Featuring... everybody. Special shout-outs to Mike Misowitz from Petentials.com, Mike G, because he's badass in every picture, the guys with awesome beards, and Jason Hawkins for rocking this video. It really is the BarCamp Video to leave all others behind.

Back room love, self-promotion, flashy titles, music by badass bands I've actually heard of (and seen live). It's all there, it all gels, and I couldn't ask for anything else. I'm so proud that such a conference existed to spawn such a video created by such a talented group that covered such a conference.

If one is creating a guide to planning a vacation, would one not want to point to specific places?

In one respect, the Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau is missing out on some great conversion metrics by failing to include specific links to visit. In one podcast the "travel expert" mentioned the fact that "Orlando has a great Opera". Such a statement could hardly be more true, but they fail to follow through with this idea. Not only that, but they don't give their listeners an opportunity to follow through. They say "just go to our homepage, you'll probably find what you want there... probably... but the homepage is the only important page on the site. We won't tell you what to click on or what to search for. You're on your own, have fun!"

You can spend all this money on a theme song and make us invest how many minutes in listening to it, and then miss the point entirely.

You made a podcast simply to make one. If there were goals in mind, I don't think they came close to being fulfilled.

Here's a possible list of goals:

1. Set up this travel expert as a travel expert
2. Reaffirm in the minds of people that there's... something to do in Orlando
3. Tell them not to bring any extra t-shirts with them, spend your money here so we get sales tax
4. Let people know we have virtual tours of the parks on our website - too bad Disney has a whole video game devoted to this on their website
5. Let them know there's variety

OK, great. But aren't you guys a for-profit venture? How did this one slip through the cracks? Here are some possible goals for a podcast:

1. Promote our new "Endless Summer" campaign (this is a real campaign of theirs)
2. Sell some hotel room stays
3. Sell some Opera tickets
4. Introduce people / drive traffic to our events directory
5. Get the word out that Orlando is a great place for festivals
6. Let people know about the awesome DIY culture in Orlando, or the vegetarian restaurants, or Vietnam Town, or Eatonville, or local businesses - something

That's all for this installment of "What Were They Thinking?" See you next time!

No, they don't. Honestly, this thing doesn't even deserve any Google juice I might be inadvertently throwing at them by linking to them. Orlando Travel & Visitors Bureau - Orlando Florida Vacation - Podcasts

After checking out what they had to offer (I listened to one episode out of 3), I sent this email through their ONE contact form - no comments, no email addresses, just this dinky little form where you type a subject line, your email and a very small message box. I think it's designed that way so you feel insignificant and to give you the feeling that nobody will ever read or respond to your message. If it's not, you should work on that, guys.

Here's my first message:

This is not a podcast. Your RSS feed doesn't work. The first and only requirement of a podcast is the ability to SUBSCRIBE to it. Also, any podcast with a transcript defeats the point of it being audio or video. Give them bullet points and links to rich media or other guides (particularly those written by local bloggers, newspapers, etc.)

I've been participating in podcasting for 2 years now, and I'd love to talk to someone from TVB about the production and release of these.

A huge point is the difference in production and sound quality between your intro/exit and the rest of the show - I realise you guys must have paid some money for that Orlando theme song, but it doesn't get me excited about taking a vacation.

If you want to talk, come down to the Crooked Bayou on Monday the 15th for Florida Creatives Happy Hour. There you will meet a group of passionate independent people who really love this town and all it has to offer. A number of us have our own podcasts, blogs, and videoblogs and we have great conversations about what's happening in Orlando right now. Your podcast is almost 2 years old now - has Orlando stayed the same in the last 2 years? Really.

I would very much like to interview someone from your office for my video podcast, OrlandoScene.TV - if we can arrange something like this, give me a call or email.

P.S. That comment about transcripts was mostly a heat-of-the-moment statement. My commenters have let me know that transcripts can be useful, but I think in this case they still didn't have any forethought applied to them.

