Podcast

Short video reports introducing a company and its services, or a technological breakthrough within a company.

A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. The word is a neologism derived from "broadcast" and "pod" from the success of the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on portable media players.

A list of all the audio or video files currently associated with a given series is maintained centrally on the distributor's server as a web feed, and the listener or viewer employs special client application software, known as a podcatcher, that can access this web feed, check it for updates, and download any new files in the series. This process can be automated so that new files are downloaded automatically. Files are stored locally on the user's computer or other device ready for offline use, giving simple and convenient access to episodic content. In this way it is contrasted to webcasting (Internet streaming).

As discussed by Richard Berry, podcasting is both a converged medium bringing together audio, the web and portable media player, and a disruptive technology that has caused some in the radio business to reconsider some established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption, production and distribution. This idea of disruptiveness is largely because no one person owns the technology; it is free to listen and create content, which departs from the traditional model of 'gate-kept' media and production tools. It is very much a horizontal media form: producers are consumers and consumers become producers and engage in conversations with each other.

Name

The term "podcasting" was first mentioned by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian newspaper in a February 2004 article, along with other proposed names for the new medium. It is a portmanteau of the words "pod"— from iPod —and "broadcasting". Despite the etymology, the content can be accessed using any computer that can play media files and not just portable music players. Use of the term "podcast" predates the addition of native support for podcasting to the iPod, or to Apple's iTunes software. To avoid a term suggestive of "iPod", some use the term netcast instead of podcast, such as the TWiT.tv podcaster Leo Laporte (though the older term is also used in the broader sense of any internet-delivered realtime media transmission).

History

Main article: History of podcasting

Many individuals and groups including Dawn and Drew of The Dawn and Drew Show, Kris and Betsy Smith of Croncast and Dan Klass of The Bitterest Pill contributed to the early emergence and popularity of podcasts. Former MTV VJ Adam Curry is credited with coming up with the idea to automate the delivery and syncing of textual content to portable audio players. The first application to make this process feasible was iPodderX, developed by August Trometer and Ray Slakinski. Since the 1930s there have been radio talk shows and news programs. Today, through the evolution of the internet capabilities, along with cheaper hardware and software, audio podcasts are doing what was historically done through radio broadcast stations.

In June 2005, Apple released iTunes 4.9 with native support for podcasts. While this made receiving podcasts more convenient, it effectively ended advancement of the podcast medium by independent developers. To add to the cooling factor, Apple issued Cease and Desist orders to many podcast application developers and service providers for using the term "iPod" or "Pod" in the name of their product.

The logo used by Apple to represent Podcasting

Trademark applications

February 10, 2005, Shae Spencer Management LLC of Fairport, New York filed a trademark application to register podcast for an "online prerecorded radio program over the internet". On September 9, 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application, citing Wikipedia's podcast entry as describing the history of the term. The company amended their application in March 2006, but the USPTO rejected the amended application as not sufficiently differentiated from the original. In November 2006, the application was marked as abandoned.

As of September 20, 2005, known trademarks that attempted to capitalize on podcast include: GodCast, Podcast Realty, GuidePod, Pod-Casting, MyPod, Podvertiser, Podango, ePodcast, PodCabin, Podcaster, PodcastPeople, PodShop, PodKitchen, Podgram, GodPod and Podcast. By February 2007, there had been 24 attempts to register trademarks containing the word "PODCAST" in United States, but only "PODCAST READY" from Podcast Ready, Inc. was approved.

Apple trademark protections

On September 26, 2004, it was reported that Apple started to crack down on businesses using the string "POD", in product and company names. Apple sent a cease and desist letter that week to Podcast Ready, Inc., which markets an application known as "myPodder". Lawyers for Apple contended that the term "pod" has been used by the public to refer to Apple's music player so extensively that it falls under Apple's trademark cover. It was speculated that such activity was part of a bigger campaign for Apple to expand the scope of its existing iPod trademark, which included trademarking "IPODCAST", "IPOD", and "POD". On November 16, 2006, the Apple Trademark Department stated that Apple does not object to third party usage of "the generic term" "podcast" to refer to podcasting services and that Apple does not license the term. However, no statement was made whether Apple believes they hold rights to it.

