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It’s a bit of a conundrum, but many outdoor activites are exactly the kind of thing where you wouldn’t drag along a pile of magazines or a TV, and yet that’s how information about them is traditionally spread.

So along strolls “trailcast", an audio magazine about walking (well, “hiking"), which you can fit into a few grams of MP3 player. Neat idea, and just the thing for listening to as you stomp around the countryside. Well, maybe. My only slight concern is that the content seems actually aimed more at “armchair” hikers. It seems like the kind of stuff you’d listen during a tedious commute when you would really rather be out in the wilderness. For the actual walking, a good long audiobook might be a better choice :)

Read more at TrailCast - Podcasting on foot

I love that there’s a steady stream of fresh ideas in podcasting. It’s cool to get glimpses into people’s lives, but sometimes a bit more structure is appropriate.

So I was glad to be pointed to The Slam Idol Podcast. It’s a poetry podcast, but with a twist. Not just stuff from one poet, but from anyone who sends in a recording. These poetry tracks are then bundled into groups (the first group featured six, with delightfully diverse styles and content, for example), and site visitors are encouraged to vote on the pieces. I guess the audience-voting is why it gets the slightly-specious “idol” in the title.

I’ve missed the first “slam", but I’m seriously thinking about submitting some of my poetry for a later battle. So if you see my name on the site some time, feel free to vote. Nudge, nudge :-)

Read more, listen, and vote at The Slam Idol Podcast.

As you may know, I like listening to podcast audio novels. I think they are a great idea, and a fun thing to load up a player with for a long journey (or tedious meeting, or whatever). So I was interested to spot in the ipodder.org new podcasts announcement blog an announcement of the serialization of “Claybourne", described as “A sci-fi / supernatural thriller / soap opera podcast drama".

I popped the feed into the ipodder client, only to find that it only contains episodes 16-25.

If I may be so bold, that’s a plainly stupid idea. While there is some justification for only listing the most recent entries in something like a link or news blog, or the kind of “thought for the day” podcast that a lot of people seem to produce, I can’t imagine anyone would want to start listening to a story from anywhere other than the beginning. Duh.

So, just in case anyone else is syndicating an audio book and heading for this problem, make sure your RSS feed is locked down to include all the episodes, right from the start, not just the last 10.

If I can find the first 15 episodes I might listen to the story, otherwise it’s just wasted space and bandwidth. Please wise up guys.

Read more (well, read some, anyway) at ThePodcastNetwork :: Claybourne

As I mentioned back in March, Scott Sigler is busy publishing his novel “Earthcore” as a podcast series. I’m finding it compulsive listening.

The story is pretty compelling, with an interesting range of characters, locations and situations. I have to bow to Scott’s voice acting talents - the voices are recognizably his, but still recognizably different from each other. I guess it’s a small hazard of doing it this way, but sometimes the vocal differences tend toward caricature rather than character - the Australian accent of the lead mining engineer seems a bit of a stretch to me, for example. These are only very minor niggles, though.

Counting all the episodes so far, his is easily the lengthiest podcast I’ve listened to, and that has had some intriguing effects that I wasn’t expecting. Listening to a continuing story while going about normal life has led to some strange audio/visual associations. I listened to the section where Sonny the Prospector met up with Herb the Assayer, while browsing in Maplin (an electronics and audio store), for example, so that’s the image that always comes to mind when I think of Herb or his office.

Some parts of the story have been delightfully tense. The meeting between Herb and Kayla the Psycho would have had me on the edge of my seat if I hadn’t been walking into work at the time.

If I have any criticisms they are probably only relatively minor things about the presentation and sequencing of the episodes. I can’t help feeling that Scott, in common with many podcasters, is stuck in the idea that people will be listening to each episode as it is released. Real podcast listeners are not always like that - I usually wait until I have downloaded a whole audio book before starting listening to it, for example, or listen to a directory full of a particular podcast in one go.

This wouldn’t be much of a problem except for the “Previously on Earthcore” and “Next Episode” headers and footers that appear on every episode. When you are listing to a whole sequence in one hit, such things just get in the way and dilute the tension of story rather than building it.

Similarly, the bundling of chapters seems a bit odd. I’m lucky in that I struggled to find a player that will remember where I had got to when I switch it off, but I know that many don’t. Given that the story splits naturally into smallish chapters, it seems strange to provide them for download only as clusters of two or three. Drip-feeding them one chapter every few days would seem a better alternative on the surface (and avoid the “oops” of inadvertently using an “&” in the filename which prompted a re-post of one such chunk).

