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Section :: Features
- Format For Printing...

Podcasting - Something To Shout About?

Is this the future of broadcasting…?
Thursday 31 August 2006.
 

Just like blogging, it started out with something of a ‘computer geek’ image and then rapidly became mainstream. So mainstream, in fact, that even established broadcasting companies such as the BBC, CNN and ABC News now provide programmes in the form of podcasts.

Read The Bitwise Podcasting Features

- Loudblog
- Chinesepod
- LifeType
- Feedburner

The name itself is misleading; there is still a widespread misconception that you need a portable audio player (like the Apple iPod from which the name ‘podcast’ derives) in order to listen to a podcast. You absolutely do not. I regularly listen to podcasts and I don’t own an iPod or anything remotely resembling one!

A podcast is just an audio file (normally, a regularly updated series of audio files) which is distributed via an RSS or Atom ‘feed’. You may be able to subscribe to a podcast using your existing RSS reader (for more on RSS see HERE) or you can use a dedicated podcast-management application such as Apple’s iTunes. If you are using suitable software, whenever new audio files are available, they will be downloaded to your disk automatically. You can then listen to them on your desktop computer or, if you wish, you can copy them onto a portable MP3 player to listen to later on.

This month Bitwise begins a series that looks at all aspects the podcasting phenomenon. We’ve started by speaking to some of the people who have helped to take podcasting into the mainstream – these include the developer of Loudblog – a free podcast ‘blogging’ application; the people behind Chinesepod - an ambitious commercial project aimed at teaching the Chinese language to non-native speakers; the lead developer of LifeType - an open source blogging platform for podcasters; and a Vice President at Feedburner – a free service that can help you transform an ordinary blog into a globally syndicated podcast.

We’ll have more podcasting features online later. In the meantime, if any readers have any hints and tips on making successful podcast or if you have any podcast recommendations, please let us know. To leave feedback, just click the ‘Comment on this article’ link down below…

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