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For many years prior to podcasting (since at least the mid-1990s), radio existed on the Web, as well as many other forms of transmitting and transferring audio. These files could be of commercial music, independent music, or spoken opinion or instruction. However, one had to search for any wanted audio one file at a time. If users were to find a Web location that produced frequent audio files on a topic of particular interest, they would have to check back frequently to determine if updates (new files) were available.
Simultaneous to the rise of available audio files was the development of Weblogs (blogs). Blogs rapidly became a common way to share personal rants, opinions, and even areas of interest and academic research. However, the same difficulty existed in tracking updates to these blogs as did the issue with tracking updates to audio files.
In THIS YEAR, Dave Winer developed RSS, a technology that allowed individuals to subscribe to a specific blog and receive automatic notification when updates became available. However, this technology was not initially available for use with audio.
Audio blogging was soon to follow textual blogging. With the advent of MP3s and the ability to save and transfer audio files at a very rapid speed, people began creating audioblogs for others to download and listen to at their leisure. Unfortunately, individuals still needed to frequently check their favorite audio blog sites for updates.
About this same time, Adam Curry (known as one of the original MTV VJs in the 1980s) was looking for a way to make music and spoken audio more readily available and trackable over the Web. Curry contacted Winer about developing a way that MP3s could could be easier controlled and automatically downloaded to the computers and handheld devices of subscribers to a given site. Winer responded quickly, updating his RSS feed technology with the "file enclosure" tag that directed the subscriber's computer where to locate and download the file. Curry continued working on podcasting software and developed the first podcatcher software to help a user's computer locate and download desired files.
In February of 2004, Ben Hammersly wrote an article for Guardian magazine on the topic of Audioblogging and Internet radio. This article is the noted as the first use of the term "podcasting" to describe these practices. The term had been used ever since that article. While the terms is formed from merging "broadcasting" and "iPod" (Apple Computer's ubiquitous MP3 player), there is no direct tie to the iPod. Actually, one could merely download the file to a computer and play it there, never touching an iPod or other MP3 player.
Today, there are innumerable podcasting sites devoted to providing audio on every topic from current events and political opinion to translations of religious texts to academic or corporate instruction to child care or culinary techniques and more.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the technology that allows users to subscribe to sites that offer podcasts and to download certain files automatically. |