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Encyclopedia > Podcasting

Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term, coined in 2004, is a portmanteau of iPod and broadcasting. Multimedia is the use of several media (e. ... Web syndication is a form of syndication in which a section of a website is made available for other sites to use. ... Mobile has several different meanings. ... The tower of a personal computer. ... Look up Portmanteau word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A white 5th generation video iPod with a sleeve and earbuds. ... individually-donated time and energy direct government payments or operation indirect government payments, such as radio and television licenses grants from foundations or business entities selling advertising or sponsorship public subscription or membership fees charged to all owners of TV sets or radios, regardless of whether they intend to receive...


The term podcast, like 'radio', can mean both the content and the method of delivery. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading feeds like RSS or Atom. An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... This article is about the computer terms. ... Streaming media is media that is consumed (heard or viewed) (mostly in the form of clips) while it is being delivered. ... RSS is a family of web feed formats. ... The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. ...


Usually a podcast features one type of 'show', with new episodes released either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily or weekly. In addition, there are podcast networks that feature multiple shows on the same feed. A wide variety of systems of interconnected components are called networks. ...

Contents


History

Main article: History of podcasting

The concept of podcasting was suggested as early as 2000 and its technical components were available by 2001, then implemented in the program Radio Userland[1]. In 2003 regular podcasts started showing up on well-known Web sites and software support spread. For details, see the History of podcasting page. What makes podcasting distinct from other digital audio and video delivery is the use of syndication feed enclosures. ... A client-side blogging software package from UserLand Software, including an RSS aggregator, outliner and scripting language. ... What makes podcasting distinct from other digital audio and video delivery is the use of syndication feed enclosures. ...


Name

Apple's official podcasting logo.
Apple's official podcasting logo.

Even though the name is a misnomer, in that podcasting doesn't require an iPod or actual over-the-air broadcasting, it has maintained its prominence in the face of numerous alternatives. Image File history File links PodcastLogo. ... Image File history File links PodcastLogo. ... Look up Misnomer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...


For details on the first use of the name, see History of podcasting. The use of "podcast" to describe both audio and video feeds seemed natural to some users, while others prefer to reserve the word for audio and coin new terms for video subscriptions. Other "pod-" derived neologisms include "podcasters" for individuals or organizations offering feeds and "podcatchers" for special RSS aggregators with the ability to transfer the files to media player software or hardware.. What makes podcasting distinct from other digital audio and video delivery is the use of syndication feed enclosures. ... A neologism is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form. ... The term podcasting is a portmanteau of the words iPod and broadcasting. ... A news aggregator is a piece of software or a remotely hosted service that periodically reads a set of news sources, in one of several XML-based formats (primarily RSS), finds the new bits, and displays them in reverse-chronological order on a single page. ...


The "pod" name association came about because Apple Computer's iPod is the most common digital audio player used by podcast listeners. The use of "pod" in 2004 probably played a part [1] in Apple's development of podcasting products and services in 2005, further linking the device and the activity in the news media. Ubiquitous usage of the term "Podcasting" may also represent a form of trademark genericisation for Apple.[citation needed] Apple Computer, Inc. ... A genericized trademark (Commonwealth English genericised trade mark), sometimes known as a generic trade mark, generic descriptor or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name which is often used as the colloquial description for a particular type of product or service as a result of widespread popular or cultural...


The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary declared "podcasting" the 2005 word of the year, defining the term as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player".[2] The New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) is a dictionary of North American English created by the American editors at the Oxford University Press U.S. Dictionaries program. ...


Various writers suggested other names or alternative interpretations of the letters "P-O-D." Technology writer Doc Searls had proposed "Personal Option Digital" in September, 2004.[3] The "Personal on Demand" interpretation was in international circulation as early as October 2004.[4] In July 2005, Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble mentioned that interpretation while countering reports that his company was pushing the word "blogcasting" to avoid mentioning an Apple product.[5] "Blogcasting" also implied content based on, or similar in format to, blogs, which was not always the case. Doc Searls Doc Searls is a widely-read blogger and a columnist and senior editor for Linux Journal. ... The Microsoft Corporation, commonly known as just Microsoft, (NASDAQ: MSFT&selected= MSFT MSFT, HKSE: 4338&WidCoAbbName=&Month=&langcode=e 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual sales of US$44. ... Robert Scoble Robert Scoble (born January 18, 1965) is a technical evangelist for Microsoft, who writes the popular blog, Scobleizer. ... It has been suggested that Online diary be merged into this article or section. ...


Other terms have been suggested, but had shortcomings — "audioblogging", "audio magazines" and "webcasting" could describe other forms of media distribution, and "rsscasting" would be difficult to pronounce. As use of RSS enclosures for video spread in 2005, podcasting of video data was called, among other things, "video blogging", "video podcasting", "vidcasting", "vlogging", "vodcasting", "vicasting", and "videocasting". Audioblogging is a variant on the blogging trend of online self-publishing, using audio to reach the audience instead of text used by traditional blogs. ... This article is about the magazine as a published medium. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Videoblog, a portmanteau combining video, web, and log, (usually shortened to vlog) is a blog that includes video clips. ... Vodcast (a portmanteau of video podcast or video on demand-cast), VODcast or video podcast is an emerging term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. ...


