Podcasting with BlogTalkRadio
I love the new BlogTalkRadio. Why? I just call a phone number, +1-646-200-0000, (you can call it too). I record a conversation with my cell phone, and then it builds an RSS feed that points to MP3’s of my conversation. What’s the URL? It is my cell phone’s phone number. No need to sign up. No need to give personal details, or even agree to anything.
This way I can make a podcast whenever I want. Utterz does something similar, but you gotta setup Utterz before you make your phone call. I like frictionless publishing and no signup before you start makes a lot of sense to me.
This came out of an idea that Dave Winer and I had, great way to build an RSS feed.
Here’s some things I recorded the other night.
Shannon Clark is an entrepreneur and a geek and all that and he wrote an interesting blog post explaining what kinds of things he’d like to see added to the OpenSocial API.
In our five-minute audio conversation, we talk about that blog post and what else we’d like to see in OpenSocial and Facebook and what kind of standards we’d like to see surrounding our privacy, too.
Sanford Dickert is a blogger and entrepreneur who lives in New York. In our 1:42 minute conversation he tells me about Power.com, a service that adds a layer on top of other social networks, he says that this service is awesome.
Thanks to BlogTalkRadio for making this happen.
Photo credit: Sanford Dickert took the photos of me and Shannon Clark.
Powered By 
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Caption for #1: “Of course I will! This is the happiest day of my life!!!!”
Sorry, Robert, couldn’t resist.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
[...] Scoble is really into the BlogTalkRadio zero-config podcast tool. That’s so cool. Scoble is a useful [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
This sounds pretty cool, except I wouldn’t want my cell phone number to be public.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Is that the night you proposed?
;-)
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Robert,
Thanks for the post and I am glad you are enjoying our new application. We have lots of new features and enhancements to the API which we will be put out there for everyone to play with.
I want to thank Dave Winer for pushing us in this direction. We understand Telecom inside and out, but we need to listen and learn from you, Dave and the rest with regards to the API.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I wish someone would do this with Skype, for those who aren’t in US
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:20 am
Holy crap, that’s awesome.
Period.
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
All this podcasting, be like hippie poetry writers, whole lotta blubber, without anyone listening.
Not just content to hear yourself talk, you have to broadcast it. I am sure some of the cult finds value in noise-filled tiny-speaker cell-phone convos, but this is an extreme waste, as speed of distribution isn’t the issue, quality of content is.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Christopher: mostly I want to remember the interesting conversations I have, and get down people’s thoughts about how they would like to see the world improved. One of the conversations on this post told me about a cool new Web service. Another told me about what he’d like to see happen in OpenSocial.
Compare to your “broadcast” where you just attack other people.
Which has more value? It’s funny that you just did what you accused others of.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Christopher -
“All this podcasting, be like hippie poetry writers, whole lotta blubber, without anyone listening.”
If nobody’s listening, then you’ve got nothing to complain about.
“Not just content to hear yourself talk, you have to broadcast it. I am sure some of the cult finds value in noise-filled tiny-speaker cell-phone convos, but this is an extreme waste, as speed of distribution isn’t the issue, quality of content is.”
The quality isn’t so hot, yeah, but if you’re in a spot you’re unlikely to find yourself in again, and if you want to share it, I’d say there’s value in doing it this way even if it doesn’t sound like it was produced in a half-million dollar studio.
I was also thinking about other uses - I brainstorm while driving because I find focusing on the road boring. There are times when I wish I had a way to take down what I’m thinking.
I used to carry around a pocket-sized WAV/MP3 recorder, but, although the quality was excellent, the software to pull the files was awful.
This service would work perfectly well for this - taking down thoughts when it’s inconvenient to write them down. I sometimes text a summary to myself, but it’s time-consuming and it’s hard to include the details.
So, you don’t even have to share the files with anyone - set the thing up for yourself and use it as a free memo recorder.
For that reason alone, I’m setting up an account. If I decide I want to actually podcast with it, then that option is obviously open.
One thing geeks are good at is finding the value in tech that isn’t readily apparent - the creators have one intent, and the geek finds another.
Like Pac-Man in Excel (yeah - it’s useless - but it’s also demmed cool).
February 24th, 2008 at 8:21 am
@Bryce, the number (646) 200-0000 works for outside the US also.
@Ben Kimball, phone number in feed is being addressed but for now, or later today I should say we will be releasing a PHP 5 homebrew kit for working with the API. right out of the box it will have a script that rewrites the Cinch feed in real time and removes the phone number.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:26 am
“You can’t bore someone into buying your product.”
- David Ogilvy
I love the idea, and will certainly put it to use, but I personally would have used an edited version of the conversation with Shannon.
Maybe I had loftier expectations, maybe it really is nothing more than smoke on the water, but to my ears it really sounded like workmen sharing notes on social plumbing. Perhaps that is the nature of two-way conversation. Over time, one will become an adept at the art of talking on the phone as if the whole world were listening. I wouldn’t doubt if half already are.
Again, a very minor point.
I hope to be co-producing plays of varying sorts, over the phone, real soon. Any other useful ideas would be much appreciated.
Regards,
David B
Charlotte
February 24th, 2008 at 9:28 am
[...] Scoble and Winer went on record to say BlogTalkRadio’s new phone in podcast feature is revolutionary. [...]
February 24th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Nice app, Robert. Thanks for the tip!
February 27th, 2008 at 6:53 am
[...] Scoble is really into the BlogTalkRadio zero-config podcast tool. That’s so cool. Scoble is a useful [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Give Jott - http://www.jott.com a test drive. It is a phone number that I call….and it creates an audio file an RSS.
It also translates to text….and I can have it posted automatically to any system with API….and it has a whole library ready to go. Blogger, Remember the Milk, Google Calendar, etc.
Best of all worlds.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:37 am
[...] Scoble is really into the BlogTalkRadio zero-config podcast tool. That’s so cool. Scoble is a useful [...]
March 5th, 2008 at 9:33 am
[...] Scoble recently wrote “I love the new BlogTalkRadio,” And we’re pleased with that. But let’s not forget the original BlogTalkRadio, [...]