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Podcasting about the net...
- 4 Sep 07, 05:12 PM
Podcasts were the first truly multimedia format to hit the web. They are easy to listen to, relatively inexpensive to make - all it takes is a microphone and the accessible Studio Recorder software from - and fairly simple to produce.
Podcasts are audio files that can be subscribed to for regular updates, and listened to on either your MP3 player or computer.
is a really good example of podcasting. The focus is on blind friendly technology, like Jamie Paul's tutorial on using Rhapsody to download music - but not exclusively so. There are also interviews and more general discussions, such as Larry Skutchan's show about some of the issues involved when it comes time for the retirement of a guide dog.
What I really like about podcasts is that you can subscribe to them using an RSS feed. For me, that means I get notified of new shows I’m interested in on my news aggregator, my jumping off point for browsing all that’s new on the web. There are a couple of accessible podcast aggregators, including . For a lot of other people, it means that the latest content is downloaded to their MP3 player as soon as it becomes available.
Like radio, podcasts are pretty much accessible for visually impaired people. It is a great leveller. No one can see what is going on, so anything important and visual will be explained.
But what is the future of podcasting? A recent article by Alex Iksold of noted that the number of podcasts being made and listened to seems to be on a downward trend. Alex thinks the main reasons for this are that it the competition from blogs and video is tough, and that in our time hungry world, we just can’t set aside the time for listening to audio except when travelling.
There’s something to that. Its quicker to skim read a blog, or a transcript of a podcast when they are available. I’m a busy man. And even though I’m a busy man with no life outside of geekery, it still proves difficult to free up an hour of my time to listen to everything I want to.
I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts on this one. Are you a podcaster, and have you seen your audience grow or shrink? Have you fallen out of love with podcasts?
Ironically, on the same day Alex Iksold published his article, Read/WriteWeb announced the launch of – a podcasting service. Transcripts will also be made available of the shows, so it will be interesting to see which media proves to be more popular with that audience. I also noticed that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ launched an "official radio show" to accompany their new hit series, Heroes. There are loads listed at as well. So maybe it is too soon to sound the death knell for the format.
Because podcasts are blind friendly, it would be dreadful if they were to disappear altogether. But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that podcasting hasn’t taken the mainstream by storm. After all, when televisions appeared in every home, radio listening figures took a hit as well. Like radio, which is still going strong, podcasting has an audience, and still has a future.
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