Perusing my feeds the other day, I came across a press release from the NetManage podcast and found...a signup form. No download. No RSS feed. No on-screen player. In order to get the podcast, you have to complete a form so NetManage can call you. Since I didn't complete the form, I have no idea whether you can subscribe to the feed once you offer up your info, but somehow I doubt it. This looks more like one of those lead-generation tactics of delivering a white paper in exchange for your data. Which is fine. The idea of getting some useful or entertaining audio as the premium for letting a salesman call you is great, and I'm glad it's working for NetManage. But is it a podcast if you can't subscribe to it? Not according to most of the definitions out there, including Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English, which offers this definition:
The Web-based broadcast of music which works with software that automatically detects new files and is accessed by subscriptionWhile this isn't the most accurate definition-certainly most podcasts aren't just music-NetManage's offering wouldn't fit that definition even if it covered other kinds of content. It's also inconsistent with the vast majority of other podcast definitions, like Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark Murdok: Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications. As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog
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