Then I watched the video they had available, which was produced a whole year after the first two episodes, thinking maybe they learned something... they didn't. Here's my second message:

I'm now watching the video you made, and this is so clearly scripted, but the interviewer is on a phone line for some reason, and she keeps saying "um" while she looks at her script. If you're going to create an audio brochure and not provide an RSS feed, don't call it a podcast.

A HUGE point I have here - where is the feedback channel? if I want to ask a question about a podcast I just listened to or watched, I have to use this contact form. For all I know there is a person in India reading all of these. What's the deal with that? Give us some space to comment and discuss what we just saw. You'll be amazed when you see the visitors to your site actually coming back to check the comments.

I don't care if they never contact me. This whole experience does not assume any intelligence on the part of the person doing the "Vacation Planning". If they're thinking about it before they go, give them a little credit. The entire podcast is just a brochure for their OrlandoInfo.com website and nothing else. Really. I know I said that already, but it's so true.

If you're reading this and you'd like to produce something real, email me - rprice AT ryanpricemedia DOT com and we'll show these jokers what it means to podcast.

I don't often watch the ScobleShow, but I saw they interviewed the first sister of Facebook, Randi Zuckerberg (and it was only 5 minutes, Scoble is notoriously long-winded). It was calld Face to Facebook with Randi, cute. Here's the deal: She called herself innovative like 5 times. Never reffered to a team or what the people who use Facebook do as innovative, but herself.

If I ever call myself innovative, I want someone to come back to this post and call me out on it. I'm having trouble putting it into words, but I don't want to tell other people what to think of me. Randi is clearly trying to associate herself with the word "innovative" in the minds of the people watching this interview. It's likely that in 3 years, I won't remember what she said except for that word, and now neither will you...

How did Randi earn the right to innovate as the Digital Media Producer at Facebook? She made some videos that are only funny to silicon valley geek types, but I've never really found them that funny.

I'm going to look into Randi some more over the next couple of weeks and see if I can find something cool about her - I'm sure that after her appearance on Scoble she's all over the place. If not, maybe I'll just interview her. Stay tuned.

Jessica Clark recently wrote a web-only article for The American Prospect, "an authoritative magazine of liberal ideas" about our new friends at Independent's Hall called Coworkers of the World, Unite! She gets all of the factual information correct:

Co-working goes hand-in-hand with the volatile startup lifestyle, offering a haven between gigs and a spot to generate new projects and connections. The trend started in the capital of what business writer Daniel Pink has dubbed the "free agent nation" -- San Francisco. There, Chris Messina, 26, and Tara Hunt, 34, run Citizen Agency, a marketing and design firm that advises clients on how to develop brand communities, and Citizen Space, a co-working office.

Fine piece of journalism, really. I think this could help a newbie understand coworking. I disagree with the last 3 paragraphs. I left a comment, but it feels like I didn't think it all the way through.

Am I too whiny? I felt like a kid defending his Ninja Turtles:

How can you say "for Hunt and others, these new ties are just as valid as the old connections of blood, proximity and race." and then include these comments?

"no number of Facebook friendships will serve as a safety net if you go bankrupt"

"Incubate their startups so that they can cash in and move on to other projects."

You have a theoretical knowledge of what all these buzzwords mean - social interaction, barcamp, coworking - but would you have written that if you knew what it was like? The bonds you make because of these common goals are far stronger than those you make with an everyday working relationship. To quote Chris Heuer from an unconference this week, "Business is personal again". I won't hire anyone I wouldn't invite into my home, or go on a weekend camping trip with.

The people I've met because of my interest in coworking are getting invited to my wedding. I mean that.

She goes through several thousand words building up Coworking, BarCamp and other such geeky topics as new ways of holding a community together, and then accuses us of being hollow, shallow capitalists in the same breath.

Jessica, I charge you to go work at Indy Hall for a month and read your article to yourself; then we'll talk.

