Here’s a photo of Soccer Girl and Dawn and Drew, they make great podcasts and this is a great photo don’t you agree? As Paul Nightingale would say a picture is worth a thousand pounds.

Now that I’m ‘free’ of podcasting, that is to say I don’t have to worry about my own show anymore but rather other people’s shows; I’m starting to see the entire thing in a new light. You know how it’s easy to give advice on other people love lives yet your own seems infinitely more complicated - well it’s just like that.

So my insight today was that all about this notion of community or as they say, social networks. Not podcasting networks but social ones (of course it’s a euphemism - like social services - there’s nothing social about it at all - that’s why the ‘add to friends’ button on myspace is so effective). A place where podcasters and their audience can communicate with each other but more importantly where audiences can communicate with each others regardless of the podcaster.

Every successful podcast I know has a forum of it’s own or at the very least a very busy comments section on their blog. I used to naively think that a show would acquire an audience ‘on it’s own merits‘ and the podcaster would then herd them like sheep into a forum. But now I’m starting to realise this isn’t the case at all.

In fact, I’m starting to realise it’s not the media at all that’s important. Rather it’s the message that is communicated via the medium. So therefore a forum can reiterate your message with added interactivity. People come together because of a common interest - they then wish to explore that interest by either consume some media or discussing it online.

April’s Podcast User Magazine has an article by Mark Hunter about Keith and the Girl - it’s worth reading, for it’s a reminder of how an audience can quickly be redressed into an army. I used to listen to an enjoy Keith and the Girl but ended up getting bored with all talk about people on their forum. I didn’t care about the other Keith and Girl listeners cared about the podcasters themselves.

But now I’m starting to see forums - at their best - as the same content repackaged (with added interactivity). And whilst I don’t like forums and I’m not a member of any podcast specific forums the point is not the interactively but the message itself.

Like this blog - at the moment I have something to say and I’m communicating it via the medium of text. It doesn’t matter if it’s funny, well written, riddled with errors or just plain wrong. If it’s message was compelling and I went out my way to promote this blog to a specific target audience then they would want to discuss at length.

But in all honesty I don’t really care what YOU think all that much. Sorry, but I much prefer writing rather than reading and I don’t much like talking about what everyone else is talking about. Please excuse my arrogance - I am capable of two way conversations but if all you want to talk about is one specific subject then you are clearly far more obsessive than I am!

So this can neatly transcribed into why Spainful Films failed (notice how I’m happy to refer back to me or my work). Because it’s message was ambiguous and never that relevant. That reluctance on my part to create a community for people to consume the same messages using another medium - whilst me true to myself (I hate talking to strangers) was being foolish from the business point of view.

I treated my audience as passive viewers rather than giving them flash buttons and hyperlinks to click on, or forums to post their banal photographs on - regardless of their relevance to me, my work or my message.

And finally that just making some media and putting it out there - regardless of it’s artistic merits - is quite simply useless.

That is why Keith and the Girl is the best podcast in the world and why I want nothing to do with any of it. I’d much rather just set my own artistic agenda than became just another forum you to join.