by cameron | Aug 24, 2006 | Melbourne, Podcast, Uncategorized
b5 Media’s Duncan Riley (no relation) just pointed me to Evan Williams’ recently post on a list of podcast sites, ranked by Alexa ranking. Evan somehow managed to completely ignore TPN. Perhaps he’s never heard of us. I’ll have to get my marketing team to send him a parcel of flowers or something.
For the record, here’s our Alexa ranking (32,450) and it would put us just above John Furrier (and Robert Scoble’s) PodTech on Evan’s list. Evan says of PodTech:
They snagged $5.5 million in March of this year. From what I understand, PodTech is mostly a content company, and there are a lot of other content podcasting companies I didn’t include on this list. But PodTech is probably the most significant one and has had a lot of press with things like the hiring of Robert Scoble.
I guess we were one of the companies he decided to ignore. Gee, thanks Evan. PodTech may have more money (about $5.5 million more) and a much higher profile employee than TPN but we have a higher Alexa ranking (for what that’s worth… it doesn’t pay the bills and I can’t eat it). But they are great guys. I met John in NY late last year at Steve Gillmor’s after party for the Guidewire Groups’ BlogOn 2005 conference and he seemed like a very nice bloke. And Scoble and I go way back to my Microsoft days. He did his first podcast on TPN and we were very grateful for the promotion he did of us in the process.
Speaking of the Guidewire Group, I had the pleasure of having a couple of drinks with Chris Shipley in Melbourne earlier this week. Chris is one of the co-founders of Guidewire and the Executive Producer of the DEMO Conferences. Chris was introducing me to Viki Forrest, the CEO of ANZAtech. We had a great chat about podcasting and why Australian technology start-ups need to move to the USA. If I had my time over again, I would have packed up and moved to the USA a year ago rather than try to build TPN out of Australia. The climate in the USA for investment in a business like this is much stronger than the climate in a technology backwater like Australia. It’s a sad indictment on the Australian investment climate but there it is. Right now I’m of a pretty firm mindset to pack up my mic and headphones and make the move later this year. Anyone got a couch I can bunk down on for a few months?
by cameron | Aug 24, 2006 | Uncategorized
It’s been a month since I’ve been able to do a show with Father Bob Maguire but I managed to squeeze one in tonight and it was a ripper. [audio:http://fatherbob.thepodcastnetwork.com/audio/tpn_fatherbob_20060824_034.mp3]
by cameron | Aug 24, 2006 | Melbourne, Podcast, Uncategorized
Have you seen this new track by Weird Al (does this guy ever die??) – Don’t Download This Song? It’s pretty naff but diggity. TPN’s Daniel K has the details over on Box Office Weekly. Dan’s also running some funny commentary about Tom Cruise’s kick in the ass by Sumner Redstone and wants to know if this is the first move by studios to start firing the A List stars who cost more money each year while box office receipts are dropping. If you are interested in the world of the business of movies you should listen to Dan’s podcast, he’s always got some great insights into what’s going on. Here’s the iTunes link to the show.
A couple of nights ago Ben Barren, Darren Rowse and I spoke at an AIMIA event in Melbourne about Business Blogging. Thanks to Keren Flavell for setting it up. TPN listener Cait was there and caught a few seconds of video of me ranting about why blogging and podcasting is a responsibility. Check it out here.
So, what have I been doing? Maaaate, I’ve been busy.
Did you all check out the podcasts series that I did with Andrew Pegler and WDG for RealEstate.com.au? Check them out here, especially if you’re looking for some tips and tricks on buying or selling real estate.
I also did a video podcast for Genesys’ G-Force event last week, that’ll be up in the next few days hopefully.
Ewan’s Edinburgh Fringe podcast is kicking ass. This is the biggest thing we’ve EVER had on TPN, I just wish it wasn’t on for only one month a year. But I bet Ewan’s happy it is, he’s the hardest working man in podcasting at the moment. I think it’s going to do a hundred thousand downloads this month alone. Huge. He’s got some great interviews up there as well, including one I heard today with a comedian called Omar Marzouk who is from Denmark, born to Egyptian parents, doing a show at the Fringe about terrorism. I’d love to see it.
I’m up in the Gold Coast on Monday talking at the PANPA conference. PANPA is The Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association. I’m on a panel with Mark Jones from the AFR talking about blogging and podcasting (what else?).
Oh and I’m also doing some consulting in the software space again. There’s a great company called TwoConnect based out of Miami who are BizTalk gurus. They are doing some work for a client in Australia on a pretty huge project and have asked me to help out with some stuff.
And I just listened to a great podcast from the TED conference by Jimmy Wales, the guy behind Wikipedia. Brilliant talk, you have to listen to it.
by cameron | Aug 20, 2006 | Podcast, singularity
About
a week ago on this blog I mentioned that I’d just read an amazing book called “The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect” (aka MOPI). Today on the show I’m very excited to have the author of that book, Roger Williams. Roger talks to me from his home in New Orleans about the genesis of the book, why it has never been published, the sequel he’s writing, his other fiction, the Singularity, and what life is like in New Orleans 12 months after Hurricane Katrina.
Get MOPI here
Find Roger’s other fiction here
Read up on “The Singularity” and what others are saying about it
Listen to my interview with Ray Kurzweil from late 2005
Read up on Eliezer Yudkowsky who you’ll hear Roger mention a few times
by cameron | Aug 17, 2006 | Podcast, Uncategorized
I’m exhausted. Damn it’s been busy. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I’m working on a bunch of projects at the moment, from capital raising for TPN, through to some podcast consulting projects, software consulting stuff, and other stuff I just can’t talk about. Fair to say I’ve got more plates spinning than I really should have – but at least life isn’t boring.
Here’s a link to the story on hosting providers in case you missed Tuesdays’ Age/SMH.
I know G’Day World’s been a bit quiet lately, but that’s because my days are so full. I’ve got a couple of shows scheduled over the next few days, a couple of interviews with authors that I hope you’ll enjoy.
Meanwhile, Ewan’s Edinburgh Fringe podcast is going insane. It’s on the front page of iTunes in the UK and is getting lots of promotion from The Stage (our sponsors) as well as the official Edinburgh Fringe website. If you haven’t checked out any of the shows yet, I highly recommend you head on over there.
If you’ve sent me email over the last couple of weeks and I haven’t answered it yet, please don’t be alarmed. I’ll get to ya. Just struggling to get to everything at the moment.