Once again, though, I must emphasise just how trivial my suggestions are in comparison to the excellent quality of the podcast as a whole. I really can’t wait for each new episode, and each one goes straight to the top of my playlist as it comes in.

And I’d like to give a nod to the web support, which really adds to the listening/reading experience. See a map of the mountain! Visit the faux earthcore web site! Read Scott trying to contain his excitement!

Well done Scott and the Dragon Page.

Read more, and subscribe if you haven’t already done so, at EarthCore: A Podcast Novel

I recently spent a few days away from my computer and the internet, so I had a chance to catch up on a bunch of podcasts I had grabbed but not got around to listening to. One of them was Outchurched, a series of phone interviews from “The One True” Dan Tripp and “the” Ryan King. Both guys consider themselves to be “outchurched” - they have a strong Christian background, but don’t get on well with the American Church in its various forms. The podcast is largely discussions between these guys as they share their background and thoughts, and work through their issues. It’s a kind of mild-mannered session from a therapist’s waiting room.

One of their claims is that they want to steer clear of the jargon and loaded terms used in many Christian discussions. In practice they seem to be inventing almost as many of their own as they go along - the eponymous “outchurched” and Dan’s favourite “churchianity” to name just two. The podcast episodes I listened to sounded interesting enough that I recorded and sent an “audio” comment, and you can hear Dan and Ryan dissect it in their podcast number seven.

Read more at Outchurched, or subscribe to the RSS 2.0 feed.

While I was attending the conference I mention in the ‘cast, I browsed the sprawling Christian bookstall, and was intrigued to find The Christian Culture Survival Guide, which takes a humorous aim at some of the same absurdities. If you like Dan and Ryan’s take on things, you may want to pick up a copy, even if it’s only for the bullet-point asides like “Fifteen Kinds Of Church People To Look Out For", and “Eight Ways To Know If You Might Be Worshipping Your Pastor".

I haven’t listened to any of this one yet, but I’ve really enjoyed the small number of podcast audio books I’ve heard so far. This one has now been added to my feed, and I’ll report back after I’ve played a few chapters.

“EarthCore is the world’s first podcast-only novel: you can’t find it in stores, you can’t download the full audio, and the only way to find out what happens is to subscribe to the podcast. This novel is a cross between episodic modern-action fare like “24″ and classic sci-fi movies like Predator and Starship Troopers.”

Read more and subscribe at PalmAddicts: EarthCore

I’m always looking for interesting new uses for the podcast medium. Over the last few weeks I have been enjoying the “podquiz” from podquiz.com.

Podquiz is a short quiz with typically four rounds of five questions each. The quizmaster (who doesn’t mention his name on the podquiz site, but goes by “james” on another) chooses a different topic for each round, and asks the questions in order. After a few minutes of musical break, he reads the answers. The whole ‘cast lasts about 20 minutes. The quiz is presented in a fairly breathy, close-miked, English accent. The questions are usually very clear, although I did notice a slight stumble on the word “siblings", which is not a particularly commonly-known word at the best of times.

As I’m writing this I’ve just listened to podquiz number five. As the series has progressed so far, the format has developed subtly. The incidental music and general production quality seems to have improved, and the quizmaster seems to have gained some confidence, which results in a more relaxed presentation. The questions vary in difficulty - some rounds I get an easy 5/5, others I’m lucky to manage one or two. A particular strand that runs through a lot of the rounds is the use of audio material to make it less easy to just ask the internet for the answers. This also gives more justification for doing this as a podcast rather than just a text web site.

I do have a minor suggestions for improvement, though. I notice that the quizzes are numbered rather than dated, which is a fine choice. Unfortunately (particularly in quiz number four) some questions include references to date-specific information.

It can be tempting when making a podcast to think of it existing at the time of creation, with everyone downloading it the same week. In practice these quizzes (and podcasts in general) may well be listened to in years to come as as people discover the “back issues". My suggestion is simply that any question which might have a date-specific answer, be tied to a particular date. For example, instead of asking:

How old is Prince Charles

Ask something like:

In 2005, Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker-Bowles. How old is the prince at the wedding?

Similarly for a question like “What is the name of Paris Hilton’s dog?“. Dogs have a relatively short life, so the answer could well be different in a few years’ time.

