See you soon: We’ll be off this Monday, February 28, returning Tuesday with your daily news, tips, and events.

PodMov Daily: Friday, February 25

Episode 598: Week Download Complete

What Does Quality Podcasting Mean? It’s Personal.

Every creator has dealt with the feeling of publishing something less-than-stellar. Is that your metric or someone else’s? Knowing you could have done better is uncomfortable for a good reason, says Evo Terra in Podcast Pontifications. “To me, quality means doing the best you can with what you have to work with.” 

Seth Godin wrote recently in his blog, “Markets often persuade us that we don’t have enough. Communities remind us that we do.” Listeners and peers know quality when they hear it, and a $500 mic won’t improve a low-effort script. Caring about their experience is part of a personal commitment to quality.

Terra considers a podcaster’s environment, equipment, voice, and comfort level all part of a toolset. These can (and should) be improved over time, but no one of them will ever be flawless. Let reasonable mistakes go: “Remember; a commitment to quality does not mean a refusal to accept anything less than perfect.”

Podcasting 2.0: Mark Steadman’s 101 for Creators

“I’m fairly certain most people who have podcasts have never heard of Podcasting 2.0 or this ‘namespace’ thing,” writes Mark Steadman of Podcode. What exactly is it, and why is it important to non-technically minded creators? “It’s trying to help the industry evolve, but not all of it is easy to understand.”

Steadman explains the origins of the open-source directory, how it works, and why an alternative to Apple’s database benefits podcasting as a whole. Free speech is one reason: There’s no corporate control over content or distribution, and anyone can list a show. At the time of this writing, the directory has 4,077,759.

Honestly “this ‘namespace’ thing” wasn’t quite clear to your editor either until this breakdown of the tagging system. These bits of code allow podcasters to add more details (e.g., transcripts and credits) to their RSS feeds than Apple does. For more, check out this guide by Stephanie Fuccio for The Podcast Host.

Podcast Parties: Turn Your Audience Into a Community

When podcast fans spend time together, they become more than just an audience – they form a community. Podcast Parties is a new full-service virtual event production company built just for podcasters. Whether you’re launching a new season or hosting an educational workshop, it’s the easiest way to bring your fans together.

Podcast Parties will help you design your event, promote it, sell sponsorships, and give your fans an experience unlike any other. Podcast Parties go far beyond Zoom meetings by giving your listeners a unique opportunity to mix and mingle at virtual tables.

Virtual events can open new revenue streams through ticketing, sponsorships, subscription perks, and more. Ready to see the platform in action? Schedule a demonstration to get the party started.

Here's what else is going on:

• The trimmings: This Monday at 12:00 ET is “Less is More: Cutting for Keeps” from Radio Boot Camp. Peabody Award-winning engineer and producer Michael Raphael will help podcasters sharpen their ears and learn to decide with confidence what to cut and what to keep. $100 registration.

• Starting line: PRX has announced Africa Podcast Lab, a 10-week audio development and training program for journalists, producers, and storytellers. Six teams of creators from Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa will soon begin the show-building process with PRX mentorship and a $3,000 stipend.

• Big deals: Freakonomics creator Stephen Dubner has witnessed history since 2010, writes Steven Levy of Wired. “The story of Freakonomics is kind of a microcosm of how podcasting made the jump from a grassroots phenomenon to an established medium controlled by giant corporations.”

• Jumping in: Applications close on Monday for Ossa Production Camp, a new branded podcast workshop from the women’s podcast network Ossa Collective. Matty Staudt (Amaze Media Labs) will lead the free intensive program in Santa Monica, CA on March 21-22, just before Evolutions.