The announcement almost two weeks ago that PreviewCast was being discontinued was a surprise to some, and not so much of a surprise for others. My PreviewCasted Frustrations, which were posted here on Webmacster87.info just a week prior to the closing episode #052, kind of marked the inevitable. For the record, though, I had tried quite a bit during the rest of the week to organize another PreviewCast episode, in the hopes that it might continue, but those efforts failed to the point when I realized on March 30th that PreviewCast had essentially run completely out of steam and that it was time to mark the end of that program.

None of us really wanted it to end, because we’ve all loved PreviewCast, which is probably why it didn’t end many months ago. As I lamented in my PreviewCasted Frustrations post, once August 2007 came around, PreviewCast, which had been going full steam ahead, stopped short in its tracks. We tried a number of times to rejuvenate the show, and a couple of times managed to get an episode together, but for me (the main organizer of PreviewCast), it was as hard as trying to get two magnets to stick to each other the wrong way. We’ve all been busy, myself included, and many of the PreviewCasters pretty much lost interest. Larry, my co-host, has done the smart thing and started spending more time with his life and less time online, which unfortunately meant that he hasn’t been around much anymore to be on this show that he was the co-host for. Essentially, we could not continue to produce the show due to the inability to have more than one of us around to produce a show with.
I decided on that Sunday that I could no longer spend my energies trying to revive PreviewCast in vain.

Nevertheless, I am still hoping to be able to bring around some kind of successor to PreviewCast soon. Not right away, granted, because I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate right now (and probably shouldn’t even be spending the time to write this blog post), but I still kind of have an itch to be able to reincarnate PreviewCast into somewhat of a new offering, that might be a bit more reliable and a bit more polished than PreviewCast, and perhaps some new talent behind it, but still maintain its roots as a technology/teen-oriented/rather random podcast. I’m still in discussions with some people about this, and so I don’t want to reveal anything before anyone (including myself) is fully committed to it, as things can still quickly change. However, I do want to say that for those of you who were PreviewCast fans, you’ll want to stay tuned, because I’m hoping to be able to announce a new successor to PreviewCast soon.

Until then, I’ll just have to keep blogging.

Tags: future, past, Podcasts, PreviewCast, production, reflection, successor, tech, teens

Yes, I’m starting up yet another podcast venture. This particular one is being done in coordination with the Teen Podcasters Network. (If you haven’t heard, I became their “Lead Developer”–a very intimidating title–a month ago.) Well, we have decided to start a podcast for the network, which is being unceremoniously titled the Teen Podcasters Network Podcast, or TPNP for short. While we’re still figuring out how we want to lay out the podcast, it will likely be a less frequent podcast than the others (we’ll probably aim for producing it approximately biweekly), and it will probably hover more towards a length of 30 minutes instead of 60 minutes. On the show, we’ll be talking about podcasting, particularly for teenagers, news from TPN, as well as bringing on hosts from the network every so often to tell us about themselves and their shows.

Our first pilot episode is already online, so go ahead and check it out now!

Tags: Billy Hime, new, pilot, Podcasts, projects, Teen Podcasters Network, teens, TPNP

You know that when you listen to PreviewCast, you hear me mention that the show is a part of the Tech Podcast Network and the Teen Podcasters Network. The former is a very vibrant, well-known network that features 91 excellent shows. The latter is a lesser-known network that has kind of been in a slump recently, such that a few months ago I posted a topic asking if there was anything I could do to help them get going, because the idea of having a network just for teen podcasters sounded like a great idea.

Well, the Teen Podcasters Network is making a comeback, and I’m going to be helping out. Beginning today, I have been given the position of “Lead Developer” on the board of Teen Media Productions, which heads the Teen Podcasters Network. That intimidating title means that I will essentially be working along with President/CEO Matt Pippen to work on the website, first of all, and then pursuing other ideas to achieve the goal of building up a good sized community of teen podcasters, with the ultimate goal of hopefully rivaling the other TPN that I’m associated with.

If you’re a teen podcaster and are interested in helping build up the community, be sure to check out the Teen Podcasters Network, and I’m looking forward to being able to do good work with them in the future!

Tags: community, development, job, PHP, Podcasts, staff, Teen Podcasters Network, teens, WordPress

Hello everyone,

I’m going to be going on a school-related trip in the middle of February which will force me to be completely away from the computer and the internet-at-large for about ten days. Now, I had considered not doing anything on this blog for ten days, but I’ve changed my mind and decided that perhaps something that I should do is take the opportunity to invite folks to write a guest blog article to be featured here on Webmacster87.info during my absence, just to keep the blog going.

So here’s how it works. If you would be interested in guest blogging on Webmacster87.info, please let me know in the comments of this post and I will send you an e-mail with additional information. I’m currently just planning to run the guest blog articles while I am away (February 14-23), but if I get an overwhelming response, I may decide to expand them to cover the month of February.

If you indicate that you are interested in guest blogging, your post will need to be submitted to me no later than Sunday, February 10th. (Earlier than 2/10 will be great too.) I will be scheduling the posts in advance so that they will show up on here while I am gone and nowhere near the computer.

What kind of content? I would be interested in any guest bloggers who want to write an article about technology and/or teenage life. (You do NOT have to be a teenager to participate–in fact, I’ll probably be inviting a few people that I know who aren’t teenagers to contribute.) Note that unlike Lorelle VanFossen’s two months of guest bloggers, I will not be entirely opening up my blog to guest bloggers; I will be reviewing guest blogger articles that are submitted to me primarily for decency before I schedule it in the posting queue. However, if you are interested, I certainly invite you to join in and relieve me while I am away from the computer.

(Incidentally, I will also probably be doing another one of these guest bloggerthons for another long trip that I’m taking in June, so this will not be the only opportunity.)

Anyway, I just wanted to extend the invitation to anyone who’s interested. As for the trip that I’m taking in February, stay tuned for more details coming in the next week or two.

Tags: article, Blogging, guest bloggers, invitation, Technology, teens, trip