Took some time off at cafe Olympico and listened to old podcasts i did. Had some more thoughts about what is ‘real’ podcasting for me, all written under my last grocery bill. Here they are:
1. a podcast is definitely not like a traditional radio show. We of course can use it as if it was and just make it portable (as it is with most of professional podcasts out there right now), but this doesnt bring us that much further.
2. Podcasting is the radio of the future – and guess what? we are the future. Podcasting is what we’ll in some years call ‘traditional radio’, the one that will be created by everyone, and listened to by anyone, with headphones.
Right now, commercial or professional podcasting is:
the equivalent of portable traditional radio (and beside the content that can be interesting, this way to use podcasting is boring as i wrote earlier since there is nothing more than the portable technology that makes it new).
What ‘real’ podcast is or could be:
(i marked with a * what is not present in traditional radio and what these new mediums, blogs and podcasts, bring to us)
– a new medium we can use to communicate from one side of the planet to the other
– from a human voice willing to give to other humans who are open to receive, who dont know each other but communicate this way*
– share thoughts, ideas
– is personal – the podcaster talk about his personal life, feelings, emotions, expression of one’s mind***
– with spontaneity*
– improvise, explore the unknown which is of course what brings in innovation*
– portable*
– available in any time and space*
– free*
– directly connected to the web*
– organic and alive, can start or stop at any time*
– actual (rss delivers news about a new post or show in the minute it is online)*
Tagged as podcasting, itune, odeo.
Previous version of this post can be found here.
This is a manifesto! It’s true and solid and about time. You’ve managed to summarize what I love about podcasting and why it’s so exciting. It’s good to have it written out like this. Thank you! This is an exciting time and with all of the money and attention now, it’s important to know why it’s wonderful, important and fun. The personality is so important! You’re listening to someone’s voice and they’re sharing who they are with you and that is incredibly human and should be celebrated. That’s why people are listening – we recognize what we have in common with someone else… we’re falling in love with sound and music again.
I would make a difference between “amateur podcast”, “professionnal podcast” and “commercial podcast”. Because there’s a difference in the production quality of amateur and professionnal podcast, and that not all professionnaly produced podcast are “commercial”…
(I’m must not be a purist, because I’m not offended by “commercial podcast” or even “pro podcast”, as long as the content is interesting for my listening taste… A debate between these formats is kind of futile, there’s noting as “a real podcast”, though the real innovation of podcasting is the chance to hear and discover some real good “amateur podcast” at par with the “pro” and “commercial” ones…)
some of your points are good – amateur, pro, commercial podcasts…
in this case, i give more importance to the medium than the message because if people do seek out a little about how to use this new medium, new uses will come out, and maybe a totally new kind of product and production as well.
I mostly agree with what you’re saying except for a couple of items where I think you downplay radio. Poscast does feature those things but so does radio:
– is personal – talk about feelings, emotions, expression of one’s mind***
>> There’s that on radio. Maybe not on America’s Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest but you can find that on radio.
– with spontaneity*
>> Radio mostly isn’t scripted so it’s also spontaneous… In the content. I guess the choice of producing a podcast anytime is more spontaneous than scheduled radio but what you say is spontaneous (mostly) in both cases.
– portable*
>> One show is portable but one could argue that a very small “walkman” radio is at least as portable as an iPod. (Unless you mean portable as in a more flexible media support. In which case yes, a digital file is more portable)
– free*
>> It’s actually cheaper to listen to radio than to access the web, get a podcast and have a device to carry a podcast with you. Although the content itself is, indeed, freerer since mostly ad free.
I agree with the other points though.
hm. what can you embed in a podcast? chapter markers, images? Links? Could you have live links when someone says something? Are any of these things useful to people using non-graphical players (say, an iPod Shuffle?)
I’m all for encouraging the freedom and experimentation that ‘democratic radio’ promises, much as desktop publishing blew open the doors of print.
At the same time, because radio is an audio-based linear-time medium, the conventions that exist in current ‘traditional’ radio are there like the conventions of typography, and the medium (lead type vs. laser printer) didn’t really change the basic rules.
There are certain technical conventions (like using audio compressors to reduce peaks, produce even volume levels) and also social conventions (“Coming up in this segment…”) that have evolved to help listeners concentrate on the content, not the container…it should ‘just work’. I urge people to at least think about audio usability and programming conventions as “user-friendliness” ideals, if not always achievable.
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I agree with most of your points, but I have to say
– with spontaneity
>> As Patrick pointed out, radio can often be quite spontaneous, but what’s really important is that podcasting should stay spontaneous and never wasted by commercial power. I hate ads, but I do understand that it’s nice to get paid in a way. As long as you can keep your own opinions and ideas away from commercial greed bias…
– improvise, explore the unknown which is of course what brings in innovation*
– portable
>> radio can also be portable and can be freely, easily be copied ( even easier than computer files for non-tech savvy people ). But an iPod is unbeatable at classifying and jampacked with music 🙂
– available in any time and space
>> That’s what I like the most, I listen to podcasts on my way to work, on my free time, on my bike and I can switch go back listen over and over with such an ease.
– free
>> hum… well radio is most of the time “free as in beer”, but podcasting by nature is “free as libre”. Free (libre) of any censorship, commercial greed and over-editing.
– directly connected to the web:
>> We are not using the power over hyperlinking enough now, hopefully technologies like AAC with chapters and hyperlinks are great (though we’d have to write a standardized extension to RSS for this)