So how will this podcast actually work?

My podcast thoughts are rapidly congealing into a nice creamy chocolate custard pudding filled with cocaine: edgy and invigorating, but still appealing to traditionalists. And deeply, deeply satisfying.

Conversations on Twitter this morning helped provide focus for the evolving plan… and raised some questions. I’m determined to make this program “live”, or at least “recorded live”. But how will it actually work?

I have the technology and experience to produce full “broadcast quality” audio material — see the pretty Sennheiser microphone? However I really want to explore the program format(s) and production techniques needed to produce micro-radio and micro-TV using whatever can be carried in my backpack. While audio quality may not be perfect yet, it’ll eventually catch up. For the time being the novelty value means the audience will endure it. Especially if I can keep the content fresh.

As I said perhaps a little too cruelly this morning, podcasts sound either like ABC Radio National (people talking to themselves), or the worst of community radio (ditto). Being able to interact with people while the program is happening is important. I admit my opinion is coloured by having produced (endured?) 4000+ hours of live talk and talkback radio.

So, further to what I said yesterday…

1. It will be a general talk show. I was pleased that @deanlk said “You’ve hit the right mix of geekery and [Australian] news & politics.” If I have to write a tag line now, it’s “How the world works, from the perspective of an Australian geek.”
2. Weekly, 30-minute programs. I know, the Internet doesn’t have to be exact, but it’s still a good discipline.
3. Format: video. The video is going to be mostly me, sorry, but I’ll always find some imagery to match the conversation. CamTwist allows you to automatically create a live slideshow from a Flickr photo stream, so that shouldn’t be much work.
4. Schedule: a weekday evening, time TBA. The schedule is the tricky bit. It needs to happen when the audience is available, and that’s either weekday evenings or on weekends. Tuesday night is traditionally the busiest night on the Internet, and hence the biggest potential live audience, but Thursday works better for me. And what time? 9.30pm Sydney time, when it’s 7.30pm in Perth, giving them an opportunity to join too? Whaddyareckon?

I’ve also had some thoughts about what I might cover in early episodes.

1. It’s my birthday, so introduce me; talk about Baby Boomers vs Generation X vs Generation Y etc and what it means; is it OK to lie about your age? Who should be my first guest?
2. China (various angles); the Federal Budget.
3. CeBIT Australia and the current state of geekery. Lots of material there!

I’ll spend the rest of this week brainstorming the possibilities, then decide on Monday 5 May how it’ll actually proceed. Please, more comments!