Podcasting is making audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) available online in a way that allows software to automatically download the files for listening at the user’s convenience. The term comes from iPod and broadcasting. The podcaster makes a file available online so that the listener can download the file and listen at their convenience.
Although there are many applications for podcasting, the most popular seems to be audioblogs. Here are a few examples:
Winestar’s celler
Really Learn Spanish
Poker Channel
Indymedia
(IndyMedia is particularly neat. It’s an international, community-based resource taking call-in updates from viewers/member from all over the world.)
To listen to the podcast: you need to have a speaker but the download process is generally point and click.
To produce the podcast: there are some resources to walk you through the process:
- Podcasting Thoughts And Tips 008 – an article that outlines the steps towards podcasting
- Poor Man’s Podcasting – instruction on how to start podcasting inexpensively
I learned about podcasting doing some research for an international webcasting community. You can find out more about webcasting at the DoWire.org Webcasting Exchange.
Byte of the Week 