When you have a great idea brewing in your head, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement.  Then, reality sets in and you become cognizant of the size of the Internet and the other “great” ideas in it.  Well, my friends, the time has come for me to evaluate my arch nemesis.

The group final project for my podcasting class is to create a podcast series for the MCDM Program.  It would be a podcast version of Flip the Media, except the content would be heavily edited to achieve consistency, quality, and less frequently published.  Our hope is to create a podcast that would cover these three topics.

1. Social or Digital Media News/Topic/Discussion – 10 minutes
2. Student Spotlight (interview of MCDM student or alumni) – 3 minutes
3. Upcoming MCDM Events – 2 minutes

Our vision is to create a grassroots foundation that will be self sustained by the program.  Every other week or month, an MCDM student (perhaps someone doing an indie study) would produce, edit, and maintain the podcast for one quarter, then pass off to the next MCDM-er, and so forth.

Now, why the “arch nemesis” reference?  Because chances are someone is already living your vision, and the least you can do is do a competitive comparison.

Check out The Center for Social Media, a joint effort by American University and MIT.  I took a beeline to their site because the content is validated and distributed by a university, therefore we may share a common audience base.  Another reason why I decided to evaluate their site is it reminded me a lot of our upcoming Media Space, and could provide more opportunities for a SWAT analysis.

One thing I want to commend AU & MIT for is the fact that they dived into the world of video podcasting.  This was the biggest “a-ha” moment for me, as I think it would be beneficial for us to incorporate into our project plan.  My devil’s advocate comment would be that having students produce content could be more compelling for our audience.  If MCDM-ers owned the podcast production end to end, it would help create learning opportunities, build credibility, and showcase our talent to the world.

So, the protagonist meets his villain, but only in good spirit.  Even arch nemeses have bona fide things to offer.