1. Go to http://kwote.me/beta/
2. Choose the podcast you’d like to Kwote.  Currently we only have two during the initial testing process (Airplane Geeks and The Guys Podcast), but we’ll be adding more as we go.
3. Pick it. Pick the episode you’d like to Kwote.
4. Kwote it. Pick your starting time and end time of your Kwote then Kwote it.
5. Preview it. Give it a listen to make sure you got the Kwote where you wanted it.  If it didn’t turn out just right, re-Kwote it.  If you’re happy with the results, throw in a short description of the Kwote and confirm it.
6. Share it. Now you’ll have a nice shortened url to share with all your friends, soon to be friends, enemies, soon to be enemies, and family (which can qualify as either friends or enemies.  We’re not picky).  We’ll be adding more sharing functionality as time, workload, and motivation permits, but until then, may we suggest Twitter as a start?
7. Rinse and Repeat. Now’s where you go back to step 1 and start over on your second Kwote.

Why should I Kwote a podcast?

• Are you a Podcaster?

If you’re a podcaster yourself, what better way to promote it to new listeners than to show them the juicy parts?  We’re tracking your downloads and have plans to start an advertising program that will make you some $$$ for your Kwotes.  Oops, did I let the cat out of the bag?  Did someone say there’s a new way to monetize your podcast?  Stay tuned…

• Are you a podcast fan?

If you’re a fan of one of our podcasts we list on Kwote.me, what better way to show your support than to share your favorite parts with those who don’t want to download whole thing.  We all have some of those friends, so why not get them hooked by sharing the juicy parts?  Consider it a “best-of.”

• Are you a fan of a podcast not listed?

Then tell them to get listed!  All it takes is for the podcast owner to email us at podcasts@kwote.me and we’ll get your favorite podcast listed and ready for Kwotation.  Then you, too, can join the millions (well dozens, anyway) of people who are already sharing their favorite Kwotes with Kwote.me.

Ready to give it a shot?

http://kwote.me/beta/

As we’ve mentioned before, Kwote.Me is interested not only in exploring the bleeding edge of podcasting technology, but also in creating the bleeding edge.  What fun would it be if we just wrote about stuff we should do?  Well this time, we did it.

Before I go spilling the beans, allow me to set up the suspense.

Houston, we have a problem.

Podcasting has been around in it’s current form for years, but it’s popularity has plateaued over the past couple.  We explored one of the reasons for this in our Transcription post, and it’s significant:

Unless looking for a podcast in particular, a typical Googler will not download a 20mb – 60mb file to find the information they were looking for.  Likewise, they’re not going to listen to 20 – 60 minutes of content to find the information.

We’ve been limiting our audience only to those who were willing to download large files and invest the length of the podcast looking for their answer.  Imagine if Google required up to a 60 minute wait time before your results came back.  That’s what we’re doing with our podcasts.  In today’s information age, quickly finding information is key, and it’s been a major disadvantage to podcasting.

What We’re Up To

Advantage, Podcasters.

Imagine if Google required up to a 60 minute wait time before your results came back.  That’s what we’re doing with our podcasts.

Now, imagine if we had a way to dynamically extract as little as 10 seconds, and as much as 5 minutes out of a podcast.  Imagine finding a bit in a podcast you thought should be shared, and you could share only that bit.  Imagine immediate access to specific parts of your podcast without the listener having to download the entire podcast, and most importantly, without them having to wait.

This is what we’re up to.

We’ve created a tool that will allow anyone to extract up to 5 minutes from a podcast and create a new file from it.  Sounds simple, yes, but consider the possibilities.  Any of your listeners can create a small bit (or Kwote) of a podcast they found interesting.  Kwote.Me would extract the Kwote from the full podcast, generate the new file, and provide a tinyURL-esque url for it to be shared.  For instance, if you pulled a 30-second Kwote out of a podcast, it would be found at a small url such as http://kwote.me/H4s2.  It could be tweeted, emailed, shared any way you want, and the users would have instantaneous access to just the part of your podcast that contains the juicy information they’re looking for.  No more listening for half an hour to find what everybody’s talking about.

“But what about Copyrights?”

No more listening for half an hour to find what everybody’s talking about.

Techically, when you create a Kwote, it alter’s the file.  Of course that breaks most (if not all) copyright laws, which means we can only offer the Kwote.Me tool to those podcast owners who allow us to alter their podcasts.  Is this a problem?  No, in fact it’s a solution.  Podcasters will benefit most from these tools, and if they choose not to participate, they won’t benefit.  The tool works just as well with one podcast as it does with thousands (we already have 2).  If your podcast is included in the Kwote.Me tool, your listeners will be able to share the best parts of your podcast.  If you don’t, they don’t.  No skin off our backs.

“I have to spend the time extracting the Kwotes to get this to work?”

You have listeners, don’t you?  This is the beauty of the tool.  Anyone who wants to share a Kwote from your podcast can.  This isn’t a tool for you.  This is a tool for everybody.  If somebody likes a bit from your podcast, they can create a Kwote with zero interaction from you.  Zero interaction means zero work.

“But they can listen to my podcast without the download being recorded”

No, they can listen to part of the podcast without the download being recorded.  Besides, we’ll be tracking how many times your Kwote has been listened to, and anyone listening to a Kwote from your podcast will have the opportunity to download your podcast while listening to the Kwote.  We’ll have a link to both the podcast page, as well as the file itself right above the Kwote player.

“Does this work with .ogg files?”

No.

“Will this work with .ogg files?”

No.  Get over it.

So there you have it.  What we’ve been spending our time on the last few weeks.  The Kwote.Me tool isn’t public yet, but I can assure you it works.  Stay tuned to this blog as we slowly release functionality and keep up with bugs.  Soon, we’ll have the full version Kwote.Me tool available for your podcast.

You can’t play with it just yet, but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of possibilities with this.  How do you think this could be used to benefit podcasting?

Kwote.me, for now, is a blog dedicated to the art of podcasting.   There’s been so much excitement around podcasting that seems to have plateaued as we reach some of the perceived limits.  Here, we’ll be questioning those limits.  We’ll be exploring the bleading edge of podcasts as a technology, a business, a medium, and an art.  I say we, because this is meant to be a community of writers, not just me blabbing away about the audio on the net we call podcasts.

If you’re not comfortable with writing about the bleeding edge of podcasting, fear not, for I bear good news.  We’ll be doing plenty of other types of podcast writing including:

• How-to Videos, Podcasts, and Articles
• News
• Podcast Reviews

If you’re not comfortable with writing about the bleeding edge of podcasting, fear not, for I bear good news.

Authoring is easy.  Just send me an email at authors@kwote.me and I’ll get your account set up.  You’ll be able to write whatever you please, but be aware that the article will need to be approved before being published.  As long as it’s podcast related and in the correct category, that won’t be a problem.

As an author, your writings won’t be relegated to a charitable contribution either.  We’ll be running some Google Ads and you’ll receive 100% of any ad revenues your article generates.  Why 100%?  Because I couldn’t afford 150%.  Remember, however, that this blog is dedicated to the advancement of podcasting, and not to the advancement of our pockets so don’t expect to get rich off of this.

Ready to get started?  The easiest way is to write a review of a podcast (not your own, please).  So shoot me an email and get writing!