I think the real front-runners of a new media can be found in the trade groups, clubs and societies that spring up to support them. One that I’ve got my eye on is The Association for Downloadable Media,

I’ve been very interested in the progress of the ADM, since I’m such a podcast fan, both from a personal as well as a professional perspective.  I don’t think enough of our clients are taking advantage of this medium in their communications mix.  We are encouraging all of our high tech clients to have their white papers converted to podcasts (or video – but that’s another story), and seeking out online placements for their audio files as well.  The ADM will be running a series of forums and hosting a party. I will certainly be attending some if not all of the sessions. Check them out. 

Some of the issues the ADM is wrestling with are on their site.  But their biggest challenge is their effort to establish terminology, standards, guidelines and best-practices that make downloadable content easy to justify, buy, scale and measure both in advertising efficacy and audience metrics.  Once content is downloaded, all trackability and visibility disappear.  So standard measurements of eyeballs (eardrums?), repeat listeners, pass alongs, Behavioral Targeting possibilities vanish if they ever exitested.  Kudos to this group for taking this on!

They will present their first Standards and Guidelines at Ad-Tech SF on April 16th.  I’m sure there will be a podcast to download later, if you can’t be there in person.