According to Dictionary.com, the word chameleon means:
a changeable, fickle, or inconstant person
Now, some are saying that podcasting is dead because one company called Podzinger recently changed its name to Everyzinger. Others, such as my friend Scott Bourne, says that podcasting is just a small sliver in the new media pie, so hence we should focus on finding a new name that encompasses all audio and video online, including YouTube, etc.
John Bollwitt captures my feelings best when it comes to this debate on what to call podcasting:
“Discussion is good, but there is serious need for great content so that more people take notice and make this medium stronger. Better accessibility through technology wouldn’t hurt either, but that’s a whole other topic for another time.”
The technology needs to be better. It takes barely 3-minutes to launch a blog, however, to the uninitiated, it can take hours, even days to get a podcast up and running. Let’s focus less on the name change and more on making the technology better.
Oh, and can I put in a request to make the statistics more consistent in podcasting? As podcasters, we’re using 10 different features to measure the success of our podcast campaign. This is confusing to media and ad buyers. Someone please take the charge, get us all in agreement so we can show that podcasting is serious stuff.
Whoops. I meant to say… http://www.k-lever.net and added a full-stop in the URL!
Interesting, I heard a similar vibe, something like, ‘Podcasting is just part of a path to something else’ (paraphrased).
Sure, convergence is coming and increasingly there are more consolidation sites – see http://www.k-lever.net. Or, MS:Popfly.
It is not really the name that we should be looking at. It is what is served by the technology. What does it facilitate? Does it add any value?
The eventual acceptance by Corporations that Web 2.0 will be just in time before Web 3.0 offers a greater semantic edge that is seamless.
Therefore, we won’t need to worry about what it is called, simply that it works. Do you care about what is inside your washing machine?
I completely agree with the stats aspect – it would be so great to have a way to accurately track subscribers. Right now, I’m tearing my hair out trying to get a picture of my subscriber base. Argh. I also love Curtis James’ comment to the post. My mission is to deliver great content on a regular basis…it’s the thing that frustrates me the most about podcasts. Irregular episodes and bogus content.
I have to agree with Scott Bourne. Podcasting isn’t dead, but it is just a very small part of the digital world.
I’m looking forward to the day when the focus is on content rather than on how it’s delivered. And right now, there is no simple way for everyone to listen to podcasts, so the technology needs to take few steps forward before my grandma is tuning in.