

Why podcasting is failing - ilamont
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/04/11/why-podcasting-failing

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mechanical_fish
This was a better article than I was expecting.

However, I'm not really convinced by the use of the word "failure". Podcasts
may be less successful than their most breathless hype predicted... but what
invention isn't?

Podcasts are a modest success. They're modest, in part, because the masters of
podcasting turn out to be radio producers. This is _completely_ unsurprising
-- the radio folks have been evolving their audio production skills in a
competitive environment for nearly a _century_ \-- and it's the very un-
surprisingness of it that keeps the phenomenon under the radar. Who besides
advertisers knows or cares what the audience of a radio program is? Radio
hasn't been the stuff of tech news since the 1930s.

The other problem with podcasting is that the term is badly chosen and too
narrowly defined. The word is associated with downloading (rather than
streaming), audio (rather than video), RSS (rather than simple web links), the
use of portable devices for playback (rather than PCs), and amateur production
(rather than pros). Youtube and its clones represent the same core phenomenon
as podcasting -- ubiquitous, cheap distribution of audio and video over the
web -- except that they offer better UI and lower costs for users, producers,
_and_ advertisers. But somehow the word "podcasting" isn't used for Youtube.

It's not the podcasting phenomenon that's "failing": It's the _word_
"podcasting", and the specific constellation of technologies that it implies.

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tom_rath
In traditional radio, an interviewer had x-minutes to get the job done. The
duration of the time slot was the hard limit they were working against and it
ensured a tight focus on the content. You received a lot of information in a
short burst of time.

Amateur podcasts by contrast can go on for however long the interviewer would
like. The result seems to be an unstructured rambling chat rather than a to-
the-point discussion, and you can’t skim it like a blog post or text article
to pull out the valuable points – you have to listen to the whole danged
thing.

Perhaps if podcasts were set to have a hard limit of ten minutes we’d see a
spike in quality? Much as Twitter forces a condensed to-the-point blog.

~~~
maw
The downside to the time limits is that, often, interesting programs get cut
off too soon.

Podcasts will get better as better people start doing them.

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tx
Podcasting is failing because 99% of the population doesn't even know WTF
"podcasting" is and won't even try to click "Podcasts" button or whatever.
GMail would have failed miserably if they tried to replace "emailing" with
"ajaxing".

For two years I worked at RSS company where technology didn't matter: what
mattered was that people were too tired to learn yet another buzzword. Even
now, while immensely useful, RSS is still used mostly by geeks.

Just use plain English goddamit.

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ten-seven
Podcasting isn't failing. It's not meeting some people's expectations, but
it's not failing. FTA I too get news from a podcast, since my commute may not
take me through the next hourly update. With a little effort (and an
AutoHotKey script) I get my iPod charged, and it's ready to go when I am. I
also get the weekly Maximum PC podcast (rant on, Gordon!).

I don't care much for video podcasts, since I'm driving.

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comatose_kid
I think podcasting is failing because it's too much work to get a podcast
where I need it - in the car.

If I'm at a PC, I'd much rather read a transcript of the podcast - it's much
faster for me to read than to listen.

~~~
slapshot
Most stereos sold these days come with a front auxiliary jack that you can
plug an iPod (or any other portable music player) straight into. Many
aftermarket stereos come with iPod dock connectors or USB connectors. I've
installed one in my car and it makes it painfully easy to listen to podcasts
in the car. Yeah, it'd be great if iTunes would wirelessly beam my podcasts to
my car, but having them on an iPod that seamlessly integrates into the car
stereo is a close second.

~~~
comatose_kid
I have the same - but there are still 2 big problems:

1) Finding new great content

2) Even when 1) happens, I don't update my ipod (it usually stays in the car).

~~~
tx
Well... by now it should be obvious to everybody that

a) Your cell phone and your iPod should be the same device

b) It should always be connected to the Internet

c) It should be an open platform that everybody could develop for: I suspect
you'll have no issues finding software that downloads your picks into your
phone automatically.

The industry, however, is fighting hard to postpone this reality. Not just
Verizon, Sprint&Friends (closed networks, locked phones) but even Apple
themselves (dumbed down iPhone API, draconian control over developers)

~~~
comatose_kid
Once these things happen, podcasting may well take off. I know I'd use it much
more.

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sanswork
My girlfriend is just finishing up teachers college and a large portion of her
course was spent on technology in the classroom.

I heard her talking about podcasting once and she was told at a conference in
January that podcasting was the future and teachers should be integrating it
into their classrooms and this and that.

That said neither of us could figure out how to best introduce podcasts into a
classroom without them being at best a simple distraction(neither could the
presenters it would seem as they gave no ideas either).

That fact is though that there are a lot of new teachers that will take these
peoples word as gospel and try to introduce podcasting into their classes
which is the start of the cycle.

So podcasting may not be a huge success now but possibly the kids that are
currently in elementary school will be the first group to truely embrace the
idea of non-live radio?

~~~
cturner
I think if you were interested in a particular area, and could download an
audio commentary that contributed to this, then that would be useful. For me,
pod casting is a new attempt on an old idea called "push" that wants to steer
the internet towards broadcast rather than browsing. Consumers spoke on this
long ago.

A more fleshed-out version of what I've written here:
[http://cratuki.blogspot.com/2008/04/technology-is-
so-1998.ht...](http://cratuki.blogspot.com/2008/04/technology-is-so-1998.html)

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patrickg-zill
I would have thought that a lack of search capability would matter. How many
neat pages or sites have you come across due to searching via Google? There is
currently no easy way to search the podcast content for stuff I am interested
in.

~~~
colgur
Maybe there's an opportunity here. The article points to a number of
aggregation issues.

