December 2nd, 2006
So the announcement I’ve been waiting to make for about six months now finally went out tonight: we’re closing the BritCaster forums. The discussions will remain available for a couple of weeks to give people a chance to discuss new ideas, create possible new collaborations, and, sadly, also let off more negative steam at us [...]
October 15th, 2006
In my day to day conversations with UK podcast producers and talent - at least those who are already producing within the space - the question I most frequently get asked goes along the lines of: “If I sign an agreement, does Podshow own my podcast?”.
Podshow has a policy of not discussing the finer points [...]
September 10th, 2006
From those quiet days of standup comedy…
“So how do you think that went?” &
“Don’t take it too personally”
Matt Blaize following my worst gig ever at GSOH, Cranleigh.
“Oh really? What are you doing, like… what sort of stuff?”
Ross Noble after being ambushed in the Pleasance courtyard. Perhaps he thought I was stealing his stuff.
“If [...]
September 8th, 2006
There are very few people in the world who a take an instinctive dislike to - I’m talking on a deep level here, not superficial. In the process of exploring the psychology behind one such instinctive reaction - people are fascinating, good or bad - I discovered a great deal about myself.
A few years ago [...]
September 2nd, 2006
The take-up of new listeners to podcasting is, according to survey sources earlier this year, about to surge, yet the number of new independent podcasts appearing is on a definite lull right now.If you fancy putting together a podcast, here are specific areas where there is very little competition in the UK for niche audiences (in no particular order).SportFootball and F1 are covered, but where are Cricket, Rugby, Rallying, Tennis?… There’s a whole wealth of subjects here which are simply not covered by independent podcasts, and very little by commercial ones.Health & FitnessWe are apparently rapidly catching up with the US on the size of our butts, so fitness and health are areas we should have covered.FinanceThere have to be some money experts out there who want to reach out and give advice to the growing millions buried in growing debt.
July 17th, 2006
If everyone used accurate and relevant email subjects all would be well, but life is never that good.Tagging an items, be it an email, a file, a folder, with metadata offers a world of opportunity to organise, categorise and find what you want, when you want it - and filter out all the other irrelevant stuff. In OSX you can easily do this in the Finder by creating Spotlight comment tags (Quicksilver - yes, it’s way more than a launcher - can help you organise and apply these) or using a application such as SpotMeta.Email, however, relise on creating complex sorting and filtering rules and to group information together effectively, the moving of messages between different mailboxes - even OSX Mail’s Smart Mailboxes are not quite enough on their own.
June 14th, 2006
Well finally, a month and a half after they said they would announce, Golconda Films dropped me a brief email to say that my screenplay, Sever, didn’t make the short list…. The pure creative surge of constructing something from nothing, creating people, situations, stories far outweighs the sometimes tortuous process of hammering 100 pages of limb wrenching mayhem.
April 30th, 2006
That idea festered a great deal of frustration resulting in what came over as little more than abuse of Britcaster users and UK podcasters in general.That got me thinking about the past conversations on what Britcaster really is and the problems caused by a misunderstanding of its remit…. The precise descriptive word might not yet be available, but whatever it turns out to be called, I expect people will still come to their own conclusions and grasp whatever end of sticks they want.
April 16th, 2006
In the past few days since the word going out about Adam Curry wanting to meet UK podcasters and my well timed Skype interview with him (to be available soon), I have now had five conversations - yes five, of varying degrees of seriousness and intensity - asking when Britcaster.com will ’sell out’ in some way to a London, UK division of Podshow Inc. Astonishing.This could be a result of Britcaster.com having absolutely no direct commercial intent whatsoever - a concept so alien to many that there is an assumption that there must be some hidden profit plan somewhere…. Perhaps there are comparisons being made with Podshow’s acquisition of PodcastAlley some time ago, but not only was (and is) PodcastAlley infinitely more active a community, it also had an existing revenue stream and was clearly aligning itself for making profit.The only potential value Britcaster.com has to Podshow is a PR stunt to boost the positive perception of being part of the UK podcasting space.
March 30th, 2006
During my limited time in the low end of the standup comedy circuit, I met so many aspiring comedians using their performance as some form of therapy, one or two even under the direct suggestion of their therapist: the mask of the clown often fronts a troubled soul. Could the same be said for podcasters?In the broader sense I do not think so, but here and there you will find the kind of content which suggests something more behind the mask.
