WordPress Weekly Is Back

Many of you may or may not remember a WordPress podcast that was hosted and produced by yours truly called WordPress Weekly. The show made it through 22 episodes. Some of those included staple interviews with Matt Mullenweg, Lorelle Van Fossen, and Alex King. Because I took on more work, it became increasingly difficult to produce the show on a weekly basis for no pay. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast doing it but I have to pay the bills. Therefor, I opted to concentrate on the work that would pay me versus doing the show for nothing. After I stopped producing the show, comments, emails and feedback through instant messaging started coming in, letting me know how much you enjoyed the show. Many people who had just discovered the show let me know that they were disappointed there would be no more episodes after 22.

I’ve taken all of your feedback to heart and have decided to bring the show back. Mark and I have decided to produce the show for WeblogToolsCollection as part of our content on this blog.

Little Bit Of History:

WordPress Weekly was a weekly podcast that discussed what happened within the past week within the world of WordPress. Generally every show was an open round table discussion. I had a number of people who would call in and chime in on stories I discussed during the show. Sometimes, this would be anywhere between 3-7 people on the phone at once, talking over each other but generally, having a good time. This time around, I plan on changing things up a bit. For starters, the show will now have a co-host. If there is anything I’ve learned while doing WordPress Weekly for 22 episodes, it is that having someone to talk to, to bounce stories off of is much better than facing the possibility of talking to myself, or a room of empty people. Two people engaging in a conversation is much better than what I can do single handedly. Also, I don’t have to worry if whether or not people will call in to the show to be part of the round table.

Introducing My Co Host:

My co host is more than qualified for the job. His name is Keith Murray and resides in Canada. He has been working with WordPress for a little while now. He is the author of the Admin Links Sidebar Widget plugin. He works as a systems administrator at his place of employment and his role on the podcast will be to discuss the development side of WordPress. I take things from an end users perspective, so we should match up pretty well in discussions.

WordPress Weekly Information:

WordPress Weekly is a weekly oriented podcast that takes place every Friday evening at 8PM EST starting on October 3rd, 2008 on Talkshoe.com. The format of the show will remain close to what it has been in the past. The co-host and I will discuss the WordPress news of the week. This could be plugin updates, releases, themes, version releases, development updates, a tutorial written by someone in the community, could be anything as long as it relates to WordPress. At the end of each show, Keith and I will give out our plugin of the week. This plugin is picked individually by us and is tested prior to the show.

I am aiming for a relaxing atmosphere where WordPress Users can gather around for 1 hour every Friday evening and discuss the latest happenings with everything WordPress. You could almost consider the show a virtual WordCamp.

Listener Participation:

So how can you be a part of the show? The easiest way is to create an account on Talkshoe.com. Then, download and install their client software (Talkshoe Pro). The Talkshoe software serves as a bridge of communication between the host, and his/her listeners. The software contains a chat room as well as phone number information to call into the show.

However, you do not need to install the software in order to listen to the show live. Friday October 3rd, at 8PM EST, look on the front page of Talkshoe.com or click on the LIVE NOW button and look for the WordPress Weekly show. Instead of clicking on the JOIN IN button, click underneath where it says LISTEN ONLY. This will tune you into the live stream.

If you want to call in to the show via telephone, Skype, payphone landline, etc, dial 724-444-7444 and follow the audio instructions. *Note* In one of the recent updates to Talkshoe, anonymous calling is now supported. This means you can call in and participate without the need to create a Talkshoe account. However, if you have a Talkshoe account, your registered name will show up within the Talkshoe client letting others know who is speaking. I also want to let you know that Talkshoe has had problems with people calling in anonymously, trying to crash peoples shows or prank call hosts. Having a registered user account will give you a better chance of being on the air. When you dial into the show and you want to speak on the air, press *8 on your dial pad. This is the request to talk feature and will let me know you want to chime in on the discussion.

You can also use SIP clients such as ProjectGizmo or X-Lite. For example, when I use X-Lite to dial in, I type in 123@66.212.134.192 and then follow the audio directions. If you would like to use X-Lite but are unsure in how to configure the software, I highly advise you to check out my in depth tutorial (Installing And Configuring X-Lite)which explains everything you need to know.

Remember this information as it will be required when you want to dial into the show.

Talkcast Name: WordPress Weekly

Talkcast ID: 34224

Phone Number: 724-444-7444

This would also be a good time to remind you that Talkshoe now has a web client that you can access without the need to download or install any software. The web client makes it as easy as pie to participate in the show.

Subscribing To WordPress Weekly:

The first is by listening to the live stream. Every Friday at 8PM EST starting on October 3rd, a live stream of the show is enabled, allowing you to listen to the show LIVE as it is being recorded. You can listen to the live stream via the web application which allows you to chat, or you can listen to the stream only. It’s your choice.

The second option is to wait until the final show notes are published on WeblogToolsCollection. When the show notes for WordPress Weekly are finalized, I always embed a talkshoe player at the end of the post which allows you to listen to the show on the website.

The third option is to subscribe to the Talkcast RSS feed. Each Talkshoe player that is displayed on the website has a small RSS icon near the top right corner of the player. Clicking this icon will allow you to subscribe to the feed, and will download the latest episodes into your Feed Reader.

The fourth option is to subscribe to the show via Itunes. Talkshoe provides a link you can use to subscribe to a Talkshoe show through Itunes. If you want to subscribe via Itunes or RSS, the best thing to do is to visit THIS PAGE and click on the Itunes button or the RSS button.

The fifth option is to manually browse to the talkcast homepage and manually download each episode as an mp3 file. When you visit the homepage, click on the DOWNLOAD button and that will download the appropriate episode in an mp3 format that has no DRM attached to it.

Last but not least, if you would like to be reminded of the show via email, please create an account on Talkshoe.com and then visit my Talkcast page. After you create an account, you’ll be able to click on the FOLLOW THIS button, which will add your email automatically to the mailing list. Each time I send out a reminder of when the show will air, an email will be sent to the email address you configured when you created your Talkshoe account.

Things To Consider:

Unlike the other WordPress centric podcasts that are available, this one is not pre recorded and thus, the audio is not studio grade quality. With that said, my audio has always sounded great with my X-Lite/Talkshoe combination. But, I can only control the audio quality for myself and no one else. So while Keith and I may sound great, someone who calls into the show with a crappy cell phone may sound terrible and there will be nothing I can do about it. The show is produced as is. If you partake in the discussions, I prefer that you please refrain from using expletives during the show. I believe points can be made without using these types of words. I’d also like to keep the clean rating for the show on iTunes.

Do You Have Ideas:

I have a renewed sense as to how I want the show to be from here on out but I am open to ideas and suggestions to improve the show. At this point, I’d like to know from you, what are you looking for out of a WordPress centric podcast? Do you want more interviews rather than commentary on news? Do you want to know about themes and plugins more than anything else? Would you like us to do a roundtable show once a month or more? Would you like us to cover WordPress only or should we sometimes branch out and discuss topics that are related to blogging and not just WordPress?

If you can’t answer those, simply tell me in the comments what your expectations are for an excellent podcast centered on WordPress that you would listen to every week.

Thank you for taking the time to read this mile long manual. Keith and I will see you on Friday, October 3rd at 8PM EST.

Listen To Past Episodes:

By the way, if you would like a sample of WordPress Weekly before our relaunch, listen to some of my past episodes via the Talkshoe player. Pressing the play button will initiate episode 22 where I interviewed Alex King.