Diggnation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diggnation

Title for Diggnation videocast
Host(s) Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht
Website http://www.revision3.com/diggnation
Update Schedule Weekly
Launch Date July 1, 2005
Genre Video Podcast

Diggnation is a weekly podcast hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht. Its main purpose is to discuss the top stories from Digg, the social bookmarking website developed by Rose and others. The format of the show usually involves Rose and Albrecht reviewing one or more brand of beer at the opening of the show, of which they will consume throughout the show, followed by them discussing the top Digg stories from the previous week. Both audio and video versions of the podcast are available from Revision3.

The intro sequence was made by Eden Soto in collaboration with David Prager. It was in development for more than three months, according to Eden Soto's website.

Contents

[edit] Concept

Diggnation episodes are usually filmed every Thursday, posted for Revision3 members on Saturday and released to the general public the next Tuesday. The videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so it is not illegal for them to be re-distributed early to non-subscribers. The video and audio versions of the podcast can be obtained at the iTunes music store, sites like DiggDown, Google Video, and often from torrents, before being released to the general public. CacheFly, the primary distributor, states that as of March 2007, 25 terabytes per week are being consumed by downloads of the show[1].

Diggnation occasionally does live shows. These shows have been hosted at CES, Cre824, Macworld, San Francisco, E3, San Diego and others.

On the 16th of August, 2006, it was announced that Diggnation won the 2006 Podcast Award for best technology podcast. The winner of 2005 was TWiT, of which Kevin Rose is also a part. [2]

[edit] Name Origin

Originally, David Prager, a friend and colleague of Kevin Rose, wished to call the website Diggnation. However, Kevin decided on the simpler Digg instead. This is spelled with two g's because {dig.com} is registered to the Walt Disney Internet Group. Kevin subsequently chose Diggnation as the podcast's name, replacing the simple name used in the first episode—The Digg Podcast.

[edit] Format

The show begins immediately with short advertisements for the podcast's current sponsors, and is usually followed by a fake advertisement. After the title video, the hosts introduce themselves, make any relevant announcements, and discuss the beers they will drink during the episode. The beer-tasting aspect of Diggnation is one of the show's trademarks. The majority of the episode is dedicated to the discussion of news items as well as personal commentary, anecdotes, and unrelated banter. The show's humor is generally somewhat vulgar, and has prompted complaints from viewers. At the end of the show, Rose and Albrecht mention their sponsors once again in a longer advertisement spot, read e-mail from fans, then conclude the show with a seemingly ad libbed phrase or saying.

[edit] Dolby Laboratories Collaboration

Episode #14 of Diggnation marked a new milestone for podcasting. The Diggnation team collaborated with Dolby Laboratories to test true surround sound. The show was the first podcast ever to be (partly) recorded with this technology,[citation needed] which creates the illusion of surround sound by actually recreating what would happen to the waveforms from different directions (delay, tone, and volume differences between the ears) and playing it through headphones. Thus totally accurate recreations of soundspace can be created. The technology mentioned here was only used in Episode 14, though Rose and Albrecht have expressed interest in using it again.

[edit] Sponsorships

Instead of displaying advertisement spots in the show, the two hosts read a short segment given to them by the sponsors for each episode. They often give their own praise for a sponsor, similar to a personal recommendation.

Current Sponsors:

Past Sponsors:

[edit] External links

Revision3 Network
Revision3 Corporation
Revision3 podcasts
the broken | Ctrl+Alt+Chicken | Diggnation | Geekdrome | iFanboy | InDigital | Infected | Mysteries of Science | notmtv | PixelPerfect | Systm | The Totally Rad Show | Web Drifter
Revision3 show hosts
Alex Albrecht | Jeff Cannata | Hahn Choi | Jessica Corbin | Dan Huard | Bert Monroy | Kevin Rose | Martin Sargent | Heather Stewart | Dan Trachtenberg | Wil Wheaton
Former Revision3 hosts
Andrew Hawn | Jonathan London | Diane Mizota
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/i/g/Diggnation.html"