Ev Williams, one of the founders of Pyra Labs (Blogger), is spinning up another run at fame and fortune with Odeo, as reportedThe New York Times this morning: and its a podcasting startup. The article's author does a good job of asking the key question: is there gold in them thar hills?

John Markoff

The primarily amateur Internet audio medium known as podcasting will take a small, hopeful step on Friday toward becoming the commercial Web's next big thing.

That step is planned by Odeo, a five-person start-up that is based in a walk-up apartment in this city's Mission District and was co-founded by a Google alumnus. The company plans to introduce a Web-based system that is aimed at making a business of podcasting - the process of creating, finding, organizing and listening to digital audio files that range from living-room ramblings to BBC newscasts.

Audio files on the Internet are nothing new, of course. But the recent proliferation of portable iPods and other devices for storing and playing files in the MP3 audio format has created a mobile audience in this country - more than 11 million and growing - on whom podcasters are counting to listen to much more than downloaded songs and the occasional audio book.

The question for Odeo, and for the many other entrepreneurial efforts almost certain to come, is whether there is any money to be made from podcasting."

As other aspects of podcasting come on line -- like easy downloading to mp3 devices, and streaming via internet and sattelite radio becomes easier, then we will likely see the disruption in radio land that blogging is already accomplishing in print media.

Odeo and other startups in this space will certainly hasten the mass market adoption of podcasting, which is today a tinkerer's joy but a challenge for anyone else.

Jeff Jarvis hails Odeo as a sign of what is to come in podcasting, and was wise to all this going on in secret: "I'm also glad they're thinking advertising support from the start. And the possibilities are endless (think vlogs). Ev hitched up with Noah Glass, who started Audioblogger, an idea whose time has now come. Here is Ev's post on how it happened. Here is Odeo."