Podcasting Basics

Podcasting is a method of publishing audio or video files to the Internet. Users can subscribe to a feed and new files can be automatically downloaded to their computers. Those files can then be listened to or viewed on computers or MP3 players at a user’s convenience. What differs podcasting from streaming is that users do not need to be online. Portability is thus a main feature of podcasts.

Podcasting involves the two processes of:

• creating and publishing on the part of the producer and
• subscribing and listening on the part of the listener.

Creating & Publishing involves:

1. creating and editing an audio or video recording,
2. uploading the file to a server,
3. publishing the file through a blog post with an enclosure.

Subscribing & Listening involves:

1. subscribing to a feed using a podcatcher,
2. listening to/viewing file on your PC or transferring it to an MP3 player.

The following is a graphical representation of the process: