Any Podcasters out there?

[Brian]

As an iPod owner and Audible.com Basic Listener, I find the spoken word to be one of the best ways to make my commute productive and entertaining at the same time. Besides audiobook content, PodCasting is gaining popularity. Technology enthusiasts and bloggers around the web are making their content available in spoken form, and they're using RSS to syndicate it. There are several desktop apps like iPodder to automatically grab your favorite Podcasts.

As Engadget's Phillip Torrone, quoting Doc Searls points out:

Doc Searls may have said it best: “PODcasting will shift much of our time away from an old medium where we wait for what we might want to hear to a new medium where we choose what we want to hear, when we want to hear it, and how we want to give everybody else the option to listen to it as well.”

Mike Rohde of Rohdesign fame has an interesting blurb about Podcasting in his blog. I'd recommend checking out Mike's article and Doc Searls's DIY Radio with Podcasting, even if you're not an iPod owner, as most Podcasts are distributed in MP3 format.

Engadget has their own weekly Podcast and has put together a Podcast How-to Guide.

Happy Podcasting,

Brian

[ignatz]

Do you have any recommended podcasts besides the Engadget one? Who else is producing them at this point. ipodder has a list of podcasts, but the interface is really awkward. As few as there are, I would prefer to just see a list.

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by ignatz

ipodder has a list of podcasts, but the interface is really awkward. As few as there are, I would prefer to just see a list.

Podcasts are awkward...I agree. I glanced at podcast sites and it looks like they all need some sort of application to get access. If they're only mp3's why can't we just download them without a special program? I must be missing something.

[sUnShInE]

One major stopping factor for those who produce audio content, and those who have the ability but are hesitating jumping into the game, is that there's no good distribution mechanism. Audible.com is a lovely and niche resource, but they are very selective as to whose content they post, making it difficult for others to put stuff out there.

By creating a chain like this, it gives ordinary people the option to jump on board with a ready-made audience. It's very 'net spirited: giving the finger to "the man".

[Brian]

Ignatz & BobR,

Typically, you can just download the "Podcast" MP3 file and listen to it however you desire. The whole point of the Ipodder-type apps is that using RSS, Podcasters can attach a file (PodCast MP3) to a newsfeed. For Podcast listeners, the desktop program will automatically monitor, or at scheduled intervals, download and import the Podcast into your iTunes folder, making the whole process an automated content delivery model.

Some lists of PodCasts:

http://www.podcasters.org/static/feeds.html

http://www.podcast.net/list.cgi/alpha

I'm most interested in Podcasts that are the spoken word version/weekly summary of popular blogs and tech-sites. I don't know about you, but it's getting hard to keep up and check all of my favorite blogs and sites on a regular basis. If I did, I'd be browsing most of the day . Can't web browse your favorite sites while driving? Enter Podcasts.

Podcasts are a great way to maximize my commute. Because listening to spoken content is passive, I can listen while commuting, walking, exercising etc. Like Audible.com content, I'm finding Podcasts to be a great way to listen to content that I'm interested in, not just news but insight, personal opinions, editorials and analysis. E-books and other digital content like iSilo clips are great, but text-based content has its limitations because it is not passive like the spoken word. To me, audibooks, Podcasts, e-books and web clips all complement eachother nicely.

After reading this article about Podcasts, I think David Coursey of eWeek is really missing the point, and I'm quite shocked that he can only foresee commercial applications of Podcasting:

At one level, this is blogging for people with even larger egos, folks who think they need to be heard as well as read. On another level, RSS feeds are a good way for commercial audio producers to make their programming widely available via automated downloads for offline listening.

I really don't agree with his "ego" remark: I'm sure that could occur to some extent, he is definitely missing the big picture about freedom (from the FCC among others) and choice for listeners.

Brian

[TadW]

I agree. Podcasting has nothing to do with "large egos", but with very inventive minds who constantly try to find better and more interesting ways in communicating information.

[sUnShInE]

So which software are you using? I tried Doppler, and while the interface was pleasing, it didn't work very well so I switched up to iPodder (Adam Curry's) a week or go or so and it works great. The scheduler, in particular, works very well.

[Brian]

Originally Posted by sUnShInE

So which software are you using? I tried Doppler, and while the interface was pleasing, it didn't work very well so I switched up to iPodder (Adam Curry's) a week or go or so and it works great. The scheduler, in particular, works very well.

I'm using iPodder on my XP box, and it works great. Now I have four programs actively pulling mobile content: HandStory, SunRise, Audible Manager and iPodder.

I predict it won't be too long before even more turn-key solutions are available for PodCast creators listeners. It wouldn't be too hard for Apple to combine iChat and Garage Band to creat an integrated, complete Podcasting publishing solution for content creators as well as updating iTunes to subscribe to and download Podcasts from RSS feeds. It would be yet another innovation for the iPod/iTunes combo and could help Apple maintain their healthy (approx. 90% of HDD-based music players based on recent analysis) lead in the ever-increasing HDD-based portable music player market. It seems like everybody and their brother is jumping on the bandwagon these days with a flood of new players on the market.

