Martha got upped to beta developer status at Ning, with a comment left by Marc Andreessen (no less). And I just got email today from Odeo that pointed me to a special audio feed for early sign-up folks. (Note to self: sign up for all beta Web 2.0 apps the day you learn about them.) That audio feed cleverly pointed me to my new capability as creator on the Odeo site.

This is an exciting and deeply interesting development. Odeo has a web interface that allows me to record audio directly to their website by taking a real-time microphone feed from my computer and storing it in mp3 format in a “channel” I create for that purpose at the Odeo site. It also allows me to republish my main audio feed from this blog/podcast site in a dedicated Odeo channel. Finally, it also allows me to aggregate those and any other feeds I select and republish them in a dedicated aggregate channel.

What else? I can either make the feeds public or share them with a private group. I’m not sure yet whether the groups can be saved–I just did my first test about ten minutes ago, so bear with me as I get the tool together. I can publish the feeds as RSS feeds or as m3u mp3 playlists. I can tag each channel and each individual show. Listeners can tag the feeds and shows they subscribe to. Listeners can leave comments (and there’s an RSS feature for these). They can rank the shows and feeds. They can email friends with a share-the-feed box. (Sounds like flickr for audio? You bet.) We can all see how many times each show has been played. (All the audio controls live within the web interface, complete with an easy-to-read audio level meter. Thank you, Flash.) Content creators can put links and images with their shows/feeds. Listeners can queue the files they want to listen to, creating a playlist within Odeo for later or current listening.

More:

Listeners can subscribe to their Odeo queues via iTunes.
I can store a list of contacts.
I can export my subscription list as OPML and put it in my public subscription list (Bloglines for me) or display it on my page. All will be updated automatically, of course; this is OPML.
I can publish audio feeds from a telephone (an important legacy from the developers’ audioblogging heritage)
The “may we control your computer” message that comes up when I hit “create” asks if it can control my microphone and my camera. Can we see where this is going?
There’s a tab for “upload media” that isn’t live. Yet.

I have questions, of course. What’s the “native” format of an Odeo-created feed? Any way to edit the audio besides erasing it? My hunch is “no,” as Odeo specifically says it’s for casual use–i.e., do-it-in-one-take, although you could do multiple tries until you got one you liked. What are the limits on recording times? How long will material recorded to the Odeo site be saved? Is there any way to dump the Odeo audio onto my local machine without “re-recording” it by capturing the streaming/downloaded audio?

Odeo has come up with a spiffy interface, a well-targeted mission, and a bunch of useful tools. I wish them well. And with multiple channels, I’ll be able to be the broadcasting magnate I’ve always yearned to be. That raises another question. Does Odeo have any plans a la Podshow.com to incorporate commercial development in their site? They do have the following item in their Terms of Use :

We encourage users to contribute their creations to the public domain or consider progressive licensing terms. Accordingly, we will offer the ability to mark your content as belonging to the public domain or as licensed under a Creative Commons license.

There’s even a charming footnote to the Terms of Use:

“These terms of service were inspired, with permission, by Flickr.”

Which raises the question of whether inspiration may be copyrighted. That is, do you need my permission to be inspired by me? Or is it simply good manners to say, “Excuse me sir, you’re inspiring me. Is that okay with you?”

Please do not adjust your sets:

We live in interesting times. Oh, and don’t overlook the Odeo blog. I almost missed it in all the excitement….