By Doug Smith – Podango President

Podango have been in Beta 1 release for one week now and we have made good progress. We are not without issues, but for our first beta we are very pleased. We have six stations opens for business and another 17 approved and building out their content. More requests to become station directors are coming in daily. We reject some and accept some. We are holding to a standard in order to establish a professional environment with great niche focused content. I continue to be amazed at the applications from all over the world about some very interest niches. I love the “long-tail” and I love talking to experts in niche markets. I love their passion and desire to share, listen and create online conversations.

In addition to our content and stations we also have make progress in other areas. Our transcriptions are starting to roll in and our traffic is picking up. We have a Google page rank of 6/10 after a week and our Alexa rating is improving each day.

Included in those six live stations are industry leaders in Paul Colligan (Internet Marketing), John Jantsch (Small Business Marketing), Roger Merrill (Leadership), a great world news station, old time music and an Italian station.  We love our station directors and know they are creating huge value for their audiences. Some argue that a station director model takes away from the democratic process of web-wide voting for favorites. Though that might be true to an extent, it is my experience that a few in the minority tend to strongly influence the ranking of content popularity in the fully open web and the station directors add some sanity to audience rankings and more importantly, they don’t stand on the sidelines and point fingers, they take responsibility to listen and produce great station content that will create loyalty in those they serve. It is really about the conversations and some of the best conversations are moderated by leaders in a field. They don’t know it all, but they know enough to find the answers people are looking for. We love our station directors. In the end, their success is our success.

And if you think this week was fun. Wait until next week at the Podcasting and Portable Media Expo where we are sponsoring the Podcasting Unconference 2006 in our booth. #301 come and visit. We will have 18 sessions/conversations moderated by podcasting industry leaders. Sound familiar.  So for us it is not just about giving “voice”, it is also about having “ears”. It is about the conversation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Podango Brings The Podcasting Unconference 2006
to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo

Unconference delivers unkeynote with Robert Scoble and conversations with Mommycast, Paul Colligan, and others

Orem, Utah – August 30, 2006 – Podango, a Web 2.0 company that enables podcast stations that integrate the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a more compelling and complete online and offline experience for podcast listeners, today announced it is bringing The Podcasting Unconference 2006 to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo being held September 29 – 30 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.

“We are excited to deliver a great podcasting unconference at the industry’s hottest podcasting conference,” said Lee Gibbons, CEO, Podango. “Not only is the podcasting market on fire, this is going to be a great show: the Podcast and Portable Media Expo has received Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006. Participants will not be disappointed.”

Podango, a Web 2.0 company that enables podcast stations that integrate the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a more compelling and complete online and offline experience for podcast listeners, today announced it is bringing The Podcasting Unconference 2006 to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo being held September 29 – 30 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.“We are excited to deliver a great podcasting unconference at the industry’s hottest podcasting conference,” said Lee Gibbons, CEO, Podango. “Not only is the podcasting market on fire, this is going to be a great show: the Podcast and Portable Media Expo has received Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006. Participants will not be disappointed.”

Podango, a Web 2.0 company that enables podcast stations that integrate the “live conversations” of blogging with audio conversations to create a more compelling and complete online and offline experience for podcast listeners, today announced it is bringing The Podcasting Unconference 2006 to the Podcast and Portable Media Expo being held September 29 – 30 at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.“We are excited to deliver a great podcasting unconference at the industry’s hottest podcasting conference,” said Lee Gibbons, CEO, Podango. “Not only is the podcasting market on fire, this is going to be a great show: the Podcast and Portable Media Expo has received Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006. Participants will not be disappointed.”

The unconference will feature guru-moderated discussions on specific topics at scheduled times throughout the Expo at Podango’s booth (#301). During sessions, participants will engage in conversations led by podcast luminaries such as Mommycast, David Lawrence, Evo Terra, John Furrier of podtech.net, expo organizer Tim Bourquin, and Paul Colligan. Sessions begin right after the Expo Keynote each day and will last about 30 minutes each, with short breaks in between. For more information about The Podcasting Unconference schedule, go to www.podango.com/unconference.

Commenting on Podango’s plan to bring an Unconference into his Podcast and Portable Media Expo, organizer Tim Bourquin said, “We’re thrilled Podango is doing something unique and unusual in their booth at the Expo. Attendees who visit booth 301 are in for a treat because they’ve done a great job of putting together a top-notch line-up of discussion leaders.”

Unconferences 101

An unconference is an event that leverages and communicates the sum of the expertise of the people in the audience rather than relying just on communicating the expertise of the people on stage. Unconferences do away with the typical moderator/panel/Q&A format. At an unconference, the audience members become the participants, assisted by thought leaders who function as the session moderator.

“People who participate in an unconference usually appreciate the differences in communication patterns between the unconference and that of traditional conferences. They are just more interactive,” commented Gibbons. “It is a remarkable experience, when properly organized; everyone comes away knowing the collective wisdom of the entire group. Everyone just participates and learns at a very high level. In a real sense, it is a great example of what Podango is trying to enable with its podcast station model: many contributors and a rich conversational model, rather than the usual unidirectional push of information.”

About the Expo

Winner of Expo magazine’s Best New Show for 2006, the 2nd Annual Podcast and Portable Media Expo is the only industry event that brings together influential podcasters, media, corporate executives, and device makers to cover the complete range of business, marketing, and legal issues for audio and video podcasts and portable media.The expo will explore how place and time-shifting technology is changing the business landscape of media. It will also look in-depth at the new trend of individuals participating as media companies and producing content at broadcast quality.

About Podango

Podango, a Web 2.0 company, enables rich community conversations by integrating the “live conversations” of blogging and community forums with the rich communication value of audio and video podcasts to create a complete online and offine experience. The company provides a complete platform that allows the creation of podcast stations, independently owned and run by Station Directors who act as guides, to bring together the best podcasts in their focused area of interest and interact and converse with their subscribers. Each station distributes multiple podcasts and includes community intereaction tools to enable an enhanced community conversation. In addition, the listener can tailor the information they subscribe to, via a custom RSS feed, to participate in the information most relevant to them. For more information, visit www.podango.com or email info@podango.com.

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Contact:
pr@podango.com