Toshiba Corporation today announced that it is killing off HD DVD.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

With HD DVD out of the way, there will be a window of opportunity for Blu-Ray. However, as DVD offers a “good enough” standard for many people, and digital delivery of HD content is already available, the success of Blu-Ray is likely to be the last gasp of the DVD format.

At Scripting News, pioneering podcaster Dave Winer is highlighting a service from BlogTalkRadio that makes podcasting a no-brainer:

A new service from BlogTalkRadio…

Call their special phone number: 646-200-0000. It records the call. When you’re done it creates an RSS 2.0 feed with an enclosure that’s an MP3 of the call.

The address of the feed is a function of the phone number you called from. I just called in a podcast from my Nokia N95, which they added to this feed:

http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/858342####

That’s all there is to it! No registration. They have a web page for it, but it’s completely unnecessary.

Winer notes that it would be tough to make a mobile podcasting service that was any easier.

Robert Scoble is wowed by the service too, saying “Holy donuts is this cool.”

They are right – but in this case, I think there’s something just as important as ease of use to consider – your privacy.

I question a service that makes it easy to do something dangerous.

BlogTalkRadio’s service uses your phone number as the URL of your podcast feed, and embeds your phone number in the feed in several ways:

http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/ Cinch is a voice to RSS service provided by BlogTalkRadio. To use this service simply call (646) 200-0000, record your message, hang up and subscribe to http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/858342####

By using this service, you’re not just advertising your phone number to the world, you’re doing it in a way that makes it easy for automated crawlers, spammers and Internet creeps to find.

On the Internet, there’s always someone that wants to spam your email, your comments, your pingbacks, your social network attention. Putting your phone number in an RSS feed and syndicating your personal info to the Internet is an invitation for problems.

A better solution would to let you pick the URL that you want your podcast to show up at the first time that you call into the service.

Podcaster and author Leesa Barnes is organizing a virtual Social Media Telesummit, with sessions taking place February 20 – 29. Dozens of talks are being presented throughout the Summit, by such podcasting and new media figures as Paul Colligan, The Engaging Brand’s Anna Farmery from the UK, Australian government science video podcaster Kylie Johnson, and virtual podcast event organizer Penny Haynes.

Barnes’ book, Podcasting for Profit, published last fall, is an overview of business podcasting: who should consider creating a podcast, how to do it, and how to use the podcast to build your profitable business.
I caught up with Leesa earlier today, to find out more about the event.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about what will be going on.

Leesa Barnes: It is an eight-day virtual event that’s geared to teach business owners and business leaders how to use social media as a business tool. I am finding that many people think that Facebook and MySpace and blogs and podcasts are simply just a way to find old classmates, or swap songs and recipes, but all of these media can be effective sales tools. As a virtual event, even if you aren’t there at the live Summit session, you can gain access to the recordings later on.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: What inspired you to create this event?

Leesa Barnes: I’ve been to a lot of events in the past couple years, and spent a lot to travel to conferences. There are so many more things I’d like to attend, but for a variety of reasons, can’t be there in person every time. I realized this is the case for many of us. I wanted to give participants the opportunity to participate and hear cutting edge sm information, regardless of their location and ability to travel. This is targeted at the small businessperson who is interested in social media as something other than a playground, but doesn’t have a big marketing budget.

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about the subject matter. Looks like there are a lot of sessions over the next week.

Leesa Barnes: The Summit is going to introduce people to 4 things: How to find new clients, how to make money, how to create a personal brand, and how to create an ideal lifestyle. Some of the topics include using video marketing to attract clients; using SecondLife to build business; Paul Colligan is giving a talk on five ways to sell content you once gave away for free; Scott Allen has a session on how to price, position, and promote your social media services.

People can choose different levels of participation. The cheapest option is $197 and gives people access to the session handouts, live sessions and recordings, but streaming only. Other options get you sessions delivered afterward on your choice of CD or on a pre-loaded mp3 player and greater access to the content and presenters during and after the Summit.

