History of Podcasting

Podcasting" is a portmanteau word coined in 2004 (see "History" below), that combined two words: "iPod" and "broadcasting."

While the name was primarily associated with audio subscriptions in 2004, the RSS enclosure syndication technique had been used with video files since 2001, before portable video players were widely available. Atom, a recently developed web syndication format, supports rich media content by design, as does standard RSS 2.0 based upon XML 1.0 standards. In fact, any file with a URL, including still images and text, can be delivered via a web feed.

Use of "podcast" to describe both audio and video feeds seemed natural to some users, while others preferred to reserve the word for audio and coin new terms for video subscriptions. Other "pod-" derived neologisms include "podcasters" for individuals or organizations offering feeds, and "podcatchers" for special RSS aggregators with the ability to transfer the files to media player software or hardware.

Neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or other portable player, and no over-the-air broadcasting is required. The name association came about simply because Apple Computer's iPod was the most marketed and the best-selling portable digital audio player when podcasting began, and was used by early practitioners.

However, the use of the "pod" name in 2004 probably played a part [1] in Apple's development of podcasting products and services in 2005, further linking the device and the activity in the news media.

The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary declared "podcasting" the 2005 word of the year in December, defining the term as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player".[2]

From the beginning various writers suggested other names or alternative interpretations of the letters "P-O-D." Technology writer Doc Searls had proposed "Personal Option Digital" in September, 2004. [3] The "Personal On Demand" interpretation was in international circulation as early as October 2004.[4] In July 2005, Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble mentioned that interpretation while countering reports that his company was pushing the word "blogcasting" to avoid mentioning an Apple product.[5] "Blogcasting" also implied content based on, or similar in format to, blogs, which was not always the case.

Another Apple rival in the portable audio and video market, Creative Technology, began using the "Personal On Demand" interpretation, while offering its own "Zencasts."[6]

Other terms have been suggested, but had shortcomings -- "audioblogging," "audio magazines" and "webcasting" could describe other forms of media distribution, and "rsscasting" would be difficult to pronounce.

Podcasting as a medium was first associated with, but never limited to, audio data. As use of RSS enclosures for video spread in 2005, podcasting of video data was called, among other things, "video blogging", "video podcasting", "vlogging", "vodcasting", or "vidcasting".

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia material "Podcasting"

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• Popularity of Podcasting
  The word about podcasting rapidly spread through the already-popular weblogs of Curry, Winer and other early podcasters and podcast-listeners
  
  
• iPods and Podcasting
  ipods and podcasting - While podcasting's innovators took advantage of the sound-file synchronization feature of Apple Computer's iPod & iTunes software -- & included "pod" in the name