The term “podcasting” has been floating around lately, and many people are wondering what it is, and what can be done with it. The term derives from the blending of two words … Ipod (the MP3 player from Apple Computer) and broadcast.
A “podcast” refers to an audio broadcast that is carried on an RSS feed, and can be listened to on any portable device that supports audio downloads and playback (e.g., an MP3 player, a PDA, and even many cell phones).
While podcasts are carried on RSS feeds, you need a specific device to retrieve them. These are referred to as “clients” or “receivers”, or more recently, “podcatchers”.
The podcast is then stored for playback whenever you want to listen to it, in the same way that your RSS client will store recent entries on the feeds you subscribe to so that you can read them at your convenience.
So what is podcasting used for? Advertising, product announcements, short articles and the like. Basically anything that could be put in an email or web page can be put into a podcast.
Studies show that audio and video improves the conversion rates for many web sites, so creating this “all audio” (and more recently, “all video”) medium of communication seems a natural.
These broadcasts are somewhat like mini radio shows, but unlike traditional radio or internet radio, there is no schedule to follow. As with an RSS feed, you are notified when a new broadcast is available, but you can then listen to it at your leisure.
One way to think of it is “radio on demand”, since you can listen to recorded podcasts at your liesure, on any MP3 enabled device.
Podcasting may not catch on as rapidly as blogging and RSS did, since the cost of creating and receiving broadcasts creates an entry barrier. Nonetheless, it’s an exciting new application of technology and well worth knowing about.
More later …
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