Orange Flavored Podcasts

I'm so glad I finally got the chance to make it to an Orange County Podcasters Meetup last night. Great group of folks, lots to chew over and learn. Like that "podcast" is in the OED (and so apparently, appropriately enough, is "meatspace"), Podcast Pickle is one hot directory, and the Portable Media Expo will be one cool event.

The more I hang out with both, the more I'm stricken by the innate differences between the bloggers and podcasters I meet. For example, I've never known many bloggers to think that if they write a pretty good blog, it's bound to make them money. If money is in the picture at all, the mindset is more "because of," not "with," as Doc Searls succinctly put it. With podcasters though (podcasters who might also happen to blog, as opposed to bloggers who also are podcasters), making money "with" a show is a much more common and comfortable concept. Maybe it's because the whole enterprise is, as Adam Curry often says, more driven by user demand for a better alternative to other audio offerings. (Would that also mean that blogging, though it has its distinct advantages and benefits over available text alternatives, became valuable to readers for reasons other than the same kind of gaping void on the text publishing side? I don't know if I buy that.)

Whatever the precise confluence of reasons, podcasters are confidently saying "show us the money." And who can blame them? [Via Matt May] Well, Jason Calacanis, for one.

Grok Talk

If you'll be in the Berkeley vicinity the evening of September 20, mark your calendars. We'll be presenting a program about the Grokster case in connection with the Haas School of Business, where Greg Beattie and I will be thrilled to be joined by Pamela Sameulson and Hank Barry. Please RSVP as early as possible by emailing Alison Mancinelli at Reed Smith. Registration starts at 6:30 p.m., with the program from 7:00 to 8:30 in the Haas School's Wells Fargo Room.

In Loco Parentis

Bill Maher (from his new book, as plugged on this morning's Today Show; looks like a compilation of the New Rules segments from his show?):

"Get rid of the baby-changing station in the men's room. Let's stop pretending that it has been or ever will be used. You're only tempting a short homeless man to use it as a Murphy bed." (With apologies to my many — ok, four? — progressive and alpha male readers.)

Some corollaries:

• Institutions of higher learning should award PhDs in the abstruse science of laundry management. Recipients to be designated "Sudsis Doctor."


• What nitwit decided bribery should have a negative and/or corrupt connotation? All definitions of the word henceforth to be updated to "distraction therapy."

Audio BlogHer

Ponzi Indharasophang's podcasts from BlogHer comprise the most recent episodes of the Chris Pirillo Show. Here are Part I and Part II.

Giving New Meaning To Inside Baseball

Monica Bay pitches one hot across the plate with Blawg Review 18.