SitePoint Podcast #70: Youth, Business, and Podcasting

Episode 70 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week, Patrick O’Keefe (@iFroggy), Stephan Segraves (@ssegraves), and Brad Williams (@williamsba) interview Bitwire Media’s Dave Moyer, host of the WordCast Podcast, and WordPress Tavern’s Jeff Chandler, host of WordPress Weekly.

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You can also download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link:

• SitePoint Podcast #70: Youth, Business, and Podcasting with Dave Moyer and Jeff Chandler (MP3, 14:42, 13.5MB)

Interview Transcript

July 16th, 2010. We talk with a couple of veteran podcasters about the medium and have an interesting discussion about youth and entrepreneurship. This is the SitePoint Podcast #70: Youth, Business, and Podcasting with Dave Moyer and Jeff Chandler.

Hello again and thank you for tuning in to another edition of the SitePoint Podcast. I’m Patrick O’Keefe and today we have more interviews from our live show at WordCamp Raleigh. Joined by Brad Williams and Stephan Seagraves, today we’ll be interviewing podcasters Dave Moyer and Jeff Chandler. Dave Moyer is the founder and president of Bitwire Media and the host of WordCast. Jeff Chandler is the host of WordPress Weekly and the owner of WordPress Tavern. Dave actually served as our unofficial chief technology officer of the podcast at WordCamp Raleigh where he helped us to execute the show from a technological standpoint. His help was greatly appreciated and we couldn’t have done it without him.

With that said, let’s get started.

Patrick: So a big thanks to Dave Moyer who is not only our next guest but also the chief technical officer of our entire operation today. So, Dave, why don’t you come up here. Dave deserves some applause; I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you want to give it to him. (applause)

Brad: I agree.

Dave: Well, thank you!

Patrick: Thanks Dave.

Dave: Hey!

Stephan: How you doing Dave?

Dave: I am doing fantastic; loving WordCamp Raleigh.

Stephan: Dave is the founder and president of Bitwire Media and the host of WordCast which is wordcast.com?

Dave: Wordcastnet.com. We’ve got a whole network of shows now, so.

Patrick: A great podcast.

Stephan: Very cool. So, podcasting really seems to be your passion, and can you just explain to everybody how you got started doing it.

Dave: How I got started, it was me growing up with a parent in radio surrounded by microphones, always loved that world and so I decided, hey, while I’ve got the headset here and the free software why not put it together. So I started off doing some of the gaming kind of stuff, but it ended up shifting to WordPress, and so it’s expanded into the Bitwire Media Network at bitwiremedia.com and all kinds of great shows that we put out there. It’s really so much fun and really we’re pushing with all kinds of new technologies in the space that really are exciting.

Brad: Yeah, for prospective young bloggers out there what’s the one piece of advice you would give them about entrepreneurship?

Dave: About entrepreneurship for young bloggers, the big thing that I’ve been pushing lately in that space is really the fact that it is important to keep your age as aside, not as your main piece. If you are an entrepreneur who’s under the age of 18 sure you’ll get buzz from that. Sure, it’s nice when I can come up here; I’ve got the cute little suit on and, oh, look at the little guy (laughter).

Patrick: The next Bill Gates! I’m sorry. Podcast riot (laughter).

Dave: But in a few years that’s gone and what do I have left? If everything I do is based on the fact that I’m a kid then when I’m not a kid anymore it’s all gone. So that’s my advice is use that buzz but don’t make it your primary push, don’t make it the thing that makes it who you are. That’s my advice.

Patrick: That’s a great point, and that’s kind of the point I wanted to ask you about because once upon a time I was young, once upon a distant time ago, and like ten years ago is when I started managing online communities and I developed for other people when I was like 13. And the reason I say that is just to say that I was a young entrepreneur. And in looking into your background a little bit and reading your blog I read a post that you wrote about the Daniel Brusilovsky story which was an unfortunate story, but like you I noticed how people used his age as a means of explaining his actions or excusing them even in some cases. And you wrote a passionate post about it and a post that I agreed with; I wanted to ask you to share that sentiment with us, the sentiment you expressed in that post about age and how it fits with responsibility.

Dave: Sure, I mean and Daniel is a good friend of mine. The whole point of that post was not to comment on the issue of what happened with Daniel, I don’t even want to go into that. The issue is how people reacted because the instant reaction was not this is what he did; the reaction was, well, this is what happens when you have kids in tech.

Patrick: Don’t have kids, in tech or otherwise.

