The Art Of Podcasting

Another common 21st century buzzword is 'podcast' which is a curious portmanteau

of the words iPod and Broadcast; the iPod being, of course, a popular portable MP3 player developed by Apple. The term is used to describe a technology that allows a user to automatically download an audio file of some description for listening to later, and is no longer specifically related to the iPod as many software and hardware combinations can potentially be used.

The roots of podcasting most likely lie in the blogging world as it is the natural progression to broadcasting information via the written word. I'm sorry for chucking another buzzword in the form of 'blogging', but with technology suddenly becoming cool there are dozens of new ones making their way in to our vocabularies. A blog, for those of you that don't know, is an online journal that is frequently updated and intended for the general public. I should also just mention a technology known as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which provides a continuous feed detailing updates that have been made to a particular data source; a podcast site for example.

The conventional media sources like TV, radio or streaming Internet media offer minimum control with regards to when the recordings are heard. Podcasting lets users get their hands on the downloaded content automatically carted over to their compatible player so they can listen to it later. In my opinion this is key to the technologies success and why it became so popular, so quickly similar to the way most technology is going success relies upon on demand content, tailored the users lifestyle, not vice versa.

Let's say for example, that I catch the bus to work and I want something new and interesting to listen to everyday. By heading to a podcast directory such as www.podcast.net I can choose to subscribe to as many podcasts as I want from a list that runs in to the tens of thousands. Then, whenever I synchronise my iPod of other generic MP3 player with my computer any new downloads available from my podcast list will be downloaded for me to listen to later. The list of subjects is extensive and includes everything from the arts and entertainment to politics, computing, music, religion and the news.

Assuming you don't want to individually move podcasts onto your MP3 player upon release, you will require specialist software such as the excellent free download 'Juice' (http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net) to make the rather tedious job automated. When the software is all setup you can go about adding as many podcasts as you like (and will have the time to listen to) and Juice will make sure it keeps you up to date. Fortunately there are versions of Juice to run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS ' it is very much a cross platform compatible application fits nicely with the podcasting ethos of access for all.

A subject as diverse and with as much content as Podcasting cannot really be convincingly covered in one article so the best tip I can give you is that if you are at all interested then download the software, visit the directories and take some time to see what's out there. Yes, there is a load of absolute rubbish but all you ever have to do is hit the unsubscribe button; as with many things in life you have to sift through the chaff to get at the wheat.

I do have one last tip I feel I should share - Subscribe to the Chris Moyles podcast; it's fantastic!

by: Chris Holgate

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