Summary about lesson on podcasting 27/11/2013

Today, the 27th of November of 2013, the technology lesson has been about podcasting.

We have discussed the basic characteristics of podcasting. To start with, it is normally an audio file, usually mp3, which is uploaded to the internet for free, and is then downloaded on the internet for free as well. The use of podcasts has become popular due to the format mp3. However, podcasts are not only limited to audio. Vodcasts, which are podcasts that include video, are becoming now very popular, and are supported by the format mp4.

There are many programs that can be used to do podcasts, but having many Mac people in the classroom, Garage Band seemed like a good program in which one can produce a podcast.

As well, in this lesson, we took a look at some professional podcasts. We took a look at podcasts of probably the Spanish master of podcasts, Juanma Ortega, who now works for the radio. His podcasts are full of special effects as well as jingles, which are really shortened pieces of songs. As well, we commented on how the voice of these people in podcasts is modified, giving more depth to the voice as well as a kind of echo. Professional podcasts are full of effects and full of editing. We also commented on how people can even make a living from making podcasts, since it is becoming something very similar to the radio.

Lastly, we took a look at programs that are platforms for podcast downloading, such as iTunes. However, we took a look at the program inside iTunes called iTunesU. iTunesU is designed for students since it has thousands of podcasts from universities from all over the world, some of them the most prestigious in the world.

In class we had to subscribe to a podcast in iTunes U, so therefore I subscribed and I have shown also how to subscribe. Since I am interested in Electronics and circuits, I have subscribed to an MIT course about this subject. Below are the subscription confirmation.

What is podcasting?

A podcast is a digital audio file, mostly Mp3 but other formats such as AAC are also common, which are made available for download on the internet. The word podcast derives from the words "broadcast" and "pod" because after the success of the well-known iPod, audio podcasts were usually listened on these portable devices. Podcasting, for example, is similar yet somewhat different to webcasting, in other words Internet streaming, which unlike podcasting, is not usually designed for offline listening content.

Now lets get into context and give some historical background about podcasts. The term "podcasting" was first mentioned by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian newspaper in 2004. He used this term for this medium that was usually reproduced in iPods, as mentioned before. However podcasts existed before the introduction of the iPod or even the famous iTunes.

The thing that really makes podcasts different from just downloading a music file and listening to it, is that podcasting is all about having the files come to you through syndication instead of having to search files through the internet search. The benefits of podcasting is that you subscribe to podcasts just as you would subscribe to this blog for example. What this does is that you even have the option of making your reader download new podcasts whenever new are available, and then transfer these files to your portable device for example. The case would be for example now with iCloud, in which you can download a podcast from iTunes to your computer for example, and have it instantly in your iPhone, iPod or iPad.

Podcasts are now somewhat competing with radios. What more and more people are doing is recording talk-back shows from home and distributing this to people all over the world, with audiences reaching the thousands, and maybe in the future, the millions. This is why podcasting is a revolutionary technology that leads, with blogs, to a new content distribution revolution on the web, that will be even greater in the future.

Finally, although podcasts are usually referred as to audio files, there are also video podcasts, called "vodcasts."These type of podcasts have the same function as the mentioned audio podcasts, but instead consist of usually short clips of video that are shared on the internet. Vodcasts are now very common for example on the Web Tv. Other types of podcasting include enhanced podcasts or podcast novels.

Here is a link to a podcast I did several years ago:

PODCAST