Podcast

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A podcast is a media file which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.^[1] Like 'radio', it can mean both the content and the method of syndication. The latter may also be termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a pod refers to a container of some sort and the idea of broadcasting to a container or pod correctly describes the process of podcasting.^[2] More about the name itself can be found in the History of podcasting article.

Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital audio formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically, using software capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

Mechanics

The publish/subscribe model of podcasting is a version of push technology, in that the information provider chooses which files to offer in a feed and the subscriber chooses among available feed channels. While the user is not "pulling" individual files from the Web, there is a strong "pull" aspect in that the receiver is free to subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) a vast array of channels. Earlier Internet "push" services (e.g., PointCast) allowed a much more limited selection of content.

Podcasting is an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files. In general, these files contain audio or video, but also could be images, text, PDF, or any file type.

The content provider begins by making a file (for example, an MP3 audio file) available on the Internet. This is usually done by posting the file on a publicly available webserver; however, BitTorrent trackers also have been used, and it is not technically necessary that the file be publicly accessible. The only requirement is that the file be accessible through some known URI (a general-purpose Internet address). This file is often referred to as one episode of a podcast.

The content provider then acknowledges the existence of that file by referencing it in another file known as the feed. The feed is a list of the URLs by which episodes of the show may be accessed. This list is usually published in RSS format (although Atom can also be used), which provides other information, such as publish date, titles, and accompanying text descriptions of the series and each of its episodes. The feed may contain entries for all episodes in the series, but is typically limited to a short list of the most recent episodes, as is the case with many news feeds. Standard podcasts consist of a feed from one author. More recently multiple authors have been able to contribute episodes to a single podcast feed using concepts such as public podcasting and social podcasting.

The content provider posts the feed on a webserver. The location at which the feed is posted is expected to be permanent. This location is known as the feed URI (or, perhaps more often, feed URL). The content provider makes this feed URI known to the intended audience.

A consumer uses a type of software known as an aggregator, sometimes called a podcatcher or podcast receiver, to subscribe to and manage their feeds.

A podcast specific aggregator is usually an always-on program which starts when the computer is started and runs in the background. They work exactly like any newsreader each at a specified interval, such as every two hours. If the feed data has substantively changed from when it was previously checked (or if the feed was just added to the application's list), the program determines the location of the most recent item and automatically downloads it to the user's portable media players; 80% are consumed on the PC onto which they are downloaded, or deleted from the PC without being listened to.^[3] Many applications also automatically transfer the newly downloaded episodes available to a user's portable media player.

The downloaded episodes can then be played, replayed, or archived as with any other computer file or stored to an MP3 player.

To conserve bandwidth, users may opt to search for content using an online podcast directory. Some directories allow people to listen online and initially become familiar with the content provided from an RSS feed before deciding to subscribe. For most broadband users, bandwidth is generally not a major consideration; it could fairly be stated that podcasting itself is a technology that came with the increases in global bandwidth and broadband popularity.

Other uses

Main article: Uses of podcasting

Podcasting's initial appeal was to allow individuals to distribute their own "radio shows," but the system quickly became used in a wide variety of other ways, including distribution of school lessons,^[4] official and unofficial audio tours of museums, conference meeting alerts and updates, and by police departments to distribute public safety messages. For example, the Pediaphon project provides dynamically generated podcasts of all English and German language Wikipedia articles.

Podcasting is becoming increasingly popular in education. Podcasts enable students and teachers to share information with anyone anytime. If a student is absent, she can download the podcast of the recorded lesson. It can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate curriculum, assignments and other information with parents and the community. Teachers can record book talks, vocabulary or foreign language lessons, international pen pal letters (podcast pals!), music performance, interviews, debates. Podcasting can be a publishing tool for student oral presentations. Video podcasts can be used in all these ways as well.

Podcast trademark claims and disputes

In 2005, it was reported that Former MTV employee Adam Curry had anonymously edited the podcasting entry on Wikipedia to remove credits from other people and to inflate his role in its creation.^[5]

In February 5, 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'.^[6]. In 2005-9-9, United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application. The rejection notice cited Wikipedia's Podcast entry had described the history of the term.^[7]

In September 26, 2006, It was reported that Apple Computer started to crackdown on businesses using the word 'pod' in product and company names. Apple sent a cease-and-desist order last week to Podcast Ready, 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 protection.^[8] It was speculated that activity was part of a bigger campaign for Apple to expand the scope of its existing iPod trademark, which included trademarking 'IPODCAST', 'IPOD Socks', 'POD'.^[9]. Later in 2006-11-16, Apple Trademark Department returned a letter claiming Apple does not object to third party usage of 'podcast' to refer to to podcasting services, and Apple does not license the term.^[10]

Existing trademarks

As of 2005-9-19, known trademarks that capitalize on podcast include: Podcast Realty, GuidePod, PodGizmo, Pod-Casting, MyPod, Podvertiser, ePodcast, PodCabin, Podcaster, PodShop, PodKitchen, Podgram, GodPod and Podcast.^[11]

As of 2007-2, there have been 24 attempts to register trademarks containing the word 'PODCAST' in United States, but only 'PODCAST READY' from Podcast Ready, Inc. was approved.^[12]

See also

• Autocasting (the automatic generation of podcasts from text-only sources)
• Blogcasting (the blogging podcast)
• Social media (for other forms of consumer created content)
• Streaming media
• User-generated content
• Video podcast vodcast - vodcasting (video podcasting)
• Screencast - screen capture video recording
• Photofeed (image podcasting)

Syndication

• RSS
• Atom
• OPML

References

External links

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Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Podcasting

• Creative Commons Podcasting Legal Guide

Lists of podcast directories: (not individual directories)

• Podcast 411 Directory of Directories
• Podcasting News' List of Podcast Directories
• iPodder.org OPML Directory Listings
• podcast.opml.org OPML Directory
• List of video podcast directories
• List of Podcasting Directory & Their Ranking Based on Populartity & Traffic

Wikipedia List of Podcast Directories:

• Podcasting directories