Earlier this month, some 200 podcasting enthusiasts converged once again on Temple University's Tuttleman Learning Center for PodCamp Philly, the third iteration of the popular "unconference" about how to produce what are in effect radio and TV programs that are distributed over the Internet.

PodCamp again partnered with a SearchCamp workshop focusing on "search engine optimization," or SEO, that helps make content easier for search engines to locate.

"We're in a space that's moving quickly, changes on a week to week basis, and I know that I don't know everything," said Philadelphia book publicist Don Lafferty. "I've got clients begging me for information every day and this is where I get it."

PodCamps now take place all over the world. The semi-structured gatherings are the brainchild of social media strategists Chris Penn (http://is.gd- /4j04Y) and Chris Brogan (http://is.gd/- 4j0a8). Penn's day job involves creating podcast content for the Student Loan Network (http://is.gd/4iYkF) and Brogan, a prolific blogger and speaker, is co-author of the New York Times best-seller "Trust Agents."

The local PodCamp organizing committee chair, Whitney Hoffman, a Delaware County attorney, produces the wellrespected LD Podcast, which offers interviews with experts about treatment therapies for families whose children have learning disabilities (http://is.gd/4j1hR).

"It's actually becoming more and more relevant to have people talk about you and what they like and what they don't on blogs and podcasts," Hoffman said during the conference. "I think what we're doing is actually going to become more relevant to helping people find stuff. It's no longer about 'ooh, it's cool, it's a podcast.'"

Penn, who attended and presented at the conference, said he was surprised that more than 80 percent of the PodCamp Philly attendees acknowledged during the conference opening session that they were first-time attendees.

In an interview during the conference, he suggested that the concept of recording and distributing audio and video programs over the Internet is no longer interesting just as a technology, but as a communications tool valuable to businesses.

"I was very pleased to see that PodCamp Philly is getting so many new people to take a look at new media," he said. "It's not the shiny sexy thing any more, but is growing in popularity as a commodity, as a delivery channel. For the average media producer it is less expensive and a more flexible tool for getting information to people who want it."

I have been involved in organizing all three of the Philly PodCamps, although this year I took a reduced role in the planning. But I did sign up to teach two workshops at the conference, because over the course of the year I've gained some experience with a couple of more advanced editing techniques in audio and video that I wanted to share. The monitor cable in my video classroom didn't work, so I couldn't actually demonstrate video editing as planned, and had to rely on explaining it while showing the video from the web.

Expecting to attend several other workshops after lunch on the first day of PodCamp, I was chatting with Paul RJ Muller, who manages information technology at Temple and produced the "Caffination" podcast program (http://is.gd/4j0Vk) when we were asked to fill in for a presenter who hadn't shown up.

So Muller and I taught (or rather guided a discussion about) blogging—and then filled in for another missing lecturer in the session after that. You have to be flexible to present at a PodCamp.

You can see photos of some of the sessions on Flickr (http://is.gd/4j2PP). steve@compuschmooze.com