What’s podcasting?

What’s podcasting you say? (Skip it if you already know – or, perhaps you shouldn’t)

Podcasts are amateur radio shows (usually talk radio) compressed into MP3 (or perhaps AAC) and spread over the internet, usually by way of a blog like this. (You probably know all this, but this is in preface to my next entry and I felt it would be remiss if I didn’t address the issue up front.)

They say iTunes turned podcasting into a mainstream phenomena when they incorporated it into the iTunes program. Perhaps they did, but, and I hate to be blunt, most of it is still garbage. With the exception of the real networks pushing content out onto the net, it has exactly the same composition of talent as public access TV does. Lots of amateurs without a coherent thought babbling on about nothing.

That’s not to say all of them are awful. Some of them are excellent examples of getting the ability to reach a worldwide audience into the hands of “the little guy” as it were. From time to time, I’m going to point out a few that I really like.