Dave: Adults should have been watching him. Or, yeah, don’t have kids; this is what happens when you let this happen. And so to me I see one little incident being blown all the way and completely making a blanket statement about a huge community of people who I’m not the only doing this stuff, Daniel’s not the only one, there are people I mean you (inaudible) over there from (inaudible) is 19 doing the same kind of stuff. Everyone can do this kind of thing, and when you make the age something that restricts you, and you make the age something that make your actions completely different and not on a level playing field with everyone else, it ruins it. The actions weren’t worsened because of his age; his age is no excuse for his actions. When you put yourself on that level playing field, one, you need to expect to be treated the same way that any other adult would be treated in that case, and that was what part of Daniel has had to deal with since then with all the different consequences that have come from what happened. And at the same time it is a matter of respect for the rest of the community to treat these kids and to treat these entrepreneurs, these young people who are involved in these spaces, as an equal. As difficult as that can be when you see these short little kids up there that Patrick’s teaching —

Patrick: I never actually made contact to your face, just so we’re clear on that, a minor, I’m an adult, I never made contact. Continue.

Dave: It’s a matter of respect, that’s what it’s all about. It’s really just breaking past that barrier. Thank you. That’s what it’s all about.

Patrick: And you’re 17, right Dave?

Dave: I am 17, yep.

Patrick: So why don’t you tell us about some of the shows you have in Bitwire Media, what they’re about.

Dave: Bitwire Media, right now the big one that you might care about is the WordCast Network at wordcastnet.com; number one destination now for WordPress podcasts, we put out a bunch of different shows, we extended from one podcast until now we have about four or five, WordPress blogging, social media all week long, and the blog, we’re launching a brand new network with WordPress 3.0 and BuddyPress that’s really breaking all the rules when it comes to network sites. Something that is really excitingly called Making My Life, a lifestyle network that’s going to be bringing together all kinds of bloggers and podcasters who have really been doing some incredible things in their own spaces coming together to put this huge community site together, really exciting with the technology that’s coming out in WordPress 3.0, and you can find out all about it along with some of the production services that we do for other companies at bitwiremedia.com, that’s the main site.

Patrick: You have a copyright show on there, don’t you, a copyright-themed show?

Dave: Have you heard of the Copyright 2.0 show with Patrick O’Keefe and Jonathan Bailey on wordcastnet.com?

Patrick: Yes, I have heard of that.

Stephan: A little self promo there, yeah.

Dave: It’s all about plagiarism, copyright law and tons of stuff.

Stephan: So, Dave, what are your plans for the remainder of the year? I know you just mentioned your network and stuff, but what are some other plans that you have?

Dave: Some other plans, I mean for me personally lots and lots of travel, oh my goodness, I’ve got all kinds of different events; I’ll be at WordCamp Reno coming up soon, VidCon in L.A., I’m gonna be at the Open Camp Conference in Dallas this August with all kinds of great people talking Bitwire, Making My Life, WordCast, some great stuff is going on there, but really just continuing for me personally just pushing that stuff, seeing how far we can go, seeing what people we can get involved, and see how much we can really push the boundaries because that’s our favorite thing, you know. is breaking the rules and breaking WordPress and breaking the norm when it comes to podcasting technology and blogging.

Stephan: Very cool.

Dave: All of that.

Stephan: Very cool. Where can people find you online?

Dave: You can find me at davemoyer.org and @davemoyer on Twitter. WordCast is at wordcastnet.com, @wordcast on Twitter and bitwiremedia.com is the URL for everything we do.

Stephan: Thanks Dave. Awesome.

Patrick: Thanks Dave.

Stephan: Thanks for coming on.

Brad: Thanks so much. (Applause)

Patrick: Only Dave gets applause. Well, we’re going to stick with the WordPress podcasters and bring up our next guest Jeff Chandler.

Jeff: You can applaud. (Applause)

Brad: Jeff Chandler is the host of WordPress Weekly which is a live weekly podcast focused on WordPress, and the owner of the WordPress Tavern, WPTavern.com.

Jeff: That’s right. I got to tell you something, between Dave Moyer and WordCast and what you guys are doing up here with the SitePoint podcast, my podcast sucks!

Patrick: No. Actually, I like listening to your show and I listen to it. It’s fun to be on there, I think you’re a pretty good host.

Jeff: I use TalkShoe and I don’t do a professional recording, I’m not a Leo Laporte, I just kind of get on there and have other people come on there and talk to me about WordPress, and I just enjoy talking about WordPress so much that a lot of the listeners out there that I’ve met today, some of them are here today, and some of them said they just like the content that’s on the show, so I guess content can trump the audio quality. Sometimes.

Patrick: Don’t get up here and self-deprecate, Jeff, come on. Accept the applause.

Brad: Alright, so first question, why is your podcast better than Dave’s? I’m not gonna put you in the position, I’m kidding.

