Read an Excerpt

Podcasting

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

in this chapter

* The Fundamentals of Podcasting

* The Power of Walkaway Content

* The History of Podcasting

* How the Podcasting Term Originated

* The Growth Rate of Podcasting

* Who Are Podcasters?

* Personalities and Show Reviews

Do you have specific interests? How about triathlons? I have to admit, most radio broadcasts don't deal with those kind of subjects. But that's about to change. You can go to enduranceradio.com and download any program listed there about triathlons. You can listen to it live, you can store it and listen to it on portable media when you have time, or you can even store it on your hard drive and use it as a reference at a later date, such as when you finally start training for that iron man competition. And it's not just triathlons. People are podcasting on more topics than you can imagine. Take, for example, the Rock and Roll Geek Show, a music review and commentary show; Real Reviews, a podcast that reviews movies and DVDs; The Point, a show for Mac users; and sound-seeing tours where various podcasters take you on sound tours of their parts of the world. Accessing these broadcasts is as simple as surfing the Internet.

Creating your own podcasts isn't much harder. Now you have the ability to reach listeners worldwide. You can air your ideas, share your passions, offer your music to the world,and much more.

Podcasters don't have to make advertisers happy. They don't have to worry about FCC regulations. They don't have to adhere to play lists. They don't have to pay attention to the corporate bottom line. They broadcast what they love, and you can too. The podcasting revolution has begun, and you don't want to be left behind!

You can listen to the radio, of course. You can even listen to radio while you are online. If you want to, you can record a radio program that interests you and listen to it later. So, how are the audio programs in podcasting different? Traditional radio is a business venture, governed by budget concerns and regulations. That means the information you can access is limited - probably mainstream. What if you could automatically download and listen to anything that interested you? What if, right from your home, you could broadcast programs to thousands of listeners worldwide about anything that interests you?

That's what podcasting is all about. And thousands of people are listening to and creating podcasts. You won't believe what's out there.

This chapter empowers you to take control of what you listen to. It introduces the concept of walkaway content. It gives you the straight story about the history of podcasting and introduces you to a sampling of podcast personalities and programs.

The Fundamentals of Podcasting

The term podcasting, in a way, puts you immediately into the right frame of mind. When I heard the term for the first time, the main idea that stuck in my mind was that podcasting somehow was a unique communications medium that was portable and had something to do with broadcasting.

That guess about the meaning of the term was very close, and I soon found out that podcasting represents a new way for individuals to communicate about things they love. They can actually broadcast content that comes from their hearts and are able to communicate with other people in a new and exciting way. For a long time, highly technical people have been recording and placing audio content on the Internet, but the barriers to entry were relatively high. Podcasting breaks down those barriers. The wow factor of podcasting is that the delivery vehicle has been automated for the listener and made simple enough for the person producing content so that anyone can do it.

Throughout the world today, individuals are driving to work in cars, sitting on buses, walking down the street, or waiting for a train while they listen to podcasts. Some are even tapping into podcasts while at work. Who and what are they listening to? Well, they're listening to music or to people like me talk to them about subjects we love. In Figure 1-1, I am driving down the street listening to Tech Rag Tear Outs via my FM-capable portable media device.

I discovered podcasts in a hotel room in central Texas while surfing the Internet. It was like being given the keys to my first car, and being able to drive unaccompanied. The freedom we all felt the first time we drove by ourselves wasn't any different from when I listened to my first podcast. What I found intriguing was that podcasters could speak freely, without control and restrictions. The thing that also blew me away was that podcasters were regular people. Most are hardworking men and women, and it was obvious to me that everyday people with a passion were having fun creating podcasts. I immediately knew I was going to be a podcaster. It was a decision as natural as opening a door. The best part was that I didn't have to be rich to be a creator of a podcast.

I am a father of four, working a 7 to 5 job in Honolulu, Hawaii, and I've been listening to and producing podcasts since October 12, 2004. My first podcast was created in that same hotel room in Texas, where I basically taught myself how to create a show. The response and numbers of people that tuned in astounded me. I was getting comments from all over the world in a very short amount of time. Prior to this, I had my own weblog, called Geek News Central (geeknewscentral.com). Geek News Central is a site where I talk about technology and other things that interest me. I describe myself as a typical geek with a little rebel spark. I like to dig in and talk about new technologies and relevant news of the day. What drove me to podcasting was that I advocate fair use rights and had become disenchanted with the traditional broadcasting system and what I was listening to on the radio every day.

