Podcasts

It's been a while since I added to this blog--Springtime is nuts! Way too much to do! Anyway, I finally got around to checking out podcasting. I actually took a little podcasting course through my school district, which was a nice introduction. But I still didn't get the point of podcasting. Today, however, I lightbulb flicked on. I read Forever Geek's Beginner's Guide to Podcasting and Creating Podcasts, also Jason Van Orden's How to Podcast. Finally, it made sense! Before today I didn't understand the difference between just listening to a file on YouTube and using RSS. Now I see that when I ask for an RSS feed, I expect to get regular or semi-regular broadcasts from the same person or group on a topic similiar to what first attracted me to the initial podcast I heard. This is a place I can return to regularly to get my fix of a favored kind of music, or an intriguing talk personality. So, if I enjoy listening to movie reviews, I can subscribe to a movie reviewing podcast. If I like hearing someone offer instruction on music improvisation, I subscribe to that podcast. Podcasts, then, are briefer, less elaborate versions of the pirate radio web broadcasts that I used to hear about back in the 90's, right? And mostly they're produced by far less radical people, like me.