Over the last few weeks we’ve heard a lot of feedback regarding the title change of The Linux Action Show to The Computer Action Show as with all of these types of changes, we’ve heard positive feedback, negative feedback, and of course the big one, no feedback. Seems there is always a large portion of the audience base that does not feel the need to chime in too often. But for those who do feel the need, there is typically a lot of passion behind the feedback, and as always our audience and community turns out to be full of some really cool guys and gals.

For the negative feedback, it tends to come in email form, as people don’t want to rattle the cage in a public forum. I appreciate and understand that, but I do like to try and respond out in the open when possible so that other community members can be kept in the loop, and perhaps expand on topic.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d take an email I received this morning, remove any names that might identify the innocent, and post the thread here. Simple because the email from this morning does a great job sort of summarizing the feedback from the negative responses to the title change, and my typical response.

From: Anonymous
Subject: Your Show

It looks like the Computer Action Show is replacing the Linux Action Show.

Your new show looks interesting. But I am specifically interested in supporting a Linux news and reviews podcast as there are so few out there.

I found yours to have the highest signal to noise ratio, i.e., quality content, of all that I had sampled. So I’m sorry to see it go. Good luck with your new show.

From: Chris
Subject: RE: Your Show

You got it right. The Computer Action Show, as of now, replaces the Linux Action Show.

Not sure if you have listened to the last few episodes, but it’s the same show, but with a new name.

Our problem we ran into was Linux in the show title would prevent a lot of people from checking out the show. It also had the effect of drawing a lot of people in. But at a certain point we reached a growth ceiling of people actively looking for Linux podcasts.

It struck us that some of the very people we want to hear our show, are most likely the people who won’t download the show that has “Linux” in the title. Those are the people we need to reach, both from an audience growth standpoint, but also from a standpoint of educating them about OSS and Linux.

We came to this realization when we started thinking about the problem of today’s online tech shows. They are generally ether heavily Windows or Mac focused, even if it is a sublayer of the content… It seems to still influence the hosts, the way they frame ideas, and etc. I can’t think of a big online tech show that treats Linux like an equal citizen. Most of them heavily lean towards Mac coverage, as it’s their platform of choice. Despite Windows probably being the statistically much larger audience base. And in these shows Linux coverage is near non-existent.

The idea behind the name change is two fold, the primary idea being people looking for a general geeky tech podcast will be more likely to check out the Computer Action Show, and thus by the core content of the show, will be exposed to Linux news, ideas, and community insight in a very organic way. Just like listening to TWiT or watching Tekzilla gets you the updates on Microsoft and Apple.

The second idea is to allow us to expand coverage when needed. The simple fact is, some weeks, there is just not a “big” news story that we can wrap an hour and half show around. So this opens us up to things like a little Haiku coverage… Something that ends up not being too far off the beatin path, but is not specifically Linux.

Now earlier I’d said The Computer Action Show replaces The Linux Action Show “for now”. What I meant by that is, there is no direct plan in place to bring The Linux Action Show back into production. However, we’re always willing to try something for a season and re-evaluate after then. Additionally if we ever reached a point where we had more time to dedicate to creating shows, and I mean a fair bit of time, as The Linux Action Show and Computer Action Show require quite a bit of time, it would be first on our list.

I believe once the initial shock of the title change is over, people will find that it’s almost the same show, with some extra content when it fits.

It’s also healthy to step out side the world of Linux podcasts, news, blogs, forums, chat rooms, and so on. The Linux community needs a broader context outside it’s own sandbox in order to meet the requirements and expectations outside of it.

I also believe that the time has passed for  treating Linux like a niche small time grass-roots thing that needs its own fully dedicated show because of the fear it can’t stand up on its own if it might have to compete with other content. Frankly I feel a lot of fear out there is rooted in that, epically from longer time Linux users when that may have been a real problem. But that time has passed, and it’s not a real problem anymore.

