When I first heard about podcasting about a year ago, my reaction was - what's the big deal about it? 12 months later, I bought an iPod nano and downloaded some podcasting contents for the first time.
Now I get it - well, sort of. Before sharing my thoughts on podcasting, I'd like to tell you why I didn't think it was such a cool thing at the beginning. Technically speaking, podcasting is nothing innovative. It is just playing an audio file automatically pushed to your pc/audio player on a subscription basis. So the technology is not impressive at all.
However, what really creates the hype is the 'web 2.0' nature of it. - User created content. Just like blogs, this is a way to express yourself. Although I think it is ultimately the 'professional' content that will keep the podcasting alive, the anybody-can-create-and-distribute factor definitely contributed the exponential growth. And what really makes it different from other media is the availability of the high quality semi-professional contents (provided by small organizations).
I enjoy TWIT (This week in tech), Slashdot review, iLounge (I hate the british guy tho), Engadget and some fantasy football podcasts. They are examples of high-quality, up-to-date contents provided by small group of people. It wouldn't have been possible without podcasting because people don't listen to talk shows at work (in front of their pc) and podcasting makes it possible to listen to such contents in your car or in the bus or train.
I don't like the fact that it is called 'pod'-casting, (because it should be accessible from any non-ipod devices), but now I really like the idea.
I wish there was a CD subscription service or even a radio station that plays podcasting contents. Now that I've just said it, I really like the CD subscription idea. Every morning, you get a freshly baked CD delivered to your doorstep and all you need to do is to slide it in to your car's cd player. Hmmm, I wonder if someone's already doing this...
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