There are many predictions for 2008 out there – in politics, business, lifestyle, fashion, technology etc.

Here is my list for 2008. Wishes, predictions, expectations and goals all rolled into one. (This is a long list by the way!)

1. Podcasts will become known as Channels. This change in terminology will bring it in line with mainstream audience mindset and make folks more comfortable with them.
2. Podcasts (or channels) featuring Central Alberta independent musical artists. Portable internet radio episodes with sponsorship from local businesses.
3. Podcast episodes will become shorter in length – greater in frequency. Many successful (e.g. totally consumed) podcasts will be trimmed down to a two or three minute duration but published daily versus weekly – or when ever.
4. Podcast episodes will be an average of ten to fifteen minutes in length. This may seem contradictory to the previous item. It is all about content. Some topics need more time than others. The audience will determine what they want to listen to and good podcasters will pay attention and deliver accordingly. There may even be room for an hour long episode.
5. Podcast episodes will come in two versions: full…ten, fifteen, thirty or more minutes and digest…two minute summaries of the show. Podcasters will feed both to their audience and let them pick what is important to them.
6. Someone somewhere will develop a method of aggregating content topics from many different podcasts into a single episode. What I’ve seen major broadcasters do is segment their hour long news show into separate video casts tagged by subject. What I expect to see is the reverse – you search tags on say ‘Alberta oil and gas safety’, the application will find podcasts where this is talked about (in whole or in part), strip out the relevant content, compile it into a single podcast episode and deliver it to you. (I wonder if Google is working on this?)
7. A podcast show featuring relevant topics for hunters and anglers in Alberta. Interviews, editorials and feedback from hunters and anglers and outdoor enthusiasts in the province. Local businesses who serve this market will provide sponsorship and advertising revenue.
8. PODCAMP Alberta. A podcamp is something like a conference where podcasters gather to share their experiences and eat pizza and listen to indie music. These have been referred to as un-conferences  since they tend to have informal agendas. Non-podcasters … audiences, fans, advertisers, marketers and the curious are also invited. Podcamps have seen success in other parts of the world – the US, Europe, Asia and even Canada. It would be nice to see one in Alberta.
9. Alberta based seminars and brown-bag lunch presentations with podcasting and blogging as the topics. The audience will be non-profit groups, musical artists, writers, politicians (?) or their supporters, businesses, educators. The Business Link’s eFutures program offers brown-bag lunch video conference sessions on various business topics related to small and medium enterprises. BRASSmedia will be presenting Podcasting for Business brown-bag session in May 2008.
10. Podcast feed addresses will be published in traditional media advertising and promotional materials. Just like website addresses are published now. If your business has a podcast or blog – you will be advertising the link address in such places as the yellow-pages, brochures, newspaper ads, magazine ads, radio and TV spots, business cards, flyers, signs…where ever you advertise and promote your business now. Podcasts aren’t just for the geeky – they are mainstream and you need to make yourself stand out from the other 126,000 channels on iTunes. Promote your podcast and blog.
11. Customers and clients will demand that the companies they do business with have a usable website. Not just a presence where you list your address and maybe show a map. A positive customer experience will provide a website which is interactive, information rich, with fresh content, provide feedback and be easy to navigate. RSS feeds from your website will become standard. Adobe Flash intros and opening pages will disappear since most viewers don’t have the time or patience to sit through them. If your website is still in the 1990’s – you will miss out on opportunities because your customers will go else where.
12. Websites and other on-line media will be optimised for use with mobile devices such as cell phones, pda’s and game consoles. This is already starting to happen but we will see small web developers and providers implementing this as a standard feature set.
13. When you attend a conference you will be given an access code which will allow you to download audio and/or video podcasts of the sessions you attended. Some larger conferences will even provide you a portable player (ipod or other device) preloaded with material which you can add to after the conference. Some conference providers will include this in your attendance fee and charge you for any sessions you didn’t or couldn’t attend. Others will make sessions available for a fee to those who didn’t attend the conference at all. Many years ago a colleague of mine attended a conference where the attendees where given a Palm Pilot PDA pre-loaded with handouts, agendas, brochures etc. The conference organizers came to the realization that it was cheaper to do it this way compared to the cost of paper hand outs.
14. Podcasters will provide content to their audience in multiple formats as a standard routine. Audio (original or stripped from video casts), Video (either the original event or supplemental material such as slides, text or even advertising), transcripts, PDF’s – transcripts or slide-shows, the ability to link and embed the episode in social networking sites through the push of a single button (no more cut and paste), compilations of podcasts in a single episode/file . . . by topic, date, etc. The list will grow as the audience asks for more functionality. Some of this is already being done but the big change is that it will become standard with all podcasts. It’s all about choice.
15. The Apple iPhone comes to Canada. Not much of a podcast prediction but I couldn’t resist. The big question is which carrier will they partner with? If I were a betting man I’d go with . . . .?

I can think of more . . . but maybe that’s enough for one year!

Talk to you later . . .

Dean Owen