I’m proud to announce today that PodTech has been part of a group of leading upstarts and big players – Apple, PodTech Network, NPR, and a handful of leading firms in the podosphere (podcasting industry) – to accelerate the industry mission in the “Podosphere”.
In my 10 years as an entrepreneur and 7 living in Silicon Valley I’ve seen the value in forming industry associations when the timing is right especially when the market is confused like it is now. Like groups before ADM it’s not always clear from the outset what the roll will be. I remember when the IAB was formed in the 90s the market was confused on ad formats for web pages…then in 1998 ICANN formed and there was some confusion about domain names, naming systems, and the global addressing system …there were other groups along the way…. these groups of emerging leaders can bring key people together and create clarity and growth for the industry. Many entrepreneurs want to build an industry so the time is right.
At PodTech we’ve been working with corporate marketers and advertisers in developing new ad solutions that work for podcasts. This is the main reason why I decided to spend my time to spearhead this group with some great people. New ad formats will emerge (this was a big discussion last week about facebook) and we want to contribute. I encourage all firms interested to join the ADM. The membership is open for all players in downloadable media Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Facebook, and others.. For my company PodTech this will help achieve our mission to commericalize the podcasting business (make money) while creating an environement that promotes a better user experience and creates a growing profitable ecosystem. In Web 1.0 we had the same challenge (banner formats and practices) and the IAB among others stepped up and clarified and unified the industry around formats for publishers and advertisers. Now it’s Web 2.0 and the ADM will do the same for podcasting and anything downloadable.
Over the past two years podcasting has grown from geeky grass roots to fully mainstream. Today there is even talk of Apple starting a record label so it’s clear downloadble media and the Apple model is here to stay. But it’s just not about podcasting it’s about all downloadable media that is represented by what podcasting is.
The ADM will focus primarily on podcasting, downloadable media and portable content that is monetised by advertising and sponsorship. It will also create a ‘landscape’ that facilitates the commercialisation of this growing audience.
Clement James of vnunet has a good writeup on the formation announcment today.
If anyone has any question they can email me at john at podtech dot net or visit the web site of the ADM at www.downloadablemedia.org
The founders of the Association of Downloadable Media – ADM are:
| Pete Alcorn, Apple Computer Susan Bratton, Personal Life Media, Inc. Jonathan Cobb, Kiptronic John Furrier, PodTech John C. Havens, BlogTalkRadio Kris Jacob, PodShow Don Loeb, Feedburner Chris MacDonald, LibSyn/IndieFeed |
Mark McCrery, Podtrac Bryan Moffett, NPR Murgesh Navar, Podbridge Dave Osborne, Neilsen//NetRatings, Inc. Dave Praeger, Rev3 Matthew Snodgrass, Porter Novelli Colette Vogele, Vogele & Associates |
Update: blog and press coverage
Silicon Valley Technology Blog - John Furrier 
John,
I want to thank you for helping to spearhead this effort.
Blogtalkradio is committed to working with other members of the ADM to better develop tools for advertisers and content publishers in order to realize the full potential of this important and rapidly devleoping new medium.
Alan Levy
CEO and Founder Blogtalkradio
The question is why were not all of the podcasting companies invited to participate. I found it pretty surprising that both my company RawVoice and Doug Kaye’s Gigavox were not invited to any of the early meetings.
Todd..
I find this to be a very important announcement that isn’t being covered at all in the blogosphere. The blogs like Techcrunch cover startups but won’t cover this kind of important industry event. I’m blown away. Keep up the leadership in podcasting. I’ve been following your blog for some time great stuff. It’s clear that companies like PodTech, Apple, NPR and others are doing great work and it is the new media and standards need to be developed. Your experience and observations about the IAB and ICANN are right on. Sometimes industry associations make sense as does this. Congrats John
hemiparesthesia