Datasheet

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Par t I: Podcasting on a Worldwide Frequency
If you’re starting to get the idea that podcasting is revolutionary, ground-
breaking, and possibly a major component of social upheaval, great. But not
all podcasts are so deep. In fact, many of them are just plain fun!
Deciding Whether Podcasting Is for You
Technically speaking, podcasting is the distribution of specially encoded mul-
timedia content to subscribed personal computers via the RSS 2.0 protocol.
Whew! Allow us to translate that into common-speak:
Podcasting allows you to listen to stuff you want to hear, whenever and
wherever you want.
Podcasting turns the tables on broadcast schedules, allowing the listener to
choose not only what to listen to, but also when. And because podcasts are
transferred via the Internet, the power to create an audio program isn’t lim-
ited to those with access to a radio transmitter.
The simplest reason to podcast is that it’s just plain fun! We’ve been podcast-
ing since the beginning, and we’re still having a blast, continuing to get out
messages to our worldwide audiences and challenging ourselves with new
tricks and techniques in creating captivating media. So, yeah, for the fun of it.
Heck of a good reason.
The following sections cover other reasons podcasting is probably for you.
You want to deliver audio
content on a regular basis
Sure, you can include audio content in your blog if you have one. Many bloggers
record audio segments and insert them as links into the text of their blog posts.
Readers of the blog then download the files at their leisure. However, audio blogs
require the readers to manually select the content they want to download. What
sets podcasting apart from blogging is that podcasting automates that process.
A listener who subscribes to your podcast is subscribed to all of your content,
whenever it’s available. No need to go back to the site to see what’s new!
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