Datasheet

Summary
Podcasts speak; this book can’t be heard. We give you the gospel in these pages, even as the pod-
cast revolution continues at breakneck pace. Making podcasts, learning the tools you’ll need to use,
and understanding the distribution options and their implications for your budget are all that
stand between you and those possibilities.
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Podcasting builds on a broad range of media and Internet developments, including failed
notions, such as “push technology,” and the foundations of the Web and blogging, includ-
ing hyperlinks, RSS, and news aggregator applications.
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The basic tools for producing your podcast are a microphone and recording device, typi-
cally one’s computer, and the software for editing a raw recording into a finished show.
On the distribution side, you need to set up or purchase space on a Web server.
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Developer Dave Winer made and distributed the first podcast on August 12, 2004, though
many programs known as podcasts today predate his Morning Coffee Notes podcast. The
key innovation was the combination of RSS and sound files delivered as enclosures.
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Adam Curry and a number of other people contributed to the development of the first
podcast receiver application, known as a “podcatcher.” Curry’s Daily Source Code podcast
was the primary popularizer of the medium during its first year.
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Podcasts are fun and personal, studied and slapstick. You don’t need to copy anyone to
be an original, but the pioneers in the format have paved the way at considerable
expense. There is a lot to learn from them.
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The first paid-circulation podcast was The Ricky Gervais Show, which featured Gervais,
the star of the BBC’s The Office sitcom, his Office co-creator, Steven Merchant, and Karl
Pilkington, who acts inexplicably stupid (it’s a wonder he’s survived in this Darwinian
world).
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In this book for would-be podcasting pros we emphasize how to make money with pod-
casts in spite of the medium’s original design, which attempted to prevent advertising and
money-making. There’s no reason you have to try to make money with your podcast —
and if you just want to have fun you’ll learn everything you need to know here — but, if
you do want to make money, this is the book for you.
In the next chapter, we walk through the technologies and development of podcasting, an already
riotous history that includes bickering, counterclaims to inventions, and stealth attempts to rewrite
the story. On that foundation, you learn what these developments can lead to, including new mar-
kets for your creative work and the applications for podcasting in corporate and marketing settings.
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