Podcamp Philly 2011 broadens focus, podcasting joined by more online media

Podcamp Philly registration table seen above. Photo by Theresa Regan.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

Online media beyond podcasting played a large role Saturday at the fifth annual Podcamp Philly, held in the Tuttleman Learning Center at Temple University.

“[The event] started out being focused toward podcasting and video podcasting and has really grown to encompass everything from blogging to social media tools,” Linda Whitney Hoffman, the director of operations for Podcamp Philly said. “It’s about teaching people to share information, not just online media.”

Graphic design, content strategy, business basics and the social media giants all were discussed in multiple sessions, among other topics that don’t directly touch podcasting.

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Geekadelphia founder Eric Smith, of Quirk Books, on his Textual Healing novel podcast

Geekadelphia co-founder Eric Smith in an artistic favorite of his friend Michaelangelo Ilagan.

Eric Smith is a friend.

Let’s not hesitate in sharing the disclosure. A figurehead of Philadelphia’s young blogging scene, there aren’t many people involved in web communities in this city who don’t know Smith.

But Smith, 27 (though he turns 28 this Sunday), is involved in enough cool projects that intersect with technology, the web and Philadelphia that it’d be something of a sin to not share them.

He is the newly minted chief of social marketing for indie Old City-based Quirk Books — famed for its Pride and Prejudice and Zombies title — after ending a three-year tenure at the helm of popular arts and entertainment blog uwishunu, and spends his weekends and nights, well, he spends them playing.

“I like to have fun,” Smith says, in what is much more an ethos than a cliche for him.

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TNT: TheDigitalLifestyle.TV wants to be Philly’s TECH TV, create a podcasting IndyHall

Ryan Ritchey (left) and Jamie DeGrazio host a Halloween edition of TDL Live. The next episode airs tonight at 9 p.m.

The normal population may have let May 28, 2004 slip by without notice, but many tech-heads could tell you a tragedy occurred that day in late May.

It was then when TechTV, a cable station dedicated to tech news, was folded into G4 television. The station had a passionate cult following and Wired magazine even dedicated a piece on the “Mad as Hell” fan base.

However, the site’s format of in-studio tech reviews lives on through popular podcasts like This Week in Tech and Diggnation. Now, North Wales-based TheDigitalLifestyle.TV (TDL) is trying to add itself to that list.

Launched in November 2007, the site began as a network of Apple-focused video programming and is now, beginning next year, expanding to general tech news. TDL often covers live Apple events, has posted dozens of iPhone application reviews and has sat down with local techies — like iSepta — and national figures — such as Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple. Ritchey and a few other TDL contributors have worked for Apple in the past, both in retail and at the company’s headquarters in California.

TDL is even looking to begin a community video studio for local podcasters and believes that Philadelphia’s burgeoning tech scene would be a great starting point for the next TechTV.

“It certainly would be based here. I think there is such a good pool of people [in Philadelphia] that we could easily find great hosts and build relationships that would make this much more interesting,” says founder Ryan Ritchey.

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Technically Philly featured on Chariot Tech podcast

On Friday, TP’s Sean Blanda was the lone guest on the Chariot Tech Cast, a podcast about tech hosted by Ken Rimple of Fort Washington-based Chariot Solutions [download the episode here]. Chariot was behind the Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference earlier this year.

Though the podcast is for a national audience, TP kept it strictly Philly, chatting about the prospect of a “Philicon Valley,” the big stories we are working on and the roots of TP. Somewhere in there, the Jonas Brothers are mentioned.

The conversation is only 20 minutes long, so give it a listen while catching up on your weekend email. And, while we are at it, can we all agree that Ken has the smooth voice of a 60′s late night radio DJ?

Shop Talk: Daniel Delaney of Vendr.TV

Daniel Delaney is sorry.

He just finished a bit of a rant about how zoning laws that govern where street vendors can do business are putting a stranglehold on Philadelphia’s food cart culture, and seemed startled when I said I assumed he was now based in New York.

“I didn’t mean that as an insult,” he says. “I just look at this stuff a bit scientifically.”

Indeed, Delaney, 23, is taking his food very seriously since launching in February Vendr.TV, a weekly podcast devoted to finding the best-tasting street food in the world. It was just picked up by a network funder, Delaney says, though he can’t yet disclose who.

While the University of the Arts alumnus has made that not uncommon trek up the Jersey Turnpike and his podcast’s stock is on the rise, he might have reason to remember where he first got his taste for food entertainment.

Read what goes into Vendr.TV and how he says our great food city could become a great street food city, too, after the jump.

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Shop Talk: ‘Two Guys’ on cheap video podcast production

Johnny Bilotta and David Martorana produce Two Guys On Beer on the cheap.

It ain’t a bad week to be a beer lover in Philadelphia. For Johnny Bilotta and David Martorana of the Old City-based Two Guys On Beer video podcast, Philly Beer Week is sure to be a busy one.

The show, which demands deliciousness from the brews it tests, is coming up on its 60th episode, which is no small feat for a low-to-no budget production released twice per week. According to the duo, the podcast has grown a steady national viewership of 700 to 2,000 viewers per episode, and they’ve been considering syndication models that could end up planting it on the face of news Web sites anywhere.

Now that we’re half through the city’s week-long hoppy, malty escape from all things mixed-drink, Technically Philly has a confession. Last week during an interview for Shop Talk, when we told the show’s co-host and co-producer Dave Martorona to take it easy on the suds, we didn’t mean a word of it. We’re expecting Two Guys to make it their day job. Fortunately, Martorona proved that the show can afford a break from worrying about the production back-end, when he shared with Technically Philly some tips for aspiring vid-casters.

Read their advice on production and distribution, and check out Two Guys’ shooting rig, which includes a steal of a deal from EBay, after the jump.

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