The Big in Japan team came up with a couple new ideas for podcasting: public and social podcasts.  I created a public podcast for Shel Israel and Robert Scoble’s new book called "Naked Conversations Disucssion".  You can listen to the podcast (so far I am the only person who has uploaded an mp3) by grabbing the feed here.  You can add your own posts (assuming you sign up for a free account) by simply ‘adding a new show’ to the public podcast.  The podcast already has 316 subscribers so anyone (i.e. you) can insert their message into the podcast and get immediate traction (i.e. listeners).  Give is a shot and then let me know what you think.  Brian will be interviewing Shel Israel at the TechCrunch Naked Conversations party for the podcast tomorrow (make sure you check it out).  Here are the explainations:

• Public Podcasting: Anyone can join in (i.e. it is public) and add a show or episode to your public podcast. Pick a "long tail" topic or subject and let release your podcast into the wild and see what happens. Pick a "head of the tail" topic and watch it explode. Sort of like a public chat room. Public podcasts can be moderated, but why would you do that to yourself?
• Social podcasting: The concept is simple, it basically allows you to invite one or more people to join your podcasting effort. For example, had Lincoln and Douglas had access to our Social Podcasting service they could have each added shows or episodes for each of their speeches without the need to coordinate their activities. They would just upload their mp3 to PodServ and subscribers would receive each show or episode automatically. Or lets say you have a ten member book club located across the globe reading "long tail" books like Headhunting in the Solomon Islands. You can create a Social podcast for the club, inviting each member to upload their thoughts into the podcast. Each member would subscribe and by the end of the month (hopefully) everyone has read the book and listened to each others thoughts on it. Social podcasts can be either moderated or un-moderated.