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Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson

ben wilson This is the blog of a one Ben Wilson, a Louisville, Kentucky native who enjoys baseball, beer, music, bikes, things that fly and good food. By day he pushes pixels and makes the Internet happen for a local advertising agency. His wife, Kelly is an Ironman, and his baby Amelia is the cutest thing ever.

podcast

Podcasting. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps you haven’t. For the latter, here is a succinct definition: Podcasting is a way of publishing sound files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new audio files automatically. (definition from the Wikipedia). Having been asked many times over the years to explain the mystery and voodoo that is the weblog, I offer to the humble reader this treatise on podcasting.

“Podcasting” — I’ve been hearing this term for some time, specifically starting with Warren Ellis’ Bad Signal list. Ellis, a prolific science-fiction/futurist/whatever writer is always on the lookout for the newest of the new trends in communications, and he picked up the term sometime last year. He had this to say about it:

“Podcasting is a very interesting idea.
You record your own little radio
show to mp3, release it off your
website as a RSS enclosure, and a
little bit of software like iPodder
sucks it on to your computer for
shunting into your mp3 player.
Podcasting is just a few months old,
and most of it is very bad — but
there weren’t any good blogs in
the first six months of blogging,
either. This could be very interesting.”

{more}

While the term podcasting is reasonably new (and while it’s usage has doubled/tripled as of late), and while it could have a very bright and interesting future, don’t be fooled: this technology and this very idea have been around almost since the dawn of the Internet — perhaps even time. It’s nothing new, but as much as anything on the Intarweb, you can sprinkle an idea with technology-dust, slap a new name on it and web-denizens will lap it up.

The analogues between podcasting and the now-debunked mystery of the weblog are many and similar. A weblog ain’t nothing but a diary, but on the Internet! It’s just as simple as that. Do not be fooled by the high-wizardry of the Internet. There is still some dude on his couch banging out his latest political commentary or his recipe for chicken sauce piquant. Anyone can do it. Back in the days before the glorious intarweb, this was limited to those with access either to a mailing list or the school newspaper. With barriers such as those, only the determined were published, and fewer were even read.

In the same way, podcasting has been around for years. In the days before there was an FCC, all you needed was a radio to get on the air. Crank up your spark-gap transmitter and read off your recipes and/or political commentary! The FCC decided that it was better to save the airwaves for emergencys, radio payola and advertisements, so away that went. How is a man to rouse rabble or read his manic break-up poetry now?! Tell me that, Uncle Sam! If only there was some medium with no boundaries or limits…

Well, along comes the Internet. Complete and total unfettered global access to any and all with a computer. Imagine it! A thousand thousand thousand political hacks, diary writers and wannabe Yeats’ publishing at the same time! Well, that future is here and now — we call it blogging. Take a vast and vastly mediocre group of publishers, and give them an infinite media, add splash of technology, and voila! Total information overload.

Whereas weblogs are nothing but words and the occassional picture, podcasting is the next natural step (just add audio). It’s not like you couldn’t cast a pod before, but now it’s just easier. Before there was such a thing as MP3 (compressed audio) it was unfeasable to put up a 30-minute 300 meg radio show on the web. Even then — did you really expect people to download and listen to your drivel whilst chained to their desks? But then — oh, then — the iPod! The portable, digital music vault! Combine small audio files, the increase in bandwidth for the average user, the availability of portable music devices, and man’s insatiable desire to be heard and there you have it — podcasting.

I really wish there was a word to describe the phenomenon of re-labeling something, but for the Internet. It was sort of done with the “e” and “i”, like “e-Commerce” and “i-Pod”, but “podcasting” and “weblog” are of a different sort. They are not technologies, per se, but really re-inventions of current, perhaps even mundane, activities. Prestiwebitating, perhaps, I don’t know. Perhaps I’m not looking far enough ahead. (What? You mean like vidblogging or holocasting? YES — that far!)

Do not fear the Internet. It is only there to confuse and annoy.

