This is the full script for my most recent episode of As the Wheels Roll Podcast. I posted the written form for those that dont want to listen but rather read. I also wanted it in writing for the whole world to see my offer for a developer who can build this app. You can find that at the bottom of this post.
Listen on Aureal

The Ultimate Desktop App for Content Creators

I know this sounds like a pipe dream but it could be made into a reality.

Music this episode:

A recent conversation I had on Twitter has inspired this episode.

The Problem We Face as Content Creators

Whether you are a blogger, vlogger, podcaster, streamer, etc. You have obviously ran into a problem with distributing your content. Especially if you utilize more than one media type and platform. The hardest part of the process is submitting your content to all the directories and platforms out there. If you are like me you know what I am talking about. It's a lot of very hard work that really should and could be automated. With the technology of tomorrow being here today why has this app not already been built?

If you do a search for "how to ___" fill in the blank with podcast, blog, vlog, etc you will find hundreds of thousands of posts, online courses, gurus and nearly everybody out there that want you to buy a product from them about how to do it. But they all seem to just touch on the subject of finding your audience. That is another search you have to make with just as many results of people selling products and courses on how to do it. It's even sprang up a secondary "support"industry where you can hire somebody to do your editing and even posting your content for you. Often times for rather large fees or forcing you into a monthly subscription service that is really aimed at large companies that are promoting their brands. But what about the independent producers and the ones who are just starting out and cant afford those fees. Or even people that do it because it's fun.

We content creators need an app that will do all these "post-production", repetitive and time consuming processes that have the ability to be automated.

I gotta say I've been thinking about this for a very long time.

In fact I've been thinking of it for several years now. Back when LBRY first announced their desktop app and long before I had even heard of Web 3.0. But the more I play with and use the IPFS Uploader Tool the more I am consumed with the possibility of this "dream app". I honestly believe that this desktop app (IPFSUT) has been completely passed over by people who havent realise the potential that it has. The power it could wield for a content creator with increased productivity, more free time for family and interacting with their audience while saving them money is immense to say the least. The closest that has seen the vision so far is 3Speak desktop app.

Over the years this app has gone through different iterations in my head. It included everything from actual recording and running post editing scripts for audio production and automatically uploading to a hosting service and posting to an rss feed. But I see now that isnt the actual production of the media that is what's needed. That is more of an artform and varies from person to person and cant be automated.

But the other stuff can.

The App Itself

Taking inspiration from @techcoderx's IPFS Uploader Tool. It should obviously be a desktop app and not something hosted on a VPS somewhere. It should be local since you will need to be running an IPFS node. Which is extremely easy and anybody over the age 5 can do it. All you need to do is install the IPFS desktop app, start it and leave it running. Boom, you now have an IPFS node.

Looking at the IPFSUT it currently uses 3 different blockchains to post to DTube on. Avalon, Hive and Steem. So why cant more blockchains be added? Why cant we add YouTube, Libsyn, CastOS or even Anchor? Providing that those old worn out Web 2.0 platforms have public API's?

It also has 3 tabs, a basic post, advanced and subtitles. On the basic tab there is spots to upload a video and thumbnail files. A decription and tag boxes and the draft or upload buttons. In advanced you can add other files for different encoding of the video. So why couldnt we add/change those spots for audio files and blog post images. Maybe turning the description box into a better looking area for using markdown for a post. Be it a blog, podcast show notes or a video description.

Your "post" could then hit the blockchain with one transaction and your "content" could be shown on each dapp across the blockchain correctly and containing the media files that arent specific to that dapp contained as a clickable link. Much like the IPFSUT currently does. When viewing your post on D.Tube you see the video in a player like everybody else. But when you view the same post on PeakD or Hive.blog there is not only a player embeded but also two links at the bottom of the post saying ""View on DTube and View on IPFS".

As far as the whole Dtube vs 3Speak thing. Why couldnt that choice be left up to the creator? Let them choose which to post their videos to. One or the other? Why not both? It's one transaction on the blockchain.
The audio posts would show a on Aureal and the blog posts to Dblog(Egrave) and PeakD.

