msb-0103 Collaboration Is Key.

msb-0103 Collaboration Is Key.

Feedback comes first, so...

I held a test interview with Allison Reynolds (for the link disabled, that's at http://www.netxperiment.com/ ) to make sure that our equipment was compatible, that software at my end was entirely functional (Audio Hijack Pro [for the link disabled, that's at http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/ ] is one sophisticated but incredibly easy-to-use piece of software!) and after dealing with some technical issues, we're getting something happening.

Look for that in an upcoming episode. She was charming and gracious.

I'm not going to bug him about it but MDMHvonPA should be working on his roundup of the blog-o-sphere. (I go there myself, but not as often as I'd like. This podcast eats up a lot of my time, and I've got a lot of other things on my plate, like finding another client [or another job, which I'd rather not do,] all of which takes a lot of schmoozing and face time)

I'm carrying on a debate, nay an intellectual exercise, with a guy who's pissed off at ebay. (There's nothing as sobering as the realization that I may be an ass-hole. Then again, maybe not... :-)

---- One Day In New York City by: Atomica

Feedforward comes next, so ...

First, I've discovered Jooly's Joint, (for the non-iTunes link disabled, that's at http://www.mswebpals.org/ ,) courtesy of the BBC Ouch! Podcast, (again for the non-iTunes link disabled, that's at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch ).

Its a British web site, (though it has some, heck, a lot of, Americans in there.) Its sub-titled "People With MS Supporting Each Other."

I've reached out to Jooly by email to see if she'd like to do an interview about why she started the site, its successes (and maybe its failures, [uh, strike that. Like in project management and job interviews, there are "no failures", only "learning opportunities".])

Next is "Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything." by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, ISBN: 978-1-59184-138-8, is a phenomenal book.

It explained what I was doing that seemed to work and what I had done that was just not getting any traction.

What was impressive was that I was able to "grok" why some things worked and some things just wont ... ever.

Its not that my goal was entirely wrong but my timing and approach weren't going to work until I had the right "people pool" to swim in.

It explained things about how people are using technology to reinvent the web, the work place and themselves from the bottom up and finding way to get things accomplished in the face of reality.

Being a technophile myself. I'm doing pretty well. Some of this stuff has been around for years (wikis for one, podcasts for another, blogs for yet another,) and I've been lucky to be an early adopter for a lot of it.

People who aren't technophiles are doing what they need to to accomplish things.

The book provides lots of examples, and the reasons why the adoption of simple data manipulation tools are working in ways never anticipated by the tools creators.

The book gives examples of small humble beginnings that led to great things. (Like ebay, Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Linux, (the LAMP stack,) IBM's changes over the past decade, wikis, open APIs, Sun Microsystems, yaddah, yaddah.)

For all its shortness, its only a few hundred pages, it manages to cover a lot of ground and convey a lot of information.

---- New York is Burning by: Camelia Ashbach

Right now the content producers on this train wreck of a podcast are MDMHvonPA with the Roundup, Allison Reynolds with an interview, and "moi" with my blathering.

I will be sending them a part of my revenue (when I finally get some,) for the number of times the episode featuring them gets downloaded.

The expenditure part of podcasting, as an enterprise, is based a remunerative model to thank them for being on the show and telling me what's happening in their respective bailiwick. And if any of "you" have something to contribute, you'll get the same remuneration. As MSBPodcast grows, so do the opportunities.)

The revenue part of podcasting, as an enterprise, comes from the number of times a particular "commercial" gets downloaded.

Since its a "pull model," instead of the current, "in-your-face, eating-up-the-clock, push model" of advertising, my rates are going to seem outrageous to the unconnected.

I figure $3.00 per download of the ad and $0.03 per "reminder" per download of an episode.

Because of the focus of this podcast, it compare quite favorably to what other things are out there for the advertisers.

---- New York Winter by: Dorian Spencer

MDMHvonPA is an MSer. He's great with blogging and I should support his efforts in the blog-o-sphere, instead of pestering him about doing a 'cast with me. (And if I ever see a dime off of this insane venture, he should [will, will, I gotta keep a proper, positive mental attitude] uh, will see some of that dime.)

Allison Reynolds is another MSer. She had Skype and didn't mind doing an interview using it. But she's into raising her million bucks and I won't repeat the pestering I did with MDMH. Not to mention that she's in a radically different time zone, like seven hours ago, tomorrow.

---- A German in New York by: Monika Herzig

I am putting together:

• a rate sheet (plan ahead, you can always change it later,) for carrying the episodes (their ads) on my server and
• a rate sheet for carrying "remiders" on my casts to the ad episodes.

Because the show content stays "evergreen", we can keep ads around forever and the "reminders" can stick around around forever too.

Every download of an "ad" episode, whenever it happens, brings MSBPodcast $3.00. Every download of a "reminder" in an episode brings MSBPodcast $0.03.

By measuring the difference in downloads stats from one month to the next, I can bill the companies for the number of "ad" downloads for that month. (The relationship is "one-to-one", meaning that every download went to every person who asked for it.)

By measuring the difference in download stats from one month to the next, I can bill the companies for the number of "reminder" downloads for that month, where they were featured on one of my episodes. (The relationship is "many-to-many" meaning many shows can feature many reminders.)

This beats the heck out of the broadcast advertising model which merely pushes ad content at a possible audience, who are quite possibly not interested, not paying attention, or in the crapper or doing their toes at that very moment. (And, in broadcasting, if you're not there, you missed it, [and the ad missed you.])

---- I Heart New York by: Sudden Death

Because no plan ever survives contact with reality, I'm hoping you are willing to help me test something out.

The following link is to a five minute test episode, MSB-0046, (for the non-iTunes link disabled, that's at "http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/msb-0046_Berlex_trial_balloon.m4v" ) and see if you can download it and play it.

Then email me what happened. Please.

Its important that you all do.