Brian

[sUnShInE]

The problem is that we need more options for audio grabbing. I feel them a'coming though. I think alot of news orgs in particular, NPR comes to mind, are hesitant to put their audio up in mp3 format.

[Pride Of Lions]

I'm glad you guys started this thread. I'm spanking-new to the Podcast game, and I wonder why I didn't get hip to it sooner. It's so cool that, while I usually keep a backup of my "Home" directory on my iPod, I've had to delete it to open up space for the new podcasts I've just subscribed to. Come on 80GB iPod!!

I like the format, but I feel like most content creators either do it as a hobby or lack the skills to put a bit more of a professional polish on their podcasts. The hobby thing I can understand, people who have a little extra time and want to speak their piece online, but it's frustrating waiting for them to make another installment if I like what they're talking about. It's like trying to support a small hobbyist developer, I want them to give me more but I'm always secong to their "day job."

The podcasts that have likeable content and are produced more regularly are a joy, when it sounds good. Most people are still learning which bitrates to encode their podcasts at, or how to EQ their voices or check the input levels on their mics to prevent over-modulation or how to incorporate Scype interviews where the other party sounds good to the podcaster and to us on this end.

Right now, I have several podcasts downloading onto my iTunes for transfer to my iPod and most of them are techy geekiness, but some others are Spanish language lessons or poetry or narrative works. I'm simply amazed by how wonderful this technology is and, as an ego thing, I cannot wait to begin podcasting myself. If the stars are kind, I'll post my results here for all to hear.

So, what are you guyses favorite podcasts? I like Leo Laporte's stuff. Somebody described him as a shade above that "Video Professor" guy, but I'm still learning about certain technologies and I like his pleasant style. Most geeks are either too geeky (Jeff Kirvin from iSCR sounds like "Comic Book Guy" from the "Simpsons" if he had a PDA podcast) or their too unpleasant and impatient with their callers. I've been checking out Chris Pirillo's stuff, but his podcasts integrate Scype callers or Windows GoToMeeting conference calls and sometimes the quality of the remote voices is difficult to swallow (I'm a Sound Guy, so I really geek out on how things sound.)

I haven't checked out the poetry slam stuff yet, but it's there when I'm ready for it. What do you guys recommend that I try?
POL9A

[volwrath]

I like SlackerAstronomy. PodCastAlley is a pretty good place to see content and get ideas.

[GSmith]

I use, recommend, and wrote FeederReader for the Pocket PC. It is the premier podcast download and listening program, if I do say so myself ;-)

I am also an avid podcast listener. Some of my favorite include

Dawn and Drew
On the Media (an NPR program)
Science Friday (NPR)
Only in America (Jewish heritage, and I'm not even Jewish!)
Podcheck (week in review)
Brain Brew (small business)
several programs from WFMU (including Donna Summer, Edison's Attic, Antique Phonograph)
One America Committee ("John Edwards" podcast)
And various technical: TinyPodcast, TechAddiction, Engadget, Dave's iPAQ

There's more...

I download close to 100 Megabytes a day over my EDGE cellular telephone to listen to many hours a day.

There's just something about downloading and listening to Edison Cylinders on a Pocket PC 100 years after they were produced. It's kind of like watching Charlie Chaplin on DVD.


We (the developer community) are really trying to get "OneClick" subscription to make it much easier to subscribe and listen to podcasts. It requires coordination from production tools and client tools. Give us a little time, we'll get there!

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - The Pocket PC RSS, podcatcher, videocatcher
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[Pride Of Lions]

Originally Posted by GSmith

I use, recommend, and wrote FeederReader for the Pocket PC. It is the premier podcast download and listening program, if I do say so myself ;-)...We (the developer community) are really trying to get "OneClick" subscription to make it much easier to subscribe and listen to podcasts. It requires coordination from production tools and client tools. Give us a little time, we'll get there!

How does the upcoming release of iTunes, which purports to support podcasting, affect developers such as yourself with regards to the future of podcasting?

Also, do you ever plan on porting your FeederReader to either Palm OS or that new sexy Nokia 770?
POL9A

[GSmith]

To the extent that iTunes adopts a common standard of one-click subscriptions, meta-data, file formats, and subscription payments, Apple will help tremendously with the spread and popularity of podcasting, which I think will help everyone.

I am looking at alternative devices and alternative functionality and trying to decide the best path for the software. It is written on the .NET Compact Framework, so any device that supports that environment will have a higher likelyhood of running FeederReader in the future.

Great questions! If you have more, ask away!

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - The Pocket PC RSS, podcatcher, videocatcher
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road