Apart from that minor point, I am enjoying these quizzes. The ‘cast length is just about right, skipping the music is easy if I want to, and the questions are hard enough to present a challenge, but easy enough to feel just a little smug in some rounds. I look forward to many more.

Read more at: podquiz.com.

I had some time yesterday between things, and while waiting during my daughter’s orchestra practice, so I thought I’d catch up with a few podcasts that have intrigued me enough to load on my player, but which I’d not seriously listened to. This post I’ll focus on “Geek Fu Action Grip” by Mur Lafferty.

Mur (I guess this is a kind of nickname, but she obviously prefers it to her “real” name, so I’ll leave that for you to find out, if you care) has been producing a podcast approximately once a week since December 2004. ‘Casts range in length by a few minutes, but are usually each around 10 minutes long. Mostly the format is the same each time. Each ‘cast starts with a few minutes of general discussion, business, whining about things, and general hat-tipping and back-slapping to other podcasters. So far this is much like many others. What distinguishes Mur’s podcast is the bit that follows.

The “meat” of each ‘cast is an audio essay. Subjects range widely - I listened to things from a discussion of the subtext of a trip to a pharmacy, through the hidden passions of housewives for childrens’ TV presenters and stereotypical “hot doctors", to memories of youthful ballet and martial arts lessons and the liberal guilt of owning an “SUV". Mur obviously has an extensive “back catalog” of material, and mixes older pieces with more reccent ones. Sometimes she will add an update, such as following the essay on being a “cry baby” with the note that she finds it strangely easier to well up now she has a child of her own.

I thoroughly enjoy Mur’s style - both in the “writing” of the essays, and the pleasant way she delivers them as audio. Mur podcasts from Durham in North Carolina (at least I assume it’s spelled “Durham” like the town in the north east of England, rather than “Durum” like the wheat used in pasta - that’s the trouble with podcasts). I’ve never listened to anyone else from around there, but I guess she has the local accent. Her voice is melodic and easy to listen to, without the harshness and stridency of many podcasters.

In general the presentation is Mur’s voice only. Occasionally she adds some music (I laughed out loud at the “Bjork” song), or a snippet of another podcast. This seems to be partly due to trepidation about using the Audacity sound-editing software, as much as a production choice, but it certainly suits me. As an aside, if you want to listen to a podcast that’s more like 80% intro/outro and only 20% content, check out Sound of the day!

I find the content of the essays engaging because they deftly mix a dash of personal experience with just enough of the general human condition, and don’t go so deep or long that I get twitchy with the lack of somewhere to take notes, or a web browser to cross-check details.

Sometimes the cultural context leaves me slightly adrift, though. The whole North vs South and Liberal vs Democrat thing adds a bit of local colour, I’m sure, but it lacks emotional impact for me - from here they seem much more alike than different. As another example, in one ‘cast, Mur makes much of the difference between two presenters of the kids’ TV show “Blue’s Clues". I’ve seen the show a few times, but didn’t recognize either of the names of the presenters. In my memory the presenter’s name was “Kevin". On later research it seems that the show is extensively localized, with a wholly different presenter, and different voices for the cartoon characters, for different target markets. If you are familiar with the US version, check out the UK version to see how strangely different it looks and sounds.

In summary, this podcast evokes fond memories of some of the BBC talk radio I listened to in my youth. There are presumably similar things on NPR in the USA. If that’s what Mur was aiming for, I reckon she’s made it.

I’ll certainly keep listening.

Over the last week or so, I’ve been listening to a few audio book podcasts to see how well they work. I’ll try and review them as I go along, so here’s the first.

Independent author Steve Whan has written several books in his “Autumn Jade” adventure series. The books are aimed at children (the protagonist is a 12-year-old Canadian/Chinese girl). Steve has made two chapters of his first book in the series “Bullets on the Bund” available as podcasts I assume it’s Steve reading, as there don’t seem to be any other names associated with the MP3 file.

The story is certainly interesting enough that I’m looking forward to the next chapter. I find the reading voice a little strange, though. I guess the Canadian accent is “aboot” right, but I do find the way that a first-person story from a young girl is spoken by a deep-voiced male takes a bit of getting used to. A related problem is the way that two of the main characters “Autumn” and “Adam” have names that no doubt look quite different in print, but sound a little too similar when spoken.

