• Popspotting: A pop-culture podcast hosted by my wife and I that covers movies, television, music, books, and any other topic that strikes our fancy, plus interviews and trivia contests.
• Bytemarks Cafe: A weekly radio show on Hawaii Public Radio (KIPO 89.3FM Honolulu) that I co-host with fellow geek Burt Lum, since August 2008.
• YouTube: I’m more comfortable working with audio (I have a “face for radio”), but I’m trying to do more with video. Check out my channel for scenes from my island life. I generally post the same videos to Vimeo and Blip.TV (where you can download them if you like).
• Flickr: I’m not a photographer, but I’m an obsessive picture taker, and here is where I post most of the images (most taken with the camera on my cell phone).

I’m also a little too active on a few too many social networks, but especially Twitter and Facebook. I hope to reconnect with you soon!

While obviously I’m failing miserably at keeping up the podcast, the friends I’ve made through the show continue to inspire and encourage me. Congratulations, Adam, and thanks everyone, for checking in, keeping in touch, and living the aloha spirit.

Maybe I’ll work on the all-important “podcast promo” instead, or hunt down a few more local musicians to feature. If you’ve any thoughts on either count, speak up!

Erika asked yours truly to chime in with an “independent podcaster” point of view, and managed to fit in a couple of quotes. I’m not as down on terrestrial radio as you might think from the piece (hence the “Kool-Aid” line!), and frankly, there’s no doubt big business will dominate the podcasting scene. Just look at the top podcasts in iTunes’ podcast directory.

Or, for that matter, look at how podcasters became “indie podcasters” (as opposed to, I guess, “real podcasters”?) overnight.

• a. A death in the family.
• b. Technical difficulties (Windows sucks!).
• c. Illness (and my wife lost her voice!).
• d. All of the above.

I’m probably more bummed about it than anyone. While you’re waiting, be sure to check out my friend Mitchell’s new podcast, The Literate Loser, as well as Michelle’s special “Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince” show, PotterCast. Clearly, it’s a good week to be a book-loving podcast listener.

After three days, the Apple Computer iTunes Music Store has found podcasts produced by bloggers and Web publishers are holding their own in competition with those from commercial or public broadcasters. By my count Friday morning, 47 of the most subscribed or downloaded podcasts were produced by independents… Near the bottom of the list of the most popular 100 programs are niche efforts such as… “HawaiiUp,” described as “Podcasting in paradise. News, views, music and food.”

Number 90 today and dropping like a stone. But what a ride it was!

There are a few things that iTunes does that annoys me, but for a first effort by Apple and as a program for people completely new to podcasting, it isn’t half bad. And suddenly having one’s potential audience grow by several million is amazing. Even if established media and Adam Curry’s network dominate most of the iTunes gateway, a rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.

And while I sincerely doubt this can possibly be true, HawaiiUP has even appeared in iTunes “Top Podcasts” list of the top 100 shows, at #81 as of this post (#65 on July 2). I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

If you haven’t tried iTunes, now’s the perfect time. And if you’ve already got it installed, click here to go straight to the HawaiiUP page, and subscribe today!

While I pull together my next show, be sure to check out the new HawaiiUP Music page, to get a preview of the great sounds in store.

In addition, I posted an overly long “About” page, a geek-focused “Credits” page, and a misleadingly named “Frequently Asked Questions” page (unless once counts as “frequently”). Finally, I added the requisite “Link Me!” 80×15 GIF buttons, picking up the habit that podcasters picked up from bloggers.

What do you think? Er, apart from, “Get a life!”

Even though I’m just a hobbyist, family-den podcaster, I have to prove it… and I’m not ready to file incorporation papers and seek out 501(c)3 status for this. At least not yet.

Fortunately, like any town, Hawaii is full of independent artists and small, agile “labels” (though “labels” might be an overstatement of their scope), and they just might be as hungry for exposure as I am for great material. So I’m starting to put the word out to try and reach that solo guitarist who strums away at that corner bistro, or that high school band that plays weddings.

I might end up featuring “the next Green Day” from Hawaii instead of “the next Iz,” but I’m open to all flavors of music, and I’m pretty sure my handful of listeners would be too.

If you know anyone with an MP3 just itching to hit the podwaves (or whatever they’re calling it), drop me a line.

Maui resident Sunny Hills is one of the few islanders to have already made the jump into podcasting. Other notable local podcasts include Geeknewscentral.com‘s Todd Cochrane, Machelpmaui.com‘s Scott Waters and the Kailua boyfriend/girlfriend duo of Roxanne Darling and Shane Robinson. Online community advocate and Mililani resident Ryan Ozawa started podcasting from the Web site HawaiiUP.com last week.

Jason even quoted a line out of my first podcast. Nifty! Wish he’d talked to or quoted Todd — who I got to meet yesterday — though. With over 40 shows under his belt, he strikes me as the first local veteran of the medium.

Sure, Adam Curry’s iPodder is largely where it all began, but it’s as much a site for the software as it is for information, and let’s face it, Manila is not the friendliest of interfaces. Podcast.net is also and oldie but goodie, but relatively plain. PodcastAlley.com looks good, makes it easy to find podcasts, and fosters a community with comments, forums, and voting… for better or worse.

Podcasters seem about as obsessed with their PodcastAlley.com rankings as SEO folks are about Google’s PageRank system.

Before, the PodcastAlley voting system let you rank a podcast as either good or bad, and it wasn’t long before fans of one show were “voting down” competing shows. It was also cumulative, so shows that’ve been around the longest had a built in advantage. For a relatively new medium, this could be pretty discouraging for folks just discovering it. It also was pretty easy to cheat.

Now they’ve linked votes to e-mail verified logins, which (although not cheat-proof) will probably cut ballot stuffing quite a bit. And, you can only vote for shows. No bringing shows you don’t like. Finally, the rankings get reset every week, meaning newcomers just might have a shot at appearing on the list alongside Dawn and Drew.

I’m about a dozen shows short of being a real podcaster, but if and when I get there, I figured I’d follow Todd’s lead and post a link to the HawaiiUP voting form.

“I’d like to thank the academy…” Hey, a guy can dream…