Tony Whitmore (@tonywhitmore) blogged about The Quest for Originality which got me thinking about the podcast that we make with @ciemon, @daviey and @lauracowen.
Over the weekend at OrgCon there was some discussion of originality. The subject was brought up when talking about the creative business, with original works being “worth” something, perhaps more than a digital facsimile of some work. So for example a concert is a one off live event is worth paying for, whereas an MP3 is “worth” less because in part it’s easily duplicated and thus lacks originality. (I’ve paraphrased and perhaps twisted the meaning of the discussion to suit this post, but I’m sure you know what I mean).
I guess there’s a couple of things that I think of in relation to being original. There’s originality with reference to the ‘competition’ and originality in terms of us not being stale over time. Both require some effort to achieve, and in my mind we should be doing both.
Competition in podcasting is hard to define. People have a finite amount of time in their lives to listen to podcasts, so we’re competing with other things people would rather be doing, like spending time with family, programming .. or whatever else our listeners do in their ‘spare’ time. People also listen during a commute, jog or some otherwise ‘dead’ air-time. So we have to be compelling or people will do ‘other things’ than listen.
People thus have a limited amount of time to listen to podcasts, and will thus only consume a limited number of shows. I doubt anyone listens to every FLOSS/Linux podcast, but I’m sure most people have tried them all to see which they prefer. So we need to appeal to people if we want people to listen to the show.
I do want people to listen to the show by the way. Whilst we do this for fun (and no financial profit), if nobody downloaded the show I think we’d probably stop doing it. The idea of being on stage to the sound of one hand clapping doesn’t appeal (to me at least). Others are happy to continue making a show no matter how many people listen.
There are of course other podcasts which do pretty much the same as us, Tuxradar and Full Circle Magazine are two good examples with a similar format, but with their own style. Then there’s the likes of Linux Action Show, Linux Outlaws and The Linux Link Tech Show who all have their own style and niche. Every podcast is clearly different, with presenters having their own expression, shows of varying duration, different personalities, quality and frequency. None (including ours) are perfect, all are serving a segment of the market successfully.
Within our own podcast we’ve evolved slightly over the 2.5 seasons we’ve been running, but for the most part the format has stuck. We have introduced new segment ideas, and refined various elements of the show, but in general we’ve stuck with a formula that works for us, and gets us some listeners.
Right now each episode gets downloaded about 5K times in the week after release with a long tail of 13 weeks to hit 10K downloads. After a year each episode hits around 18K and after two years each episode hits around 32K downloads. Clearly as with every podcast, we have no idea how many of those downloads translate into listens. We’re not so naive to think they all do, but we don’t know what the proportion of downloads to listens is, and I don’t think we ever will do. On that subject, for the record, I don’t think we need to do any kind of survey or tracking to try to figure that number out. I’m personally happy to know that some thousands of people download it and some of them listen to it.
When we started I think we had some original concepts compared to others within our space. We’re family friendly, (usually) well prepared, not North-American (not that being American is a problem, but many FLOSS/Linux podcasts come from there, so it’s nice to have one with a non-American ‘accent’ in my opinion), (mostly) above average audio quality, (generally) on time with a regular schedule and made by contributors to the Ubuntu project rather than bystanders. Whilst other podcasts had some of those elements, not many had all.
Since then we’ve perhaps stagnated, and whilst we have introduced new concepts and made changes at the ‘backend’ to streamline the way we produce the show, we haven’t had much in the way of revolutionary changes that the listeners would notice. The big question is I guess is ‘should we?’.
We could do as Linux Outlaws and TLLTS do and have a live part of the show. We tried this in the past but technical barriers (like Tony having a crap internet connection) stymed that. It’s also tricky in that we take tea breaks and eat cake between segments, rather than record it in one go. We could open the show up to have callers phone-in now we have a nice telephony setup. Maybe we should drop the ‘season’ system and just produce a show constantly with no breaks. We could change the duration, presenters, format, style or any other part of the content, but again, ‘should we?’.
There is the danger that we could break something that didn’t need fixing. Perhaps it is broken and we just don’t know that. Perhaps we’re in danger of burning out on a treadmill to churn out episodes that we don’t enjoy, if we don’t change. I don’t know. Do you?
18 Comments
Blog post “Change for Change’s Sake?” http://bit.ly/b3SxQy inspired by and in reply/addition to @tonywhitmore http://bit.ly/9zeHL7
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Change for Change’s Sake?: Tony Whitmore (@tonywhitmore) blogged about The Quest for Originality which got me thin… http://bit.ly/aOkkRo
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Well, for me the podcast works really well, so if you all still enjoy it, keep going as you are! If you need to change to stay interested, go for it!
