Podcasting, some thoughts
OK, so I’ve done a bit of listening to some podcasts, mostly from Adam Curry, though also a few others, and I’ve got a few comments….
First off, the name. In a time of ever increasing open standards and cross linking of technology, how did we end up with a name that puts a completely proprietry slant on a generic technology?
When I first heard of podcasting, I didn’t think I could join in, because I don’t have an iPod, I instead either listen to my MP3 type audio on my computer, or on my iRiver player. I dno’t want an iPod, and I certainly don’t want to be pushed into using iTunes. Really not keen on that particular bit of software.
Then I slowly realised that actually, all I need is the ability to play MP3’s, not an actual iPod. So how has the term podcasting been accepted? I bet Steve Jobs is loving that branding.
And now, how many places are having to have a page explain about podcasting not being just for iPods? Look around any of the popular podcasting sites, they all now have to explain that point. Wouldn’t a more generic, non-branded term have been better?
Anyway, enough of bashing the name, how about the technology.
It’s never going to be like text blogging, it’s just not as easy to use, and I don’t see how it will ever be that easy to use. Adam’s idea is that people have always on machines with always on Internet connections and have some software like iPodder (another branded name for a generic platform) running all the time. Therefore thinking that the traffic to download these podcasts will be distributed over periods of time, rather than big clumps as everyone spots a new podcast and starts downloading it.
People aren’t like that. At least not yet. Broadband is on the increase, but certainly can’t be called the dominant type of internet connection. And not many people leave their computers running 24/7. I don’t, and I don’t want to.
At the moment, my method of following podcasts is to use Bloglines, as I use for all my RSS feeds, to monitor the feed, and then manually download the casts that I want.
I tried Doppler, but I’d fire up my machine, and fire up Doppler, and it’d spend half an hour downloading various podcasts, using up most of my 2Mbit bandwidth. To be honest, I can’t be arsed with that.
It seems Adam has realised people’s downloading patterns are a bit different to his expectations, and to be honest, I think that’s the problem with the fact he’s been using the Internet for ages, done a lot of work with it, and has slightly lost sight of what the rest of the world is doing. There’s a hardcore group that are right in there with it, but there’s a huge number of people playing catch up.
Then once I’ve downloaded a cast, I have to get it onto my iRiver, if that’s what I want to listen to. Now I don’t actually plug it in to my computer that often. Usually it’s just to copy across a new CD that I’ve ripped or something (which is where I like the iRiver and it’s ability to play Ogg Vorbis files, my preferred ripping format). I use a freebie programme called Syncback to keep the contents of my music folder and my iRiver the same, which I guess is where the iPod family beats it, but it works. And then somewhere, I have to find time to listen to it,a nd don’t really have the ability to ’scan’ it to see if it’s actually anything interesting.
With blogs I’ll generally read the headline, and the first part of a post to see if I want to read more. If so, I’ll get comfy and go through it. if not, I skip to the next post/feed.
Podcasts are more tricky as far as that’s concerned, and fast forward is only a partial help.
And this is all seperate form the fact that I’ve heard so many whiney, annoying voices so far, that it puts me off listening to them. If I read the same thing they talked about, I wouldn’t have that problem, but I really hate listening to certain American accents whine on. Adam’s I get on with, and actually enjoy listening to, but I’m sorry, there are just some people who might have really interesting things to say, but I’m jsut not going to listen to, because of the sound of their voice.
Then there are the ones that are just bad. The voice may be ok, but they just can’t talk properly or something, perhaps no charisma, nothing to make me want to listen, someone droning on like it’s some boring documentary.
The benefit with this kind of media of course, is that if I don’t want to listen to someone, I turn it off, unsubscribe, forget about them. Easy.
Hopefully as it matures, we’ll get more classy casts, people who talk well, about interesting stuff. There are some out there, but not enough to make me want to rave about how great podcasting is. And where are all the brit podcasters?! I can’t find a way to find them. Hopefully there will be more of them, and a way to find podcasters in geographic area’s would be nice. Because of the accents/language issues, I think podcasting is going to be more geographic specific than normal blogging, purely because of the sound of the voice.
I said earlier that I don’t think podcasting will ever be as big as normal blogging. I do think it can be pretty a strong niche though. There is already a hardcore group of casters/listeners building up, and I’m sure that will continue to grow, but I really don’t see them overtaking text as an easily consumable media type. Perhaps if we get some huge changes in the music industry and get some podcasting kind of podsafe radio to rival traditional music radio, as well as the talk radio it will be different. But it’s a hell of a lot easier to tune a radio into a radio station, than it is to download and listen to podcasts. People are lazy, easy will beat out quality, and that’s once podcasts do have more quality to beat what radio stations pump out (mostly drivel from local stations).