Dave Winer is one of my heroes; has been for a long time. He pretty much invented blogs (his Scripting News is the oldest and longest-running blog on the Net) and RSS, and had a huge hand in the development of podcasting. And he’s been around longer than that, taking a rebel approach to programming that has led to several innovations we take for granted today. It is with some reluctance, then, that I have to say I think Dave’s wrong in this latest battle.

Winer and Adam Curry (aka “Prince of Pod”) met a few months ago in Miami along with former Curry business associate Ron Bloom to explore ways to generate some income out of this whole podcasting business. Winer walked away from the meeting while Curry and Bloom launched a business. Since then, Winer has been speaking out on his belief that podcasting is not something to be monetized.

Part of Winer’s argument is that podcasting is aimed at niche audiences; the numbers will never be big enough to justify serious advertising dollars. But he’s more passionate in his belief that podcasting is a democratizing technology and should remain a channel for regular people to speak in a normal voice to other regular people about anything both podcaster and audience are interested in. Rex Hammock concurs, and has also been vocal in his disappointment that podcasting is taking a commercial turn. Says Hammock (with Winer’s endorsement):

As those who fly first class between technology conferences take over the podcasting story, the focus will be more about the business of podcasting (and, thus, the inevitable boom and bust) and not on the more important issue: the transformational nature of what happens when everyone who has an internet connection can truly add their literal voice to a worldwide conversation.

That’s definitely a role for podcasting, and it won’t go away. The virtually non-existent barriers to entry will tempt a lot of ordinary folk to jump into the podcasting waters. But that won’t keep individuals from making money at it, or businesses from leveraging it in support of their business goals. The podcast Endurance Radio has a media kit on its Web site that explains its advertising policies. A single sponsor—all he’ll accept for a show—can bring podcaster Tim Bourquin as much as $4,000 a month. Then there’s General Motors, which put out two podcasts this week, one about the new Solstice and another about a Cadillac model. They’ve both been getting good reviews (from the likes of Christopher Carfi and my podcasting partner Neville Hobson). Eric Rice nailed Warner Brothers as an advertiser for his podcast. And on it goes…

Under Winer’s vision for podcasting, these efforts are wholly inappropriate. Winer needs to understand that inventing something doesn’t give you control over its evolution. That control falls into other hands, notably the marketplace’s. Consider the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell envisioned the telephone as a broadcast tool. He pictured groups of people gathered around a phone listening to an announcer on the other end of the line. It was, in Bell’s mind, a one-to-many tool. A conference room equipped with a speaker phone is as close as we’ve come to that vision; imagine Bell’s surprise (and, perhaps, chagrin) that the phone turned out to be primarily a one-to-one tool.

As for the focus of media coverage, I just don’t see articles spotlighting the business potential. I have a couple RSS subscriptions on podcasting, and the vast majority of articles are about the amateur, anybody-can-have-a-radio-show nature of podcasting.

So Winer’s dismay over efforts to commercialize podcasting aside, we’ll continue to see the growth of podcasting as a commercial medium—as well we should. Fortunately, there’s plenty of room on the Internet—and plenty of interest from audiences and the media—for both kinds of podcasts.

And Dave, it’s gotta be flattering to be compared to Alexander Graham Bell.