A friend reminded me that not everyone knows what podcasting is all about. To that end, here’s a bit of a walk-through on what it is, how to consume podcasts, why I’m bullish about them, and what you can do with them:
Podcast – a Definition
A podcast is content (audio or video) that is recorded (vs live), available in digital format for download (typically in .mp3 format for audio, and a variety of formats for video), and available in a subscription format via syndication methods such as RSS. The common usage of the term “podcast” is as a unit of content: “I was listening to a podcast the other day.”
Podcast – is NOT
You can listen or view a podcast on any portable media playing device (formats notwithstanding). You do NOT need an Apple iPod (which are fine products, and somewhat related to where the name is derived).
Listening/Viewing Podcasts
You can listen to or view podcasts on your computer, using a portable media player (Sony PSP, for instance), burned to a CD or DVD, and in several other ways. I’m told TiVO lets you subscribe to podcasts right there on your TV. Newer versions of the Apple iTunes software have podcasting built right in. There are several other softwares out there that serve as “Podcatchers”, or software to receive RSS subscriptions and consume podcasts.
WHY Listen/View
The cool thing about podcasts is that you’re in control of the content you consume in a given day. I fill up my portable MP3 player, and I never have to listen to the radio. If one of the podcasts is about a topic I’m not interested in, I can just skip to the next one. Try doing THAT with your radio news station. I can interlace podcasts with music in a playlist, so that I can get a format that blends all the things I like.
Another great thing about podcasts is that lots of them are produced by people just like you. In the same day, I’ll listen to podcasts created by traditional media sources, by corporations learning how to use the medium, and more and more, I listen to productions created by people like you with a passion for something that they’ve converted into another medium.
Podcasting is the new Blogging
In lots of ways, podcasts both video and audio are turning into the new blog. For one, they’re a lot easier to create these days. Services like Odeo make it as easy as leaving a voicemail, if that’s the level of effort you want to put into it. Guys like Doug Kaye are out on the road running the Podcast Academy giving out information for very low cost on how to get yourself started in Podcasting, and all the various topics of interest when you get going.
Videoblogging is really taking off. Check in with Steve Garfield, the father of vlogging (as it’s sometimes being called), as well as the Boston correspondent to RocketBoom, organizer of Boston Media Makers, and other stuff. He’s got a great weekly video program called Vlog Soup that will get you started on understanding how podcasting and vlogging (just a subset of the concept, basically) have really turned the way blogs get done around. There’s some fascinating content out there that you can fill up your time to consume with every day.
In his fascinating piece, The IM Generation, Tony Perkins (media maverick and entrepreneur) says that over 60% of content the newer generation of media users is consuming is content created by their friends, or people in their own personal networks. This points to a whole group of people who don’t really give a damn what’s on the 11 O’Clock news, and who really aren’t watching as much MTV as you think.
Get Podcasting
I strongly encourage people to consider not just consuming podcasts, but actually creating them for yourselves. There are stories out there to be told, and you can do it for very little money. I’m creating my audio podcasts with a free piece of software and a reasonable microphone. You can get into some money on this if you’d like (check out Paul Figgiani’s great site, Podcastrigs.com, for some excellent setups that will cost you more than FREE). Or, you can stick with low-cost solutions, like buying an iRiver Audio MP3 player and a microphone from RadioShack. You can use free software like Audacity to edit and clean up the audio, and then you can publish it to a site that hosts such artwork for free, like Ourmedia.org.
I’ll have something to announce fairly shortly. Roger’s just helping me iron out the last kinks, and I’ve got a little more editing to do. When it’s all ready, you’ll be one of the first to know. Until then, hit me with any questions you might have about podcasting, as per this article.
tags: podcast,podcasting,howto,newmedia
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