I’m growing concerned with how loose people are becoming in defining what a podcast is. Plain and simple:
- If it’s audio or video slapped on a webpage and there’s no syndication feed, it’s not a podcast.
- If it’s a live webinar or seminar held over the phone and people can ask questions and participate in the interview you’re recording, it’s not a podcast. Don’t call it an interactive podcast either.
Just because you hit record doesn’t make what you’re creating a podcast. To me, it doesn’t matter how the content was assembled, it’s how the content is published whether it can be called a podcast or not.
But then as I ramble and surmise, the question becomes – if users can participate in the conversation you’re recording for your podcast, does the participatory nature of your content make it a podcast? In other words, is it the tool and technology that makes it a podcast or the interaction with the content?
Yes, I’m contradicting myself, so discuss amongst yourselves.
Tags:
podcasting,
podcast
Leesa, to answer your last question, it is the rss (syndication) that makes it a podcast, as simple as that. I know most people have no idea what it is, but that does not mean that it is not important. The definition is extremely important for people like us, who give advice to companies, and I would never let anybody upload files to a website and call it a podcast. Never – ever. Fefor 2004 there was media files on the net, after rrs 2.0 we got podcast and podcasting, and if we don´t use rss, it is just not podcast.
No matter how interactive you are – that is more relevant in the discussion wheter podcast is web 2.0 (a social media) or not.
Don: “The only thing that really matters in broadcasting is program content; all the rest is housekeeping.”
Is you ask me? Housekeeping is very important, ask any housewife 😉
Mack: “The only thing that really matters in broadcasting is program content; all the rest is housekeeping.”
Oh yes, we are all working hard to spread the word, n ota bout rss, but about the media, and there is a lot we can do to make people get the idea, without using the words syndication and rss, but it doesn´t mean that it does not have to be there. I don´t need to fully understand the idea of automatic transmission in my car, but I definitely need it to work for me, so I don´t have to change gears myself.
Oh my – did I get carried away there 😉
Btw. Leesa – see you in London on Monday. 🙂
“The only thing that really matters in broadcasting is program content; all the rest is housekeeping.” These words were written in 1965 by Robert Fowler, chair of yet another committee on Canadian broadcasting. Substitute “podcasting” for “broadcasting” and I think the statement continues to resonate.
I don’t think it’s important to identify the specific requirements that make something a podcast or not. What’s more important, in my opinion, is that people get introduced to the idea…regardless of what they think it is called.
Something has come along to fill a major void in communications (cost-effective time-shifted audio-visual communication). We currently refer to that “something” as podcasting.