Vanity Audio
Almost all podcasts in mid-2005 are Vanity Audio on Demand. These pathetic attempts at a radio-like experince are so bad that American Idol producers would BURN THE DEMO TAPES (well, destroy the MP3 files).
Somewhere north of 97.5 percent of today’s wave of podcasts are WRETCHED, EXCREMENTAL AFFRONTS TO THE HUMAN CONDITION.
In the printed word era — say 20 years ago — any BIG EGO, SELF INDULGENT jackass who thought she or he was an AUTHOR in the HEMINGWAY class had to invest a few thousand dollars to get a VANITY BOOK published. Then Apple computer let loose an affordable (well, $4,000…) personal laser printer and Aldus birthed PageMaker. Those two innovations mark the inflection point where the sacred Gutenberg world of the printed word started sliding down a slippery slope to lower quality.
But — and this is a HUGE “but” — the desktop publishing revolution enabled the creativity of tens of millions of ordinary folks. The benefits of low cost and therefore widely available tools to create and publish printed content) outweigh the TRILLION OF TREES sacrificed to distribute excremental quality, mindless thoughts that in the Gutenberg era would not have been inflicted on innocent readers.
However, there was a HUGE benefit to low cost personal publishing . Otherwise ordinary people (who in fact were remarkably clever and creative) could share their thoughts and images in print. Yes, a trillion trees died to carry toner particles so we could publish bad graphics and bad writing. Get over it.
Podcasting is similar to the advent of personal publishing. Low cost audio recording (any PC is digital recorder), MP3 compression and widely available, low cost broadband Internet combined with BRILLIANT MARKETING (by ex-MTV personality Adam Currey) launched the podcasting revolution.
Podcasting is enabled because the economic barrier to entry is near zero. You can inflict VANITY AUDIO on listeners GLOBALLY using the Internetsphere(tm).
The chance you’ll find a podcast worth your time to download and listen is slightly less than the chance you will win a multi-state lottery when the jackpot reaches $500 zillion dollars. It could happen, but the odds are long. But when it does happen, it’s SWEET.
Why do we bother with podcasts? There are exceptionally brilliant podcasting diamonds buried in the vast overburden of vanity audio.
I keep coming back to IT Conversations, a reliable source for intellectual stimulation in the technology realm.
Adam Curry delivers a listenable personality show. It’s fun to listen to, but Adam needs to TURN OFF his damned phone during the time he’s “on air” It was cute the first couple of times he was interrupted, but the charm of listening to him tell his wife “Not now honey, I’m recording” has worn thin for me.
Hint for Dave Winer inventor of RSS and a few other VERY cool things in the Internetsphere. Dave, your podcast is often interesting. But don’t expect us to indulge your and listen to DEAD AIR while you walk away to fill your coffee cup. That’s the dark side of Vanity Audio. You can do better.;)
A final recursive thought: will Ron K. Jeffries be VAIN enough to attempt podcasting? Will he remember to turn off his mobile phone? Will he go get coffee? More importantly, will anybody other than his dog care?
P.S. Upon re-reading this squib, I think: “Oh my god, have I contracted the DREADED (John) Dvorak Vanity Virus?. Ebola, while deadly, can be contained. Inflated egos and VAIN PEOPLE are a danger to mankind. Should I erase this while I can?
In a word,“NO.”
.