Inside Mediafly.com (Tech Insights)

Mediafly widgets (or are they called gadgets these days?) to Share your favorite shows...

This is not live to the public yet but if you're a mediafly user and you want to share your favorite podcasts, or let's say you want to put the entire mediafly News area on your site, now it's easy. You can actually see the widget on this blog (probably on the left or right side depending on how I'm feeling that week).

We've built the system to be very easy. Here are the steps.

1) Visit www.mediafly.com/mywidgets.aspx

2) Select the content you want to see on the widget (see the first image below). You can select from options such as your personal channels, mediafly areas, or a search query.

Or if you have specific podcasts you want to showcase just enter the mediafly "slugs" in the box. The slug is the last part of the mediafly url, such as:  http://www.mediafly.com/Podcasts/Feeds/Buzz_Out_Loud_from_CNET

3) Click the "Add Widget" button. This will take you to a list of your widgets. Select "view widget" to see your creation. You can change it right there. pressing the "update widget" will cause the displayed widget to change.

4) Copy the HTML code and put it into your blog.

If you have any questions, post them here or email us at www.mediafly.com/contactus

Here are some pretty visuals:

The Add Widget interface

How the widgets look on my blog.
These are my favorites widget and a widget or NBC5 Chicago's podcasts (some of my favorites).

 

Do 2 Million ABC Podcast downloads = "mainstream (or "opportunity")?

An article in The Age recently makes the case 2007 was the year that podcasting hit the mainstream, citing download numbers from ABC and other radio stations. 

"The ABC is now regularly topping two million podcast downloads a month. Austereo (owner of Triple M and Melbourne's Fox FM) is registering more than 850,000 a month across all its stations, a figure that is increasing by 50,000 each month."

It is definitely great to see this sort of growth and definitely more and more people are becoming aware of the opportunity presented from podcasts. However, I would argue that podcasting is a long way from main stream.  Try asking someone on the street what a podcast is. You will get either strange looks looks or lots of different answers.  Try suggesting to someone over the age of 40 that they should listen to a podcast. Most will respond, "I don't have an iPod."

The number of downloads is one metric to measure podcast interest. Another is the number of people doing a Google search for podcasts (shown below). You will note that the trend has been pretty level for the past 2 years.

I agree that there is enormous opportunity in syndicated digital content (I hate the word podcasting for the reason illustrated above).  And, podcasting continues to make gains. But there is a lot left to be done before it is a truly "mainstream" media or where it can replace any sort of traditional media.

First public review of Mediafly service (good stuff)

DownloadSquad has become the first to officially review Mediafly. I think it is a great review which points out what we are doing well and the things we need to improve (And the suggested improvements are in the works).

I would like to thank the author, Kristin Shoemaker of linuxlibrarian.org, for this great review.

Here is the Mediafly article as well as her other DownloadSquad articles. Enjoy!

Fun with Universal IR at CES

I don't condone this behavior (read: I would not want it done to me) but it is hilarious.  What do you get when you combine Hundreds of flatscreens + The largest technology show in the US + Lots of stressed out sales people trying to demo their new wares and... a universal IR receiver?

This... http://gizmodo.com/343348/confessions-the-meanest-thing-gizmodo-did-at-ces

Is Invention Dead?

Has the complexity of modern technology progressed to the point where it has become nearly impossible for an independent man or woman to invent something that can change the world for all mankind forever, without the assistance of multimillion-dollar equipment available only to universities and billion-dollar corporations?

Let me explain ...

In the days of Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers, a person could go to his basement or her lab and invent something that changed the world for all time, and forever changed the way people would interact with the world.

For a time, this was the way of great innovations. People thought of as eccentrics labored away isolated from the public and then one day shocked the world with their creation. As Mark Eppler said in the article “The Death of Impossibility” (Mar/Apr 2004), "When the Wright brothers solved the problem of manned flight, they achieved a technological breakthrough that stunned the world. It was an incredible achievement with no modern parallel. The only thing that might come close would be if Neil Armstrong had landed on the moon in a craft he had built himself and paid for with a part-time job!”

Has this type of invention disappeared? Is it now impossible, or is it merely dormant (hopefully the latter)? Has there been such a breakthrough in the past 25 or 50 years? The natural response is, what about companies like Google, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, Facebook, etc., companies that are changing the way we live every day? Or, companies on the horizon that are changing the way we will live?

These innovative companies are certainly the result of great inventors who deserve enormous respect. However, their “inventions” have one obvious differentiator from the great inventions in the past: These lifechanging innovations were creations of software. They are new variations of code that allow for information to be used in a new way.

But, let’s assume for a moment that software innovations are not truly “inventions” in the purest sense but, rather, extremely creative uses of a previous invention, the computer and the software that makes it useful. For example, Google was more an incredibly inventive use of software than it was an invention itself.  (This is not to take anything away from Google or the other these other great companies.)

