I am getting hooked on podcast listening. Podcasts are informative and/or humorous depending on the podcast you find on the web. A podcast is really nothing more than a .mp3 audio file that most any computer or audio device can play. The podcasts are like a radio show recorded. You can place them on your portable player and listen to them whenever you want to.

More detailed podcast history and information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
Autodesk has been doing some podcasts from the road on the Autodesk Realize Your Ideas Tour.
Realize Your Ideas Tour Podcasts http://ideasblog.adskhost.com/blog/20

Check out the podcasts from the recent Chicago Realize Your Ideas Tour. Hear Guy Kawasaki and "podism", Lynn Allen on travel and a AutoCAD 2006 tip, Jonathan Knowles on DWF and a special announcement with HP, and Shane Griffith from Autodesk Media and Entertainment Division speaking about 3ds max and Viz.

I guess I will have to create a podcast to compete. Perhaps an informal interview with some inside Autodesk "deskers" and some customers that use Autodesk products on life, design, CAD, and whatever else comes to mind. I also have a videocast "vodcast?" created especially for the blog that I am trying to get the time to post here. I have been swamped with work lately and running shy on sleep.

Robin Capper is another fan of podcasting: http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/ I think it would be great to get a podcast interview with Robin just to hear his New Zealand accent. ;-)

<update> Robin thinks I am the one that has the accent. He pointed out the podcast show "The Hobson & Holtz Report" where they commented on the Autodesk Realize Your Ideas Tour Blog and podcasts. This is available  - Podcast #36: May 26, 2005. http://forimmediaterelease.biz/

One more interesting podcast item is here in San Francisco we had the top 3 talk AM radio station change it format from mainstream talk radio shows to independent podcasts and renamed itself as KYOU Open Source Radio. People can submit their podcasts to the station to be played to a large Bay Area audience.

The mainstream media and press are still trying to digest and adapt from the surge of change from content on the web, blogs and now podcasting. Many articles, breaking news, or information are starting to first appear on blogs before you even see them in the mainstream press. The landscape is changing as breaking news or articles are no longer constrained by month, week, day, hour or even minute but reduced to seconds. You also get a unique and new perspective. For example you can not only read about what the press thinks of something but perhaps you could read what a real world user of that product or service thinks in their own words.

It is an interesting time of information overload. If you learn how to manage within so much information by using aggregators and search engines you can be well informed and have a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips and up on the latest news and opinions. It will also be interesting to see where everything is in one year as things change so rapidly these days.

Cheers,
Shaan