WPLMR Interview #1

Fan of indie music? Like to laugh? Then give WPLMR a try. With genuinely funny skits and killer music, WPLMR is the best podcast you're not listening to. I had a chance to sit down with its creator, Palmer, and talk about podcasting, the Internet, and other important things. It's closer to a magazine article in length, so I've split it between two posts. The first part of my interview is below:

GuyBehindtheGuy: What do you like about the podcast medium?
Palmer: I remember first getting on Prodigy, and there really wasn't anything you could do. It was this information platform, but really, that was about it. But now, it's turned into this huge conglomerate of connecting with people. I think in our everyday lives, we find things that try to pull us away from interacting with people, but with the Internet, we can be whoever we want to be. So, there's this huge interconnection for everyone to communicate in all kinds of ways. And podcasting is a piece of that.

"It's all about interactivity and interconnectivity between people. "

G: What do you say to those people who think that the Internet actually disconnects people?
P: If someone made that argument pre dot-com boom, I would totally agree with them. The Internet definitely had a consensus of disconnecting people and wasting time. The most interaction was probably in chat rooms. But since the dot-com boom there's been this big change. It's all about interactivity and interconnectivity between people.

My dream would be somebody in Germany e-mailing me and telling me he checked out my podcast. I mean, even if I had limitless funds and could travel the world, there's probably still no way I could get somebody to listen to me without going to each individual place. But using the Internet, I've connected to that person.

G: So are we still waiting for that e-mail from halfway around the world?
P: Yes we are. So, if there's any hot Germans out there…or, I like Japanese girls, too. That'd be pretty cool.

Actually, any girl could e-mail me. That'd be awesome.

G: What would make podcasting better?
P: Right now, I really have to do a lot of legwork to find music that I can use. When I first started, I had to worry about places I could store my media. And bandwidth. I mean, popularity can happen overnight, but I can't suddenly get a bandwidth bill for ten grand. I can't afford that.

I'd like to see more user-friendly services to support podcasting. I'm still waiting for that forward-thinking record label that says, "Here's our whole catalog. You can use it in your podcasts all you want. We recognize the advertising you're doing for us." And even if not the whole catalog, just give us a single like you do for the radio stations. "You have to give us a link and tell us how many people downloaded the episode, but you can use it for free."

"I'm still waiting for that forward- thinking record label."

G: There's been a lot of talk about "Web 2.0," and you've used the phrase before. What does "Web 2.0" mean to you?
P: "Web 1.0," or the "traditional" Internet worked just like going to the library. You'd find a source of information like a book, and you'd read it. That book was the end-all-be-all of that information! In "Web 2.0," I can still go and get the book, but then I read this article in this magazine, and I think the two really complement each other. So, I'm going to cut that article out, and I'm going to glue it into the book. That way the next person to read that book can benefit from seeing both those things side-by-side.

I see "Web 2.0" as a very user-interactive version of the existing Internet. Wikis, podcasting, screencasting, blogs--they're all a part of this giant interaction. And it's snowballing. It's like taking a bit and kicking it down a hill, and people are just adding to it the whole time.

G: Where do the social networking sites fit in to all of this?
P: I see those as "Web 2.0 for Dummies." It's a very simple way to get people into that concept. So, instead of keeping a private journal, I'm going to start a Myspace blog. I'm going to talk about today, and my feelings about that. And the cool thing is, I could be totally crazy and not even know it. So, I'm going to let people comment on it, and see what they think; see if I'm on the right track.

That does it for this part of the interview. Check out the second part in my next post!