new one, too.

PS: I’ve also started my own podcast, which has totally taken off. In the first three days, I’ve already got 250+ listeners! It’s called Musikothek and you can find on my blog.

I set the links wrong in that last post. I should have said that on yesterday’s Rocketboom there was an interview with Dave Winer. Since Dave was important in developing the concept of blogging, I should get these things right!

My link is
http://www.washingtontravelcast.com. It is actually the link under my name.

And I agree with Dave. Olympic athletes are (at least nominally) athletes, they are hardly not as good as “professional” athletes. The same can be said anywhere.

Podcasting is amateur media, though. People do it because they have an interest either in the media or in their topic, or both.

I don’t think that professional media will go away – I think there will always be a place for higher budget media – which podcasting won’t be. The ability to send your reporters to wherever in the globe an issue occurs, or to maintain bureaus in those places, is something individual podcasters can’t do – which means that people will always be afraid of holes (although one wonders if a community wiki- type organization might evolve for amateur news fiends who can podcast from all over the globe) and get some commercial media.

BUT, I see the role of professional media diminishing, much like networks did when cable boomed.

Interestingly, Dave, by your definitions you are BOTH an amateur AND a professional magician. Those are usually understood as mutually exclusive, although my Olympic athletes also blur this line.

Julie

And, on the other hand, no, I’m not a professional podcaster. I have yet to make (serious) money from The Word Nerds. This is most people’s definition of a professional.

I’m a professional magician, because I do it almost always for money. (If I don’t do it for money, I have my own research-and-development reasons to perform.) Many (perhaps most) magicians who create new material tend to be amateurs. They are more free to be creative because they are not burdened with having to manage a performing career (which really is a small business).

So I’m proud to be an amateur podcaster. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

And when I talk about the “amateurization of the media,” this is what I mean: that people’s reason for doing it is not money, primarily.

Let’s face it, so far, there isn’t any money to be made from podcasting per se.

@Julie: sure “amateur” or as I like to call it, independent media is better. Look at Ask a Ninja and Tiki Bar TV – I’ve never had so much and been so entertained by mainstream media. And The Word Nerds is edutainment at its best. I mean it. I’ve never learnt so much from another podcast, except for maybe BBC’s In Our Time.

Can you paste a link to your podcast? I’m interested.

@Dave: don’t you think podcating should be interactive like blogging too? I haven’t been recently with your podcast and I don’t think it’s as much fun being a passive listener. The ability to affect the media and content in such a direct way is one of the things that’s going to make podcasting and blogging success over standardized newspaper articles and radio.

(have a look at the long tail blog, it’s related to what we’re talking about)

I have been listening to a LOT of travel podcasts since we started ours up. I started with the names I knew like Rick Steves and Lonely Planet. These are professionally produced shows that are on radio then repackaged as podcasts. In the last week I’ve begin listening to “the Amateur Traveler” which is currently one of my favorite podcasts. This guy has great content, is very interesting. Not as polished as NPR but really great!.

Your cast is another case in point. It’s easily as good as many of the shows on the radio – hey you guys definitely have the Car Guys on NPR licked!

And podcasting lets you choose. If you don’t like it you just turn it off, delete the mp3.

It’s all very exciting.