strong>Podcasting Is More Than Podcasting: Towards Disruptive Media
–by Andrew McCaskey
One of the more interesting things that has emerged over the past 15 months has been the variety of distribution methods attached to the general idea of podcasting.
Let me count the ways: As long term listeners know, SDR comes your way in a number of methods:
As an attachment easily grabbed by podcatchers such as Juice (the former iPodder Lemon), or integrated into iTunes for classic delayed consumption on the iPod or portable mp3 player.
Or via the bittorrent feed, the file shows up for manual transfer in the same manner.
Add to this, there is the daily streaming media feed in WMA format from the Techpodcast.com site for listening at your desk
Or on your Pocket PC of the iPaq or Dell Axim variety
The capability for direct download from the site,
The built in Flash based player that is included in every page courtesy of Podtrac,
The progressive low bandwidth download from Melodeo Mobilcast into selected Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericssion phones,
The streaming audio selected from the Series II Tivo
And finally, the daily email version of SDR, courtesy of FeedBlitz – which you can select for free from the site.
I’ve probably left out some Sony PSP, flash based devices and a few others.
So ‘podcasting’ linked in the public mind as it is with a specific device or use mode, is – or can be – a lot broader service than might first appear. It’s moving towards that very simple concept : People want to access content wherever they are in time and space. And that is fast moving towards video as well.
If Podcasting, as a simple analog to radio is about to extend to video / what happens when you add to that search, social networking and additional dimensions of content, query and relationship ?
Now take all that, and the imagination of a 15 year old, combine with a broadband connection and take less than $400 on a trip to Walmart.
No wonder the name Disruptive Media is emerging to describe all of this.