French video site DailyMotion announced today that HD video uploaded by “MotionMaker” contributors will be now automatically be re-encoded in 720p High Definition for playback on the site. Dailymotion has also launched their new HD video player, recently in beta, throughout the site.

The move supports the trend towards HD Internet television that we’ve highlighted previously. As more and more sites offer streaming HD video and as network bandwidth gets better, the limiting factor in adoption of HD Internet television may¬†end up being incompatibilities between custom players.¬†It looks like 2008 will¬†be the year for widespread deployment of¬†HD¬†Internet video. ¬†

DailyMotion says that any viewer can watch videos in HD on their site, but to get the most out of their HD videos, they recommend viewing in full-screen mode or watching on an HD-compatible screen…or by connecting the computer to your HDTV.

In addition to HD support, DailyMotion touts its features like realtime seeking, in-player embed and email tools, and greater user control over the quality of the video being streamed.

A list of keyboard video player shortcuts for video player “power users” is here.

6th graders talk about what podcasting is and how podcasting builds on English/Language Arts skills, taking students beyond the confines of the textbook.

TeacherTube via PodcastingTools.

It looks like Toshiba is giving up on HD DVD, making Blu-Ray the de facto high-definition DVD standard.

The format war, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has confused consumers unsure of which DVD or player to buy. The HD DVD standard has suffered crippling blows in the last few months, though, losing out at Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Netflix and other retailers as the movie industry settles on the competing format.

“We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business,” said a source at Toshiba, who asked not to be identified. An official announcement could come as early as next week.

Will Blu-Ray Matter?

The bigger question in our minds is not who will win the Blu-Ray – HD DVD format war, but whether either format will ultimately matter.

Apple, which tends to be on the leading edge of trends in computer hardware, has already begun to phase out DVDs in its hardware, focusing on the electronic delivery of video content and software:

• The MacBook Air shows what a computer looks like post-DVD;
• The Apple TV update shows how well movie rentals can work over the Internet;
• Apple is working to make iTunes digital copy the standard for digital distribution of media.

Blu-Ray is evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. It’s likely to become a widely accepted standard, like HD Floppies, that ultimately doesn’t matter very much. The leading edge has already moved on beyond DVDs.

Rob Walch, co-organizer of PodCamp Midwest, facilitated a group discussion on “Promoting Your Podcast.”

About twenty participants discussed inexpensive & effective ideas for self-promotion, including:

1. create a cool podcast name
2. you need good 300 x 300 “album” artwork
3. business cards – with white on back for writing notes
4. drop lifting
5. interview bloggers in your subject area
6. be interviewed by other podcasters and bloggers in your subject area
7. search for conversations about you, about your subject area
8. promos – make them for others, ask others to share theirs w/you
9. befriend teenagers (treat them like adults, and they’ll be loyal forever)
10. play feedback from listeners on your show

Ed Roberts (photo, right), KC Weather Podcast, and music podcast, Looking Out The Window, led a PodCamp Midwest session called “Join the Conversation: (Ed Roberts is not the guy who invented the Altair computer, nor the guy who founded the disability movement and caused wheelchair-accessible parking spaces to be made availalbe)

The New Media Triangle (barriers to entry for media) Production/Distribution/Marketing. We’re breaking down those barriers – production via our inexpensive computers. Distribution: we have the Internet. Marketing: people can do word of mouth promotion.

Engaging people is what it’s all about: (cool video “Free Hugs” guy)

Lessons about conversation: People have ben reluctant to step out and communicate, folks don’t even know their close neighbors. But, once one person begins to engage others, more people feel less hesitant to join in. People become willing to champion your conversation, your agenda.

Getting involved in the conversation has benefits beyond just your own issue or program.

“Google is your friend” – do ego-surfing to see where people are talking about you (Google yourself). Find conversations already happening about your topic. Join in. Google Alerts will come and bring those mentions and conversations to you. Google Analytics can show you statistics for traffic and who is visiting your website.

