Where things stand:

1. Got the audiocast thing down well. I could make things sound a lot better, but I am not sure who much time and energy I have to devote to actually building (what would amount to) a sound studio that would allow me to create a “talk radio station.”

2. I figured out how to use my digital camera to capture short video images--a good place to start. I need to speak with the folks at Nikon customer service to reinstall a bunch of software on my Media Center PC and to see how I actually get that video out of my camera. The great folks at Serious Magic have given me a copy of Visual Communicator to use to build a videoblog. I’ll start simple and then go from there.

3. I want to circle back and work some more on building a personal newspaper. I’d like to create visual feeds (that is do it without exposing the underlying RSS/XML feeds) that just appear as a newspaper mélange. So, for instance, my paper would have the tech section from The New York Times; sports from the Philadelphia Daily News; food section from the San Francisco Chronicle, and so on. I will again try both Amplify and Netomat. Open to any and all ideas.

I will be on a brief blogging hiatus. My company is taking advantage of a research gathering to upgrade our computers. That means, no PC. That means no blogging. Well, probably no blogging. Time to get ingenious.

On my other blog, I have mentioned the fact that our home (while gorgeous and perched on the desert) is a tad cluttered and disorganized. I now have motivation to push the "pimping our house" process along with all due speed. I am looking to convert a small portion of our garage into a TV studio. I won’t need much room, but it’s an ideal spot for a video camera, tripod and stool. I can buy a few inexpensive clamp lights, and ,viola, I have a studio. I can even buy a tarp to use as a backdrop.

What am I going to record in this studio? No idea yet.

How will I deal with the fact that our garage will be in the neighborhood of 150 degrees in the summer? Portable AC unit is my plan.

1. I have a good handle on how to produce and syndicate broadcasts. Mike and I will post regular broadcasts on tech-related topics.
2. I have deployed and am prepared to use Mercora and Grouper to do selected future private broadcasts of audio and video content. I’ll need to get a handle on the video stuff before I go full throttle on this.
3. I understand the ins and outs of the Media Center PC and extender. As I said before, the closed nature of the network does not allow me to stream content other than that contained in the Media Center.
4. I am stunned at how little DVD burning I have done. This leads me to believe that the future of premium content management is not burning DVDs, it’s tons of storage across networks of multiple appliances and having the ability to search and access content.
5. I continue to experiment with Amplify and Netomat as the mean to create personal content packages.

I need to push hard into video. My biggest obstacle has been in selecting a video camera and/or Webcam.

I am back to square one with my phone recording for the audiocasts featured on this blog. My Shaq recorder is fine, but it works only with phones from last century—the corded ones, that is. I had to dig out a 20-year-old phone to use for my phoner with Mike yesterday. (BTW, for those under 30, or for people who have not worked in journalism, a phoner is a phone interview) The content was good, the sound quality somewhat lacking. I am back to Shaq to find a better device; I’d like to avoid the long ride to Fry’s Electronics, but it might be my destination.

I also am looking for suggestions on developing clear phone interviews that still maintain the quality of a phone call but without the issues of vascillating levels.

After a disappointing trip last night to Best Buy, Radio Shaq ® came through. I bought a device that records phone calls (with the caller’s acknowledgement, of course) and a nice digital recorder for $40. I will use that not only to record voice for the blog, but also to pick up ambient sounds and background chatter (like the street scene at the foot of the cable car turnaround in San Francisco).

In about four weeks of active pursuit of this project, here’s what I have accomplished:

1. Learned how to make and syndicate a Podcast.
2. Experimented with "white board" content management applications such as Netomat and Amplify to create dynamic content sharing projects. Much more to come there.
3. Learned the ins and outs of Media Center.
4. Made lots of mistakes.
5. Made a crude Podcast link button. I promise to make a better one soon.

What’s next:

1. Download Grouper and Mercora to begin the process of designing the audio and video network.
2. Making a videoblog (and syndicating it).
3. Making a short, original movie and sharing it on my network
4. Clipping together pieces of copyrighted content in a video mash-ip.
5. Creating an audio mash-up. Already have a great idea.

Stay tuned

If you have a few minutes to spare, go to Food TV and take a look at the five videos that were sent in by viewers who want to be the next Food TV star. If you think everyone out there with a video camera is a fool taking shots of summer vacations, this will disavow you of that notion. It will make you wonder about the future of TV.

I have been playing with the new MSN Video Download service announced with CES. What I have discovered, unless I am missing something, is that I cannot play the content though the Media Center. I can play it on my PC or on a portable device (which I don’t have). What’s up with that?

Last night, for the first time, we discovered "Crank Yankers" on Comedy Central. I had seen a few minutes here and there, but read something about the show on the Internet and decided to record an episode. I have to say, the last time I laughed so hard was when we saw Bill Cosby in concert and he did a routine based on his father telling him to pull his finger. Both times, I laughed until I cried.