The reaction to my first podcast was nothing short of amazing. Today, the number of listeners continues to grow, and the readership of my weblog has increased dramatically. So, I can say that podcasting drew readers to my website and supplemented what I wanted to say but sometimes could not express completely with the written word. I was able for the first time to speak to readers and give them the raw emotion that is many times missing from a weblog post.

I hope to guide you in this book so that you don't make some of the mistakes I made in my early podcasts. I will cover everything I know about podcasting. I want you to feel the power of the medium as I do. The fundamental thing to remember about podcasting is to have fun and be yourself. Whether you are a listener or an aspiring podcaster, remember that the majority of podcast shows are created by average people. Sure, there are some high-end producers, but the majority are regular people having fun and creating content we love.

Podcasts are created in living rooms, cars, while walking down the street, and at home. They can be scripted or unscripted, but podcasters bring their listeners mostly unedited, real, and from-the-heart commentary. Podcasting, as a content-delivery medium, enables you to reach hundreds of thousands of listeners. You don't have to worry about licensing or government regulations. You don't have to worry about someone beating down your door or having to buy a lot of equipment. In fact, my first podcasts were created with a computer and a $7.95 microphone. Figure 1-2 shows what I used to create my first podcast.

The Power of Walkaway Content

You may say, "I have heard of this medium called podcasting, but do I need to have an Apple iPod to listen to shows?" The answer to that is no. In reality, you don't even need a portable media device. You can listen to podcasts via direct downloads from the podcaster's website and listen to them directly on your PC through the media player of your choice. The power of podcasting, however, is the ability to deliver content to any MP3 player capable of synchronizing with Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes. I have used an iRiver YP790, a Samsung Yepp, iPod Shuffle, and iPod. The list of players capable of playing MP3 files is endless.

Podcasting has spun heads because you can use a very simple software utility to automatically download audio programs to which you subscribe. Your downloads are then automatically transferred to Windows Media Player or Apple iTunes, and they, in turn, load the audio file automatically to your mobile media device. The great thing about podcasts is that you're not tied to your computer. You can walk away with fresh audio loaded on your MP3 player every day.

Imagine deciding that you want a sampling of audio shows on various subjects using one of the software packages I will highlight later in this book. You subscribe to those shows for free. You then leave that application running in your computer's taskbar and go to bed.

You wake up in the morning and get ready to go to work or school. Before you leave the house, you grab your portable media device, which has been automatically synchronized with the audio content you have subscribed to - content that you want to listen to. That is the power of walkaway content: you control what you listen to, and when and where you consume it.

What are your listening choices today? What is typically on the radio? As we browse the traditional radio dial, we are given a wide variety of programming choices, but most of those programming choices - from songs played to on-air personalities - are controlled by major media companies. You may have a choice of a dozen different types of stations in your listening area, but the same media company likely owns half those stations. These companies control what you listen to; they offer only what they want you to hear. Everything is controlled and under the watchful eyes of those who make sure ratings stay high and certain artists get promoted. Furthermore, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) monitors traditional radio. On the one hand, this means that kids won't be exposed to pornography or other types of unsuitable content. The FCC is mandated to keep the airways relatively clean. They have, in fact, fined radio broadcasters such as Howard Stern for inappropriate content.

Podcasters are not regulated by the FCC, so a wide variety of shows exists-literally thousands of them. The majority of the podcasts are safe for work listening; but be forewarned that some aren't, so preview shows before sharing them with sensitive co-workers. Along those lines, you will also want to monitor the podcasts your kids tune in to, just as you limit other Internet content you allow your children to access. In Figure 1-4, I am listening to a podcast while taking a walk through the neighborhood.

The History of Podcasting

The true godfathers of podcasting are Dave Winer and Adam Curry. Dave Winer ( scripting.com) is a software developer and RSS evangelist; he developed the popular weblog package Radio Userland (userland.com).Today, Dave "produces" the popular podcast Morning Coffee Notes (morningcoffeenotes.com). Adam Curry produces the ever-popular Daily Source Code (live.curry.com). Adam is well-known as a mid-1980s former MTV VJ (see live.curry.com).

