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What is Podcasting?

Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley

What is Podcasting
Podcasting is quickly becoming a buzz word among the techie
crowd. So what is podcasting, anyway? Podcasting is online
audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. Many
people liken podcasting to radio on demand. However, in
reality, podcasting gives far more options in terms of
content and programming than radio does. In addition, with
Podcasting, listeners can determine the time and the place,
meaning they decide what programming they want to receive
and when they want to listen to it.

Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their
leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into
journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn
podcasters into radio personalities.

Podcasting can be used for:

1. Self-Guided Walking Tours - Informational content.

2. Music - Band promotional clips and interviews.

3. Talk Shows - Industry or organizational news, investor
news, sportscasts, news coverage and commentaries.

4. Training - Instructional informational materials.

5. Story - Story telling for children or the
visually-impaired.

Podcasting is the syndication of audio files using RSS.
Podcasting works the same as a standard RSS feed reader or
news aggregator, the only difference is that the feed you
subscribe to contains an audio file in it. Instead of
reading content in your RSS feed reader or aggregator, you
can listen to the contents of your feed using a reader or
aggregator that supports podcasting, or you can listen to
them on an iPod or similar device. While podcasting was
named for the iPod, you do not have to have an iPod to
listen to a podcast. Podcasts can be displayed on websites
with clickable links to audio files and many of the
standard RSS readers, like FeedDemon's latest beta, have
begun supporting audio enclosures.

The audio file that makes the feed a podcast rather than a
standard RSS feed is contained in the 'enclosure' tag. The
easiest way to think of this is as an e-mail attachment.

Although the "enclosure" tag is not new to RSS feeds and
has been included in the RSS v2.0 specification for about
four years, podcasting has only really been around since
August of 2004.

Webmasters are finding creative ways to provide media-rich
content. The syndication aspect and potential increase in
audience size are an attractive lure. Listeners benefit
from podcasting because, like RSS, podcasting is a means to
publish content that ultimately gives the recipient the
control over the information they want to see or hear.

Podcasting Resources -

Podcasting Tools - http://www.podcasting-tools.com
Podcast Alley - http://www.podcastalley.com
PodcastBunker - http://www.podcastbunker.com
Podcasting News - http://www.podcastingnews.com

It will be interesting to see how this publishing medium
develops. Currently, only the technical crowd has endorsed
podcasting as a new audio medium, but the potential is real
and the process is not overly complex. With a little time I
think this field will develop and prosper.

------------------------------
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon
manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a
wireless text messaging software company.

More articles by Sharon Housley - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Sharon-Housley-146/

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