A mini brouhaha has erupted over a report from Bridge Data that "reveals" most people who retrieve podcasts don't transfer them to their portable digital media devices. According to the study, more than 80% of podcasts are played directly from the PC. Steve Rubel also weighed in, saying, "It seems like some people are calling programs podcasts that really aren't." I think I need to start a new category on this blog called "Take a deep breath." It would certainly apply to this post. Why is a deep breath needed? Two points. First, I believe the 80% number is being misinterpreted. Second, who gives a damn? The first point: It's not that 80% of podcasts aren't available for subscription. It's that 80% of the downloads of podcasts aren't available for transfer to an iPod. It's that 80% of the people who download any given podcast, for whatever reason, aren't opting to transfer it to a portable device. (Podcasters are the people producing the podcast, not the people listening.) But it's not even the portability of the audio file that makes it a podcast. After all, you could do that with an audio file well before podcasting was introduced. it's the ability to subscribe via RSS that makes it a podcast. While the TDG post refers to the Oxford dictionary's definition, I prefer Wikipedia's: "Podcasting is the distribution of audio or video files, such as radio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers." Note that the RSS distribution is referenced before the portability. Even with that, many people opt to download podcast files directly from a site rather than subscribing. Looking at the Reader Comments... Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.
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