Diggnation is a weekly video podcast produced by Revision3. It is hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who had previously hosted TechTV's The Screen Savers together. 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 brands of beer at the opening of the show, of which they will consume throughout the show, followed by them discussing various 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.
A spin-off show, The Digg Reel was launched in January, 2008 which was hosted by Jessica Corbin, now being hosted by Andrew Bancroft - it showcases the week's top user submitted videos in comparison to Diggnation's primary focus on news articles. Both are produced by Revision3.
Format
Kevin drops his cat after spilling beer on his couch during the first minutes of episode #123
The show begins immediately with a short listing of the podcast's current sponsors, and is usually followed by a humorous fake advertisement. After the title video, the hosts introduce themselves, tell the viewers where they are filming from, make any relevant announcements, and discuss the drinks (usually beer, more recently tea) they will have during the episode. The beer-tasting and beverage aspect of Diggnation is one of the show's unique aspects. 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, often due to considerable intoxication (which has been criticized by Leo Laporte as promoting binge drinking)citation needed. 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. Starting with more recent episodes, larger digg stories (typically the weeks big news) is discussed after the ads, but before the emails. This is keeping in line with most other Revision3 shows.
Distribution
Diggnation episodes are usually filmed every Wednesday, then posted for everyone on Friday night at 6pm (EST) (Until January 18, 2008, the show was released to paid members on Friday at 7, then released to everyone else on Sunday at 12:01)[1]; there are an estimated 200,000 regular subscribers to the show[2]. The video and audio versions of the podcast can be obtained through the iTunes music store, the Diggnation Homepage, or any podcast index. BitGravity handles iTunes and TiVo subscribers, downloads from the website, and RSS feeds. Virgin America airlines also offers on-demand episodes available on the in flight entertainment systems (along with other Revision3 shows).
Diggnation occasionally does live shows. These shows have been hosted at CES, Reno, Macworld, San Francisco, E3, San Diego, Hollywood, London, St. Louis, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Tokyo, and New York City. The next live show will be held at a gaming event in San Jose, CA.
Name origin
Originally, David Prager, a friend and colleague of Kevin Rose, wished to call the website Diggnation. However, Rose decided on the simpler Digg instead. This is spelled with two g's because dig.com is registered to the Walt Disney Internet Group. Rose subsequently chose Diggnation as the podcast's name, replacing the simple name used in the first episode—The Digg Podcast.
Episodes
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Awards
2006 Podcast Award for best technology podcast.
Best in 2007 Podcast from iTunes.
2008 People's Voice Winner for for the Technology in Online Film and Video at the Webby Awards
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.
In the recent episode 163, the Dolby Headphone technology was again used. This is the second time the hosts have incorporated the Dolby labs into the podcast. They recorded the whole episode in the Dolby Headphone technology due to the requests from last time to do more then just a segment.
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:
See Also
References
- General
- Specific
External links
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