“Social Media is your friend” Use Twitter to engage people in conversation- search Twitter, and other social networking, social media sites, to find other people with similar interests, and engage with them.

“RSS is your friend :)” – Technorati, a blog aggregator, can track changes in feeds around the world, and you can subscribe to that search, and feed it into your feed reader. Tweetscan.com can also do this. EveryZing.com used to be called PodZinger and searches audio files which it has indexed. (demonstrated using a search of “Ed Roberts” – search yielded his last 2 weather podcasts, and a mention on CC Chapman’s Accident Hash. Very cool.).

So many ways to find where and how people are talking on the Internet. But we need to be cognizant of living in the fishbowl, only talking to other people in your little insular circle of friends. Be sure to look at communities outside your online bubble, outside your echo chamber.

Include listeners’ comments and voicemails *in* your show, and that encourages people to interact with the show, and with you, contributing ideas and content.

While Rob Walch gave a Podcasting 101 session in the big auditorium, at today’s PodCamp Midwest, Brady Goodman (right) presented a session for more seasoned podcasters, “Podcasting Like a Pro.”

He has a longtime background in radio, and decided he’d learn about podcasting, and poker, by creating the “Ante Up” podcast three years ago. It did well and got attention from professional poker players as well as mainstream media. Here’s an unedited nearly-liveblog of the session:
“Whether you’re a podcaster or the BBC, to a listener, the storefront looks the same.”

“Content is key – when you’re doing your podcast, know what you’re going to talk about, you can’t be over-prepared. Feedburner has about 200,000 podcasts, you have to have good stuff to talk about. Be focused.

“Equipment – you can be as fancy or as simple as you want. All you need, at minimum, is the gear that comes with your computer But if you want to sound like a pro, you need to process your audio (either when you create, or after when you edit). You can get a processor for like $80 at Guitar Center.

“For microphones, higher end ones are often XLR, which your computer doesn’t have a jack for. You can get an “mbox” which has xlr inputs and a firewire output to connect to your computer. And that comes with ProTools, which is fantastic.

“You can do interviews – if content is key, having other people talk about their expertise is great, but you’ll need equipment to record phone conversations. One pc of eqip is THAT2, which takes a telephone signal and records it.

“Recording software: Audacity is free, and there are many forums online to learn and talk about editing. ProTools is great editing software.

“Some websites let you create podcasts remotely, like BlogTalkRadio. Skype is an internet phone program you can use for making and recording (with another program) calls. LibSyn is another good place to look for hosting and publishing your podcast.

“Be prepared, don’t waste time with intros if you don’t have to have them.

“Production quality: if your content is good, you want to sound even better. Use music beds, check out CC for good free music. Add interviews, process your audio, normalize it, don’t freak me out with an extra loud noise. Use relevant sound effects and background noise, *if* it’s relevant to the content. As you grow your audience, include them and their input/feedback on the podcast. That will encourage more listeners to also contribute and interact. Consider adding a voicemail system so listeners can leave you a message – which you can add to our podcast.

“Making money with your podcast: sell podcast sponsorships. You don’t have to get a bunch of money outof your podcast, but it’d be nice to pay for your cool new microphone. Trade promos and ads with other podcasters to get more listeners. Offer your podcast as a feature on other websites that are related to your content. PodTrac.com is a big website for podcast advertising.

Just a quick reminder to our midwestern friends that PodCamp Midwest is tomorrow, Saturday, February 16, from 9am – 5 pm at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus, 12600 Quivira Road, in Overland Park. Elisabeth from Podcasting News is planning to attend. If you are coming to PodCamp, please track her down and say hello.

PodCamp is a participant-led, user-generated unconference, in which the attendees set the agenda and lead the sessions. Since the first PodCamp (in Boston in 2006), dozens of PodCamps have been held all over the world, with attendance ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of participants. Topics range from Podcasting 101 to advanced topics of monetization and listener interaction. This PodCamp promises a special focus on podcasting in education, in addition to a wide range of general-interest podcasting sessions.