Until I caught wind of Colin Browning’s vacation plans 10 days ago, it never actually occurred to me that someone could take a vacation in Antarctica.

I mean … Antarctica? The coldest place on earth (even if it summer there right now)?  The continent that’s not even a country? Other than scientists, who actually goes there?

Well, Colin and his mother, apparently.

But wait … it gets even better.  Not only is Colin traveling around Antarctica, he’s also blogging — and Twittering — his adventures. Check out Antarctica: Colin & His Mom Travel to the Frozen Continent.

Twittering from Antarctica? Who knew?

Seriously, though, this is one heck of a story. I know that I’ll be following Colin’s vacation entries and Twitter messages with great interest, and you can be sure I’ll catch up with Colin to hear more about his trip when he returns home to the Boston area next month.

What a unique journey, Colin. Bravo!

(Disclosure: Colin works for Prospero, which powers the message board community for my employer, Monster.)

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I’m simply not buying those numbers. Not a chance they’re accurate. But what I am buying is the general notion that the MySpace user demographic is skewing older as time goes by.

Key question: how will the marketers and advertisers play to this “graying” MySpace audience?

(Hat tip: Joel Cheesman)

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Podcast : Understanding Blog Marketing
Feedster founder Scott Johnson offers an excellent 15-minute podcast on the keys to blog marketing, including these gems:

• Remember you’re engaging in a conversation
• Conversations take two parties, which means that you as the blog marketer have to be a part of them
• Use RSS readers, customized search feeds on your product/company, and meme trackers to follow who’s linking to you and talking about you; then, go and join in those conversations

Scott concludes the podcast this way: “It’s all about talking to people and dialoguing with them and creating some content. And it’s not that hard.” Well said.

(Hat tip: Ed Lee.)

Cubicle Divas Podcast – “Brokeback Entrepreneurs”
An excellent discussion led by Coach Leesa Barnes on how to ensure you don’t have all your time drained by people that will never, ever pay for your services. There’s certainly a line for consultants where “sharing” and “picking your brain” has to stop and paid work has to be begin. Leesa & Co. explore that line.

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Colleague 1: A graphic designer who uses e-mail only sparingly, doesn’t have or want a computer at home, won’t purchase anything online, and doesn’t consider the web a viable place to find information.

Colleague 2: A recruiter for a creative agency who spends a good part of his week on the phone and in meetings with both potential candidates and current talent. He also uses instant messaging to keep in touch with those candidates and the web to find new prospects. He listens to podcasts and reads blogs from time to time but hadn’t heard of RSS and liked my suggestion of using a tool (RSS reader) that would help him to read more blogs more efficiently.

Me: An unabashed advocate of social media and a regular online junkie. Holding down a job, paying bills, buying books, planning trips, reading the news, sharing photos, exchanging ideas, keeping in touch with family and friends around the country and the world that I don’t/can’t see regularly in person, making appointments for the “offline” world, consulting, blogging, reading blogs, podcasting, listening to podcasts, helping to organize an unconference, taking classes, chatting, and making new acquaintances and friends all require, or are enriched, by way of an Internet connection.

‘Web 2.0-only life’

Yet Technology Review’s James Fallows clearly blows me out of the water with his two-week journalistic experiment of “living a Web 2.0-only life.” Fallows uses a full range of online tools — from the more obvious ones, such as Flickr, Gmail, and Skype to the less well-known, such as iOutliner and Zillow — to manage all of his everyday activities and responsibilities, except (presumably) eating, sleeping, showering, and … uhm … kissing his wife

Among Fallows’s insights:

• The new web is both analog — an evolutionary “continuum of new ideas” — and digital — it works better with “yes-or-no signals” than with “nuanced judgments”
• The new web inspires us to create, share, and innovate, but also requires a certain level of trust and a ceding of even more of our privacy
• Online-only tools have their limitations. A word-processing application such as Writely works brilliantly … as long as we’re not on an airplane and without an Internet connection. Hand-held devices such as PDAs and cellphones are good for reading and sending e-mails, but limiting when it comes time for accessing Web 2.0 applications
• Ajax is a key component of Web 2.0, one that is doing wonders to enhance the online user experience

It’s a good and thoughtful read that illustrates how new media tools are weaving their way through our lives … for some of us, at least!