Some of the conventions from written speech can also sound a little contrived when read aloud, and I did find that some of the scene-setting exchanges in the first chapter came over as a little stilted and unrealistic. It could be that that’s the way kids in BC speak, though. The second chapter seems to have more feeling to it, so it looks like Steve is getting into his recording “stride". If I have a particular suggestion it would be to try and vary the voice a bit more to add some more pace, feeling and tension to the dialog. Maybe listen to a few professional audio books for tips.

In general I’m very impressed. It takes a lot of grit to write and publish your own books, and even more to open yourself up to the world by blogging and podcasting. I really hope it goes well.

Grab the chapters so far at Autumn Jade Publishing Podcasts, or read Steve’s blog with it’s insight into his life and the progress on his next book.

I got a mention in a podcast. Cool!

Many thanks to The Trend Junkie, who had some really nice things to say about my weblog in his recent podcast The Trend Junkie: Trend Radio #6: Wrap Up, Tuneage, The Duo.

I did smile a little when I saw his accompanying blog text, though. After calling me on getting his name wrong when I mentioned his blog a few days ago, now I notice that he links to me as podcastplayer.com (rather than podcastplayer.org).

Do fetch his podcast. Well worth a listen.

Do you remember the episode of “the Simpsons” where Homer listens to a vocabulary tape instead of one for weight-loss?

Now you can increase your vocabulary just by listening to podcasts. Here’s a snippet from March 02, 2005:

Today I have two words for you. Flotsam and jetsam. Both are nouns and both describe stuff that had been thrown into the ocean from a boat.

Flotsam is, broadly, floating debris or a collection of miscellaneous stuff. Technically, it is stuff that has fallen off a boat, either cargo or wreckage. Flotsam can also be used to describe a population of emigrants or castaways. Flotsam can be traced back to various Old English, Old French and Germanic words meaning float.

Jetsam on the other hand is cargo or ship parts that have been deliberately thrown over board, jettisoned. Usually to lighten the ship’s load in a time of distress.

Read more at Today’s Podcast, or slap http://todayspodcast.com/index.xml into your podcatcher.

Podcasts are a great way to learn stuff. Anyone who has listened to a few will know that. Which makes it a natural fit technology for education. Derek Morrison has been looking around for good sources of solid, informative, listenable, podcasts:

For this article I was particularly interested in tracking down podcasts and raw MP3 files with high production values. I know, there’s some real gems in amateur sites with access to limited production facilities or expertise, or in conference/presentation recordings, but some podcasts engage and involve because they have the listeners of the recording in mind and so ’speak’ to their particular audience.

The article contains a long list of podcast and web audio download sources. Some are “the usual suspects", like Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, but others (such as The Naked Scientist archive are more unusual.

Read the whole article at Auricle: Probing podcasting from the professionals

If, like me, you find slashdot just too much to grasp, here’s a way to get an idea of what’s going on without having to face the site itself. Andy McCaskey is producing a regular 10-minute podcast summary of his picks from slashdot.

Brief, clear, and informative. Cool.

Read the latest podcast at Slashdot Review � Podcast 2005-02-25 or subscribe to a regular RSS enclosure feed, or BitTorrent feed

Here’s someone doing something that I’ve thought about a lot, but never quite got around to. Reading childrens books as a podcast.

I read to my children a lot, and I enjoy it a lot, too. What has worried me about this idea, though, is the complications of copyright. If I were to read one of the hundreds of books that my kids love to hear, I’d probably be performing someone else’s copyright work. I don’t know enough about copyright law to know how this stuff applies.

Are specific retellings of classic tales covered by copyright? When and how does this sort of copyright expire? Are there some older books that it’s OK to read without repercusssions? Who owns the rights? Is there a way of contacting authors and/or publishers to get clearance? Does any of this really matter?

Read more, and listen to the podcasts at Reading to Rowan 4: The Three Little Bears

As an aside, I’d love to podcast some of the several versions we have of this well-known tale, I find the subtle differences intriguing.

This is a neat idea. A podcast poetry readings magazine. I listened to the first one, where Sherri asks for submissions, and then reads three of her own. The poetry was interesting, although I guess I would have preferred a slightly more measured reading, to allow time for the nuances of the words to settle in before rushing on to the next.

Still, a good start, and she’s keen on submissions in text or MP3 format, so I should really get of my lazy swivel chair and record some of my own so you can all poke fun at my reading style too :) maybe I’ll get something in the second edition.

