Turn your iPod into a soapbox
Podcasting enables would-be radio stars to disseminate audio content via the Internet. Using simple digital recording equipment, the broadcaster then places the sound file on the Internet, making it available for people to download onto an iPod, any other mobile audio device such as an MP3 player, or even a computer.
Online encyclopaedia wikipedia.com says podcasting is distinct from other types of audio content delivery because of its subscription model, which uses the RSS 2.0 file format. This technique has enabled independent producers to create self-published, syndicated "radio shows", and has given broadcast radio programmes a new distribution channel.
Users subscribe to podcasts using "podcatching" software (also called "aggregator" software), which periodically checks for and downloads new content. It can then synchronise the content to the user’s portable music player.
Think of when you miss a radio broadcast you were keen on listening to; until recently, there was no way you could go back and listen to it. With podcasting, you go onto the Internet and fetch the content that you would like to listen to at your leisure, if the radio station you listen to caters for this. This is similar to setting your video recorder to record a programme; however, with the Internet, your range of options is now a whole lot bigger.
“Podcasting is the most egalitarian form of the Internet, as anybody – and I mean anybody – can upload a file,” says Derek Lubner, a new media specialist and co-director of All Brand, No Flakes. Who would have thought that a podcast by a husband and wife couple in Kansas, USA – in which the intricacies of domesticity are discussed – is the second most listened-to podcast in the United States?
Lubner says that with high-speed Internet technologies in South Africa like broadband, we will soon be able to stream video (a bandwidth-hungry pursuit) through the Internet too.
So, what kind of content and how much of it is available through the podcasting medium?
“I tried to find a number,” says Lubner, “It’s in the millions. If you go onto [search engine] Google and just do a search for podcasting, you’ll get five zillion files. And in that, there are aggregators [sites which list all sorts of podcasts according to categories] like digitalpodcasting.com”.
Although erotica sites are the most popular on the Internet (with an 11% share), Lubner says only 0,8% of podcast listings are for erotica. Music tops the bill for podcasts at 21,2%.
Podcasting is not only for entertainment and news; Lubner came across a Scottish school that is trialling podcasting to deliver foreign language audio revision and homework: “The pupils at that school were allegedly the first school in Europe to launch a regular podcast. So you go to school, you listen to the speech or the lesson from the chap, then go home and upload it to website where you can download it to your iPod and listen to it at your leisure, and play it over as many times as you like. So it’s got great applications for universities and schools,” he says.
Lubner explains that in order to podcast you do need some technology, but that it is available on the Internet: “You need a basic studio where you can record your stuff. And then you upload it to a million different websites [including podcast directories, known as aggregators]”.
Wikipedia says podcasts are used for unofficial audio tours of museums, and churches are podcasting sermons from their evening services.
About four million iPods were sold globally in the first three months of 2005 alone. Says Lubner about what that means for podcasting’s prospects: “It’s growing, hugely. Not only are digital iPod sales huge, but also the technology, little mini kits, so that you can have your own studio at home is growing dramatically, exponentially”
Source: http://www.moneyweb.co.za
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