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… so says Thomas Friedman, New York times op-ed columnist and author of the best seller The World Is Flat, which was recently re-released in “updated and expanded” form.

I was fortunate to catch an interview with Friedman on the Tim Russert Show on CNBC over the weekend. And one of Friedman’s notions is that while intelligence is certainly important, curiosity and passion are even more valuable in the “flat world.” It is this combination that will push us forward, driving creativity and innovation.

Those thoughts resonate with me here in the world of social media, where I interact with curious and passionate people every day. Here are a few of them:

• Mike Bellina is my co-host on the New Comm Road Podcast. Just a few days after meeting at the FIR/ATS Geek Dinner in New York City in June, Mike had listened to my first two episodes and e-mailed me to ask how he could be part of the show. Now, he’s my co-host on NCR.
• Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. With their twice-weekly For Immediate Release program, these two business podcasting pioneers have set the bar for the rest of us. I’ve sucked up more than 150 hours of podcasting education from the dynamic duo over the past year-plus, and if New Comm Road is in any way a sucess, they are certainly part of the reason why.
• Christopher Penn is the indefatigable host of the Financial Aid Podcast. He’s a master marketer in the new media space, and he consistently produces 5-6 quality shows a week. Amazing.
• Chris Brogan is a prolific blogger for LifeHack.org, ChrisBrogan.com, and the Grasshopper Factory, and he also hosts the Fat Guy Gets Fit podcast. I met Chris at BarCamp Boston less than two months ago, and he’s quickly become a good friend. Chris is always encouraging, thoughtful, and full of new ideas. One of those was dreaming up PodCamp Boston, along with Chris Penn, while several others will be unveiled in a big way over at the Grasshopper Factory very soon. I can’t wait.
• C.C. Chapman. A man who knows music and digital marketing, and someone who’s also making a splash in Second Life.
• Mitch Joel is the visionary behind Six Pixels of Separation who invited me onto his podcast earlier this month during my family vacation in Montreal. Mitch’s “six points of separation” for landing a job in digital marketing and starting a blog from the past two weeks are must-listens.
• I also met Joseph Jaffe for the first time at the Geek Dinner. His Across the Sound podcasts have included episodes from a plane and a train. Where next, Joe?
• Lee Hopkins. This Down Under gentleman is the new “voice” of New Comm Road. His sense of humo[u]r is unparalleled, and his efforts to “liven up” the often-sluggish new media space in Australia are always welcomed by this former Brisbane resident.

And there are many, many more, including Michael Bailey, Ted Demopoulos, Steve Garfield, Steve Runner, Shel Israel, Toby Bloomberg, John Wall, Clinton Alvord, Ed Lee, David Jones, Terry Fallis, Donna Papacosta, Christopher Carfi, and Jackie Danicki.

To all of you listed and to those I’ve forgotten to mention here: Your curiosity and your passion are inspirational. Thank you for helping to make the world a flatter place.

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From overnighters to the drive-time jocks, everyone had to sit through periodic air checks. And as much as I didn’t look forward to these sessions, they were invariably helpful.

To hear, for example, that I was talking too fast, not injecting enough enthusiasm, or talking too much over the music was important feedback and made me a better broadcaster in the long run. Most of us don’t like criticism, but most of us need it from time to time.

I would offer similar advice to podcasters — get a pod check. Seek out a person who can objectively critique what you think is your best podcast to date, and be sure to ask for answers to at least these questions:

• What am I doing well?
• What could I be doing better

If you really want a serious critique, you’ll need an opinion on your sound quality, show length, and music choice. And then, are you interesting to listen to? Do you sound credible and passionate? Is your show a good match for your intended audience?

