Social Media Top 5: Podcasting Patent, Twitter Trends, & is Speaker List a Boy’s Club?

A Patent for “Podcasting?”
Podcasters are a pretty strong, tight-knit community. I recall (because I was in the middle of it) when Apple tried to defend trademark applications for “podcast” and related terms by sending cease and desist letters to companies like Podcast Ready (a client at the time), and the community’s strong reaction to that. When someone comes along claiming they have a patent for “podcasting,” you can bet people will make noise. When that company (VoloMedia) posts their announcement on the Association for Downloadable Media site (they are a member), where promotion is supposedly frowned upon, you will hear more noise. So, will VoloMedia be a strong-arm patent troll or a community leader? I’ll watch. Particularly I’ll watch what Leesa Barnes and Todd Cochrane say. Also, Dave Winer, one of the pioneers of podcasting, must have something to say. (Note: nothing in Wikipedia’s entry for “Podcast” as of this writing- though the Apple/Podcast Ready flap is there)

It’s All a Croc
At BlogHer, it seems a bad-acting “mom-blogger” (in quotes because- well, puhleeze- they’re bloggers, right?) missed out on a free pair of Crocs at the event and threatened the company’s on-site rep, George G. Smith, with a negative post if he didn’t get her some free shoes. Well, George didn’t take that well. Good for him. I just hope people don’t paint the blogger group as a whole as a greedy bunch of panhandlers. That is so far from the truth.

Now, as a blogger– have you ever had a nasty customer service experience, and blurt out in frustration that you were going to blog about this? Yeah, me too. That’s stupid, isn’t it. This is dumber, but it’ll be forgotten soon enough.

Twitter Ditch Trending Topics? Where Will I get My News?
Shel Israel posted, agreeing with Jeff Jarvis that “trending topics” should go away on Twitter. I guess the idea is that trending topics are so full of junk and spam (true) that it is useless and even counterproductive. I disagree- and so does Shel Holtz. I still get news from trending topics (best seen on the Twitter Search page); for example, if a world news event is breaking, enough people Tweet about it that it earns a place on the list. That is the first way I hear about some stories (ok, and celebrity deaths too).

Women Snubbed in Top Ten Speakers List
Geoff Livingston pointed out that a recent Top Ten Social Media Speakers list contained only men. That’s alarming to me, as I see so many strong, intelligent women holding way in this field. And being in PR, even the tech industry (still a bit a of a sausage party otherwise) has what feels like (as in, not a citable fact) at least a 50% female representation in the communications side.

Oops, there I go again., I better get a female’s perspective. Valeria Maltoni, who could make that speaker’s list, weighs in: are women discriminating against each other part of the problem? She can go there, I can’t.

NPR Redesigns Site
NPR.org has gone through a major redesign. Why is that interesting to me? Because it is makes more concrete the notion that public radio (where I toiled for 10 years) is now more than just audio. not only is NPR great at podcasting its programs (including my old home, Only A Game), but the Internet age means text, photos and even video can not take such a back seat, even in a “radio” operation. good luck with this, folks. (See: interview with NPR’s Dick Meyer)