How long have you been blogging and how long have you been podcasting?

I started blogging back in July of 2002 and podcasting in October of 2004.

Why did you start your blog and then why did you start your podcast?

At the time I started my blog, I was a one-man-IT-Department and thus didn’t have the benefit of a team of Systems Administrators to bounce things off of. My blog bacame that team whereby I could share my experiences and obtain feedback from others in the same situation as I.

The decision to start the podcast came as sort of an extension of the blog. I was fascinated with how easy it was for ANYONE to create and publish their own audio and distribute it so easily.

What do you hope your listeners will get out of your podcast?

It’s the typical long-tail scenario. When I launched In the Trenches, there was no other audio production targeted towards the SysAdmins. All radio shows were targeted at the end user and thus never really dove in to the content and covered it at the depths that I wanted to hear. I figured, “why not me?” I always figured that if it was something that I’d like to hear, chances are pretty good there are others out there just like me.

What is In the Trenches all about?

It’s pretty much about life as a Systems Administrator. The different issues faced on a daily basis and how they’re addressed.

What has doing the podcast or blogging done for you in the last few years?

For me, it’s flattened the world. I’ve met so many cool people from everywhere. Learned a LOT of things, and essentially established my own “team” if administrators with which I can now bounce technical questions off of — a community.

How do you see podcasting affecting the current idea of mainstream media?

I think it’s going to keep mainstream media on its toes. Mainstream media is going to have to be flexible enough to keep up, or it’s going to be dealt quite a blow.

I understand you started a podcast network called ‘Friends in Tech’ could you tell us a bit about it?

I prefer to call it more of a community, or perhaps even more accurately, a neighborhood. Friends in Tech (FiT) is just a small group of podcasters who each do tech-related podcasts and enjoy collaborating together. This collaboration has allowed each of our individual podcasts to expand in depth and technical expertise and most especially, it’s allowed us to all work together on FiT-specific projects that would be too large for any individual cast. Two specific instances are the special productions that we’ve done to date, “The Server Room of Horrors” for Halloween, and “A Geek Christmas Carol” for Christmas.

Where do you see In the Trenches or Friends in Tech in the next 2 years?

In two years I’d like to see ITT to be self-supporting, but most importantly, still able to provide content that folks find worthy of listening to.

As for FiT, I’d like to see if grow a little bit, but not too much. I truly believe that it being as small of a group as it is allows us to remain flexible and dynamic enough to cover as many areas of tech as possible. We all thoroughly enjoy the production of the FiT specials and I would LOVE to see those continue and of course, be enjoyed by geeks all over.

What podcasts and blogs are you listening or reading to currently?

Blogs, I currently loosly monitor about 120 blogs, and approximately 30 podcasts. I have a handful of regulars that I read and listen to and the rest I scan for content that catches my eye/ear.

Is there anything else you would like the readers to know about Friends in Tech or In the Trenches?

Sure… go subscribe! If you’re already subscribed, STAY subscribed!