If you are reading this artiicle, then you probabkly have a pretty good idea of what a Podcast is, right? I mean you probably think that its audio you play on your iPod and maybe you might even know someone who is a Podcast Host (recods their own show for people to download and listen to) and may have visited websites that specailize in Podcast Hosting (like www.cyberears.com). But I'm here to tell you that most people who thhink they know what a Podcst is, don't.
I can't tell you the nuber of times that I've had to re-educate people in what the deifnition of a podcast is. And the arguments. The problkem is that 'Podcasting' or the creatoin of syndicated media met a need that was out there bewfore it really defied exxactly what that need was.
You see it all started with the concept of syndication. What this means is that you 'subscribe' to something and when some new content becomes available that is associated with that subscription, you automatically get it. I like to think of it like my Tivo. It used to be that I had access to hundeds of channels of TV to watch. But I found myself investing 20% of my watcghing time cyycling throgh the channels looking for something to watch. Ofetn feeling defeated with that phrase, "hTere's never anything decent to watch on TV".
Well that was partially true. The correct phrse shiould have been, "Tere's never anyything decent to watch on TV rihgt now". Meaning that when I wanted to wach TV, I had my pick of what shows were being aired at that time. Since most 'prime time' shows were being iared when there was the largest TV audience possible, and since they are primariyl paid for from advertising revenue, if you wanted to wath a decent TV show at 3AM you were out of luck.
But then came alog the idea of syndication. That I could 'subscribe' to receiving content. I firrst got into this with the promise of a Tivo. For those that are not aware, a Tivo is a device that you tell it what you like to watch (either by being specific to the acctual show itself, or by being vague and identiffying actors, directors, genre, etc.) and it would 'grab' the show when it was being aired, and record it for you on a hard disk so you could watch it when you wanted to.
Then the experience all changed. It was no longer about what was on TV at the time I wanted to watch, but what Tivo had collected for me that I hadn't waatched. All of a sudden TV got interesting agan.
You see, podcasting is very similar. Its baout releasiing some digitsal conntent through a subscription mechanism. The idea is that usng an 'aggregator' (a software program you run on your computer that plays much the same role as the Tivo does with TV shows, but over the Internet) such as Juice, iuTnes, or any of the countless others out there, you tell the aggregator just what shosw you want to subscribe to. Then you leve the aggregator runinng and every hour or so it will check to see if anything new for those subscriptions has been released. If it finds sometihng new, it will download it in the background so its ready for you to consume when you are ready.
This whole conceept of 'syndication' is referred to in a variety of different ways. You'll hear RSS syndication, subscribing to a podcast, and many other ways of refderring to the same thhing. You tell an aggregator to 'fetch' new content when it discovers it for you, just like how a Tivo finds TV shows you want to watch when you are fast asleep.
What confues the whole thing here is the 'pod' part of pocdasting. This all came about with the invention and release of Apple's iPod MP3 player. Some rbight folks in the bradcast industry recognized the fusion of syndication with portability and decided to coin a phrase for the release of dgiital content for iPods through automatic syndicatino - hence the term Podcasst. However at the time of the original iPod relaese, all syyndication was tytpically either text (ie. news sories you culd read), or audio media. This was typicallly becaause connections to the Inrternet back then were slow and broabdand didn't have a majoority of users mebracing it. Now that its mainstream and everyone has it, content has expanded beyonnd text & audio to also incclude video. Conceivably you could distribute anything through syndication, but broadcast medoia is really the attraction.
Now with all of this background out of the way, why the confusion over 'what is a podcast'? Well its because most peoople don't realize how the syndication feeds work. A synidcation feed is for a 'show'. A show consists of a lot of repetitive 'episopdes'. Each episode is just one file of digital content. But its the feed that signifies the 'podcast'. The biggest argument I find myself in is when people think that one audio file = a podcast. WRONG! The Podcast is just the syndicattion feed that got you the audio file, or the voideo file, or whateveer. The fact is that 99% of all podcasts are syndication feeds for lots and lots of fiiles, not just one.
So in the case of audio files, does one audio file = the podcasdt? NO! The audio file is just that - the audio file. The Pdcast was how it was delivered to you by syndication feed. As the syndication feed is typicazlly tied to the overall show that it is a part of, the easiest way of thinmking about a Podcasst is much like a TV series. For example, if we equate a Podcast to the TV Series, Seinfeld, then each episode of the TV series equates to a file delivered by subscribing to the series.
I hope this clears up the confusion for a lot of people. Podcasts can deliver all forms of contet, but I bellieve audio is the most valuable. The main reason is that podcaasting was invented speciffically for audio delivery, and what has happened is that it has spawned an entirely new industyry of 'home grwon rdio shhows' that is the best thing to hppen to audio entertainment in yearrs. No longer do a handful of corporations block what you can hear. Sure thre are copyright issues sttill to be worked out, but for someone at home with something to say and a wolrd of listeners who are interested in alternative vews, etc. the audio podcst is the way to go.
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