iaocblog :: Podcasting at IBM

Well, here I am at last, a day late (apologies to Don, Steve and to anyone who visited yesterday). I forgot that I had changed my password to something that I was supposed to be able to, uh, remember.

Ok, so I thought I'd start with a very brief introduction to podcasting at IBM, and then throw it open to your questions. Based on what you ask, I'll post again with more information later in the week.

Here's a brief thumnail sketch:

We started podcasting at IBM about one year ago. We launched our first external podcast series in August ("IBM and the Future of...", 150,000 downloads to date), built an internal podcast publishing tool for employees in October, achieved 200,000 downloads using that tool just a week or two ago, and plan to make an external podcast publishing tool available to employees in the near future.

Our philosophy is very much guided by the strategic goal of promoting self-publishing: we want our employees to use these tools to publish their own audio and video content. We don't regulate content, and we don't tell our employees how to use the tools we provide them. We prefer to discover killer podcasting apps based on how our employee base experiments with the tool. The tool allows the user to rank podcast series (over 300 listed to date) by popularity, and lets the audience comment on the content, so it's easy enough to discover what works and what's useful, and what's not.

Having said that, we have not yet finalized policies for self-publishing externally - and these turn on a number of important legal considerations and potential liabilities.

Great podcasting apps we have discovered so far:

Internal: time-shifted conference calls, local site comms, management tools, executive comms, networking and idea sharing tools

External: marketing, sales relationship building, IR

Post your questions, and I'll be back tomorrow with more info - or the right IBMer if I don't know the answer.

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Re: Podcasting at IBM

by Don Dunnington on Wed 31 May 2006 01:19 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Ben,
The podcast publishing tool sounds interesting. Could you tell us more about how it works... is it available commercially... could you make it available to IAOC members?

Thanks,
Don Dunnington

Re: Podcasting at IBM

by Steve O'Keefe on Wed 31 May 2006 02:05 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Ben,

I have a zillion questions -- sorry.

1. The only podcasts I found at IBM were in the Investor Relations (IR) department. Doesn't that seem like a rather isolated place to put this material?

2. The podcasts I listened to were well-made -- opening music, good audio quality, rapid movement through topics. Of course I want to know what equipment you're using? Do employees use built-in microphones, standalone mics on each desk, headset mics? Do you edit the audio for length and content?

3. "We don't regulate content." Whoa! Even internally, you must have some rules regarding behavior and content -- no profanity, for example. I imagine you will have a strict set of guidelines for external podcasts?

4. What's the most unexpected result that's come out of podcasting at IBM? You should have some interesting stories of stuff that's bubbled-up on the internal feed by now. Give us a taste?

Thanks!
STEVE O'KEEFE

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