Home > Computers and the Internet > So, What Are Podcasts, Anyway

So, What Are Podcasts, Anyway

June 29th, 2005

If you’re like me, then sometimes you find that these new technological phenomena kind of sneak up on you until they break out and become highly popular. I didn’t know much about CSS, for example, until I started doing this blog and had to use it to design the appearance you see now. I’d seen it in other sites without knowing what it was. Probably I’d heard it mentioned many times, but didn’t bother to find about it.

Podcasting was the same thing. I’d heard about it, guessed it had to do with recordings you could listen to on your iPod, but hadn’t really figured it out much beyond that. But today, Apple released iTunes v. 4.9, which includes podcasting just as it does Internet radio and its popular music store, as a source of media beyond your personal collection ripped from CDs.

So what is a Podcast, exactly? Well, as I suspected, it’s an audio file you can download from the Internet and listen to on your iPod, or other iPod-like digital music player. But there are two features that make it different from a standard audio download: first, it’s not just one audio file, it’s a recurring “show” with new “episodes” posted as time goes by. And second, it uses RSS technology so that when a new episode is available, your podcasting program (such as iTunes) gets notified and either tells you something new is available, or just downloads it automatically if you have subscribed. When you connect your iPod to your computer, the episodes go onto your iPod and you can listen to them. Or you can listen to them on your computer via your music app.

What is notable here is that you don’t have to be a professional to be a podcaster. Anyone can do it. You might even get listed in the searchable podcasting directories, such as the one that Apple now provides with iTunes. You could, in effect, start your own radio show, just like blogging made it possible to start your own publication of whatever you want to write about. You need the ability to record and translate that recording into an MP3 file, then upload it to the Internet. But you also need to know how to submit the file with an RSS feed, which is not always so simple. Expect shareware or freeware applications offering just this ability to start appearing in large numbers very soon.

And if I can figure out how to get podcasts going for this blog, I’ll let you know how I did it, as best I can.

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  1. YouKnowWho
    June 30th, 2005 at 03:15 | #1

    Would you consider a podcast version of your blog, where you speak the post, and then podcast it out, for those that want to grab it w/ their iPod and then run?

  2. BlogD
    June 30th, 2005 at 03:19 | #2

    That’s exactly what I’m trying to do, what I spent a few hours today trying. As usual, everyone assumes that you’re a scripting expert, including the ones who claim they’re trying to explain it so everyone can do it… but everyone leaves out the important information, like how to name feed files, where to place things, and so on… I strained for hours to piece together just enough info to get a podcast feed to work even just with a simple program… but couldn’t get Apple’s iTunes to recognize it.

    I swear, a chimp banging on a keyboard could write better documentation/instructions than 90% of the writiers on the Internet.

  3. YouKnowWho
    June 30th, 2005 at 04:46 | #3

    Why don’t you post your code and have your readers debug it?

  4. June 30th, 2005 at 08:57 | #4

    This might be of help – Apple’s guide on using GarageBand to record podcasts.

  5. YouKnowWho
    June 30th, 2005 at 13:24 | #5
  6. BlogD
    June 30th, 2005 at 18:09 | #6

    Actually, I found that Apple podcast-specs file very early on, and used it as my model, but thanks.

    Despite a great deal of frustration from finding many tutorials and yet each one lacked vital information (see my post “No Documentation”), I finally pieced together enough info and was able to build a rudimentary RSS feed file (in my main directory under “blogdpod1.xml”) which Apple’s iTunes Music Store accepted. Success! Well, so far… now to wait for Apple to approve the submission and list it. Nothing back from them yet, many hours later…

  7. YouKnowWho
    July 1st, 2005 at 01:10 | #7

    Are you going to cast in English and/or Japaneese?

    Are you going to have a link on your site for people to click and then hear it on their computer?

    How would they hear it? Media Player?

    Would you also consider video?

    Do many bloggers offer video/audio as an option for each post?

  8. BlogD
    July 1st, 2005 at 01:19 | #8

    YKW:

    In English, my Japanese is not that good and my blog doesn’t attract that audience so much, I believe. There will be links on the site as well as the iTunes feed, once I get things rolling. Any audio player which plays mp3 files can hear it, but podcasting was primarily designed (consider the name) for iPod users. You have iTunes, which is a cross-platform app; iTunes can download the feeds and keep them arranged and archived on your computer. Attach an iPod, and it gets on there as well. Listen to it like a radio, but instead of random broadcasts at set times, you have a list of shows and you can pick and choose which to listen to.

    I wouldn’t consider video, it’d just be me sitting in front of a camera talking. No reason to have the video portion, really. If I want to provide video of any interest, it might be birds or something like that–but this I can just have available in any blog entry anyway. And as far as I know, podcasting dos not support video. Not yet, anyway.

    Podcasting is a relatively new feature; I doubt many people are doing it. That’s a pure guess, though–but I’d be surprised if it were even as high as 5%.

  9. July 1st, 2005 at 15:52 | #9

    While I’m not arguing with your wanting to do this, I have to wonder whether this is really what people want. If I understand it correctly, this is simply an audio version of your blog? Read by you? Must we also be voice actors now? I know that there are lots of things you could do with this technology, but for me the charm of the blog is to sit down with a coffee or a beer, depending on the hour of day, and throw off 10 to thirty minutes of writing just to clear my skull. Again, there’s certainly a value in trying to keep abreast of the latest developments, but at a certain point I think we begin to lose a solid sense of perspective. Anyone else think the same way? I may be a bit of a caveman in this regard, but I seldom download video or audio links on blogs while I’m sitting at my computer, let alone store them in an i-pod for my morning ride to work.

  10. BlogD
    July 1st, 2005 at 16:01 | #10

    No, if it were just a matter of reading the blog, I wouldn’t do it. Essentially, I’d use it as maybe a once-a-week thing where I would center on a specific topic and use the ability to speak rather than type to cover the topic in a different way. For example, I might retrieve a number of my past posts on religion and state, reduce them to an outline form, and use them as notes to create a spoken presentation of the issue in a broader context. I might also try to to a smattering-of-this-and-that recording, the type I don’t do so much in the blog, where I would address smaller news stories, new gadgets and technology, weird stuff I hear about, or even jokes or personal experiences into an omnibus audio package.

    I’m not going to guarantee that it will be (a) interesting or (b) something that will last more than a few weeks of trials. But if I find that I can augment the blog with the recordings, then I might stick with it. For now, it is mostly just to see if I can publish in a new technological medium, to see if maybe I can broaden the audience for my views (some people might prefer to listen than to read), and, not to mention, just for the fun of it. I don’t expect my current audience to dance with joy for the wondrous new feature I will dazzle you with. This is more experimental, to see where it will lead.

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