Loren Feldman, the puppetmaster behind the puppet Shel Israel video blog, is moving on.

Puppet Shel Israel is a sort of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog for new media, parodying “new media expert” Shel Israel, while scooping him with entertaining interviews, like this discussion with Digg’s Kevin Rose:

While Loren’s puppet has been scoring the interviews, Israel has been seeing his career go downhill and venting his frustration over the puppet:

“He has managed to annoy, distract and embarrass me,” writes Israel. “He has confused people by usurping my site.”

Now, in an open letter to the real Shel Israel, Feldman explains why:

Cynical Peak’s Rivet is a Mac OS X app that lets you access your iTunes media on your Xbox 360.

In a nutshell, it turns your XBox 360 into Apple TV Jr. You can browse, play, and view your pictures, movies, and video through the Xbox 360’s media blade. Rivet will automatically load and give you access to your iTunes music, iPhoto photographs, and any video or picture folder that you wish to share.

Rivet is $18.95. A limited demo is available.

Video community site Seesmic has announced that it has partnered with Six Apart, the maker of Movable Type to provide Movable Type users and their readers with the ability to integrate video comments alongside traditional text-based comments.

Seesmic already offers a plug-in for integrating its video system into WordPress sites.

The MT plug in is a free download from the Movable Type site.

“Commenting on stories is quickly going beyond words — it’s also about audio, video, and interactivity. With Seesmic, you can get a real sense of how things are said and can respond in a more intuitive way,” said Loic Le Meur, CEO of Seesmic in a statement.

Seesmic video comments are already in place at several MT blogs, including:

• Joi Ito
• John Battelle
• gapingvoid

Social media guru Chris Penn has published a free eBook, the 8 Step Guide To Podcast Marketing Basics.

Penn is the creator of the Financial Aid Podcast, co-founder of PodCamp unconferences, and co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast.

“This is a super-short eBook (13 pages total) that asks 8 questions of you in your efforts to market your podcast,” explains Penn. “The answers you come up with will determine in large part just how effective your podcast marketing is.”

“This is NOT a comprehensive guide to marketing anything – I’ve willfully left out a LOT of stuff, because this guide is intended to get the barebones basics in place before you do anything else.”

Here are the download links:

• 8 step guide to podcast marketing basics PDF
• 8 step guide to podcast marketing basics MP3

Check it out and let Chris know what you think at his site.

Google Media Server, a Windows application that aims to bridge the gap between Google services and your TV, was greeted with yawns upon its release yesterday.

The free software is designed to let you access media files, such as videos, music, Picasa Web albums & YouTube videos, via your TV. Sort of like a poor-man’s Apple TV, except you need a Windows PC running Google Desktop, you need to install a new application and and then configure a UPnP Device (like the PlayStation 3).

The reviews at Google’s site suggest that Google Media Center could have used a little more time in the oven:

• “Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I keep having trouble accessing the admin page. Also, list of available desktop media to share is not a complete list of what is on my computer. Will play with it a bit more later, but so far seems a bit flakey :(“
• “Doesn’t work with Xbox 360!”
• “Failed to register service please check the manifest. Vista Home Premium”
• “This gadget requires Google Desktop 1 or above. ” *Bzzt* wrong: it’s PC only.

Getting Internet media to your TV is still way too hard for most people, and Google Media Server doesn’t fix that.

Is the Microsoft Zune the best portable media player for podcasts?

That’s the conclusion of CNet’s Jasmine France, who puts the Zune at the top of her list of the best MP3 players for podcasts:

1. Microsoft Zune: A fantastic podcast option, the Zune even ekes past the iPod for the top spot. The software is excellent for podcasts: You can manage how many episodes you want to sync to your device on a subscription-by-subscription level, meaning you can update three episodes of Buzz Out Loud, but only one of MP3 Insider and so on. You can also unsubscribe from podcasts directly from the player, and there’s an option to wirelessly sync new podcasts when you charge your player at night. The Zune also offers accelerated fast forwarding and passive bookmarking to automatically remember your spot in each podcast.

