If you believe that metadata standards are necessary please post to the thread as to why you think they’re important and what standards should be adopted?

If you think that metadata standards specific to podcasting would be a waste of time please explain why?

If you’re lost as to what podcast metadata/descriptive data is then please ask for clarification.

I’d like to know the communities thoughts on the issue.

I know for myself that I believe metadata guidelines/standards are critical to improving podcast experiences. The podcast hype has now leveled off and stabilized. It seems to me that it’s time to get some bad plumbing out of the kitchen sink.

Here’s some reasoning on my part. I hate to look in my iTunes or Zune subscription bin as I find that too much of the metadata is unreadable or just plain uninformative. Descriptive data such as an episode title or description are almost always inconsistent. I also think the descriptive data looks downright crappy and most of the time the data is just plain useless to getting a bearing on specific episode content! In my opinion this lack of standards or development practices in the community lessens the experience both ascetically as well as providing useful information used to properly make a listening decision. This goes all the way up to large media corps like CNN and NPR, too!

To focus my frustration and solve the problem, I have set standards for all RSS metadata feed tags and readily teach them in my university course on podcasting, training courses, and in consulting work. Here’s one example taken from my <tag> reference sheet:

<item> Descriptive Data Guidelines

<title> Goal: Compose an irresistible headline to quickly attract the attention of audience and promote topic.

<title> Guideline: The episode <title> is essential to attract the attention of potential subscribers, but above all else, it is designed to stimulate interest among subscribers around individual episode content.  The item <title> should be distinct from the channel <title> and relate directly to individual show topics.  An episode <title> acts much the same way as a Web headline does - it’s a clear call to action - investigate! Regardless of podcast aggregator or directory a subscriber uses, they will analyze the information in the episode <title> to determine the value of the content. The <title> must provide an incentive to invest time in show content. With many other podcast feeds in a bin, if a <title> doesn’t peak interest subscribers may move on to another show. It is recommended that a controlled vocabulary list be used to maintain consistency throughout the show series.

<title> Standard: 60 character limitation and directly correlate with episode <description>.

—- End Reference—-

My hope is that as I teach digital media students to pay attention to metadata they will see the value of proper development strategies and focus on a participants (subscriber) ability to make informed listening choices. I agree that content is king but man–it’s frustrating to have to wade through mounds of non-usable descriptive data in my podcast subscription bin to find something that interests me.

Am I on to something here? Or am I just nuts about nothing?

Regardless, I’ve compiled and made available a little metadata reference guide to anyone who would like to try out the standards that I’ve come up with. Let me know how your development experience goes -

Many times as designers, we assume the product is wrapped around our own desires or we place ourselves as the “Persona” to which design decisions will gravitate. Nothing could be further from the truth. While we may fit into the category of the “Audience”, we must first take ourselves out of the equation—completely. Digital media products must be tailor-made to fit a customer. As the designer, we must stand on the opposite side of the aisle of options as a unique observer in the selection and utilization process. We are also obliged to first respond to the needs, desires, and thoughts of our audiences, and then design around them.

Good experiences are planned and well thought out. Everything we do, weather it be reading a book, watching the television, going to the local GAP store, or enjoying a fine lunch at a local eatery; all requires that we enjoy our experience. If we don’t, well, we won’t go back—right? Why then is a podcast treated any different? I’ve prepared a sample section from the “The Podcast Engineer’s Guide to Podcast Experiences” to explain how an experience can be properly developed to attract and enhance the subscription environment. You may be surprised at the example used to make my point. I know that NME 2008 attendees in our hands-on training were. [see attachment below]

Finally, A podcast is definitely a bona fide product in the digital media market. Furthermore, it most certainly has an audience that has needs and specific desires that must be accounted for when developing the product. Moreover, the audience has a choice in what and when they decide to listen making it all the more difficult to plan and execute a winning strategy. However, if we’re paying attention to our development efforts, a good product will make our customer come back for more every time. Thus, our goal must be to produce a product that is an experience worthy of repeating.

For the community:

What specific aspects of podcast “experiences” are lacking? Which are attractive?
What aspects are in our control? Which are not?
What role does metadata, i.e., title, description, summary, etc., play in the podcast experience?
As a designer of an “experience” what do you feel you most lack in your quest to create a unique product?

I’d love to hear your comments on this topic and your thoughts on this unique approach to media development. Please post questions, comments, your own experiences, and even rebuttals as it helps us to better attack the problem of achieving the “average.” As a community we need, in fact we must, create a working partnership in educating one another about unique develop strategies. At least this is the hope of Podcast Tune-Up.

Note:Content taken from “The Podgineer’s Technical Manual to Podcast Experiences”. This guide will be available at a later date as an integrated piece in a forthcoming title. -

I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Rob Greenlee from the Zune Development Team concerning all things Zune and podcasting. Even though I knew the answer, from the conversation I sense that not only is Microsoft committed to the podcast industry, they’re making every effort to provide a robust experience as they continue to advance the Zune Software. So, as was twittered to followers and open for discussion by our community please consider the following questions. You may also add to the discussion to bring new ideas and information to the community -

Question: Rob would like to know if Enhanced Podcast Episode functionality is desired by podcasters and should be supported on the Zune?

Question: How many of you podcasters spend extra time fine-tuning your xml and embedded meta-data and testing it in various aggregators?

Question: What specific features are you interested in Zune supporting that may not be offered at this time?

Question: Have any of you tried the Zune Software and devices? What is your opinion of them overall and the podcast experience specifically?

Question: What is needed to advance the podcast industry as a whole? What are your needs and how can they be satisfied?

Ideas -

Who knows what the future holds but I think the podcast community needs to take notice and take a leading role in shaping its future! What do you think -

Links

Article link - http://www.macworld.com/article/135423/2008/09/format.html
Musinaut - http://www.mxp4.com/
QuickTime - http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/technologies.html
SilverLight - http://silverlight.net/
LiveStage Pro - http://www.totallyhip.com/livestage.html

“Geekologie is a geek blog dedicated to the scientific study of gadgets, gizmos, and awesome. There are a lot of shiny new things out there, and Geekologie is dedicated to finding every last one of them for you.”

Not only do they have great content, I find myself laughing out loud with nearly every post.  Sometimes edgy and irreverent, but always right on with the latest and greatest in all things geek.

Have a look, but be sure to let us know your favorites as well!  We’re always looking for a new favorite too!

“The reason people have a problem with social media is that they try to monetize it. Creating a viral application and trying to upsell from it is not going to work. The key is to create the viral application and use that to gain mind share, links, subscribers or something else and then try to monetize.

People are very wary of being gamed, that’s why nobody links to posts with numbers in the title anymore. Make something look like linkbait or appear like a viral marketing ploy and it will die straight away.”

I happen to agree with this.  I think that there are a lot of very clever people out there creating some incredibly entertaining marketing videos:

(check-out the “Top-10 Viral Marketing Campaigns of All Time”  http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/the-top-10-viral-marketing-campaigns-of-all-time/)

But the ones that really win are the videos where nothing is being overtly sold.  Take the Subservient Chicken, (http://www.subservientchicken.com) or the new Weezer video “Pork and Beans” for example.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI)

Clever simply for the sake of being clever.  I can’t say that the subservient chicken has encouraged me to buy more Burger King Whoppers, but the Weezer video definitely drove me to buy their album.  Their video has received more than 7 million hits since it’s release three weeks ago (at the time of this post) making it one of the most successful viral videos of all time. 

Create the fans just for the sake of entertaining the fans, and the sales will follow. 

What do YOU think?