| Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- Watch Team Leo cream Team @ambermacarthur tonight, 6-8p Pacific, at http://playcafe.com #
- I need trivia experts to help me beat Amber at http://Playcafe.com – tonight at 6p Pacific. Join Team Leo! #
- Business Week has an arcade? What’s next, stock picks from Gamespot? http://businessweek.com/innovate/bwarcade/ #
- Thanks for all the hiking boot advice – got a perfect pair! In return I offer the absolutely best way to tie laces. http://snurl.com/22kf9 #
- Twitter welcomes @patrick_wilson of Weezer! #
| Monday, 24 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- I think we convinced Dvorak to get a Twitter account on the last episode of TWiT. Don’t worry we don’t even mention the T-word until the end #
- @garyvee Dood. I _live_ in wine country. When you going to dump those overhyped Napa labels for some real Sonoma county wine? #
- @mrsflinger Work on Easter? Only eight hours. But then I don’t really "work" for a living. #
- Quotably just launched. Interesting way to follow Twitter conversations. http://quotably.com #
- I’d like to apologize to Blogger Bob of the TSA for today’s TWiT. It was all in good fun and please let me go to Australia Sunday. Thank you #
- The AAC feed of TWiT 137 was pointing to last week’s show. I’ve fixed it but it may take iTunes a bit to notice. Apologies. #
- That’s cool – flickr will produce stats for your (Pro) account if you ask. http://www.flickr.com/photos/me/stats #
- I need to get hiking boots for a walkabout in Tasmania. Any recommendations from you outdoorsy types. Oh. Maybe this is not the place to ask #
- @Veronica Sentence structure overrated is. With your instincts go – understand people will. And you can probably levitate stuff, too. #
| Sunday, 23 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- Facebook is up to something. Suddenly I’m able to add friends over 5000 – but the count doesn’t go up. Are these "friend lists" new? #
- Never mind – it’s just a Facebook bug. It looks like I’m adding friends, but they’re back on the list when I refresh. #
- After many years, coffee has returned to our home in the shape of a Francis Francis X5 from Illy Café. The tea scourge has been banished. #
- I’ve spent too much time dicking around with FriendFeed. Now I’ll have to bicycle into work instead of walking. #
- @Scobleizer next time tell Gary the wines are much better in Sonoma County. #
- TWiT Live today with Dvorak, Calacanis, and Wil Harris. Watch Leo spit milk from his nose at http://twit.tv/live from 3-4:30p Pacific. #
| Saturday, 22 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- Just posted my thoughts on the next iteration for TWiT on my blog, http://leoville.com/blog – and the first video of the new studio space. #
- Ozzy is chewing on a French delicacy: l’oreille de cochon. Yum. #
| Saturday, 22 March 2008, 8:58 am Tags: Podcasting, TWiT |
I promised you last time I’d talk about what’s next for me, so here’s what I’ve been thinking lately.
The end of The Lab did two things (besides killing a pretty heft chunk of my income): it gave me one week a month with nothing to do, and it eliminated my only regular television exposure.
Thanks to Amber, and some work she’s passing my way, I think I’ll be able to mostly replace the income – phew – and I’m sure I can find something to do with the extra time (like make sure all the TWiT shows come out weekly from now on). But what about TV?
Our minor experiments in doing video versions of TWiT have convinced me that audio is the more popular medium. TWiT audio gets many times more downloads than video. That makes sense to me, since people have more time to listen to audio than they do to sit down and watch video. But there’s something about video that captures people’s attention. I’ll go one step further, there’s something about live video that’s very compelling for both viewers and hosts. I’ve missed live TV ever since TechTV went under four years ago, and I’ve been looking for some way to get that excitement back.
If you’ve been watching the impromptu live streams of the Tech Guy radio show, you know they’re very popular and I have a lot of fun doing them. (Tune in TWiT Live Saturday and Sunday from 2-5p Eastern.) So much fun that I’ve expanded the live broadcasts to include some of the netcast tapings including TWiT. We run an IRC chat room at irc.dslextreme.com #techguy during the video and the interactivity adds so much on both sides.
I’ve also been watching what Chris Pirillo has been doing on Ustream and Robert Scoble on Qik, and I have come to believe there’s significant interest in live streaming video.
Towards the end of last year I learned that the downstairs offices in our building would soon be vacant. I’ve always coveted this space. We’re in a quaint old cottage built by a lumber baron at the turn of the century. He paneled the entire downstairs in redwood and it’s gorgeous. We don’t really need the space – right now TWiT is just Dane and me – but I leased it anyway, three days before Rogers cancelled the show. I wasn’t sure what I’d do with the extra space at the time, but my plan now is to turn it into a streaming video studio.
Here’s a quick video tour of the new TWiT Offices. (Yes that’s my Emmy on the mantle – I’m not a complete TV newbie!)
To begin with we’re going to stream everything we do at TWiT, including the production of all our shows, live and interactive. To that end we’re adding considerable bandwidth: a T1 line and a cable modem to our existing DSL connectivity. We’ll Skype over one, stream over another, and reserve the third for surfing, uploads, etc. I’ve also started furnishing the office with antiques – I don’t want this to look like any TV show you’ve ever seen before – and we’re adding lights, cameras, microphones, and computers for video production. We hope everything will be in place and we can begin streaming daily by the end of April.
Don’t worry – the existing TWiT shows will still be available as audio downloads, but soon you’ll be able to watch them being made and interact with them live. Some of the shows may begin to offer video versions, in addition to the existing audio versions. I expect we’ll be sending two to four hours of live video out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday – with five or six hours on the weekends, including the Tech Guy behind the scenes.
