A few months ago I had a chance to sit down and talk to Josh Owens of Steel Pixel. If you aren’t sure what that is, it is the company behind the wonderful podcast The Web 2.0 show. Now that I have a minute, I thought I’d share with you what he had to say.

Steel Pixel has a lot on its plate — Podvine, the Web 2.0 Show, Web Hosting, what made you decide to take this particular route? What made you want to open up a conversation about, ‘The New Web’?

Well, Chris and I have been running the hosting for a few years on the side. We love to program and we had been writing php since 1998. I was down in sunny Florida with him back in April 2004 when we had this great idea for social calendar software – Del.icio.us had just gotten funding and we decided we want to be a part of this web 2.0 thing. So we brainstormed and schemed and came up with some *great* ideas for a calendar, but we quickly realized the scope of the project would require funding so we could do it full time. After shopping around for some angel money, most places asked “Who are you, are you an expert in web 2.0?” and they wanted proof to back it up. That is when we came up with the podcast idea. We loved doing it so much that the calendar fell by the wayside.

You and Chris host the Web 2.0 Show. With all the guests that you have had you must have some idea about what ‘The Next Big Thing’ might be. Tell me, what are you thoughts on where this new, collaborative web is heading?

Hmm, crap, what a tough question… I really don’t put expectations on what the next big thing will be, as some of it has really been out of left field. I think anything with a social aspect has the best potential to go “big”, but the real core of web 2.0 is that you can be niche and still be a stellar product with a great community. I love Blinksale and it is vital to my job, but it isn’t “BIG”. I think you will start to see more things heat up in the mobile space as smartphones and regular cell phones start to merge into the same thing. Who doesn’t want to sync their gmail address book with their desktop, ipod, and cell phone?

I try to ask all of the entreprenuers that I interview this. As entrepreneurs, do you have any advice for people who have an idea but just don’t know where to start or how to get it off the ground?

Just do what you can, get started. You don’t have to be an expert to think up possible features. You can fire up visio or omnigraffle and layout a page flow without an MBA. Once you get stuck and google isn’t giving you the answers, start asking people you know. Heck, email us – we know tons of people! I guess in the infinate wisdom of Nike: Just do it.

Oh, I can’t help myself. Do you have any secrets that you want to reveal here in this interview?

Yes, we do. I am a full time contractor working from home now. I split my time between that and Steelpixel now. We are also getting ready to put the voting up for our naming contest for the podcast, be sure to check our site for that.

I’d like to thank Josh for sitting down with me, and I suggest that everyone go and check out Steel Pixel for their great hosting and fantastic podcast.

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.