Podcasting is the denomination that includes the practice of to publish and distribute on the Internet audio and video files. Though in some cases certain authors prefer to speak of "videocasting" in the case of the videos, al less in this article we will not do many distinctions and will treat them as the same phenomenon.
These files distributed on the internet, that we will call simply podcasts, arose from a mix between the RSS feeds and MP3 reproduction equipment as the iPod. Why?
The idea is interesting: to achieve that the users receive the new podcasts without need to discharge them by hand. The first solution arose from using a functionality of the Apple iTunes that permitted to bring up to date multimedia contents from an RSS file, which quickly popularized the format among the users of the of Apple reproductor. To make it possible the audio or video file should be included under the label enclosure, directly in the feed.
The first uses of the enclosure etiquette came since end of 2000, from the work of David Winer, the original developer of the RSS format. But the term podcasting recently appeared in February 2004 from the suggestion of Ben Hammersky, of The Guardian.
In that way we should have, in each updating of the feed, the new podcasts directly in ours reprods. Of course that already not only iTunes does this: in the last two years several applications have appeared that permit us to handle our podcasts, like Nimiq, Dopple, Juice and others. Even the source of distribution has been diversified and today there are podcasts that are distributed via BitTorrent or places as Odeo and Podomatic, what saves great bandwith.
The podcasting takes thus the characteristic of "push" of the feeds RSS and they arrive to the user without have to do nothing, except to subscribe by once. And besides it serves so that new multimedia formats, that go beyond the text, can be distributed in a simple way by Internet. Certainly this technology has nothing to do with the "streaming" or broadcast alive by Internet, the method used by many radios. This technology requires great bandwith and servers dedicated that bear great demand of resources.
Uses of the podcasting
For now, many people confuse the podcasting with the radio, due to that what is being distributed via RSS are relatively traditional programs. But the fortress of internet is not the distribution. As already the blogs have showed, the potential of the web is the contribution between users. Therefore, only we will see a true explosion of the podcasting in the web when they stop being simple "programs" and be transformed into platforms that permit that the users build know-how in a collaborative way. Something of this are trying to do sites like Pod-Serves with their groups of podcasting and Odeo with the possibility of leave audio comments.
The podcasting already is being adopted for the massive media. Now is more common than radios and newspapers include audio to download, in many cases developed for cover certain news. Also the world of the education has begun to explore the podcast, particularly in USA, where certain contents like classes simply can be distributed through the web. Certainly this content only have real value when is complemented with other tools as forums, blogs and wikis.
The podcasting has arrived, and all seems to indicate that to be remained. Now the challenge is to see what can do the users with him. If it will be a new revolution as internet, or will remain confined to a small group of esnob users.