Podcasting

Urban dictionary has many faults, but also many virtues and can help pass the time on a rainy afternoon.  It tells me that the word Podcast is derrived thus:

Short for: Personal On Demand broadCast are audio files you can download into any MP3 player or computer. These audio files are broadcasted over the Internet automatically to subscribers of specific podcast channels.

Thanks for that, although I think the past participle of 'broadcast' is just 'broadcast'.  I like the idea that pod stands for something, although I'm not wholly convinced it doesn't have something to do with Steve Jobs' seemingly existential music playing device. 

I've only ever used podcasts that are either radio 4 programmes (taking after my mother here...she downloads The Archers' omnibus every week to listen to in the car...) and foreign language podcasts to aid my attempts to learn Dutch.  They're great, but they can bombard you a little too much.  This is the irritation with many RSS feeds, you simply don't have time to keep up.  I cancelled my today programme podcasts because I was swamped and heard a fair amount live as I got ready for university each day and had the internet to read up on the rest.

The term seems to be used more loosely to refer to any MP3 download that is either spoken word (but not audiobook) or home made.  It's not a podcast unless it automatically starts to synch (or could do using the right technology like itunes).  I will check out the British Library podcasts, I love their blogs and perhaps could listen to this in the morning sometimes on my way to work.  As for individual universities - well I'd be interested to see what their download stats were like and then whether those people ever listened to them.  It's a neat idea, but when I was/will be a student I know I have better things to do with my time!

How do podcasts fit into web 2.0?  Well it's sharing, it's multimedia but it's not interactive.  Unlike youtube where you can comment and have debate about video content, in the podcast world it is entirely one way traffic.  What'll be interested to see is if anyone finds a way to make podcasting more collaborative.  It's a blue sky thought, I have no suggestion or answer.  The internet's full of clever people who come up with innovative concepts, so we'll just have to see.

For now podcasting is basically subscription radio (at least on the BBC), which in an age of constant backlash against the license fee, greatly unsettles me.  All it would take would be a small charge per download and then...