I spent some time tonight talking with folks at the Open Mic at Red Rock Coffee Company in Mountain View. Hopefully some of the recorded audio sounds decent enough to put into a podcast… it was hard to tell if the fidelity was adequate… and I recorded it all in an elevator.

I’ve been working on a number of segment ideas, and hopefully will be able to beef up my podcasts with some interesting stuff. I’m really getting into podcasting. It has the potential to be even cooler and more fun… and I’m lovin’ it.

One of the smartest decisions I’ve made recently was to go to the Dawn and Drew get-together in San Francisco, in the Tonga Room of the Fairmont Hotel. I might podcast about it, but the Reader’s Digest condensed version is that I’m impressed with how cool and down-to-earth the podcasting folks are. Dawn and Drew are totally personable, and were fun to chat with, even if only briefly.

I think everyone was surprised at the turnout. I’d estimate that there were between 25-30+ people there, most of whom are podcasters, though there was a subsection of Dawn and Drew fans.

A highlight for me was meeting Ryan King, who I’m going to collaborate with, probably using Skype. I’m really excited about the podcasts we have planned, I think it’ll be interesting and hopefully entertaining. (Sorry, no details until we’ve worked ‘em out a bit further.) Ryan made it to the WordPress get-together that was held last week, which I’m bummed that I missed.

I ended up sitting next to Sam Levin, who I kinda felt compelled to hold my non-Mac-fan-tongue around. I’m not religious about Operating Systems, but Apple lost me as a fan quite a while back. Sam had the new iTalk which looks like a pretty darn sweet addition for the iPod.

I enjoyed chatting with Butler, whose Rock and Roll Geek Show podcast is quite entertaining; and Kris, who does Say Yum with her husband Devin (who are in a New York Times article that I have yet to read).

Totally nice people, all of whom are doing podcasts that are really interesting and fun. I couldn’t help but to tell Adam Curry that I love his show, and think that he looks mega-better without the poofy big hair from the 80’s. (I’m thankful that I saw him because up until yesterday, I had a mental image of him with Wolf Marshall/Billy Sheehan hair when I listened to his podcast.) I totally covet Michael Geoghegan’s home theater. =)

I wish I’d had the chance to meet everbody, and I’m sorry if you were there and I didn’t link to you, but I have a crappy memory, and I turn into a pumkin at midnight, so I had to leave a bit early.

If you’re interested in listening to podcasts, all of these folks have great shows that are really interesting, very worth listening to, and have been around for a while. It was neat to be around the pioneers of podcasting. I had a great time!

After talking with folks at Open Mic tonight, I really realized how similar podcasting is to Open Mic. While they’re not similar in terms of the format, they’re very similar in essence. Both are avenues for creative expression, and both are unique in that what you’re seeing/hearing is the real stuff, from real people, instead of some canned, sanitized, and monetized product delivered over commercial distribution channels. Can Open Mic and Podcasting save humanity?