Podcasts – what and why?

There was a post over at one of my favourite sites Codeproject yesterday asking if anyone was into podcasts, to which I replayed yes. If you don’t know what podcasts they are quite simply small radio shows that you can download and play on your MP3 player, iPod, PC or any other device capable of playing MP3’s.

Podcasts like the web cover a broad range of information and interests. To date my focus has been on listening to marketing and business related podcasts.

The thing I really like about podcasts (apart from the content) is that I can acquire information without having to sit in front of my PC.

I download podcasts and copy them to my HP iPaq PDA. Then plug in the headphones, start the music player playing the podcast and put the PDA in my pocket. Most times I listen while I’m doing chores around house, or I’m out for a walk. This is great because I don’t have to try and find some free time which doesn’t exist anyway and I get to feed my brain during times which it otherwise wouldn’t be doing much.

In addition to Podcasts you’ll find audio books available on the Web which are played just like a podcast.

The Podcasts I’ve enjoyed listening to the most so far are by Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba over at Church of the Customer. The content is fresh and interesting and Ben and Jackie have an upbeat very easy to listen to style. Their most recent podcast is Word of Mouth Summit highlights and interviews which I’ll be listening to today.

I’ve been looking at a few programs that enable you to subscribe to podcasts and automatically download new ones as they become available. So far none have particularly grabbed my interest. I’ll likely write more on this later.

6 Replies to “Podcasts – what and why?”

  1. Hi Taka,
    The Podcast apps I looked at had a feed which listed Podcast software. I looked at a few of these and none grabbed me. Awasu wasn’t on this list I’m afraid.

    I’ve just browsed and searched a few pages on awasu.com and didn’t find any reference to podcasts! Please enlighten me.

  2. Good point. For the benefit of the search engines, I guess I should be using the buzzword “podcast” instead of “enclosure” 🙂

    We added support for podcasts in 2.0.4. The latest general release is 2.1 but there has also been one beta release since then. More info here.

    One of our users also put together a plugin that integrates Awasu with iTunes.

  3. “Mommy, whaasa ‘book’?”

    “Well, um, u know, like, it’s like what we usta have b4 podcasts. Lotsa words but, like, u hadda READ ’em. They dint talk to ya, lol”

    “Oh, now I geddit! So, dey wuz made oudda ‘carbon paper’ what peepz choppd alla treezes donw?”

    “I prolly… no wait, I definately dont no nothin bout no ‘carbinated papers’… but u kud go ax Gramma bout it.”

    ===============================
    Hi, I found my way here via the link you placed in the outertech.com user forum for the Linkman bookmarks manager. I haven’t yet evaluated your Surfulator app… but (on the subject of KM) am inspired to type this note because I don’t get (don’t understand the popularity of, can’t abide the typically poor navigation provided by) this ‘blog’ thing.

    ‘Blog’ entries are arranged into categories (I suppose the author could choose to alias an individual ‘article’ to multiple categories?)…

    …and clicking a ‘category’ link yields a page of (?) lead-in paragraphs, plus ‘More’ buttons. However, because most ‘entries’ are short, clicking on a ‘More’ button typically redirects to a page containing the last two sentences (!) and the user has to back click… and scroll, and…

    Naw, this is why I don’t “do” blogs.

    Podcasts?
    That’s the ‘was-branded-is-now-generic’ buzzword for downloadable audio content?

    Man, you gotta see…
    Dude, you outta hear…
    ^——- The past year or so I’ve balked at often (too often) receiving such invitations, or recommendations, when they are proffered by friends or co-workers.

    As an adjunct to knowledge management, TIME management is fast becoming a survival skill.
    I don’t have (or am too selfish to ‘spend’) a half hour listening to a ‘podcast’; reading that you, the author of a KM app, are in the habit of downloading / collecting / organizing and listening to ‘podcasts’… I must say that I’m not favorably impressed.

    Sigh.
    Gimme a .plan file and 45 seconds.

    This new generation, with all their glamour, and shiny new toys, and their “Idunno, just press a button, click here, and it works” mentality — well, for an old pedant like me, it’s a pretty disheartening trend to witness.

  4. sd, don’t get too disheartened about the new glamour toys. The world keeps on turning and things slowly improve, one hopes.

    The biggest problem is the sheer volume of information we have available at our fingertips these days. Every now and then we find a little gem that keeps us going and wanting more.

    Blogs are a useful communications medium as are podcasts. I would have to say I get a heck of a lot of value from the time I put into listening to podcasts. And this is typically dead time, when I’m doing chores around the house.

    Listening to a good podcast lets me feel connected, which for someone like me on the other side of the planet is a nice feeling to have.

    FYI the next release of Surfulater will be able to Import Linkman and other Bookmarks.

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