Within the past year, I’ve become more open to podcasts. I used to think it was a step too far in the effort to spread information, but now I’m ok with it. It’s interesting to listen to people who are “web famous” talk about their experience and knowledge about a given topic. Things such as Flickr, del.icio.us, Newshutch (and other readers), Rails, CSS, Ajax, UI, web design, and so on, are all among some of the things discussed. Of course all podcasts aren’t technical, but that’s what I listen to. Specifically, I’m interested in the web technology genre of podcasts.
Of all my subscriptions, I think it’s fair to claim the Web 2.0 Show as the one I listen to the most. That’s not to say they are the best or anything, they just happen to be one of the first I’ve heard, so naturally, they get the most attention. In the case of podcasts, you really can’t judge the book by its cover. I’ve listened to shows have 50,000-70,000 listeners and wasn’t impressed at all. On the other hand, the Web 2.0 Show (two guys using skype) has just under 6,000 listeners, and seem to always get high quality, respectable guests. People from Microsoft and Google, who have built and/or managed remarkable products. And yes, they get the smaller players, too, which I think is good. I don’t know how they do it, but I’m glad they do. I don’t have a lot of time to listen to podcasts, really, but according to iTunes, I have 7.5 days worth to go through. I tried listening to a show a night before bed, but that quickly turned into me waking up with my iPod and headphones somewhere in the covers, with me having no recollection of the show. Anyway, of the 7.5 days of podcasts (41 subscriptions), the Web 2.0 Show is the only subscription where I’ve downloaded and listened to every show, and it’s all because of their guests.