Mechanics

The publish/subscribe model of podcasting is a version of push technology, in that the information provider chooses which files to offer in a feed and the subscriber chooses among available feed channels. While the user is not "pulling" individual files from the Web, there is a strong "pull" aspect in that the receiver is free to subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) a vast array of channels. Earlier Internet "push" services (e.g., PointCast) allowed a much more limited selection of content. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Push media. ... PointCast was a company formed in 1992 in Sunnyvale, California, at the start of the Dot-com era. ...


Podcasting is an automatic mechanism by which multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files. In general, these files contain audio or video, but also could be images, text, PDF, or any file type. Multimedia is the use of several media (e. ... A computer file is a collection of information that is stored in a computer system and can be identified by its full path name. ... In information technology, a server is a computer system that provides services to other computing systems—called clients—over a network. ... In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ... A schematic representation of hearing. ... Video is the technology of capturing, recording, processing, transmitting, and reconstructing moving pictures, typically using celluloid film, electronic signals, or digital media, primarily for viewing on television or computer monitors. ... A digital image is a representation of a two-dimensional image as a finite set of digital values, called picture elements or pixels. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...


A podcast is generally analogous to a recorded television or radio series.


The content provider begins by making a file (for example, an MP3 audio file) available on the Internet. This is usually done by posting the file on a publicly-available webserver; however, BitTorrent trackers also have been used, and it is not technically necessary that the file be publicly accessible. The only requirement is that the file be accessible through some known URI (a general-purpose Internet address). This file is often referred to as one episode of a podcast. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format, designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. ... The term web server can mean one of two things: a computer responsible for serving web pages, mostly HTML documents, via the HTTP protocol to clients, mostly web browsers; a software program that is working as a daemon serving web documents. ... The BitTorrent logo BitTorrent is the name of a peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution protocol. ... A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is an Internet protocol element consisting of a short string of characters that conform to a certain syntax. ... Look up address in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Address may refer to: Address (geography), a code and abstract concept expressing a location on the earths surface Japanese addressing system A speech Style (manner of address), honorifics In communications, the coded representation of the source or destination of a message...


The content provider then acknowledges the existence of that file by referencing it in another file known as the feed. The feed is a machine-readable list of the URLs by which episodes of the show may be accessed. This list is usually published in RSS format (although Atom can also be used), which provides other information, such as publish dates, titles, and accompanying text descriptions of the series and each of its episodes. The feed may contain entries for all episodes in the series, but is typically limited to a short list of the most recent episodes, as is the case with many news feeds. Standard podcasts consist of a feed from one author. More recently multiple authors have been able to contribute episodes to a single podcast feed using concepts such as public podcasting and social podcasting. RSS is a family of web feed formats. ... The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. ... Public Podcasting is a form of podcasting that allows more than one author to upload an mp3 show or episode into a podcast feed. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into podcasting. ...


The content provider posts the feed to a known location on a webserver. (Unlike the episode file itself, the feed is published to a webserver, usually not by other means.) The location at which the feed is posted is expected to be permanent. This location is known as the feed URI (or, perhaps more often, feed URL). The content provider makes this feed URI known to the intended audience. A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ...


A consumer enters this feed URI into a software program called a podcatcher, a type of aggregator. The former term is specific to podcasting while the latter is general to all programs which collect data from feeds. A podcatcher retrieves data from the feed URI and may process it further. (Early podcatchers are named in the History of podcasting page, but constantly updating a comprehensive list of software is beyond the scope of these encyclopedia entries.) An aggregator or news aggregator is a type of software that retrieves syndicated Web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), and that are published by weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites. ... What makes podcasting distinct from other digital audio and video delivery is the use of syndication feed enclosures. ...


A podcatcher is usually an always-on program which starts when the computer is started and runs in the background. It manages a set of feed URIs added by the user and downloads each at a specified interval, such as every two hours. If the feed data has substantively changed from when it was previously checked (or if the feed was just added to the podcatcher's list), the program determines the location of the most recent item and automatically downloads it to the user's computer. Interestingly, it is estimated that perhaps only 20% of podcasts are actually consumed on portable media players; 80% are consumed on the PC onto which they are downloaded.[6] Some podcatchers, such as iTunes, also automatically make the newly downloaded episodes available to a user's portable media player. (This is only the typical behavior of a podcatcher; some podcatchers behave—or can be set to behave—differently.) The French iTunes law is the nickname given by some Anglo-American news sources to the DADVSI act. ...


The downloaded episodes can then be played, replayed, or archived as with any other computer file.


Variants of the podcast include the marcast or Podcast Marketing. Podcast Marketing is the method of creating and publishing audio and video programs via the Internet. It allows a company's or marketer's users, clients, and customers to subscribe to a feed of new information about products and services.