And in a month or so I plan to expand the Saturday programming to include a live show, tentatively called TWiT Live, which will be our first official video podcast. We’re still working out how this will be done, but I’m modeling it on the Tom Green show. I think what he’s doing is ground-breaking. Of course it will be entirely tech focused and feature many of the TWiT regulars you already know along with any tech celebrities we can lure to Petaluma with promises of food and wine.
I’m not interested in duplicating existing television models – I want to deconstruct TV and get to something more direct, more intimate, and much more two-way. I haven’t really looked at the business model for this, but fortunately, between my day jobs, existing TWiT advertising (thank you Audible, Astaro, and FIT!), and your generous donations through TWiT.tv we have the money to get this thing off the ground and, I believe, keep it going indefinitely. As Dvorak has always said, and I believe, a business model will emerge. My goal has never been to build an empire, or even a business. I just want to be able to make a living doing what I love: talking about technology with a community of engaged and intelligent people, and perhaps, along the way, to help people understand how to better use technology in their own lives.
So I hope you’ll join me in this grand experiment. It’s only possible because of the large and active TWiT community. Your feedback and participation is all it takes to keep us going. I’m excited about where TWiT is going and I thank you for your support through all these changes. Here’s to the next chapter – I think it’s the most exciting yet.
| Friday, 21 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- @StephAgresta Wait until they debate the declaration of independence. It’s incredibly moving. They should show John Adams in schools. #
- I think I’ll talk about "social gaming" with Bill Handel on KFI today. Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Smash Bros. We like to play with each other! #
- @ijustine I can’t understand why anyone who is self-employed should attend as many meetings as you do. I haven’t been to a meeting in years! #
- I’m trying the Disqus commenting system on my WordPress blog -http://leoville.com. It’s nice but why isn’t there a native WP way to do this? #
- @ranaberden I have the WP plug-in for Disqus – I mean I’d love that kind of commenting built into WordPress so I could keep comments locally #
| Thursday, 20 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- I don’t know why but I’m joining the @verygreenteam – green like money, green like astroturf, green like the dewy buds of spring. #
- Comscore reports that Google searches are down 6% in February. Of course, February had 6% fewer days. Don’t they teach math anymore? #
- Mark the time. I’m calling it. Call For Help/The Lab is dead. Long live TWiT Live. http://snurl.com/227v3 #
| Thursday, 20 March 2008, 7:57 am Tags: Call For Help, The Lab, TV |
I have a plane ticket to Vancouver for this Monday. I was scheduled to fly there to tape Week 44 of The Lab with Leo. Except I’m not. After 645 Canadian episodes of Call for Help and The Lab, Rogers has decided to cancel the show.
It’s a decision I can’t help but agree with.
Our Australian affiliate, the How-To Network, had stopped running the show due to poor ratings. The Canadian ratings haven’t been so hot, either. The slide began a year ago when Amber left the show. The entire staff left in January and I was left the last man standing. I’m not good with slow fades. It’s time to move on.
Rogers is planning to replace it with a daily, live show which is, ironically, what Call for Help used to be, but unless I pack up and move to Canada there’s no way I could host it, so we’ve parted ways amicably. I will always be grateful to them for keeping Call for Help alive these past four years. I have worked with many wonderful Canadians both in front of and behind the camera, many of whom will continue to be friends and partners as I segue into new ventures.
TV, like all performing arts, is full of transitions. It’s graduation day over and over again. You know you’ll see some people again, and you also know that others, many of whom have been close friends, will drift away never to been seen again. It’s sad, but it’s inevitable. Every new beginning is also the beginning of the end. I guess that’s life.
There will be new shows through May; we were producing several months ahead. Repeats of both Call for Help and The Lab will continue indefinitely. Everything comes to an end except re-runs.
Call for Help launched on May 11, 1998. It was cancelled April 2004 and revived by Rogers two months later. Ten years after its birth, four years after its resurrection, and after nearly 2,000 shows, Call for Help is finally over.
Except, it’s not. I’ll talk about the next chapter tomorrow.
This is Call for Help the way it was meant to be – with a handsome young host (hey it was eight years ago!) and guests Martin Sargent and Andy Ihnatko.
| Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- Once again I am very glad we moved MacBreak Weekly to Wednesday. net@night with the CEO of http://PlayCafe.com will push this hour. #
- We’re throwing a surprise 16th birthday pizza party for Abby at her school and the entire sophomore class is invited. (It’s a small school). #
- @DougH Wherever there’s an audience of any size or value there will be advertising money. Podcasters should focus now on building audience. #
- @DougH Everything I do promotes everything else I do. I don’t worry about money; I just presume if I create good content I’ll earn a living. #
- @gapingvoid Spammers can never take over Twitter. That’s the beauty of it. Only follow people who post interesting things. Spam? Where? How? #
| Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 11:59 pm Tags: |
- @ThePicMan I’m also bringing my Canon 5D with the 24-105L, 50 1.4L, 70-200L, and the 185MacroL. The Pentax is just for comparison purposes. #
- US$30 Billion for JP Morgan to buy Bear Stearns for 7¢ on the dollar but not a penny more for people losing their homes in foreclosure. Nice #
- Great to see Erica Hill on CNN with Soledad O’Brien on AC360. I worked with both of them in their early days. Hope they don’t compare notes. #
- Twinings Irish Breakfast Tea and Calvin Trillin’s article on the Rickshaw Drivers of Calcutta in Natl Geo – the sun never sets etc. etc. #
- @ScottBourne What about the Mercedes E320 Bluetec? Great fuel economy and only 74.28 Alexes. #
- TWOTD: solipsistic, @gapingvoid wondered whether it was more solipsistic to talk about Alpine Texas or one’s Twitter followers. Yes. #
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