Linux needs to be treated (by the community) as part of the computer industry and ecosystem like it really is. We all know that’s where it is today, but yet a large subset of the community tries to treat it like it’s still being developed by a single person and you need to know the super secret handshake to use it.

I really think that integrating Linux content into a broader context, where open source and Linux content is the primary focus, but the entire technology landscape is considered and brought into context will make for a better show, allow for better perspective, and frankly keeps our heads out of the sand and allows us to reach a wider audience that might have been turned away by that scary “Linux” in the title, but is now listening and becoming engaged in a new way with Linux news and content they never expected.

If you have not done so yet, give the last three episodes a listen (http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/?cat=345), and you tell me what you think!

-Chris

The first episode of The Linux Action show aired June 10th 2006. Since then it has become a huge part of my life. At first a weekly show, then as life caught up with Bryan and I it became a every other week show. I think most people realize the show does not start and end every other week and that there are always many things that need to be done between release days.

As the show has grown of course the community and listener base has grown along with it. I have formed habits of checking my email, twitter replies, forum posts and etc, about every 15 minutes that I am at a computer.

The main thing we always try to do with LAS (The Linux Action Show) is to push the edge, keep things fresh, and bring in new users to Linux. Bryan and I both know the only way Desktop Linux will ever be successful is bringing more users to the desktop… It’s the only way. There are many ways to accomplish this (winning over companies like Adobe, compatibility with current “standards”) but you can’t achieve any of them unless we significantly increase the Linux user base. We don’t think we can do this all on our own, but we do think we can help.

We have got to reach out to new users, hanging out at our own sites, using our own formats (Ogg/Theora) does not spread our message. At all. I content that in-order to reach new users and show them the features of the Linux platform you have to communicate and distribute media in a way they are familiar with, I’m speaking of MP3 and Flash of course. You can’t expect a life-long Windows user to go out of their way to Listen/watch a Linux show that is in a format they can’t even open or play, that is just irrational.

As we look at this situation, and we look at our lives we find our selves really stuck between that classic rock and that damn hard place.

Some week’s between Bryan and myself we are working 140 hours, on top of the man hours we sneak in-between that to focus on our community or record one of our other shows, and we love doing it. The honest fact is, it helps us scratch the creative itch that sometimes our day jobs just don’t provide. Plus we love talking and sharing about the stuff we think is awesome, Linux, Beer, Old Time Radio, Scifi movies and so on.

But there comes to a point where we hit a wall, a wall in terms of our time, a wall in terms of our audience size, and where we feel a bit stagnant. Not a bad stagnant, but just one that does not push our creative efforts forward and scratch that itch that drives us to make the shows.

So we have reached a point where we have decided to drastically change things up, for what we hope is the better. Starting with Season 10 of The Linux Action Show, there will be no more official Linux Action Show twice a month audio release. The Linux Action Show will transform into a series of mini-videos and episodes hyper focused on specific topics and released much more frequently than twice a month.

A key part of our plan is to leverage on-line streaming sites, like YouTube. We hope this approach drives a few key goals

• A potential for a huge viewer base, YouTube has millions of users, it’s the #2 search engine in the world. We can deliver our views and message to a much wider potential audience
• Dedicated episodes per-topic (or a few small specific topics) this means when YOU or anyone else wants specific information about Compiz, or the eeePC you search and find it. Getting you exactly what you wanted, not an entire 60+ minute episode where 10 minutes was spent talking about what you wanted to know more about.
• Also this method takes a large load off Bryan and I. It gives us the ability to quickly create specific shows more frequently, but in the end will take less of our overall time. With Bryan’s crazy work schedule and my wife and I expecting our first child, this should be huge.

I know for many, this will be a un-welcome change. I know that many prefer the format of an hour long episode that acts as a companion in the background, we understand that… But truthfully there are many Linux shows now, and we need to differentiate and standout. We have got to find a way to break out of the base and get the message to the masses.

Who knows, maybe down the road we will look at this and decide it was a huge success, or maybe we’ll return to our original format. But for right now I know that it’s the move we got to try.