Last week I praised and highlighted Kay Smoljak's week in ColdFusion blog entries. Then last night I was perusing FullAsAGoog and noticed for the first time one of Steve's entries. What a delight to find that.(It's funny to note that he started his about the same time Kay did hers--funny how that goes.)

These entries are in his CF category for now, if you want to keep an eye on them. I recommend you do. He strives to pick 5 key entries a week that he feels most developers will benefit learning from. (I'm delighted to see he picked one of my entries this week, but really it's totally coincidental that I tripped across it this week while perusing the 'goog.)

Do we really need yet another source? I say yes

Now, some may say, "why do we need these additional resources? Aren't aggregators like the 'goog, MXNA, FeedSquirrel, and ColdFusionBloggers, all one needs? And what about the dzone cf page?"

Sure, those are all great. But here's the thing: Steve's been doing his news for a few weeks, and this is the first I'd seen it (same with Kay's last week). I'm sure many of us miss things that come through the aggregators. Most of us don't have time to read EVERY message they show--and then, which aggregator do you pick? While they mostly show the same things, with different approaches, some blogs aren't in all.

Most of all, I have to admit that I don't even have time to keep an eye on even any one aggregator each day, or really even each week. There's just too much content being created for most of us to stay on top of it all.

That's why I LOVE these attempts to do that hard work for us. Like I said last week of Kay's, and earlier this week about the various CF podcasts past and present (and future?), any sort of manual effort to gather and present key news and info shared is really a tough job, and my hats off to all who try.

I have some approaches in mind myself. One of them is similar to the dzone approach, and feedquirrel's recent addition to let the community of readers vote on entries. Those are both steps in the direction I was headed, though my idea is still different. We'll see. But until then, I want to make sure people know about these various features.

If you were asked how many CF podcasts are there, and have there been, what would be your answer? I did a little digging myself and present here what I found. It's a fun trip down memory lane of the world of CF podcasting.

If I've missed any, please do let me know.

Current (still running)

The following podcasts are still being updated:

• ColdFusion Weekly, with Matt Woodward and Peter Farrell
• CFUnited, playing recordings of conference presentations, hosted by Christian Ready
• All Things Adobe has had one CF-related podcast, but has a category for them so may have more

Past

The following all appear no longer to be being updated:

• OutLoud, with Hal Helms and Jeff Peters, ran for 47 episodes from Oct 2005 through Sep 2007
• The ColdFusion Podcast, with Bryan Kaiser and Michael Haynie, ran for 38 episodes from Oct 2005 through Jan 2007
• ColdFusion Muse, with Mark Kruger, ran for 13 episodes from Nov 2005 through May 2006
• cfframeworks.com offered 8 interview podcasts hosted by Nick Tong and Kola Oyedeji, from Jan-Mar 2007
• Mark Drew offered a few CFEclipse Videos as a podcast in 2006 (note they videos were designed to be small enough to view in an iPod)
• the WebDU conference organizers (Geoff Bowers and Daemon), presented a couple of recordings of previous WebDU conferences in 2005
• the Scotch on the Rocks conference organizers (Stephen Moretti and Andy Allan) tried to do this also with one episode in 2007
• Aboutcast ran for a couple of episodes in 2006, hosted by Nic Tunney and AboutWeb
• Steven Erat made two attempts at podcasts in 2005, first with the CFMX 7 podcast, where he read selected Macromedia Devnet articles about CF7, and then the even shorter-lived CF NewsRadio
• I'm my own sql, hosted by C. Hatton Humphrey, ran out of HouseofFusion.com for just a couple of episodes in late 2006

Again, I welcome additions or corrections to this list. If you have any to offer, please do let me know.

Future?

Finally, what about that "and future?" tag in the subject? Well, I've been torn about saying anything before it's ready, but I've been contemplating entering the podcasting realm for a long time. I know others have considered it. Clearly, the list above shows that it's tough to make it.

