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In conversation with a colleague about career ladders at our company, he suggested that the real way up is through entrepreneurialism. Several recent historical examples exist where somebody inside the company proposed a new line of business, and by virtue of owning the idea, created their own ladder. This probably holds true in many small- to medium-sized businesses.

Along those lines, here is an idea very relevant to our business. The community-driven phenomenon of podcasting is, while in its infant stages, growing as a medium. It is different enough from broadcast radio to be considered more than just a new genre, much the way cable and network TV are effectively still considered different mediums. Our company is in the media measurement business, and getting ahead of the curve is a delicate balance we've managed marginally over the years. As chief example, our varying approaches to Internet streaming.

Podcasting is somewhat unique in that it can easily be measured in terms of downloads, and that is how the podcasting community is currently tracking. The non-scientific listener voting system at PodcastAlley.com has also gained a lot of attention. With our PPM system (pardon the dated look of that page), Arbitron could be in a position to set up a podcast encoding system that provides much more accurate measurement. For instance, such a system could allow podcast authors to upload their podcasts and have them encoded with the unique tracking signals that the PPM measurement device detects. The authors could then distribute their podcasts through usual means. The benefits of this system over simple listener voting would be many, but first among them is that podcasters would receive estimates on how many listeners actually listened to their podcasts, at what times of day (dayparts), and for how long (time spent listening).

Now this may be politically challenging at Arbitron given that broadcast radio may perceive podcasting as taking listeners away. Certainly, podcast maven Adam Curry thinks that is the battle that lies ahead and talks about it on his podcast, the Daily Source Code quite frequently. But new media enthusiasts should not be so quick to write off broadcast radio as a yester-year has-been. Broadcast radio may, in fact, find ways to embrace the podcasting world yet. Infinity's latest move with their KYOU Radio property in San Francisco shows that they at least have their eye on it.

So that's it, my idea for the day.