Further: Come One, Come All: The Rise of Podcasting at NPR.org. Also, the earliest mention of “podcast” on Google Groups appears to be October 2004, linked to this article. This American Life has been podcasting for years and years now, releasing each of it’s episodes (webisodes?) the week after they air on NPR. Finally, that photo of ex-MTV VJ Adam Curry up there is due to his involvement with the genesis of podcasting as a syndicatable/auto-updating thing (see his Adam Curry’s Wikipedia article).

filed under General and then tagged as ,
May 23 2005 ~ 11:33 am ~ Comments (10) ~

10 Comments

  1. Fantastic article.

    Comment by Hunter — May 23, 2005 @ 9:45 pm
  2. Where’s my ebay item… stone_axe. My wife is a lawyer. You scammed the wrong man. Go to paypal now and refund the money. All of it.

    Comment by a — May 23, 2005 @ 9:54 pm
  3. This site is operated by me, Ben Wilson. I know of “stone_axe”, but this isn’t his site. Your wife might be a lawyer and you might be a doctor, but you sure aren’t much of a private detective. Thanks for crapping in the wrong place!

    Comment by ben — May 24, 2005 @ 6:05 am
  4. That was a very clever response. Unfortunately cleverness isn’t going to help you.

    Your friend David Gruneisen (aka stone_axe) recently defrauded several people out of hundreds of dollars in a fake ebay auction scheme (e.g. item #5972575444). He used your web site to advertise the imaginary items thereby making you a party to the crime.

    I suggest you have a talk with your friend. If you fail to convince him to refund the payments, we may be contacting you to testify against him in exchange for removing you from the complaints. I suggest you try hard. Attorney fees for cases like this start at $3000 and the state of Kentucky has dedicated staff specifically for internet fraud.

    Comment by abc — May 24, 2005 @ 6:13 pm
  5. I refuse to continue this discussion with someone who A) refuses to give at least their valid email address and B) is determined on carrying this conversation in a public (and no to mention off-topic) forum.

    Finally, I will tell you that I have not spoken with David in well over a month. I know not of his whereabouts or current contact information. The auction agreement is between you and him, and if I could put you in contact with him, I would. You know how to contact me further if you see fit.

    Comment by ben — May 25, 2005 @ 6:13 am
  6. David Gruneisen
    david.gruneisen@gmail.com
    2001 Spring Drive #7
    Louisville, KY 40205
    502-439-6588

    Comment by abc — May 25, 2005 @ 8:19 am
  7. If I had any way of contact David that was beyond your reach, I would have informed him of your complaint and put you in contact with him. Regretably, I have no other means of contact than what you have posted in your prior comment.

    This argument is between you and David and is in regards to $43 worth of LEGO toys sold on eBay. eBay has clear policies on dispute resolution, and none of which involve threatening third parties such as myself with legal action. I would hope that you continue your search in a civil matter and finally find satisfaction.

    Finally, from this point on I will remove any posts by you on this subject from my forum. Again, you can contact me via email to further this discussion if you so wish.

    Comment by ben — May 25, 2005 @ 11:42 am
  8. I just spoke with David via the phone number you posted above. It is alive and working, and you and him should work to resolve your issue.

    Comment by ben — May 25, 2005 @ 12:16 pm
  9. You race traitor, you sold me a Confederate flag on ebay and haven’t shipped it yet! I demand satisfaction! My wife is a cleaning lady at an abortion clinic, and she knows QUITE A BIT about wars of northern aggression. (rape camps) What kind of “rough trade” are you dealing in, you mutt?

    Comment by Dixie Dan — May 30, 2005 @ 3:30 pm
  10. Podcasting – as a lawyer, an American, and a card-carrying member of the ACLU, I love it. Unfortunately, the First Amendment has no flavor control, so with the technology explosion of the last 10 years, you get the crap with the worthwhile stuff. Or, to quote an old favorite song of mine – “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there your have – The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life.”

    - Charlie Lee (The Executive Transvestite)

    ps – Lego Man needs to get a life

    Comment by Charlie Lee — May 31, 2005 @ 8:26 pm

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