That said, I've begun serious discussions with a colleague who some will know, John Mason, who runs FusionLink and FusionLink Labs (which has lots of neat stuff!). We've also worked together as board members of the Atlanta CF user group over the years.

I'll have more to say about what we plan. Naturally, I'd rather not just copycat what others have done. Indeed, I think there are a lot of areas that have not been covered, and we both are excited about the prospects. Look for more news in the near future. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments about what you might like to see in a podcast. Open your eyes beyond what you've heard before, and think beyond just what you may like. What do you think the CF Community, whether beginners or experts, could benefit hearing in a podcast form? We'll share out plans, and perhaps fold in some of yours, in the near future.

PS I know that others have also hinted at doing a podcast and then not gotten around to it. Again, I've been reluctant to say anything before being close, but since I had this history resource and wanted to share it, I figured I may as well "put my name into the race", to borrow a term from the current election season. :-)

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/category/coldfusion/

The URL above is for all her CF entries on her blog, so you need to find each week's entry among her other entries for the week. But she's noted to me (in a comment in one of them there) that she won't have too many each week to make it hard to pick out the news items. (While someone could also setup a Yahoo Pipe to solve the problem, perhaps out of respect we should just get her entire feed and keep an eye out for those news entries.)

Kay's an Aussie (Perth) who's been doing CF for several years. She's done about 4 weeks of the news so far, and I wish her well. Keeping up with the week's news in the CF community is a noble effort. Many have tried and been unable to keep it up.

In the past, we had the guys on the ColdFusionWeekly offering news into the middle of last year, and CFReports until Sept, but since then it's been mostly interviews. I don't mean that as a slap. I know it's hard work!

Indeed, we also had the guys at the ColdFusion podcasts who would do news as well, but they went off the air completely in late 2006, so at least the weekly's still there. (I'll have more to share about the surprising history of CF podcasts in an upcoming entry.)

We also had Andy Allan also doing a roundup of the best of the blogs ("weekly blog roundup"), but he too petered out in late 2006.

It's a tough job, and we're all grateful for those who have, are, and will try to help us all out! :-)

For more information on the group, which has offered (and will continue to offer) online presentations from speakers around the world, follow the link on this badge:

Once you join the group (it's entirely free), you can read more about the change in leadership, as I wrote a message of introduction at the group message board.

I also seek (in that message board entry) feedback from group members about the future of the group and in particular, prospective topics of interest for online presentations. (Please don't offer such here, if you're a member. Offer it on the message board for all members to see.)

Of course, any of the group's recorded presentations will be offered on my UGTV repository of recorded user group presentations, and indeed I hope that the Meetup may become a primary source for more and more varied recorded presentations.

Still, you'll want to consider joining the group (again, it's entirely free) to receive notification in advance of the online meetings. The group's message board itself can also be used for community interaction (though it's not been too active in recent months). Perhaps we'll see its use expand in the future.

Anyway, come check it out, and spread the word. We'll organize our first meeting within a few weeks, for sure.

As for the Atlanta CFUG, I have stepped down from the presidency of that group just this month. We coincidentally had elections just a few weeks ago and as I knew the change in the Meetup was coming, I stepped down (but didn't tell folks about the meetup as it wasn't finalized). Can't run two groups at once! :-) That wasn't the only reason I stepped down, but I won't deny that running the online meetup should be a lot less effort than running a real physical group.

I also knew that there were many capable prospective leaders in the Atlanta board of directors (numbering 14 strong, and of which I am remaining a member) who could step to take on that leadership role. The board selected Teddy Payne to replace me, and I'm sure the group will do great going forward.

The chance to lead the online meetup group is just a great challenge. With over 900 members, it has incredible reach, and both Ray and I are excited about the prospect of keeping it going as a great place to find online presentations, whether from ourselves or all the other fine speakers out there (and new ones who may want to give it a shot).

Again, if you're at all interested, click the badge above to join. We're happy to have you! :-)