Thanks for all your hard work
Ubuntu: Alan Pope: Change for Change’s Sake?: Tony Whitmore (@tonywhitmore) blogged about The Quest for Originalit… http://bit.ly/a6IXT3
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Alan Pope: Change for Change’s Sake?: Tony Whitmore (@tonywhitmore) blogged about The Quest for Originality which … http://bit.ly/ccH3N9
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Thanks for coming to the rescue! The “other” podcasts still have place if “certain” critics believe there should only be one.
I think you might have ever so slightly missed the point, and taken one line personally.
After seeing Tony’s comment, you maybe right. I tend to do it fairly often.
Hehe
As someone starting up a podcast I know we tried to look at what others were doing and try to be a little original and fit a different niche. I mean, you tend to do these things because you want to. We like doing our discussions and want to allow others to get involved/hear us out. But we specifically went for a shorter format and do things like our tech book review segment because we’re really into going through a lot of books and there’s not a lot of that discussion going on in the podcasts we listen to.
I think if you’ve established your own flavor it’s a bit rough to take that leap to change for change sake. You’d want to be able to justify how it makes the show better. However, I will say, that if you’re not getting what you used to out of doing the podcast, a little change can go a long way towards renewing the enthusiasm.
You folks need to keep up the good work!
I don’t know where this obsession with “mixing it up” keeps coming from, sometimes stuff is just great and should just stay that way. I don’t mean you can’t chop and change a bit, but if you still enjoy it don’t worry. The LR guys quite probably for other reason than was stated but the whole “still want to keep it fresh” is a poor one if you ask me.
Cola based beverages taste great, but they constantly feel the need to create new tastes then fall back to “original” flavour… The only thing I think might be good is to unleash Ciemon’s pent up anger, it sounds like he might be a closet Matt Revell
And BTW much appreciated talking to the devs at UDS etc. it’s great for us folks who can’t be there and don’t have time to watch/listen online while it’s happening and get a fee for who builds the distro.
Félim
PS: You could interview a few more KDE folk if you felt so inclined
I’ve listened to lots of podcasts in various fields varying from full professional jobs to one person in their bedroom. I found the swearing and abuse on LugRadio got boring after a while and was probably more fun for those on the show.
I think you strike a good balance between being informative and fun. I look to you to keep me informed on cool Ubuntu stuff. A little more KDE love would be good. I’ve used it for years and know others who favour it. I’ve got Gnome on my netbook for variety.
I’m wondering if people who somehow end up with an Ubuntu PC without being into Linux otherwise find the show? Are podcasts mainstream yet?
There are other Linux podcasts available as you state and I’ve listened to most of them. My personal opinion is that non of them come close to being as interesting, informative and entertaining as the Ubuntu UK Podcast. I’m not a huge Linux user as I was but I still listen to the podcast every issue on my PC and my Android phone.
There isn’t any reason to keep things fresh. Carry on producing the podcast exactly as you have been doing since the very start and people will continue to listen and bring in new listeners. And leave live recordings for events such as Oggcamp. And maybe a video too like the good old Lugradio days
I’ve been listening since the very beginning and I like the format you guys have been using. It’s nice to have a bit of familiarity ; ie the command line love, the new discover and so forth because I look forward to those segments. I don’t think you are stagnant because your subject matter is always changing and updating. Each episode is only about 40 – 60 minutes which is just long enough to listen but not get too tired of listening to, and you only put out an episode 2 times a month which gives you enough time to come up with new content.
I guess what I’m saying is if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. I understand that you guys (and gal) could be feeling like you’re doing the same thing week after week and if you want to change it to make it more fun for yourselves then i think your listeners will understand. I think above all podcasting is about having fun and enjoying what you do and that should be the measuring stick for you guys to judge. I still have fun listening and I’m sure quite a few of the 5k downloads are actually people enjoying the show.
Popey, no you don’t need to change for changes sake. I like UUPC just the way it is. The reason I listen is because I have a busy job and busy life and the podcast is a nice compressed bit of time where I can peek into the Ubuntu “ecosphere” (or should I call it “Gerald”??) and related FOSS projects. I can safely say that I have learnt about something new everytime I listen and that is immensely valuable to me. I think you understate how good you are compared to the likes of the venerable LugRadio, who are unmatched when it comes to comedy but could not hold a candle to you with regards to preparation, technical know-how and general professionalism.
Long live UUPC, may it continue for many years.
@Ciemon Seen @felimwhiteley ‘s comment on http://popey.com/blog/2010/07/27/change-for-changes-sake/ ?
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
I don’t really listen to other podcasts. I confess that’s mostly down to laziness, but if I didn’t like the show I wouldn’t listen. I enjoy the format, it works well. You interact with each other well.
I agree with Félim though – unleash Ciemon!
Please don’t make any radical shake up – your show is great as it is. You have a good breakdown of segments and great chemistry. I even like your “outside broadcasts”, with headphones on I feel as though I’m there with you with the background conference ambiance (or Eurostar ambiance).
The show really helped me in my absolute beginner days (my first Ubuntu was 8.10) and I look forward to every episode.
I like TuxRadar, too but if I had to choose….