Download the Podcast

• Podcast theory notes on Florida Creatives Wiki
• Podcast Alley is great for finding passionate podcasting audiences
• Podcast Pickle is great for getting embeddable flash players
• Pluggd semantic heat maps
• Everyzing audio tag search
• TechCrunch on podcasting over cell phone
• ODEO
• PodDeus by Casgle will synch all your podcasts to an appliance on your desk
• TalkShoe
• Audacity free cross-platform audio editor
• GoldWave PC Audio Editor
• Pamela for Skype will record calls and can automatically podcast the recordings
• CastBlaster
• AudioShell iD3 editor for Windows
• PodPress is a plugin for WordPress that makes uploading and annotating podcasts very easy
• Soundflower is a Macintosh app that lets you record system audio as well as your vocals
• I use two MXL V57M microphones and an M-Audio MobilePre USB to record most of my podcasts, but I already owned that equipment when I got into it. I highly recommend spending less than $100 for getting started in a new hobby or experiment like podcasting. A simple USB headset will do the trick.

Download the Podcast

This was a session I presented at BarCampOrlando at Taste in College Park. I used the same slides as my BlogOrlando session, but I got to say different stuff in half the time, and only Lee asked one question, so it's a bit more of a lecture than I'd like. I'm hoping to get some practice presenting unconference style in the coming months. Lectures are easy enough to give, and good presentations are a bit harder. Good conversations are hardest of all, I think.

If you have any feedback about this particular session, I'd love to hear it.

Photo by Tim Welch

Channel 13 is the local news/weather station for Central Florida, and they were at BlogOrlando yesterday doing their thing. Jackie Shutack was a one-woman crew and she did all of her own camera work.

Jackie was interviewing Alex before the Orlando Scene segment when he came in and said "Ryan Price, come here, NOW!" Jackie had asked Alex if his blogs had any impact on local art and music, so Alex came to get me to answer the question.

I told my story about the challenge I presented before myself 2 years ago to make something out of my life in Orlando and where it's gotten me so far. I'm sure I said othe stuff, but I could't really say what unless I see the tape. After the interview Jackie made a funny comment about not needing to interview anyone else... I'd be very flattered if she was serious.

If you see it on News 13, try to TiVO it, I'd love to have a copy. If I ever get one, I'll try to YouTube it or link to the stream on News 13.

edit: I was on TV, and apparently they showed a screenshot of OrlandoScene.TV and a short clip of the video about B&S Daily Market

So glad to be able to share and converse with the great people in the podcast session today. I have some questions for you if you went to the session:

1. What were you looking to get out of the session?
2. Did you get what you were looking for?
3. Did you get something you weren't expecting?
4. What would have made the session an over-the-top success for you?
5. Would you like to have several sessions on podcasting, or a whole PodCamp in the future? Would you have something to present at said event?
6. How would you have presented things differently?

If you can think of anything else, leave a comment.

If you want a copy of my talking points, you can download the Podcasting Theory PDF

I spoke to a woman afterwards that's been sending off transcripts to an agency and had no control over her podcast whatsoever, and I opened her up to the idea that she can do it all for herself.

Really. PodCamp, but it won't be just me. Come to Florida Creatives Happy Hour on Monday the 15th @ Crooked Bayou.

We heard long ago that Will would be moving into the old theatre-looking space next to the Cruises Only building, but later found out he was bogged down in legislation, or something to that effect. Here's the first I've heard about Will re-re-re-relocating (if you count the Will's Pub South incident and his current arrangement with TASTE).

From Orlando Metromix:

Will's Pub is coming back to not only Orlando, but Mills Avenue. Here's an excerpt from my column that is running in the Orlando Sentinel this Friday about it:

"I may not have come back with a dime from Vegas last week, but I felt like I hit the jackpot when I got home that night and found out Will Walker has found a new space for Will’s Pub. Better news is it’s on Mills Avenue in Orlando, not far from where the old place once stood, but closer to the Wally’s, Uncle Lou’s, Paradise and Peacock Room end of the action.

According to Walker, the space is roughly the same size as the old pub with three rooms instead of two. You should see the opening of the bar at 1040 N. Mills Ave. in the next month or two."

One thing I noticed is that this is just one street south of Say It Loud. Julio must be beaming.

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