Variants

Video podcasts

A video podcast on the Crab Nebula by NASA

A video podcast (sometimes shortened to vodcast) includes video clips. Web television series are often distributed as video podcasts.

Since the spread of the internet and the use of Internet broadband connection TCP(which helps to identify different applications), a faster connection to the internet has been created and a wide vase amount of communication has been created. Video pod-casts have come extremely popular online and are short clips of video, usually part of a longer recording. Video clips are being used on pre-established websites and more and more websites are being created solely for the purpose of video clips and pod-casts. Video pod-casts are being streamed on intranets and extranets, private and public networks, and taking communication through the internet to whole new levels.

Most video clips are now submitted and produced by individuals and are becoming more common. Video pod-casts are also being used for web television, commonly referred to as Web TV, which is a rapidly growing genre of digital entertainment, using various forms of new media to deliver original shows or series to an audience. Delivered originally online via broadband and mobile networks, web television shows, or web series. Video pod-casts used for web television are typically short-form, anywhere from 2–9 minutes per episode. Typically they are used for advertising, video blogs, amateur filming, journalism and convergence with traditional media.

Enhanced podcasts

An enhanced podcast can display images simultaneously with audio. These can contain chapter markers, hyperlinks, and artwork; all of which is synced to a specific program or device. When an enhanced podcast is played within its specific program or device, all the appropriate information should be displayed at the same time and in the same window, making it easier to display materials. Enhanced podcasting is considered to be a very practical way to present information. This new technological phenomenon is becoming more prominent in schools, universities and businesses; as it is an efficient way to present school and university lectures, slide shows, video clips, and other presentation materials of the like.

Podcast novels

A podcast novel (also known as a serialized audiobook or podcast audiobook) is a literary format that combines the concepts of a podcast and an audiobook. Like a traditional novel, a podcast novel is a work of long literary fiction; however, this form of novel is recorded into episodes that are delivered online over a period of time and in the end available as a complete work for download. The episodes may be delivered automatically via RSS, through a web site, blog, or other syndication method. These files are either listened to directly on a user's computer or loaded onto a portable media device to be listened to later.

The types of novels that are podcasted vary from new works from new authors that have never been printed, to well established authors that have been around for years^{[citation needed]}, to classic works of literature that have been in print for over a century. In the same style as an audiobook, podcast novels may be elaborately narrated with separate voice actors for each character and sound effects, similar to a radio play. Other podcast novels have a single narrator reading the text of the story with little or no sound effects.

Podcast novels are distributed over the Internet, commonly on a weblog. Podcast novels are released in episodes on a regular schedule (e.g. once a week) or irregularly as each episode is released when completed, and can either be downloaded manually from a website or blog, be delivered automatically via RSS, or other method of syndication. Ultimately, a serialized podcast novel becomes a completed audiobook.

Podcast novelists use giving away a free podcast version of their book as a form of promotion. Some novelists have even secured publishing contracts to have their novels printed. Podcast novelists have commented that podcasting their novels lets them build audiences even if they cannot get a publisher to buy their books. These audiences then make it easier to secure a printing deal with a publisher at a later date. These podcast novelists also claim the exposure that releasing a free podcast gains them makes up for the fact that they are giving away their work for free.

Uses

Main article: Uses of podcasting

Communities use collaborative podcasts to support multiple contributors podcasting through generally simplified processes, and without having to host their own individual feeds. A community podcast can also allow members of the community (related to the podcast topic) to contribute to the podcast in many different ways. This method was first used for a series of podcasts hosted by the Regional Educational Technology Center at Fordham University in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of podcatchers
• List of podcasting companies
• MP3 blog
• Oggcast
• Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Treaty
• Screencast
• User-generated content

External links

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This audio file was created from a revision of the "Podcast" article dated 2005-12-05, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Podcasting at Wikibooks
• The dictionary definition of podcast at Wiktionary
• Creative Commons Podcasting Legal Guide
• iTunes Podcast Tech Spec
• What is podcasting?
• Podcatcher List for Windows, Macintosh and Linux Computer Systems
• Open Source Podcast software for Joomla
• A Podcast Primer: article with theoretical/category overview of Podcasting
• An open-education guide to Podcasting, taught to university staff at Edinburgh Napier University