To conserve bandwidth, users may opt to search for content using an online podcast directory. Some directories allow people to listen online and initially become familiar with the content provided from an RSS Feed before deciding to subscribe and then downloading a huge amount of content, only to find out later that they didn't have any interest. For most broadband users, bandwidth is generally not a major consideration; however, there are still a number of computers that are connected to the Internet using a dial-up connection. Bandwidth is a measure of frequency range, measured in hertz, of a function of a frequency variable. ... RSS is a family of web feed formats. ...


Other uses

Main article: Uses of podcasting

Podcasting's initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own "radio shows," but the system quickly became used in a wide variety of other ways, including distribution of school lessons, official and unofficial audio tours of museums, conference meeting alerts and updates, and by police departments to distribute public safety messages. Podcasting can be used in a number of different ways, including: A way for people and organizations to avoid regulatory bodies, such as the British Ofcom, that would not allow a program to be broadcast in traditional media. ...


See also

Autocasting is an automated form of podcasting that allows bloggers and blog readers to generate audio versions of text blogs from RSS feeds. ... A Blogcast is a short video clip used to deliver a short webcast with a demo of technology via a blog. ... Social media describes the online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. ... Streaming media is media that is consumed (heard or viewed) (mostly in the form of clips) while it is being delivered. ... Content Delivery Network (CDN), also called Enterprise Content Delivery Network, (ECDN), is a term coined in the late 1990s to describe a system of computers networked together across the Internet that cooperate transparently to deliver content (especially large media content) to end users. ... Bite-size podcasts is a new application for Multimedia Messaging (MMS). ... A free iPodder add-on to converts podcasts to the widely supported AMR-NB mobile phone audio format. ... Starting in the autumn of 2004, radio stations began to investigate podcasting as suitable for delivering their programming, especially news and interview shows that were free of the complications of music licensing. ... Narrowcasting has traditionally been understood as the dissemination of information (usually by radio or television) to a narrow audience, not to the general public. ... Peercasting is a method of multicasting streams, usually audio and/or video, to the internet via peer-to-peer technology. ... VoiceCasting is the distribution of audio files, such as radio programs or interviews, directly to a telephone. ... An MP3 blog is a type of weblog in which the creator makes music files, normally in the MP3 format, available for download. ... An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy one of the guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia on one of the following topics: If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand the article to establish its notability, citing reliable sources. ... Skypecasting is a technology trend related to podcasting. ... A Soundseeing tour is an audio tour that uses the ambient sounds and descriptions given by a tour guide to give the listener an accurate depiction of the surroundings. ... A webcast is similar in intent to a broadcast television program but designed for internet transmission. ... Definition A photofeed is to images what a podcast is to MP3 files. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with vlog. ... A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, often containing audio narration. ...

External links

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  • Creative Commons Podcasting Legal Guide
  • Make Your First Podcast How to Podcast instructions for the beginner.
  • Lists of podcast directories: CastWiki, Podcast 411, Digital Podcast, Podcasting News
  • Podcasters Wiki
  • Podfeed.net's Top 100 A list of the top 100 most subscribed podcasts via Feedburner.
  • PodcastExpert.com Links to "how to" articles across the Internet on everything from creating RSS feeds to recording equipment
  • Pediaphon generates MP3 audio files and podcasts from all Wikipedia articles.

Image File history File links En-Podcasting. ... Image File history File links Sound-icon. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links Sound-icon. ... Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ... Wikibooks logo Wikibooks, previously called Wikimedia Free Textbook Project and Wikimedia-Textbooks, is part of the Wikimedia Foundation. ...

Notes and references

  1. ^ Stepno, Bob. "Podcasting & Video Blogging and Gruber, John. "Is That a Podcast in Your Pocket?", and probably many others, speculate that the word itself -- and the free iPod publicity -- played a significant part in Apple's decision to add podcasting support to iTunes.
  2. ^ Oxford University Press, 2005-12-05 Podcast is word of the year
  3. ^ Doc Searls 2005-09-28 DIY Radio with PODcasting
  4. ^ 2004-10-05 Podcasting
  5. ^ Robert Scoble 2005-07-12 Blogger gives incorrect data about podcasting at Microsoft
  6. ^ Dixon, Colin; Greeson, Michael. "Recasting the Concept of Podcasting: Part I." TDG Research. 3-23-06. Accessed 8-10-06.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Podcasting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1703 words)
Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading feeds like RSS or Atom.
Podcasting is an automatic mechanism by which multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files.
Podcasting's initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own "radio shows," but the system quickly became used in a wide variety of other ways, including distribution of school lessons, official and unofficial audio tours of museums, conference meeting alerts and updates, and by police departments to distribute public safety messages.
podcasting: Information From Answers.com (1735 words)
Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.
Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their files; a podcast however is distinguished by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading RSS or Atom feeds.
"Podcasting" is a compound word coined in 2004, that combines parts of two words: "iPod" and "broadcasting." Even though the name is a misnomer, in that podcasting doesn't require an iPod and no over-the-air broadcasting is required, it has maintained its prominence in the face of numerous alternatives.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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