Patrick: Dave is helping us with technology, so it’s not, so continue. No, I’m just kidding.

Brad: So you’ve done 99 episodes of WordPress Weekly, number 100 is coming up which is obviously a huge milestone. Any big plans for that episode; anything we can look forward to? And when actually will you be recording 100?

Jeff: Looking to schedule episode 100 next Saturday, I think that’s May 29th, so that’s the weekend of Memorial Day. And hoping to just kind of talk to a couple of commercial plug-in and commercial theme providers and just give all of their stuff away pretty much, and kind of bring on some people from old episodes. Brad, you’re one of the people that helped me put the show together in the beginning; there’s some other people there as well that helped me put it together, maybe just talk about good old times between then and now.

Brad: And you recently switched the podcast to Saturdays, and since it is a live show how’s that going, has that worked out in your favor? Is it working alright?

Jeff: Well, I might be able to move it back to Tuesdays now that Lost is over with. (Laughter) But that’s one of the primary reasons I moved it. You know when it comes to doing a podcast the best thing you can do is set it up so that, especially when it’s live, is do it when it’s most convenient to you, because if you have to go out of the way or you have to reschedule it’s all about consistency I’ve noticed. And when you do an episode once a month when it’s supposed to be weekly, generally you’re gonna lose the audience, they’re going to lose interest in you, and they’re just going to move on. But so far it’s worked out good and I’m hoping that trend continues.

Brad: So what keeps you motivated to talk and write about WordPress after all these years, because you have been doing it for a number of years now?

Jeff: All these years.

Brad: It’s true; it’s been a few years.

Patrick: I remember when you were just a lad.

Brad: And I think a lot of people have seen, in the WordPress community, that podcasts come and go and there are a few that have stuck around for the long haul and yours is one of them.

Jeff: Yeah, I got to say I’ve been writing about WordPress since 2007. I just enjoy writing about it. Every week, every day there’s something new going on within the WordPress community; I mean WordPress is the bees’ knees right now in terms of an open source publishing platform. There’s a lot of interesting people, a lot of them are here today at WordCamp Raleigh that are using WordPress in ways that nobody could imagine that WordPress would be used, and I just enjoy writing about that and sharing people’s stories about how they’re using WordPress through WP Tavern, and I just, you know, I call it an enthusiast community for a reason because I’m enthusiastic about the software and I think it shows in my writing, and the community I’ve been able to create.

Brad: Awesome. So what big things can we expect in the coming months and the rest of the year?

Jeff: Well, hopefully get to the point where I can prove to my fiancé that it’s a job that pays well, because if I can’t start paying the bills by — you know, writing about WordPress and doing what I’m doing right now is I find out that that’s my passion. I haven’t gotten tired of it, hope I don’t get tired of it, and I’m right now in the midst of trying to turn my passion into a full time job, something — get paid to do what I love to do. So I’m in the middle of setting up a VIP section in the forum and also trying to create different streams of revenue so that I can pay the bills.

Brad: That’s all the questions I had. (laughter)

Patrick: So the final question is where can we find you online?

Jeff: You can find me @wptavern on Twitter, of course if there’s any fans of the show that have listened to the show WordPress Weekly or fans of the website and the forum, feel free to talk to me, enjoy talking to you; who knows, I might even shove a microphone in your face and put you on the show. But, yeah, that’s where you can find me.

Brad: Yeah, watch what you say around this guy, we joke that he’s the TMZ of WordPress. He’s always got a recorder on.

Patrick: But TMZ at least gets stories.

Brad: I get stories.

Patrick: Right, a lot. Thanks Jeff.

Stephan: And by the way, let’s see who can raise their hand first?

Jeff: There you go; you just won a business card (laughter).

Patrick: That’s the best prize of the day. Thanks Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you.

Well, it was great to have them on. And now let’s go around the table and close out this episode of the SitePoint Podcast.

Brad: Brad Williams from webdebstudios.com and you can find me on Twitter @williamsba.

Stephan: I’m Stephan Seagraves. You can find me on Twitter @ssegraves, and my blog is badice.com.

Patrick: And I am Patrick O’Keefe of the iFroggy Network, ifroggy.com. I’m on Twitter @iFroggy.

You can follow our usual co-host Kevin Yank @sentience and SitePoint @sitepointdotcom. You can also visit us at sitepoint.com/podcast to leave comments on this show and to subscribe to receive every show automatically. Email podcast@sitepoint.com with your questions for us, we’d love to read them out on the show and give you our advice.

This episode of the SitePoint podcast was produced by Karn Broad.

Thank you for listening and we’ll see you next time.

Theme music by Mike Mella.

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