Podcasting Audience/Defining Podcasting

The Diffusion Group has released their report Podcasting Audience Continues to Grow, But Medium Poorly Defined by Marketers. Their findings include:

• 11% of U.S. adult broadband internet users (about 12 million people) listen to podcasts at least once per month.
• Among the users above, 68% use a portable player. 49% listen on a computer.
• Users listen to an average of 5.4 podcasts per month on a portable player and an average of 4.7 on a computer.
• Listeners subscribe to 4.1 different podcast feeds.
• 70% of podcast listeners use iTunes for access.
• Diffusion Group's prediction: The podcast audience will double in the next five years.
• Holding back podcasting usage:
  • Podcasting is perceived as too complex for the average consumer to use.
  • Consumers are not aware of the quantity and quality of available podcasts.
  • People have a poor comprehension of podcasting because there is a lack of understanding of the term podcast.

The group who wrote the report also published Rethinking the Definition of Podcasting. The report compares definitions of podcast. It gets a bit technical, but defining podcast is important if we're to share them with students, parents, the community, and fellow educators. I have tweaked my definition for podcasting over the years. Currently, here's the definition I share with educators:

A podcast is audio or video on the Web that can be cataloged and automatically downloaded.

I've tried to keep the definition simple and non-technical. Of course, it's the RSS feed that makes it possible for a podcast to be cataloged in places like iTunes and Yahoo! Podcasts. The feed also enables software like iTunes to check for updates and to download new files.

I have been making an effort to refer to an individual podcast audio or video file as an episode, leaving the word podcast as a collective term encompassing all of its episodes. The report addresses podcast vs. episode:

The term “podcast” may also refer to a single file or episode of the podcast series – this is similar to how the term “show” (as in television show) can refer to either the series as a whole or only a single episode.

Whatever the vocabulary, it is important that people know that an iPod is not required. In fact, some podcasters have suggested changing the word to netcast. I don't think we'll be replacing the word podcast any time soon, so we need to help others understand the term podcast and what it can do for education.

Comments

[Anonymous]

"Whatever the vocabulary, it is important that people know that an iPod is not required."

That and RSS (XML and whatever else). I think most people get afraid everytime they happen upon a RSS script page.

When I teach teacher prep tech classes one of the first things students are going to do is develop an individual class blog and set up an RSS aggregater with the feeds coming in from their peers.

Without RSS there's no way I could keep up with the emerging technologies and new web2.0 pages that I can bring into the class.

Dale

[chris]

Hey Tony, its Chris from Tech Camp in Tucson (I am one of the teacher presenters,I am going to Europe this summer and won't be at July Tech camp)any way, check this site out, it allows anyone to record a message on your blog.

http://www.mychingo.com/default.asp
and
http://www.mobatalk.com/ (these guys will be taking over in July)


talk to you later,
chris