A Barrier to Entry on Web 3.0

Well currently it's doable. But somewhat convoluted and requires a certain amount of leg work on the creators part and I feel is a huge barrier to entry for outside creators to come to Hive.

Acquire and manage multiple hive accounts. How many? How ever many blogs, podcasts or channels does the creator want to do? For many it's more than one.
Go to hiverss to create an rss feed for each of those blogs, podcasts or channels. Then submit that feed to all of the podcast and blog directories out there. Constantly promote that feed to every body on every social media site known.

But thats only two extra steps? If you've done them then you know they arent exactly easy. But they are for the most part one time things to deal with.

I do know and think its safe to say that Aureal is about to change part of this problem by introducing thier live rooms and IPFS hosting. That will come with an RSS feed the podcaster can submit to the the directories.

But the creator actively needing to go to yet another dapp to create an rss feed that could be generated by a dapp when you log into it with a hive account will not make sense to outside people. They are used to it already being done for them by Wordpress or something similar.

So to sum up my dream app. It should do the following:

Make it simple for me to post content in multiple formats to multiple Web 3.0 sites using multiple blockchains in a single post.
It should also have compatabliity with the larger more well known media hosts who have api's to facilitate things such as this.
I should not have to leave it running in the background longer than needed to finsh posting to all the platforms I told it to. The IPFS daemon should be seperate from the desktop app itself.
I also want to be able to write up content off line and save as a draft to post at a later time.
I would like to be able to create templates. With the ability to share them to other people if they need help getting started.
For Hive interactions it needs to use Keychain. Not Hivesigner. Nothing against Hivesigner but it seems to have a lot of issues for me. Keychain always just works and from what I understand Keychain keeps your keys local. So to me thats safer.
If it's possible to work in some minor image editing tools such as resizing, exif stripping and file converting. Then please do.
Some minor ability to respond to comments made on my posts/episodes.

I'm sure I will add more to the list if anybody is interested in asking me about it.

What about the 3Speak Desktop app or LBRY Desktop App?

Those are fine in their own. The problem with LBRY is that it's currently working with only one protocol and nobody seems interested in adding or changing it to my knowledge. The 3Speak app is really fricking sweet and doesnt require you to run an IPFS node. That is built into it. Posting to it is exactly like posting to it online. But you do need to keep it running all the time. Which is rather annoying if you have a low spec computer. But you have to leave the IPFS node running in the background with IPFSUT as well. But having just an IPFS node running in the background consumes a lot less resources than the 3Speak app does.

Back to the Twitter Conversation

It is starting to generate some interest from 3Speak and Aureal both. And from what I can gather they are both looking into a way they can work things together to solve some the problem. Because this will be something that includes them as well. But the answer isnt just the dapps working together. There are several projects that I have been privy to have spoken with devs behind the scenes of this type that will be game changers for us content creators. There is going to be some HUGE shake ups coming from this little blockchain community within the next year. Could any of them be "the one" project that brings the Hive ecosystem into mainstream adoption? I honestly dont know.

All I know is that I really, really want this desktop app!

If someone can make this happen and it works for at least Hive I would delegate 25% of all of the Hive posts that I would use the app for. Which if you think about it, is pretty much everything I do on Hive. I use DBuzz on my phone mostly to post to Twitter. Nearly every other post I do on Hive is either a podcast episode or video.

My Open Offer to any developer

I will send you 25% of the earnings of every post I make on Hive for LIFE if you can build this desktop app. But it must meet the following criteria:

It must work on Windows, Mac and Linux! For Linux it must be a native app. No flatpak, snap or Appimage. I prefer the Debian/Ubuntu derivitives but Arch is great as well.
It must be OpenSource! Which license is up to you.
You are free to sell it to other people. I am a strong supporter of people making money. So if it's possible that you could make money off of it. Then go for it!
You must be willing to continue maintaining it or finding someone who is willing to take it over. If that happens your cut of my earnings will go down to 5% and the remaining 20% will go to whoever takes it over.

Pretty simple deal. And I am more than willing to make a deal with you.
Contact me at unklebonehead@nixnet.email

The Ultimate Desktop App for Creators