The other day, my friend Roger and I decided to do a podcast. This was not a podcast to make money or even make us famous. We were just playing with the technology.

After we recorded it, I thought the hard part would be setting up the feed, especially the storage of the MP3, which, at a half hour, was somewhat large. I used two rather cool free services and had the podcast up and out in a feed within 20 minutes.

That's just an illustration of how fast and easy self-publishing is becoming on the Internet. Whether you write stories, record songs, make podcasts, shoot photography, or whatever, there are some amazing resources that'll not only get you running quickly but that'll get the word out, too.

The first issue with any venture of creativity can be size. If you don't run or rent a Web site, you need to find a place to store your files. With audio, and especially with video, you might need a lot of space, which can be costly.

The folks at Ourmedia.org want to take that obstacle away from grassroots content creators. They promise to host your files, of any size and any amount, forever. This is especially good news for folks putting together their own video.

Can they really host my stuff forever?
We'll see. It's a bold promise, but they've gone about it the right way, partnering with Archive.org to get the space. Archive.org's mission is to keep a snapshot of the Web as an archive of what was here. Archive is where you can find the original Yahoo home page, even early CNET home pages. Since they want to keep a copy of everything ever put on the Web anyway, it makes sense for them to cut out the middle spider and offer to host your content directly.

So Ourmedia handles the relationship with the content creators, and Archive.org provides the storage space.

Great, but now they own my stuff
Ourmedia.org makes it clear that they won't assert any rights over your content. You can publish under normal copyright, Creative Commons, GNU Public License, and a couple of others. Whatever way you wish to be protected, they give you that option. Granted, the legal status of Ourmedia is not nailed down yet. They hope to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit soon. Even without all the i's and t's dotted and crossed, though, they are an open-source project staffed by volunteers and backed by very reputable organizations such as Tucows and Creative Commons, among others.

You mentioned publicizing my stuff
Finding a place to store your content files gets you only so far. You also need a way to tell people about it. If you're doing a podcast, a video RSS feed, a blog, or something that can benefit from being delivered in a feed, you should look at FeedBurner. This isn't a nonprofit company, but it will set up a basic RSS feed for free. It helps you through all the basics of getting your feed going and even provides a few tips on how to easily advertise your endeavor.

If you really want to get serious, you can also sign up for some advanced help with marketing your works. That's how FeedBurner makes its money.

Once again, the end of mainstream media?
Unlike most pundits who get excited about new free ways to allow individuals to publish on the Web, I'm not going to predict the death of any particular media. You still have to produce good content for anyone to want it. However, this is another brick out of the wall set up between content creators and publication. For almost no setup cost, you can get an idea out there and in front of the public. Now you just need an idea that's worth people's valuable time.