I recently commented that perhaps heat stroke was affecting a major tech blogger. Bing, bang, click! I don't monitor his feed anymore; no big deal. Sometimes it just makes sense to move on.

I probably monitor as many feeds as Scoble but so what? He could read more too but he has probably stopped reading more feeds than I ever have. I think it's likely that Robert has a low tolerance for feeds or podcasts that don't remain interesting when they originate from strangers or acquaintances. With friends, Robert Scoble is truly more accomodating and forgiving; it's a real measure of the man and I only got a glimpse of that when we spent some time together last February.

In the past few days, my belief system has been tested by another blogging and podcasting original, someone I've come to know fairly well. In a manner that took me by surprise because of its sudden graduality; I found myself stung by a calm and graceless piece on his moderately popular podcast. I was struck by how affected I was at the commentary I was hearing as I drove down the road. I felt chastened by the sense that I had even bothered to download the podcast.

And now I don't because I've stopped downloading from his feed and I've stopped listening. In the back of my mind I knew this was coming and I knew that he was losing an affinity for his listeners.

What I am discovering about my tolerance for opinion is that it should never be disguised by a belief that it is fully substantiated by fact. Opinion should be a sampling of the known and the surmised at a point in time. That makes opinion fungible and it allows regular folks to be able to grow, change and develop. Denying oneself of growth by not utilizing reason and education seems kind of lazy to me. Sure; you will never know everything, but that's hardly an excuse to not try to know more. The thing that really turns listeners on to podcasts is the opportunity to know more -- that's a real winner for audio. Visual media can do that too but the effort requires far more work because great visuals require great poetry and vice versa. That's a rare combination as we know from watching decades worth of TV and films.

Very few things are immutable -- maybe someday I'll even listen to that guy's podcast again -- but it's rarer than a lightning strike that you will get a chance to have a listener come back once they have stopped listening. It's okay to lose listeners by being uninteresting; people change. It's another thing altogether to lead them down a road of contempt and disrespect. If you didn't start podcasting, in part, for the listeners then please get out of the business. If you don't feel a growing respect for your listenership with every piece you produce then consider stamp collecting rather than podcasting. If you really want to know what a tree sounds like when it falls in the forest then don't be around... Your podcast is a crazy rant in the shower if you have no listeners and good listeners are not interested in crazy rants.

Over at currentthinkingradio.com, I've posted an article about Paul Colligan's big question. Are podcasters slowing down podcasting's growth? Um, yeah...

Just a reminder... The Bradcast is gone but my new series of podcasts is available at www.currentthinkingradio.com.

The latest Current Thinking Radio podcast features a chat with Robert Scoble. Please take a visit to the new podcast site and subscribe to the podcast at ctiweb.net/rss.xml.

Update: ... and the mp3 for the Robert Scoble interview is available here now too because of download problems at ctiweb.net...

NorthernVoice NorthernVoice2007 NV2007
Scoble Robert Scoble

As mentioned in my previous post, it's time to say so long to The Bradcast. No tears please -- I will be podcasting over at currentthinkingradio.com (which actually points to www.ctiweb.net). Current Thinking Radio will be devoted to Business, Technology, Leadership.

So say bye, bye and get ready to say hello to a new feed. I will continue blogging here -- we kick off the new Current Thinking from Brad Gibson with Dreamgirls Week tomorrow. Later in the week it will be wall to wall Northern Voice; I will be in Vancouver to cover and participate in one of the best new media conferences in North America. I hope to see many of you there.

brad_gibson podcast NorthernVoice NorthernVoice2007 NV2007 currentthinkingradio

Things are changing here at Current Thinking from Brad Gibson. So here are some news items you need to be aware of:
1) Effective immediately the Bradcast brand is no more. There are too many other Bradcast's out there and since I did not trademark the term when I originated my podcast back in 2004, I cannot get anyone to respect the title. Other Brad's have decided to usurp the name and, frankly, I don't want the Bradcast to become associated with their product. So you will soon be hearing your last Bradcast. Fear not there is something far better that will replace it.
2) Current Thinking Radio is "On the Air". That's right, you can reach my re-branded podcast over at www.currentthinkingradio.com or at www.ctiweb.net. I'll have more to say about Current Thinking Radio in the coming weeks and for you late switchers on the RSS feed, I'll be offering a double-helping of Current Thinking Radio both at the home site and here.
3) Full feeds are probably going to go away. I have been relentlessly pilfered from on a regular basis and I'm sick of seeing my feeds being mugged by sploggers. They are systematically stealing and reposting my content. That, and I have become the target of some pretty predicatable site attacks that have managed to cause my feed to hiccup on occasion over the past few months. If you have any ideas I would be glad to hear them, however I think most of the automated stuff will be easily defeated by going to partial feeds. That will mean you will have to click through to the site to read my full text. If this offends your sense of RSS purity then please unsubscribe. I am also personally annoyed that Google Reader does not count the number of subscribers in its feed, so to get an accurate count, it's time to come and visit the site.
4) Current Thinking from Brad Gibson will be getting more personal, more musical, a little more theatrical and somewhat more friendly over the next little while. I figure a namesake blog should be, well, more namesakeical. What about the tech wit, business acuity and trenchant comment though, you ask? You of course were thinking of another blog. I will still be attempting to put some kind of focus on technology, business and leadership over at currentthinkingradio.com and currentthinking.net. Both of those sites will explore themes that matter to technical business types, tech workers, creative marketers and managers. It's time to break out some of these topics and this little domain was just too small. There are feeds galore at all of these sites so get your feed reader warmed up.

So there you have it -- an early spring cleaning. If you have any ideas or suggestions then please get in touch.

This is the first in a series of new web radio, netcast, podcasts: Current Thinking Radio, which is sourced at its new home on www.ctiweb.net. I'm retiring the Bradcast in favor of a more direct focus on technology business leadership. Please be patient with this new media "re-branding". I will be unveiling more concepts over the next few weeks. In the meantime you can pick up the podcast feed in the same place. I will make sure there is adequate overlap in transitioning to the new Current Thinking web feeds.
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Michael Sikorsky, CEO of Cambrian House software, may be mistaken as a man of maxims:

"Cambrian House; its like open source but with money."

"If nobody hates it, nobody will love it."

"Act as if Karma exists."

Listening to Michael at a recent DMAA event in Calgary, Alberta , one could tell that there was more than maxims and slogans to his vibe. Cambrian House is a crowdsource software company with some bright ideas in the web & software space. Michael clearly has an plan for the start, middle and end-game of his ventures. He lays out some interesting plans for marketing and product development in this presentation.

Products can fulfill needs -- "vitamins", solve problems -- "pain killers" or create new categories -- "viagra", of which the Blackberry is a classic technology based example. Listen to Michael as he explains tech marketing and company development in a way that you have never heard before. What's Michael's "bias for action"? How mass collaboration can change everything.

Recorded live by Brad Gibson with great thanks to the Board of the DMAA and Michael Sikorsky. This content is evergreen and is suggested for those interested in:

• marketing
• technology management
• new media development
• business development

This web radio podcast originates from the Current Thinking Radio site at www.ctiweb.net and from the Bradcast, podcasting since 2004 at www.bradfordgibson.net .

Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User podcast hosted a live Talkshoe edition of his podcast on New Year's Eve. The theme of the event was Apple predictions for 2007. I was privileged to take part in the conversation and would like to thank all of the participants for their positive contributions; it was a blast.

You can listen to or pick up the podcast here.