Brian Oberkirch from Weblogswork gave me a demo of PodServe today. If you are a podcaster, or want to be, there are some features that you are going to be really interested in trying out. As I see it there are three important features of note. First, PodServe is a place where podcasters can host their podcasts for free. You simply create a channel and all of your podcasts are included. Brian interviewed me today (he’s an up an coming podcaster himself) – you can see the podcast interviews of me and others on his page here. As a podcaster, you can use this page as your main site, or you can simply point to the individual files in your own blog and they will be included as enclosures. Not only is this service free, but PodServe is also providing a RSS feed for the page (which you can use or not), and PodServe will also provide statistics and other tools to assist the publisher. Comments/reviews are also enabled on each site. If you are a podcaster looking for a free place to host your files, PodServe is an excellent choice. Second, PodServe also allows “social podcasts”. A channel can be created that allows a number of podcasters to submit files, and all will be included in the feed. The third notable feature is really interesting. Users can create full public podcast channels that anyone can add their content to. Two great examples are Brian’s Naked Conversations Discussion (podcasts discussing Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s new book) and Alexander Muse’s Elevator Pitch Podcast, which is a podcast that any company can use to submit an elevator pitch. I’m considering using the service to create something similar to the Elevator Pitch Podcast for use by TechCrunch readers. PodServe is just one product in a large new project called Big in Japan. Brian has been working on Big in Japan, along with Alexander Muse, for a long time now, and they are preparing to launch a number of the new products, including PodServe, at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin next week. If the other products are as interesting as PodServe, Big in Japan is going to be, well, big. Note: This is the second post I’ve done with my new MacBook Pro, and it just keeps getting better. I’m seriously impressed with this machine. Macs are really, really cool. → Read More