PODCASTING COMING OF AGE?
If you have been paying attention even a teensy-weensy bit, you'll note that the term 'podcasting' is getting spread all over the 'net. It started only half a year ago, or so, and one of the biggest boosts came from former MTV veejay Adam Curry, who put up his new software iPodder. So now there are thousands of wanna-be pod-jocks podcasting from their basement, back seat, airplanes, etc. I've been checking them out. Boy, talk about having to stretch. Yeah, Adam Curry can be boring talking about the minutae of his life. So can anyone. But as in all 'casting, whether broadcasting or podcasting, you have to sift through the chaff to get to the nuggets of the wheat.
Do a search for 'podcasting' on Google, and you'll find 1,390,000 results. Not bad for a word that was invented just less than a year ago. But when you look around, you'll see that podcasting will have the normal growing pains.
Still, podcasting will grow. In leaps and bounds. Hey, I may even do it. Y'know, come to think of it, I did it SEVEN FRICKIN' YEARS ago. I posted a number of comedy shows and other things on my old website (now defunct), in RealAudio and spread the word. Well, to a few people anyway. But this is NOT a new thing. The only thing news is that instead of manually downloading an MP3 you are able to have a piece of software grab them automatically. Then when you sync your iPod or other MP3 player with your computer, the podcasts jump onto your portable player, so you can listen to them while riding the bus or skating or skiing...
But in spite of my dissing, I am excited about the prospects of podcasting. I think there will be a few that will rise to the top and become well-known. One challenge I can see is trying to pay for the damn thing. Let's say you have a podcast that gets popular...VERY popular. Next thing you know you're getting billed hundreds or thousands of dollars for all that bandwidth it'll suck each month. Hey, somebody's going to pay for it. But with no business model to pay for the individual podcasts, most will remain unknown and unheard except for a few who stumble across them.
If you have been paying attention even a teensy-weensy bit, you'll note that the term 'podcasting' is getting spread all over the 'net. It started only half a year ago, or so, and one of the biggest boosts came from former MTV veejay Adam Curry, who put up his new software iPodder. So now there are thousands of wanna-be pod-jocks podcasting from their basement, back seat, airplanes, etc. I've been checking them out. Boy, talk about having to stretch. Yeah, Adam Curry can be boring talking about the minutae of his life. So can anyone. But as in all 'casting, whether broadcasting or podcasting, you have to sift through the chaff to get to the nuggets of the wheat.
Do a search for 'podcasting' on Google, and you'll find 1,390,000 results. Not bad for a word that was invented just less than a year ago. But when you look around, you'll see that podcasting will have the normal growing pains.
Still, podcasting will grow. In leaps and bounds. Hey, I may even do it. Y'know, come to think of it, I did it SEVEN FRICKIN' YEARS ago. I posted a number of comedy shows and other things on my old website (now defunct), in RealAudio and spread the word. Well, to a few people anyway. But this is NOT a new thing. The only thing news is that instead of manually downloading an MP3 you are able to have a piece of software grab them automatically. Then when you sync your iPod or other MP3 player with your computer, the podcasts jump onto your portable player, so you can listen to them while riding the bus or skating or skiing...
But in spite of my dissing, I am excited about the prospects of podcasting. I think there will be a few that will rise to the top and become well-known. One challenge I can see is trying to pay for the damn thing. Let's say you have a podcast that gets popular...VERY popular. Next thing you know you're getting billed hundreds or thousands of dollars for all that bandwidth it'll suck each month. Hey, somebody's going to pay for it. But with no business model to pay for the individual podcasts, most will remain unknown and unheard except for a few who stumble across them.
posted by Tim 'Gonzo' Gordon @ 2:51 PM
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