I'm so glad I finally got the chance to make it to an Orange County Podcasters Meetup last night. Great group of folks, lots to chew over and learn. Like that "podcast" is in the OED (and so apparently, appropriately enough, is "meatspace"), Podcast Pickle is one hot directory, and the Portable Media Expo will be one cool event.

The more I hang out with both, the more I'm stricken by the innate differences between the bloggers and podcasters I meet. For example, I've never known many bloggers to think that if they write a pretty good blog, it's bound to make them money. If money is in the picture at all, the mindset is more "because of," not "with," as Doc Searls succinctly put it. With podcasters though (podcasters who might also happen to blog, as opposed to bloggers who also are podcasters), making money "with" a show is a much more common and comfortable concept. Maybe it's because the whole enterprise is, as Adam Curry often says, more driven by user demand for a better alternative to other audio offerings. (Would that also mean that blogging, though it has its distinct advantages and benefits over available text alternatives, became valuable to readers for reasons other than the same kind of gaping void on the text publishing side? I don't know if I buy that.)

Whatever the precise confluence of reasons, podcasters are confidently saying "show us the money." And who can blame them? [Via Matt May] Well, Jason Calacanis, for one.