In the Yankers we taped, there was a segment in which Wanda Sykes (who also is in "Curb Your Enthusiasm"—"Larry," she said, "You have to know when the play the (race) card.") calls a mechanic and informs him that the shop left a turd in the backseat of her car. I kid you not. Remember that the stars of Yankers are puppets and the dialog and staging is brilliant. Catch it for yourself. We have our DVR set to record all of them. BTW, this is low-brow, hilarious bathroom humor.

Which leads me to wondering why anyone believes Howard Stern will be successful on satellite radio; actually, I wonder why anyone would think satellite radio (another controlled content distribution environment)  would be successful. Podcasting is taking over the world. I am serious. Podcasts today range from below the home-brewed category, to some people who have talent and serious mixing skills. Podcasts allow users to download spoken word, music, talk shows or whatever to their music players (not just iPods) and listen to them at their leisure in any situation including the car. In the future, Podcasts will take over "radio" as we know it except for live sporting events and breaking news. KOMO Radio in Seattle does Podcasts, and soon, I sense others will join them.

Which leads me to Howard Stern. You want to hear people cursing and begin rude on the air? You need not wait til Stern joins XM or whatever network he’s on, because in the world of Podcasts, everyone is a shock jock, and honestly, a few are funnier than Stern.

Those in entertainment power underestimate the sheer desire of individuals to break through a politically controlled distribution system and deliver content to the masses. Everyone asks how you can make money at this. Well, that’s part of what Mike McGuire and I get paid for, and shortly, as part of our research, we will suggest some scenarios.

Stay tuned.

I have been scanning all of the news coming out of CES, and am pleased that the focus of the announcements centers on the research Mike McGuire and I wrote last year around a concept we call "Digital Media Titans." Nearly every product release and vision statement from Yahoo!, Microsoft and HP aligns with our thoughts that suggest a new construct for the media industry.

Our big question for 2005 is how do we top our work from last year? Believe me, we are up to the challenge!

If I could design my dream "my news" site, it would have the functionality of a PageMaker-designed site to allow some more advanced element of design with the ability to import links to represent those design elements. The challenge I am finding is grabbing the right portion of the desired target page (such as the sports section of Philly.com) and putting it in on a white board.

Look at the Netomat I tried to create using this concept. I know what end design I am aiming for, but struggling to get there. I have done enough layout to make it visually crisp, and once I can incorporate disparate elements, the sky’s the limit and I can mix and match static and dynamic content.

I think Adobe could easily create the product I am dreaming of… we’ll see.

The first "big thing" we want to create here will be a Podcast. Mike and I are going to have one up in the next week. Mike is off to CES to not only dazzle those in attendance with a preso, but also to talk to leading companies about their media vision. When he comes back from Vegas, we’ll do our first Podcast. We’ll do a buncb more that might not be regularly scheduled, but interesting nonetheless. It probably will sound like a talk show given I have experience in the talk show world (a story for another day) and still aspire to be a talk show host.

I have all the mechanics figured out. I also want to figure out a way for people to be alerted when we do our Podcasts. If we get on the Podcast lists, people can simply use Ipodder to subscribe; it’s all XML-trickery, which I understand "fairly" well.

I am working on a Podcast name—maybe Mike & Allen’s Drivel (MAD, for short).

I saw an article in the Arizona Republic (which I read only in locations I cannot access my PC) that previewed TV’s second-half programs. They uniformly look DREADFUL. For decades, TV programming has been built on the theory of planned obsolescence. Theatrical films are a close second in this category, but what other industry has such a low success rate? Even when you lower the threshold of "success," network (and now cable) programming is just plain awful.

This is why network television will die. It will die quickly and with a loud thud that will be heard across the fruited plain. Could I, using my PC and simple capture and editing tools, create a 30-minute TV show that would be more compelling than the swill the nets will offer up over the next several months? Maybe not, but lots of others sure can. Check out some of the better videoblogs and you’ll see what sort of "stuff" is being built in the bushes. Does a program need to be created in Hi Def with surround sound to be of interest to the masses? No. I’ll bet someone will create a web-based "American Idol" knockoff that will be far better than the original (which sure ain’t difficult),

2004 was the year of the blog? 2005 is the year that network TV begins to slip into a coma. Traditional radio as well.

Check out this cool news-vidblog.

Yes, I have been working on my network project.

1. Checked out Bittorrent and all its permutations. I’ll write in more detail, but I sure can see why the movie industry is fearful. I downloaded a recent West Wing episode in 30 minutes. There are some file conversion issues.
2. Working on my first video for a videoblog.
3. Trying to figure out why my RCA Lyra will not stream audio from my PC to my second stereo system.
4. Working on creating some voice audio files. Not as easy as I thought.
5. Pricing video cameras. The after Holiday sales resulted in lower prices.

Stay tuned