the podjournal

Update ! I feel heard - the results of the survey is up.

Are you a podcaster - you can take this survey - not sure why? - read on:

I have no doubt that there is a need for podcasters to join forces to be heard in the growing industry of and around our media. And now three years after the first podcasters send out their first enclosures in RSS-feeds and started a new era, there are serious attempts to create such an organisation. To deal with standards for measuring traffic and creating ads, among other things.

I, however, have doubts if it is done the right way, and apparently I have like-minded friends.

Because:

Suddenly it was announced, that a group of people had formed Association for Downloadable Media. A quite peculiar name for podcasting, but I learned, that this was a new organisation for me to be member of. Maybe I would never make the cut and be a committe member, cause a lot of names were already listed,

and they had already agreed on a Mission Statement:

To provide leadership in and organization of advertising and audience measurement standards, research, education and advocacy to all those involved in portable media (Podcasts/ATOM/RSS media enclosures) across the Internet, iPods, MP3 players, mobile devices, P2P and other upcoming platforms.

I can be a member, if I pay the due of 150 dollars, or 1000 dollar for corporate members - and I cannot really decide which I am, since I have a product for sale.

Scottt Bourne and Lee Gibbons from Podango have reacted by forming a second association, Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers (A working title).

Anyways, maybe we can slow things down a bit and seriously join forces. At least Scott Bourne, Podangos Lee Gibbons and people like Leo Laporte, TwiT, Gretchen Vogelzang, MommyCast and more have formed an informal steering committe and opened a survey.

This survey has been developed by an informal working group of podcasting professionals contemplating the formation of an alternative industry association to the recently formed Association for Downloadable Media (ADM). We have heard a variety of concerns over the ADM, and determined to either influence this effort in productive ways, or launch an alternative industry association that is broader in scope, more fully representational and inclusive of the broader rich media, blogging and podcasting community. The working name for this new group is the “Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers” (The actual name will be determined based on your response to this survey).

I so much support this effort to open up the conversation about how to organize, what to call an organisations, how much the due should be, and so on.

And I would like the people who have taken the lead(s) to consider a few more ways to be inclusive:

GO LOOK FOR MORE WOMEN to sit at the table, LOOK OUTSIDE UNITED STATES - sorry for shouting, but it is important for me, that people who speak for me actually speak for me and not just themselves. And if we are not inclusive at this point, the result could be, that there will be a lot of (competing) associations soon. For Europeans, for women, for Latin Americans, for Commercial podcasters, for….you name it.

I am happy to see, that the ADM have been open to discussions about how to unite. And it has drawn attention from the press, that there are attempts to create two different organisations, so why don´t we just stop up and look around before it´s too late?

Podcastingnews about the survey.

Tags: Podcasting //