As you begin planning those cherished Summer vacations, let PodZinger be your guide with the following helpful travel podcasts you can find on the site. Also, if you have a travel destination already in mind like Miami, simply search for it on PodZinger!

With Memorial Day weekend quickly approaching and the graduation/wedding season upon us, I hope to start spending as much time as possible taking in the spring weather out of doors. I, like many other Americans, will just need to find a way to balance my email-checking, blog-reading, Pandora-listening and NYTimes.com surfing with the enticing fresh-air activities of late spring.

According to a new report from Media-Screen, my daily leisure-time Internet habits are far from atypical. In the article, “Americans Spend Half of Their Spare Time Online” Jack Loechner explains some of the report’s findings. On a given weekday, broadband users spend about 48% of their spare time online. While online, the most popular media activities are checking email and visiting Web sites for personal reasons. The report also stated that while almost 50% of younger users say they learn about new entertainment online, only 25% say they learn about it through television. This is not surprising–with the plethora of social networking, video and blog sites that people in my generation visit daily there are far more opportunities to learn about a new TV show, movie, book or popular viral video than during an evening in front of the TV.

The report has obvious implications for advertisers. As Josh Crandall, managing director of Media-Screen states in the article:

“Currently, the proportion of advertising resources devoted to the Internet (about seven percent according to ZenithOptimedia) is nominal relative to the value it generates… among fans… consumers, on a typical weekday, spend more than 40% of their time consuming media online…”

But what could this mean for the rest of us? Does spending so much of our time “virtually” interacting and consuming entertainment via the Internet detract from time we might spend actually socializing or engaging in other activities? Or is the Internet merely replacing much of the time we used to spend in front of the TV?

Weather-permitting, I think I will check my emails and read up on my favorite blogs on my porch this weekend. If I am spending 48% of my leisure time online at the very least I can multi-task by getting some fresh-air while I’m at it.

We’re thrilled to be attending the 3rd annual Podcast & New Media Expo being held September 28-30th at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California.

For those of you unfamiliar with the event, its an annual convention that educates individuals and companies about how to produce high-quality audio and video digital content, grow a loyal audience, and market or monetize that content in creative ways. Obviously this event is a great fit for PodZinger and anyone in the podcasting and portable media business.

Our CEO Tom Wilde, will be talking about how to plug your content into the search economy. You can see more of the details here: “Creative Ways to Grow Your Audience Every Week“

Check out the Expo and conference just by clicking on the button below.

We’ll see you there!

Creating and posting video to the internet just got a little easier. Pure Digital, the same firm that’s responsible for those disposable digital cameras you find at the convenience store, just launched their newest product Flip Video. The pocket-sized camcorder will be available at various tech retail locations and aims to make it easier for people to capture video with the aim of placing it on your website, Youtube or MySpace.

On why he feels there is a need for such a device in the market, Pure Digital CEO Jonathan Kaplan notes:

“There is so much pent-up demand for capturing and sharing video. But the challenge is that there is no great, easy way to get video up on YouTube”.

Kaplan feels that his Flip Video will fill this need for easier to use and less expensive tools which will enable greater expansion of the user-generated market and increase the number of video posts:

“The user-generated content mainly comes from Webcams, cell phones and digital still cameras. There is no simple, affordable device to capture video so we decided to address that.”

The device starts at $119 for 30 minutes of video capacity and has a model that retails for $149 which holds 60 minutes of video.
Pay close attention as more of these devices hit the market. It will be interesting to see just how small, easy to use, and inexpensive they will become.

Online videos run the gamut from YouTube videos of laughing babies filmed at home and uploaded by users, to episodes of Lost that Internet users can view on demand with limited commercials. Then there is the content that occupies the middle ground. This is content from creators like Christine Gambito whose story Catherine Holahan highlights in the Business Week article: “The High Price of Getting Paid for Content.” Gambito looked at online video sites “as a way to become a stay-at-home actress,” but she is finding–as many with similar aspirations are–that monetizing one’s content online is in many ways a balancing act.

While Gambito and others see YouTube and similar sites as a “first step,” online video creators must find a balance between control, distribution and monetization of their content. Although the exposure of content on the larger video aggregation sites benefits video creators by growing their audience, such sites pose a threat to producers’ best chance at monetization–their own Web sites. Holahan quotes Ze Frank of the vlog “The Show with Ze Frank”:

What some people are finding is the crappiest situation is to be popular on these massive platforms…There is a big value to having your own site that is under your control because that is the easiest space to sell ads against.

Another issue even those with their own financially lucrative sites have to face is the question of controlling distribution; the viral spread of content across the Web is not merely a problem for Viacom. Is the publicity gained worth some loss of financial stake and control to the people like Gambito?

Content creators are searching for a balance between control, distribution and monetization. Steven Starr, founder and CEO of Revver states, “It is our belief that content is destined to move freely.” This may very well be the future of online video once producers of content, Internet users and advertisers have worked through the current issues. Until then some tension is inevitable.

Last week on wired.com Noah Sachtman looks at the April 19th U.S. Army directive restricting online activities for troops. This is the latest, most heavy-handed edict in an area the military has struggled with since blogging came into fashion. Censorship has been a reality of wartime correspondence since before the Internet–commanders did not want sensitive information sent home in letters or telegrams any more than they want it posted on Web sites today. However the public nature of blogging–in contrast to letters or emails–perhaps sped up what Sachtman and others see as a definitive end to combat blogs, or “milblogs.” The change, Sachtman highlights, is that it is now necessary to receive:

“an OPSEC review prior to publishing” anything — from “web log (blog) postings” to comments on internet message boards, from resumes to letters home.

Milblogger Dadmanly writes that as written the edict:

also means soldiers need to have their commanders review/censor every single email or IM they want to send. To comply, commanders would have no choice but to forbid their soldiers from using email or IM via the internet, or the Commander would have to go with them to the internet cafe.

What many fear is that the trade off for increased information security may be too great. By effectively silencing voices from combat the U.S. military stand to lose some of the most convincing advocates for the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about Cinco de Mayo by those celebrating here in the States so I’ve decided to use today’s post to clear a few things up. Trust me, you’ll appreciate the info. and will have some tidbits to impress your friends with while celebrating this weekend:

First off, Cinco de Mayo is not:

• Mexico’s Independence Day; that is actually celebrated on September 16 (”Dieciseis de septiembre” in Spanish)

Cinco de Mayo is:

• a national holiday in Mexico which is also widely celebrated in the U.S. that commemorates the victory of Mexican forces over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5th 1862.
• celebrated all over Mexico but most heartily in the city of Puebla, where the battle took place. In the US, the popular date is not officially recognized as a holiday but still enthusiastically celebrated by many (similar to St. Patrick’s Day).
• a great opportunity for you to check out all the Spanish language podcasts available for you to search on PodZinger!