Read/Listen at Plain Clothes Poetry

I know I’m never going to be a Hollywood big shot, but I’m really enjoying working through the podcasts at Filmmaking Central. I’ve listened to one about getting started with scriptwriting, and one about budget ranges so far, and I’ve got half a dozen more queued up.

There’s a real sense that the speaker knows what he’s talking about, even when he slips and hints that only movies with a budget over $5,000,000 are “real” movies :). My only small gripe is that the sound level of the introduction/title sequence is considerably higher than the spoken part, so I have to fiddle with my player to turn it up, then get blasted out by the next intro. This may have been fixed in later ‘casts, but if not, I suggest taking a look at the levels.

Hmm. I’m not sure if this is really a podcast or just some streaming audio attached to a page. I couldn’t find an easy way to download the audio, but I didn’t exactly try very hard.

Free Traffic Tips - the blog: [Audio Post of the Day]

In this mini-cast:

* Overview of Google Tuesdays
* Improving Keyword Rankings in Google at websearch.about.com.
* A GREAT podcasting site to visit.
* What special event starts tomorrow on Webmaster Wednesday?
* Huge update to Marketing Success with RSS is uploading as we speak - it’s almost double the size of the original.
* Will there be a video here in the next couple of days?

I’m pretty interested in web sites and traffic (and have strong opinions on some of the suggestions you find on the web), so I hoped I’d get a lot from this “mini-cast", but I’m afraid I found it really dull. Most of the audio seemed to simply be a re-reading of the list of contents from the web site, and the rest was an uninspiring slog through some stuff that would have made much more sense as text on a web page.

I’m not completely spoiled on this site - the narrator did hint that she was having problems with the audio on this one - but I sure hope the next edition has more to recommend it.

I love the variety you find on the internet these days. Early blogs were mostly about blogging, and early podcasts were mostly about podcasting, but now things are settling down and we can get podcasts about things people are actually interested in. Like knitting.

There’s an area of your work with fungi which has inspired you in your knitting - can you tell us more?

Fantastic.

Well produced, surprisingly intelligent and interesting, and nice to get a change from the American accents in most podcasts I’ve been listening to recently.

KnitCast: First Edition of KnitCast Ready to Download!

I have just been listening (or at leat trying to listen) to First Crack 30. More Washboard, Less Cowbell, a podcast from Garrick Van Buren. I’m afraid I gave up.

I’d normally be the last one to complain about “production values", but this was recorded while driving, in a noisy vehicle, with the car stereo on in the background. The external noise really is intrusive. If ever there was a case for a noise-cancelling mic setup, this is it. Unfortunately, the content didn’t seem to offer any hooks to keep me interested either. The accompanying post seemed to promise some hilbilly washboard playing, but none was in evidence in the bit I listened to, just a somewhat choppy edit of repeated sections from some sort of anecdote.

Back when there were only a very small number of podcasts available, I might have soldiered on, but not this time.

Sorry Garrick.

One of my clients has been having a lot of trouble with his office PC, and I spent pretty much all of yesterday trying to get data off it before it gives up completely. I’m still not sure what prompted the coollapse in the first place - it might have been malicious software, or it might have been just a hard drive failure.

The symptoms were twofold. First, Windows (in this case Windows 2000 SP2) would fail to boot most times, giving a blue-screen and complaining about a variety of missing system files and dlls. On the odd occasion that it would boot all the way to the login screen, it simply would not recpgnize any of the user/password pairs that usually work on that machine. Without any login at all, most rescue attempts are stumped.

In this case, the machine had an extra hard drive installed (supposedly for backups :-) ). I installed another copy of the OS on that drive, which would allow a login, and rescued the bulk of my clients files. The biggest problem was with stored email. My client prefers to use “incredimail” for his email needs. Incredimail is well-known for the vice-like grip it keeps on its data, refusing to store it in an accessible form, and requiring an “export” operation to even move email to a new machine or upgraded OS. That can be a problem when the old incredimail installation won’t run from the new OS drive. I spent quite a while trying different approaches until I found IncrediConvert.

IncrediConvert is a really neat third-party tool that delves into Incredimail’s weird file structure and extracts all the messages as more-portable “.eml” files. It preserves the stored folder structure and is a real lifesaver if you have a dead incredimail installation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do so good a job with the incredimail address book, but at least that’s almost plain text.