With that assumption, it could be argued that truly life-altering inventions of the future cannot come from individuals (or even small independent groups) with an idea. What are some examples that would change our physical world the way that the previously mentioned inventions did? The elimination of disease, overcoming death, easy travel into space, cheap reusable energy for everyone on the planet, the ability to negate gravity, teleportation, etc.

Sound like science fiction? No more so than flight was before the Wright brothers accomplished it. But, these NEXT great changes to our world rely on such complex science, such as quantum physics, nano-engineering, and microbiology, that the independent inventor with an idea and a passion cannot even hope to pursue his or her idea without the assistance of large organizations. Or can he/she?

There will always be entrepreneurs who earn billions with new ideas, gadgets, and technologies. But, is it possible that the next GREAT invention could possibly be the brain child of some independent person working in his or her basement, funded only by enormous hopes and dreams?

Or, are we doomed to a future where we have to rely on the creativity of governments, large companies, and institutions because of the complexity of the technology necessary to achieve the next generation of life-altering innovations?

Personally, I believe these innovations can be the creations of inventive individuals who approach the problems from entirely different perspectives -- necessitated by their limited resources.

I look forward to your responses.

Originally published in AdvantEdge magazine (May/June 2006)

Compete vs. Alexa

If you have not used Compete.com before, it is an interesting site to give user/visitor trends for your own website as well as competitors. I noticed it because TechCrunch often includes links and visuals from Compete when discussing site trends.

Compete is not as up to date as Alexa but it offers far more drill down options.

Personalize the Podcasts on your Chumby (beta)

Secret Sneak Peak at Mediafly SyncPoints... You can now personalize the podcasts on your Chumby.  As you change your shows and channels on Mediafly they are immediately changed on your Chumby.

Here are the steps to personalize your Chumby (and a nice little visual below to show you).

1) Create a Mediafly account if you have not already and create your channels. You can always add/remove/modify them later. Your Chumby will adjust automatically.

2) Login to the Chumby website with your Chumby user id and password.

3) Find your Chumby ID. It is the long number that appears to the left of your Chumby (see below).  Copy that full ID.

5) Go to www.mediafly.com/mysyncpoints.aspx, Click on the add a Chumby link

6) Paste your full Chumby ID into the box provided (shown below).  Press Save.

7) Reboot your Chumby by pressing the little on/off button on the back.

8) Your Chumby is now synced with your Mediafly account. You should now see all of your Mediafly Channels in the Mediafly audio source on your Chumby.

If you have any questions, you can email me at www.mediafly.com/contactus.

Good luck!

Easy podcasts on your Zune (Manage them online. Deliver to your Zune)

Last month Mediafly launched Zune podcast integration. It is a great addition to the Mediafly service. You can now manage all your podcasts on Mediafly and deliver them to multiple devices, including the Zune.  And, the best part is that Mediafly organizes your podcasts into channel feeds which are delivered via RSS to your Zune.

So, after you have synced a Mediafly channel with your Zune you can add/remove feeds from any computer in the world via Mediafly.com and those changes are immediately reflected on your Zune if you have a WiFi connection. You don't need to connect to the Zune Marketplace to change your feeds.

Give it a try:

1. Create a Mediafly account
2. Add the podcasts you want and organize them into your channels (e.g. news, business, technology, etc.)
3. Click on "Deliver Options" from your My Mediafly page
4. Select a channel you want to add to the Zune and click on the Zune Direct (via RSS) option (note: because of the way the Zune works you have to add each channel seperately).
5. Enjoy Mediafly podcasts on your Zune!

If you have any questions or ideas on how to improve the Zune integration, email us at Mediafly.com/ContactUs

Connect any mp3 player to an iPod Dock

If you are like me and you have an mp3 player other than an apple you know the feeling of feeling like a second class citizen when it comes to connecting your device to accessories which only support an iPod.

My car, for example, has an an iPod connector into the factory stereo head unit. So, that meant I could only ever use my iPod or iPhone to listen to my podcasts on my 1.5 hour commute into Chicago every day.

Then I discovered this little number and it worked great. It allows you to plug any mp3 player into an iPod dock. Very cool little device.

Simple beginnings

To kick off this blog I thought I would introduce myself and tell you a bit about what I'll be talking about. I have a passion for technology, innovation, media, and society. So, I'm going to use this blog as a platform to talk about the intersection of those passions and try and share any insights I have.  I am by no means a grammarian and I write quick and with passion. So please forgive any errors in grammar, syntax, and most likely spelling.

First a little bit about me. I am the CEO of Mediafly, which is an innovative media tech company (at least we like to think so). Our mission is to make New Media “easy media” so that the mass market that don’t have the technical talents or time as the younger generations can still benefit from the breadth and depth of opportunity that is available through “new media” sources, such as podcasts I’ll be talking more about Mediafly in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. For now, I encourage you to check out Mediafly yourself. That’s the best way to get a good feel yourself.

That’s it for now. I hope my insights spark thoughts, questions, comments, and debate. I encourage your feedback. I see myself as a student of technology and life and I’m always looking for teachers.

All the best!

Carson

p.s. If you are interested, here are my favorite podcasts.