Don’t be bashful about asking your listeners for suggestions, either. Undoubtedly, they’ll have a few ideas to help you take your podcast to the next level.

For some more suggestions on improving your podcast, you should also check out a recent post from Chris Brogan.

[Technorati: podcasting, Chris Brogan]

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We connect to our past through stories. We develop and maintain families and friendships through stories. We often imagine our future in the form of a story.

Well, last week I happened upon a podcast that tells very good stories.

Griddlecakes Radio, which explores “the lost art of audio storytelling” is a podcast that is meant to — and does — evoke a range of emotions. One of the first episodes I listened to was called “Mr. and Mrs. Reich,” in which host Ron Ploof reflects on the life lessons he learned as a teenage paperboy for the Boston Globe. Through an interaction with a German couple on his route, which Ron recounts vividly, he comes to recognize that we’re living in a vast world that stretches beyond our sometimes tunnel-vision understanding.

The story resonated with me because I was also a Boston Globe paperboy in the early 1990s. That job taught me about responsibility (rising by 6:00 a.m. 365 days a year — no easy ask for a high-school kid) and handling money, and almost singlehandedly funded the purchase of my first “real” computer (not counting the old Radio Shack 16K in this case) and my first overseas trip — to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid — in 1994.

Ron’s stories are often performed in the style of old radio dramas — by bringing “characters” and stories to life with multiple voices, sound effects, and moving music.

It’s a good change of pace from many of the business-centric podcasts that I listen to.

On the subject of stories and how they impact our lives, longtime “Diva Marketing” blogger Toby Bloomberg is now also publishing “Blogger Stories.”

The site invites bloggers to share stories of how their lives have been “touched” by blogging. One of my favorite entries to date has come from Yvonne DiVita, who built a blog for her business with the support and encouragement of her loving partner Tom Collins. So much is the blog a part of their relationship, in fact, that Yvonne and Tom are now considering getting married … on their blog!

While that may not necessarily be your or my cup of tea, it isn’t a story that our imaginations can’t handle.

[Technorati tags: Griddlecakes Radio, Blogger Stories, Boston Globe]

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Are you excited about the World Cup, which starts this Friday? I am.

Admittedly, I’m a pay-attention-to-soccer-every-four-years kind of fan, but that puts my in good stead with most of my fellow Americans. As Andrei Markovits writes in today’s Boston Globe, soccer is not part of our “hegemonic sports culture” — meaning a world of watching, following, worrying, debating, living a sport rather than merely playing it.”

Many, many Americans player soccer as kids — I did — but then we stop following the sport. It has never become “the world game” of football for us as it has for much of the rest of the world (and it’s a similar story in Australia, despite that link to the Australian TV network that covers the game with distinction). Instead, we have our American football, baseball, basketball, and, in some parts of the country, ice hockey to satisfy our sports appetite.

And yet it is impossible to ignore the passion of the athletes and their fans during the World Cup. It’s what makes the event the most anticipated and celebrated in all of sports (you’re welcome to disagree).

In addition to watching the games themselves, I’ll be following that passion online. Here are some sites to visit:

• World Cup Blog aggregates “34 blogs reporting daily on every detail” of the competition. The site has a section for photos as well.
• FIFA’s official World Cup site includes up-to-date schedules, pool standings, and a profile of each of the 736 athletes participating.
• Google and Nike have teamed up to produce Joga.com, a social networking site for fans. You must have or create a gmail account to join, though.
• U.S. soccer team’s website and blog.
• WORLD CUP DAQ — the BBC’s World Cup stock exchange game
• Technorati’s listing of World Cup blogs.

But if you’re still not revved up for the World Cup, then maybe you just need to watch this motivational video by a group of English university students:

Update: I have removed the video from this blog because of copyright concerns.

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