The >podcasting
meme is spreading like wildfire and that's good.
I imagine that the iPodder
software floating around will become a bit like a
TiVo, service schedules, content "channels" and
more. Directory services are lacking--Dave Winer
had a subsection of weblogs.com for audio posts
at one time--so we need a technology to step up
in stick a flag in the ground. I'm voting for
RSS/OPML. It's a natural and easy to generate and
it's lightweight and powerful (like an iPod).
Content generation tools are barely past the
sticks and rocks stage, but moving rapidly
forward. The killer app will be a software audio
router that does a good bit for you, walking you
through the process. There will be themes,
presets for the software that optimize the apps
settings: talk show, soliloquy, radio show, etc.
It will also generate 30 second previews for the
store (see below) or the preview can be replaced
by an ad (for sponsored content) or a
self-description by the author. Combine Skype,
iPodder and an audio router/multiplexer and you
see what I mean.
Personally, I'm ready to pay for a product
using the iPodder codebase that's well executed,
will deliver content to iTunes and has it's
directory built in. I want to be able to shop the
podcasts like the iTunes music store, that is,
get a 30 second preview of content before I
subscribe.
Like
Russ mentioned, moblie phones need to be able
to
party with developers and the audio quality
might not be there yet easily. A version of
iPodder for the SymbianOS phones seems trivial (I
am not a programmer, hence everthing is easy) and
inevitable.
In summary, I'm waving my money in the air for
this--who's going to take it?
Update: Dave Winer pointed to the Wikipedia
entry for podcasting, so I updated my link
above.