The fourth episode of 5 Minutes Max is now podcasting. Download directly here, or subscribe to the Stumax.com RSS feed to have these podcasts delivered directly to your feed reader. #

Here’s the transcript of today’s ‘cast, with inline links where appropriate: #

Welcome to 5 Minutes Max, an occasional podcast from Stumax.com. Today’s podcast: Pod Fever. #

Hi, everybody. I’m Stuart Maxwell and this is 5 Minutes Max for January 11, 2005. The following content may not be worksafe, it might raise your hackles, and it’s possible that it will sap your will to live. But remember our motto: Hey, at least it’s only 5 minutes. If even that isn’t enough for you, you can find links and show notes and leave me a message at Stumax.com… that’s s-t-u-m-a-x.com. #

OK. Ready? Let’s go… #

A few days ago, Scott Fletcher had what I thought was quite a good rant about the state of podcasting. If you haven’t listened to it yet, his podcast can be found at diagonaluniverse.com/mt/ #

Scott makes a lot of good points that I won’t take the time to enumerate here, but I did want to respond to one thing in particular. Scott argues that the current hype around podcasting is that everyone will eventually become a podcaster. But I think that what’s more important to focus on, is not that everybody will become a podcaster, but that anybody can become a podcaster. And when anyone can become a podcaster, then a whole new range of creative voices can be heard. Whether it’s throwbacks like The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd or fluffy time-fillers like the Sound of the Day, podcasting has lifted the lid on a chest full of shiny new toys for us to play with. #

Of course, like any other new medium, the initial rush of unfettered experimentation will at some point give way to a wave of more considered productions. In his rant, Scott argues that there will be “genres” by which I think he means “ages or phases” of podcasting. He’s spot on about that. Right now we’re in the gold rush phase, where everyone races to the new space to stake a claim. Some of the early adopters will make fortunes and most will fade back into obscurity, but the interesting thing to watch will be when next wave hits, and the one after that. The podcasters who’ve learned from the mistakes and successes of the first adopters will be the real innovators; they’ll figure out how to use this medium. (By the way, the only people guaranteed to make money in any gold rush are the outfitters. If you can supply the prospectors with everything they need to survive in the wilderness, you’re bound to make a fortune.) #

In the meantime, every new movement needs a figurehead, and that’s the role that Adam Curry is performing brilliantly. Adam’s tech and radio experience makes him a godsend for the new medium, but he’s only a midwife for this movement. I guarantee you he doesn’t know any more than anyone else about what podcasting will eventually become. I love the Daily Source Code and I dig what Adam and Dave Winer have done in terms of getting this phenomenon started. But Adam is trapped by his experience into making the flawed assumption that podcasting is going to be like radio, that it’s going to be like a super radio that everyone can take with them. And, yeah, sort of, it will be, but mostly no it’s going to be something completely different that nobody quite understands yet—especially not Adam and Dave. However, Adam and Dave are building the bridge to the new world, and that’s no small thing to be thankful for. #

It’s exciting to see podcasting take off. TV and radio have long since bored me to tears, but podcasting is reminding me of the value of experiencing things with my ears. It’s reviving my sense of hearing. I loved the freshness and good-natured innocence of the guy who uploaded the podcast he recorded on his cassette tape player. The Sound of the Day is so pointless and yet it’s so over-the-top and goofy that I actually look forward to hearing it every day. IT Conversations, Reel Reviews, Whole Wheat Radio, Indie Feed, and others bring me fresh views and perspectives that I wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise. #

Will these be around a year from now? I don’t think so, though who knows? I’m sure 5 Minutes Max won’t be around then, but I don’t think that’s the point. We’re all just trying to understand what this new thing can do. We’re staking our ground and digging our mines and trying to hit the mother lode… even as most of us will be content to return home with a few nuggets or a pouch of gold dust. #

Podcasting’s advantage over traditional media is that podcasting doesn’t require an audience, it’s dirt cheap to produce, and, though higher production quality will be important for those shows that hope to find the widest audience, high quality audio just isn’t a prerequisite for sharing your thoughts or creativity. So, just as the web has enabled personal expression for folks with a wide range of tools and abilities, podcasting is likely to hang around for a long time, providing everything from the stupid to the sublime. Because, unlike a finite vein of gold, human creativity is a limitless spring, requiring only the right tools to unlock it. #

That’s what I think, anyway. What do you think: Is podcasting the next television, or is it destined to go the way of the Pet Rock? Leave me a comment at Stumax—that’s s-t-u-m-a-x—dot com. You can also send an email to 5 … that’s the number 5… at stumax.com. This podcast is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. I’m Stuart Maxwell, join me some other time for 5 Minutes Max.

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