Podcasting

== =Summary=

Podcasting, or "audioblogging," is the process of publishing media files online for delivery to a computer or portable media player (such as an iPod). The term “podcasting” was coined in late 2004 and was declared the 'Word of the Year' by editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2005. Despite their recent explosion in popularity, the technologies and methods for producing a podcast have been widely available for some time before the popular name was coined.

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Software
In 2005, Adam Curry created the first software that supported podcasting; he called it the iPodder. The iPodder is a time-shifting program that allows you to download audio files from other people on the internet. The media files can be played using media players such as iTunes. The iPodder uses RSS to feed files to your computer. This allows people to select podcasts that they want to use to download. “[|Podcasts are audio broadcasts created and stored digitally on the Internet.]”

Popularization
The creation of the iPodder has encouraged people to start hosting their own radio shows and allow people to exchange MP3s with one another. MP3 players have become popular because of this.

=Procedure=

Podcasting requires neither iPod, nor over-the-air broadcasting. Podcasting's most alluring feature is that it allows the audience to control when, where and how they consume the content.

The basic steps for creating a podcast are:
 * 1) The media must be prepared for online delivery. It is typically encoded into a popular format such as MP3, MPEG4, Windows Media, RealMedia, or Ogg Vorbis/Theora.
 * 2) To make the encoded media available to the audience, it is placed on either a publically-accessible webserver or peer-to-peer networks (such as BitTorrent).
 * 3) The URL of the encoded media file is added to a list of available episodes. This list is typically stored as an RSS file ('feed') which also contains metadata of the file.
 * 4) Most news aggregators (or 'podcatchers') receive the RSS feed, check for new episodes, and download them to the client's hard drive or personal media player.

=Popular Software=

=Problems=
 * [|iTunes]
 * [|Juice]
 * [|jPodder]
 * [|AmiPodder]

Popularity vs. Bandwidth
Most podcasts are typically low-quality, compressed audio. Popular podcasts that update regularly can still require lots of bandwidth. A significant number of podcasts originate from independant media outlets that sometimes don't have the finances necessary to support their media distribution. Peer-to-peer technologies like BitTorrent help ease the bandwidth burden as higher-quality audio and video podcasts become more mainstream. Popular independant media producers trust the clients to exchange content among themselves.

Podjacking
Popular media-branded podcasts can provide an incremental revenue stream[|(1)]. Podjacking occurs when an alternate RSS feed is created for podcasts without the owner's consent. After the renegate feed is advertised and develops a following, the genuine owner is extorted: Unless the owner complies with the podjacker's demands, many users could be redirected to other content, or no content at all. For example, someone could register the "mustang.com" domain name. Those looking for information on Ford's Mustang would go to mustang.com. Whoever registered mustang.com could threaten Ford to redirect all the mustang.com traffic to a competitor, costing Ford potential sales.

"Fad"?
Business 2.0 named "podcasting" as the number 1 fad to ignore in October 2005[|(2)]. "where are the revenues?" Business 2.0 asks. It likens podcasting to a modernized CB radio. Very few people suggest podcasting will lose popularity any time soon, but its future in the business arena is cloudy.

=Popular Podcasts (Among CCT205 Students)=


 * [|CBC Radio 3]
 * [|PhotoshopTV]
 * [|Hi! My name is Mark] - Podcast of former blink-182 member Mark Hoppus

Podcasting at UTM
On January 5th, 2006, at the beginning of a second semester at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, James Appleyard launched a pilot project at his MGM102 class. He attended class with two microphones clipped to his jacket. One microphone was no surprise: it was used to amplify his voice so the students in room 1080 in the CCT building could hear him. The second microphone, however, was new. With the additional microphone, Professor Appleyard planned to audio record the lectures he conducted, turn them into mp3 podcasts, and upload them onto the course web site for the students of MGM102 to download. He hopes that students could find them useful. He also emphasizes that the podcasts are used as an additional resource, rather than a replacement for attending lectures. So far, he has continued to upload the podcasts for the students.

Continued
In the professional writing major, there is a course, WRI330: Oral Rhetoric fundamentally aids the students in the public speaking sector. Professor Joan Vinall-Cox uses podcasts as the main focus and examples of public speaking. The students listen to podcasts and comment in their blog about the podcast; on what is heard and what isn't heard, the difference between the written transcript and what you hear in the podcast, etc. The main assignment of the course and what the students continuously work on, is to create your own podcast of a personal narrative. The class is not on the quality of the audio recording, rather the idea of creating podcasts as a type of oral rhetoric.

The word 'podcast' was the latest word (of the year 2005) to be entered into the Oxford Dictionary. It is a term that is only in it's prime and will continue to expand as more people explore it.

=External Links=

[|A popular podcast directory] [|Podcast Wiki] [|Radio Embracing Podcasts] [|9 Fads to Ignore] http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A381

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