MWGblog

As most of you know, social media works. By way of FaceBook I had a fraternity brother contact me a few weeks ago. I hadn’t heard from Doug, our Pledge Class President, in 18 years, but (and I’m paraphrasing) he said, “Geoghegan, I found something that belongs to you, I think you’ll get a kick out of it, what’s your mailing address?” I was glad to hear from Doug, but admit to being curious what he had.

Today via mail I received my ΦΔΘ (Phi Delta Theta) pledge black book. Pretty cool! I don’t think I am giving any fraternity secrets away by saying as a pledge we were required to have this book with us at all times with a separate page for every active member with their name and phone number. During our pledge period we had to get a required number of signatures. Of course they all wrote personal notes. I had fun today reading my book and tripping down memory lane. Good way to round out a terrific year. Thanks Doug!

Without coming out and saying it in plain English, Podango has basically said get your stuff off our servers ’cause we are going under… When the President of an Internet startup says “we are encouraging you to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin moving to another hosting provider” you can read the writing on the wall. Looks like bankruptcy. Two years ago, people railed against me for my “Podcasting Is Dead” presentation. I’m not sure how many more examples I need to point to until folks realize – I was dead on. You are in the media business, forget “podcasting” – that is so 2005.

I think this also says something about the “network of shows” model Podango and several other startups were counting on. Grouping together unrelated shows in order to sell advertising across all of them simply doesn’t work. Aside from the fact that none of these companies has a dedicated sales team (something every successful content company has from day one), advertisers simply don’t see value in using a shotgun method to reach their target market. Besides, wasn’t reaching a super-targeted audience exactly what new media promised in the first place? Slapping an old business model on new media was destined to fail.

Podango was started by some great folks, primarily Lee and Doug, both stand up guys. In fact I sold technology to them a few years back. No one takes joy in situations like this, it is a tough spot. They are smart guys and will weather the storm. Look for them on the backside. I expect they’ll be back.

So who’s next? Anyone heard from Mevio (Podshow) lately?

Nicholas, Jack and William visit Santa.

I remember sitting in high school thinking someday I’ll be 40. Funny how quickly it creeps up on you.

Clearing off my hard drive. I found this.

I put this on my Amazon S3 because the Iowa IPTV site was slow. Here is the original link.

The news hit this morning that the New Media Expo (Formally the Podcast and New Media Expo) has been sold to BlogWorld. Congratulations to Tim! Good timing in my estimation. Now what to do with all that audio we own from the last few years’ events…

As many of you know who follow me on Twitter, my blog has been a bit quiet as I was going through the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy to become a Reserve Deputy Sheriff (see Fun with Pepper Spray.) This is the culmination of a three year goal I have had. I’ve been active with the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team for a few years and this just completed the circle. Two of my sons, Nick and Will, took center stage as my Badge Pinners. This shot is just prior to the evening’s graduation ceremony.