Doug Kaye is the executive producer of ITConversations and the new Conversations Network. Both of these projects archive spoken word events of note and deliver them to listeners around the world.

Kaye's projects rely on team members with vertical expertise, the proliferation of broadband connectivity, personal media players and inexpensive data storage. He's brought the right recipe to the right time in history, leading the creation of a media phenomenon (ITConversations) that's not to be missed.

As Mr. Kaye is a podcast kind of guy, I decided to record our conversation via Gizmo Project.

The entire interview lasts 22 minutes and is available here: DougKaye.mp3

For those who would like to listen to select sections of the interview, there are three available in the following summary.

Interview Summary

• We discussed Doug's occupational background and the genesis of ITConversations. It was born out of interviews he was doing for audio related work. These interviews inspired him to gather the spoken words of experts on a wide variety of subjects.
• Doug emphasized that a large part of how he is experiencing podcasting as a force for social change is by seeing how it expands the reach of events so that people can hear things they otherwise wouldn't have because of geography, cost and other factors. (Click here to listen to this section)
• I asked about the echo chamber effect (like singing to the choir) and Doug said he believes that it is mitigated by the new found ability to break out of our niches. Information is now so easy to access and share that on-demand media is, on balance, a powerful force for good.
• Doug told me about a few of the new channels in the Conversations Network. Those channels are filled with content chosen by executive editors who are experts in their fields. The Network will approach conference organizers, do all of the post production and support work to take the event audio to a global audience.
• Podcasting is already such a broad field that there are few industry questions that span the whole field overall. I asked about industry issues and Doug explained to me that he believes the podcasting world is so diverse and diffuse that there are few clear cross-genre industry issues.
• Doug talked about how people find podcasts and how the podcasts he produces are made highly visible online. He also spoke briefly about the future of rich media search. (Click here to listen to this section)
• In the end of the interview we get some tips for the aspiring documentary podcaster and thoughts for non profits interested in producing an occasional podcast. (Click here to listen to this section)

Again, the full 22 minutes is available here: DougKaye.mp3