Q: What is a Podcast?

A:  According to Wikipedia, “Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them.� Technically, this is accomplished using something called an “RSS� feed, to provide information about a collection of audio files in MP3 format. In common use, the term “podcast� is most often used to refer to an independent audio show that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Q: What’s good about podcasting?

A: Podcasting lets anybody with a microphone, a computer and an Internet connection publish audio shows that can be listened to by people anywhere in the world. Because the barriers to entry are very low, podcasting is rapidly becoming a popular way for people share audio shows. Podcasts are generally free and can be automatically downloaded to portable media players, so you can listen to them whenever it’s convenient.

Q: What sort of shows are available as podcasts?

A: There are already many types of podcasts, including audio books, music shows, news, humor and sports. Most podcasts are created by amateurs, but there are also commercial podcasts and independently produced podcasts. There are podcasts in Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Mohawk, Spanish, and many other languages.

Q: Do I need to have an iPod to listen to podcasts?

A: No. The first podcast “client applications� (also known as aggregators or podcatchers) were designed to subscribe to audio shows, automatically download them and sync them to iPods. As podcasting has evolved, podcast clients have become available that work with most portable digital audio players. Many podcast sites support downloading shows directly from the site, and many directories support playing podcasts directly.

Q: Do I need special software to listen to podcasts?

A: No. Many podcasts (including The Cold Calling Podcast) can be streamed or downloaded directly from the host’s website. However, podcasting clients (such as iTunes) make the whole process of downloading podcasts and copying them to portable media players much more streamlined and “user-friendly�.

Q: Where can I find podcasts?

A: The most popular places for finding podcasts are the directories at iTunes, Juice, PodcastAlley and Podcasting News. There are many other podcast directory sites. Many podcast applications also include a list or directory of podcasts.

Q: Who invented podcasting?

A: Podcasting is based on capabilities built into the RSS 2.0 specification, which was developed by Dave Winer. Adam Curry catalyzed the podcasting concept in September of 2004, when he released a script that automatically downloaded audio files referenced in RSS files.
While there are many precedents for Curry and Winer’s work, they put the pieces together and popularized the idea of podcasting. Because of this, they are generally considered the “podfathers� of the podcasting community.

Q: What hardware and operating system do I need?

A: You can create and listen to podcasts using Windows, Mac OS X and Linux podcasting software.

Q. What is RSS?

A. RSS files are text files that contain information about things available on the Internet. For podcasting, RSS files are used to syndicate information about a podcast “channel� (the show as a whole), and also individual podcast episodes.

Q: What can you do with a podcast?

A: A browse through a podcast directory shows the variety of podcasts that are available. Here are just a few things podcasting can be used for:

- On-demand versions of radio shows
- Personal audio blogs
- Audio books
- Music shows
- Audio tour guides
- Educational content that depends on audio (language, music, etc)
- Marketing for musicians
- Distributing sermons and other religious content
- Storytelling
- Sports coverage
- Distributing/synchronizing audio and video files for business.