So I’ve been experimenting with various types of podcasting for the last week or so, some formal, some stream of consciousness. What have I learned?

Unless I do a lot of pre- and post-production, my podcasts end up being “me talking about stuff” in a rambling fashion, in a lot more detail than I would be prone to write if I were writing about the same thing. Which recalls radio production advice from Ann Thurlow (and I paraphrase): “You don’t need to talk about everything, even if everything seems compelling and uncuttable.”

In a sense, my podcasts are what my blog posts look like in my head, before I write them down. If the blog posting production cycle has 10 steps, what squeaks out at the podcasting stage is about step number three.

Podcasting has certainly made me realize how much time I spend crafting blog posts. This post, for example, is probably going to take me 30 minutes to write and edit; if I podcast the same thought it would take 5 minutes, but it would probably be twice as long and half as coherent.

Which is not to say that podcasting can’t play a role. Although I fell into the “minutiae well” more than I would like, I think this podcast from the Dorval Airport parking garage is more interesting and content-full than it would have been as a blog post, if only because there were neato airplane sounds in the background.

And walking around Copenhagen today there were several times I wished I had a portable studio with me so I could capture the sounds of the city; trying to write about the same sounds just wouldn’t translate into words.

Maybe good podcasts require more than one person, too? I think well-crafted conversation between curious people can be a lot more interesting than unedited soliloquy. Although, upon reflection, I think Stephen’s movie review would have been better if I had just shut up and let him roll.

Generally, I think to make a good (interesting, valuable, fulfilling) podcast requires a clear mind, experience at communicating by voice, some storytelling ability, and a healthy amount of editing.

Which is pretty much what making good radio requires.

Time for some more experimenting.

There are four people who have experienced the patented Pete Rukavina “post travel catatonia” phenomenon.

Brother Steve has seen it at its worst, when I stepped off the plane in Seoul after 19 hours of travel from Boston. I have little or no memory of the first 24 hours in South Korea; indeed the next day I “lost” my $500 in travelers cheques. Thankfully, cool-headed Steve was there to guide me.

Catherine and Oliver have seen me after flights to Japan (complete shutdown, aimless wandering), Spain (not too bad, actually) and France (no time for catatonia: had to drive in Paris).

And brother Johnny, in his capacity as my professional colleague, has experienced the state indirectly, through intercontinental rambling over the iChat and cell phone.

Johnny has also been victim to the post-return-home manic elation scene, where, buoyed by the adrenalin of reverse time travel, I will come up with crazy business ideas that involve 5 extra employees, battering rams, and lots of goats. Bless his soul for putting up with me.

Of course all of you in the listenership can listen in yourself to get a taste, although I was maxing out on the mental resources there to try and mask the mindlessness. Listening again this morning myself, I do have a touch of “I’m about to collapse” tone about me.

It’s now morning in Copenhagen, and I’m under the distinct impression that I’ve got my groove back. At least I had 8 hours of sleep and a tasty Danish breakfast under my belt.

I’m going to spend the day aimlessly wandering the streets of Copenhagen, ending up at the big reboot meetup tonight.

One final podcast before I finally get a good night’s sleep: the tale of how my hotel room door wouldn’t lock, and how I waited 4 hours to get it fixed. Good night.

I arrived in Copenhagen in one piece this afternoon. In an effort to stave off my strong, strong urge to go to sleep (even though it’s only 7:00 p.m. here, and 2:00 p.m. back home), I recorded a little “this is the day that was” podcast that covers the minutae of the trip from Montreal to Denmark. Apologies if my jetlagged mind has made me shout incoherently.

Emerging from customs into the main hall of Copenhagen’s airport I encountered the usual crush of friends, family and limo drivers waiting for arriving passengers. This included a small woman with a large sign that said simply “Anthrax.” Which, as you might imagine, I found somewhat unnerving.

It turns out that, as the Sweden Rock Festival starts tomorrow, and as Sweden is handy by, Anthrax was, indeed, due to arrive.

I have heard two people use “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” in casual conversation today. I have only the vaguest notion of what the saying means, something like “if it’s good for one person, it’s good for another person.” Odd.

If you carefully position yourself on the window sill just outside the Air Canada lounge in Dorval airport in Montreal, just in front of Gate 3 in the domestic / international terminal, you can grab the lounge’s Bell-branded Wifi.

Here in the Air Canada lounge at Dorval Airport there are two “showcasing” areas: a Sony-branded entertainment area, and an IBM-, Xerox- and Steelcase-branded business centre.

Presumably the thinking goes “we will expose our products to the elite and powerful and thus increase sales.”

“I used some peachy IBM software down there at the airport, Bob… I think we should buy IBM!”

The problem is that these “showcase” setups are usually new and twinkly and wonderful when they’re first installed. And then they get old. Fast. And people use and abuse them. To the point where here in the IBM slash Xerox slash Steelcase Business Centre the showcase is more of a disincentive.

The workstation I type this on, for example, is a slow old IBM NetVista PC running Windows 98. Internet Explorer took about 30 seconds to start up. The keyboard is a replacement — a generic one that probably replaced the original IBM one several years ago. The Steelcase furniture is dirty; part of the foam is ripped out of the side of the chair handle and it no longer adjusts properly. The sleek, well-designed lamps are missing bulbs.

The whole picture is akin to a grocery store handing out samples of rotten produce to entice people to buy.

The solution: treat showcases like this as a constantly evolving system rather than an <>install. Every time a new product is released, make sure 5 get sent over here and installed. In fact you should probably rotate bring young tech people through here — set them up with a desk and let them help people out of jams. Then give them a free trip to Paris for putting up with all the grief.

Is there a better way than podcasting to fill the empty hours in the Sargasso Sea of the airport? So taking a page out of Adam Curry’s book, here’s 5:43 from the third floor of the Trudeau (nee Dorval) Airport parking garage.

Recorded on the iBook internal microphone with Sound Studio. I tried recording from here inside the Air Canada lounge (where I’m doing the upload), but this seems to be some sort of electromagnetic vortex — flourescent lights, air conditioning, microwaves, and who knows what else — so I got a fierce background hum that I couldn’t shake.

More from Europe tomorrow morning.

I’m off at 5:00 p.m. on Air Canada (North America’s favourite airline!) to Copenhagen via Montreal and London, arriving tomorrow afternoon.