Note

For some of you, this short history will be a trip down memory lane. But many reporters have bungled the true history behind the evolution of podcasting. I want to give you the best perspective I could obtain.

Podcasting started, before the term was even invented, with an idea from a meeting in late 2000 between Adam Curry and Dave Winer about automated media distribution. The conversation was centered around video rather than audio; Dave had some concerns about the distribution of video over the Internet.

Remember, this was the year 2000, before the world-wide growth in the number of broadband Internet subscribers. Dave felt the Internet simply hadn't evolved to the point where it would support large video downloads, not to mention the cost of delivering content. His analogy was that it was taking longer to download video than it was to play it, and many times the video was of poor and uncertain quality.

Note

Check out ipodder.org/history for another perspective.

Adam's idea was to look at Internet connections differently and consider all the bandwidth that goes to waste when users aren't using their Internet connections. He wanted a software solution that could automatically download items that he subscribed to. This really wasn't a new idea, but there were no tools to do this in the fashion Adam desired.

Note

I must interject that Internet service providers hope you don't use your broadband connection around the clock. In some countries, people have to pay for the amount of bandwidth they consume. The idea of millions of computers pulling content automatically while we sleep makes most ISPs shudder.

Dave was already working on Real Simple Syndication (RSS). For those of you not familiar with RSS, I will cover it in Chapter 12 in greater detail. Just so you won't be confused at this point, I'll give you a quick review of RSS.

Various websites, although primarily weblogs and news sites, carry an icon that might be labeled RSS, RSS .91, RSS 2.0, or XML. They are typically small icons with white letters on an orange background. These icons are linked to an XML (extensible markup language) formatted file. These files contain text that is structured in the RSS specification. Podcatchers, or podcast aggregators, are programs that run on your desktop that can interpret the data in these files. I cover these software applications in Chapters 2 and 3.

Note

I encourage you to load geeknewscentral.com/podcast.xml in your web browser to see a sample of RSS 2.0. Obviously, you wouldn't want to have to read this in your web browser.

The site webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/ offers a detailed discussion of RSS. In the most basic terms, RSS enables you to share content across the Internet. Because an RSS file can include dynamic content as well as static content, you can use it to distribute content from your site to others.

Dave had made revisions to the original RSS 0.91 specification developed by Netscape and formalized those revisions as RSS 2.0 in 2003. The RSS 2.0 standard was released by Harvard under a Creative Commons license. More information on RSS can be found at the official site blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss.

Note

I will cover the Creative Commons license in detail in Chapter 4, but I encourage you to visit creativecommons.org/ for detailed information about this exciting media/material licensing avenue.

Dave knew after his discussion with Adam that there would have to be some additional software components developed to make delivery of content happen automatically. Dave thought the process would need to be broken into three categories:

1. What software do you use when creating the content? 2. What software reads the content?

3. Where do you find the content?

Four and a half years passed from the initial meeting, and during that time, file sharing became the main vector for net audio/video distribution. Sharing technologies arrived that allowed files to be downloaded faster than they could be listened to. That, in itself, helped set the stage for what was coming.

Until the summer of 2004, progress was slow, and even though many of the individual pieces were in place, they were not tied together. There were no open source solutions-only content delivery methods that were tied to commercial solutions. This changed when Adam decided to try his hand at programming and developed the first rudimentary podcatcher application with AppleScript. He termed it iPodder; the original application is no longer in use today, but the premise of his code, which I will review in Chapter 2, has been improved on.

Note

Throughout this book, I will use the word podcatcher. You will also hear the term podcast aggregator used on the Internet. It is important to know that the terms mean the same thing.

Dave initially thought that what Adam had created would not work, but with Adam's hacked together AppleScript, Adam was able to capture and download audio posts that Dave had recently started embedding in his weblog post.

Note

Dave's provisioning of an element called an "enclosure" within an item in RSS 2.0 allowed the tool that Adam created to understand where media files were stored and grab and download the files automatically.

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Podcasting by Todd Cochrane Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---