Has all this got anything to do with podcasting? Indirectly, yes. My client has recently been collecting audio interviews and thoughts on his new Olympus DM-10 Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player. I love this device. I’ve not had much to do with portable voice recorders for a few years, and this new crop of digital machines are smooth and easy to use for recording, and simply appear as a removable drive containing pre-built MP3 files when plopped in to a little USB cradle. The usability of a purpose-built voice recorder is so much better than the MP3 players with recording ability that I’ve seen. I can’t justify getting one at the moment, but it sure is tempting.

Anyway, all his hard-won audio content was also stuck on the inaccessible PC, so that’s all got to be fetched off too. I’m hoping to get my client set up with a RSS podcast feed for some of this material soon, but in the meanwhile you can hear one of his very first recordings on the new machine on his web site (look for the image of a microphone and “a word from the coach", near the bottom of the page).

Denise Howell on QuotePlay

Here’s a blog about a neat idea - a little bit of shareware that lets you blog references to small sections of a podcast without requiring your readers to listen to the whole tedious lump. It’s called QuotePlay, and looks worth an experiment or two.

As an aside, it looks like the author of this blog puts out podcasts too.

Various and Sundry � Podcast

Here’s a guy who looks at the list of new DVD releases (well, region 1, anyway), reads them on a pod cast and makes a few comments. He seems to reserve the deeper reviews for his text weblog, but if you like to catch up with a kind of “executive summary” of releases in the car or the gym this might be the one for you.

Portals and KM: Gates @ Central Park: Post Your Own

This looks like an interesting combination of blog, wiki and podcast. Join together and contribute content from your mobile phone into a mobil epodcast experience.

IT Conversations: James Currier - Web 2.0

Every great consumer business is built around the psychology and emotions of the individual. Come take a deep dive into consumer psychology and its implications for the future of online consumer services.

This is a presentation delivered at the Web 2.0 Conference held in San Francisco, CA, October 5-7, 2004. Our thanks go to MediaLive International and O’Reilly Media, the producers of Web 2.0, for permission to bring you this session, one of many from Web 2.0 here on IT Conversations.

Playlist for The Speakeasy with Dorian - February 14, 2005

February 14, 2005: Dolores Hayden, prof of architecture and American Studies at Yale, on the phemonenon of urban sprawl & Sarah Greenough, curator & head of the Dept of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, on their exhibition of the photography of Andre Kertesz.

Podcatchers, with so many feeds available, which podcasts do you recommend?

A bit of discussion at “Ask MetaFilter” about recommended podcasts. They mention some of the usual suspects, but I’m kind of surprised that they miss the prolific and interesting IT Conversations, a favourite of mine.

StH_2005-02-13_Arriving_at_SCALE.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

In his own word a “ridiculous” podcast of the author’s observations and detours as he tried to find the Southern California Linux Expo.

It’s impressively free of background noise, so either Southern California is real quiet, or he’s got an excellent noise-cancelling mic, or the narration was added after the fact (maybe while watching a video)

The Ponderplace

In the author’s words:

Today I use the podcasting format to share my tales of the odd and moronic that I notice in any of life’s many channels. My thought process varies from many people. Instead of dismissing things I hear I have a tendency to ponder what I’ve heard wasting a great portion of my time in the process.

The Format of The Ponderplace Podcast is a varying collection of odd news from the headlines, non-satyrical look into tech news, rants on odd topics, and regular segments by two of my good friends. I try to update the Podcast every other day or so with exceptions on both sides. I try hard to keep The Ponderplace Podcast family friendly. This is a challenge for myself because typically I cuss like a sailor. However, rest assure I want to provide interesting content without having to cheapen in my profanity and maintain a family friendly enviornment.

Learning The Lessons of Nixon � 4 Minutes About Podcasting

Wow this really is an excellent little video introduction to what podcasting is, and how to use the free “iPodder” software to subscribe, download and transfer podcasts. A great link to pass to anyone who seems mystified by the whole thing. It’s worth the time to read the comments, too. There’s some interesting discussion amongst the general kudos.

Just a shame the video is only in Real .ram format instead of something more download-and-share. I’d love it if it were more platform-independent and more, well, like a podcast.

Radio Clash � Blog Archive � Radio Clash Show 15 - The Lurve Boot

Another collection of independent music radio programming, theoretically on a “love” theme. Pretty varied content.

the podcast network

Web site full of bold claims like: “The Podcast Network will be the best collection of podcasts available anywhere that are managed and aggregated under the one roof.".

It’ll be interesting to see how well they achieve their lofty aims