The Zune beat five other players to the top position, in CNet’s ranking.

12seconds.tv is a new site, now in private “alpha” testing, that is sort of like YouTube for cell phone videos. 

The site “allows friends and family to record and share short video updates about what they are doing or where they are.”

The site doesn’t currently have a lot of features yet, but you can post short videos and then share them via email, blogs or social networking sites. 

The key feature of the site is that it makes creating web video trivial. 

Call it microvlogging. 

Here’s an example of what you can do in 12 seconds:

The 12 Seconds Song on 12seconds.tv

In five years, video will be everywhere, showing up on your phone, on Blade Runner-esque billboards, in your email and on your car’s GPS unit.

According to Forrester analyst James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., you’ll encounter “a dozen video platforms per day,” – what he calls an OmniVideo world. You’ll not only watch more video, but more of the video you watch will be viewed on-demand. 

 
Driving this will be multiple trends:

• Video viewed on-demand will more than double.
• The percent of video that is Internet video will more than triple.
• The percent of video consumed on mobile devices will double.
• The percent of video that is user-generated will jump from 2% to 10%

“When nearly every surface in your environment can display video, marketers will pay a pretty penny to show up at the bottom of a food bowl or in a bathroom mirror, where their product marketing message will be far more relevant than it is on a TV today.” notes McQuivey. “The only broker of this ad space in your home is you: We envision ad networks one day paying you for the right to aggregate your ad experiences.”

Tim Street, creator of the video podcast French Maid TV, is live-streaming a French Maid TV shoot, via UStream. (Note: the embed has been updated to point to video from the streaming event. )

French Maid TV was an early breakout hit among video podcasts, each episode a 5 – 10 minute “how to” lesson, taught by attractive young women in French maid uniforms. Street also was an early success in monetizing his video podcast, with individual instructional episodes commissioned or sponsored by relevant advertisers — like an episode about registering a domain name, for example, sponsored by domain name registrar GoDaddy.com.

The live shoot is an interesting example of how successful podcasters are looking beyond downloadable media, extending their established “brand” into other offerings, online and off.

Earlier today on his blog, Street asks, “Are you monetizing your online video with live events?”

“The Monetization of Online Video is slowly starting to happen. Ad Networks are signing “Video Publishers” to their networks and serving them video ads that still don’t pay enough to live on but the it’s a work in progress. Sites like Revver and YouTube have partnership programs that pay high viewed video creators enough money to make car payments and sponsorships for high viewed videos pay the best but are hard to find, negotiate and close on a regular basis.

One other online video monetization model is the Live Event model. Simply put, you throw a party and have sponsors pay to provide drinks, gift bags, signage and what ever else you can get them to pay for at your party and you videotape content at the party.”

It does not appear (while viewing the live stream) that the video shoot is sponsored, nor is it clear just what product or service the new episode will feature. Street says that he can’t yet divulge that information, but says that the episode involves “sharing private videos.”

Hmm.

The Guardian reports that there will be a new subject available at UK schools, starting in September: podcasting.

Students will be able to get a vocational qualification in internet broadcasting with the launch of an NCFE Level 1 (GCSE grades D-G) award in podcasting:

The new qualification from the NCFE (formerly the Northern Council for Further Education) will allow learners to investigate the process of planning, preparing and producing a podcast.

It aims to help students understand the concepts of podcasting and to develop creative, information technology and communication skills. It will be available in centres across the UK from September 2008. 

“Podcasting is fast becoming a part of everyday life – vicars are delivering sermons via podcasts, police departments are launching ‘crimewatch’ video podcasts and schools and colleges are recording lessons via podcasts. It’s therefore vital that we offer people both an understanding and the skills to utilise this technology,” said David Grailey, the NCFE’s chief executive.

“The qualification has also allowed us, as an organisation, to look at the benefits of podcasts within the education market and consider future plans to deliver our qualifications and syllabus through different mediums – including podcasts.”