A few times a day, I’m naturally asked questions from colleagues, family, friends, and even folks in the industry. I find it difficult to provide an answer that works uniformly across all levels of understanding, and trying to define such a fast moving ship should be impossible, getting into a dialogue has it’s benefits anyways.

What does Podtech do?
The Podtech “About” page does an ‘ok’ job explaining itself. It’s often a discussion, which is perfect in understanding what others think, here’s a few of the common themes:

• Podtech delivers the voice of people using the people’s tools. (My shortest possible answer, which is intended to spur on more questions, On John’s blog he gives the following line: “PodTech.net is a media platform and network that is creating and delivering content to new Internet consumers”. I’d also add, mobile devices, and I’m sure IPTV too)
• A Media company that uses New/Social Media. (Podtech tells the stories and captures the voices of the people using the people’s tools. People are using blogs, podcasts and are starting to figure out video. I’m so hesitant in saying ‘new’ media because what do you call it in 2 years, how about 10 years?)
• Like the name implies, Podtech is delivering content for the web and mobile devices.
• One response last night was doesn’t “pod” indicate podcast? Well, my iPod delivers video (and text too) so the name will work. Overtime, the company name (brand) will represent itself.)
• “Social Media eh?” I give the example of how Seagate has shifted it’s advertising and marketing dollars to Podtech. Listen to this podcast to hear more about their strategy, smart folks. Companies big companies like Sun, Dell, Hitachi, Microsoft are using these tools (and creating budgets) to reach out to customers, but of course it comes down to trust.
• I send very interested folks links to the Podtech site, often to the famous Johnathan Schwartz interview (the first question, “Why does Sun Matter” really sets the tone, Marketing voices, GeekTV, and the blogs.
• A company that is flexible, adaptive, evolving and growing. (Trying to dry the ink on your about page is pretty silly. The people that John has hired all have creds, are early adopters, and all have relevant experience. You can get a better sense of his vision from his blog.)

What are you going to do at Podtech?
Often folks ask what I’m doing to do at Podtech, I’ve a pretty clear vision after my discussions with John and the team, I’m going to be doing different things as needed, my response differs depending on who I’m talking to.

• Answer the “How” question for companies.
• Like at Hitachi Data Systems, help companies understand and develop strategies to deploy social media the right way.
• Partner with Social Media shops and consultants. It’s about ‘we’ moving together as an industry, more on this in the future. (I’m already starting to schedule meetings)
• Assist with the long term direction of Podtech.net, I firmly believe that there’s a small window of time before companies start creating their own podtech.net sites/blogs/podcasts/videos on their own websites, this is important, and I won’t forget it.
• I mention some of the things I said on this post Jeremiah headed to Podtech
• Be flexible, adapt, and wear all the hats I can in a startup of only 35 people.

Responses from the Community
I was having conversations with a few different companies, and one thing that was important to me was to work for a company I believe in, and a product that I can be passionate about, if not, what’s the point? When I found out Scoble was going to Podtech, I knew that something big was happening, I’ve actually been stalking John for a sometime now.

At the Laughing Squid party, several folks came up to me to chat with me, including folks in the social media space, here’s a few of the things I was pleased to hear.

• “Furrier is assembling quite a team over there” (Social media expert)
• “Podtech is sure doing a lot of things” (That could mean good and bad things, from a Google employee)
• “Now you’ve got to pimp Seagate now!” (Heh, in reference I’ve worked for their competitor Hitachi for 3 years, said in a joking manner, from a thought leader, blogger)
• “…smart acquisition for Podtech, I don’t mean that in a de-humanizing way” (I thought that was a cool thing to say, every hire should be a smart business choice, social media expert)
• “Regarding Furrier, why didn’t he hire me?” (Somewhat in a joking manner, PR pro)
• “Fix the podtech.net site” (A handful of folks have mentioned that the UI needs to be improved, agreed. I’ve already noticed quite a few improvements. Just a few weeks ago, podtech.net was really a podcasting index, since then, it’s incorporated video, and I’ve some ideas to build community for the long term. Have you read Scoble’s feedback before he started working about the site?  Most of these issues are fixed, or will be fixed.)