Check out www.podcastingnews.com for info on how to make a podcast:
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Q: What's podcasting?
A: According to Wikipedia, "Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them." Technically, this is accomplished using RSS 2.0 news feeds to provide information about a collection of audio files in MP3 format. In common use, podcasting is often used to refer to independent audio shows that can be downloaded from the Internet.
Q: What's cool about podcasting?
A: Podcasting lets anybody with a microphone, a computer and an Internet connection publish audio shows that can be listened to by people anywhere in the world. Because the barriers to entry are very low, podcasting is rapidly becoming a popular way for people share audio shows. Podcasts are free and can be automatically downloaded to portable media players, so you can listen to them whenever it's convenient.
Coolest of all is that if you've got a great idea for a podcast, you can probably do it!
Q: Do I need to have an iPod to listen to podcasts?
A: No. The first podcast clients were designed to subscribe to audio shows, automatically download them and sync them to iPods. As podcasting has evolved, podcast clients have become available that work with most portable digital audio players. Many podcast sites support downloading shows directly from the site, and many directories support playing podcasts directly.
Q: Do I need special software to listen to podcasts?
A: No. Many podcasters and directories let you listen to podcasts as streaming media, directly from the site. Podcasting clients are used to streamline downloading podcasts and copying them to portable media players.
Q: Where can I find podcasts?
A: The most popular places for finding podcasts are the directories at iPodder.org, PodcastAlley and Podcasting News. There are many other podcast directory sites. Many podcast applications also include a list or directory of podcasts.
Q: Who invented podcasting?
A: Podcasting is based on capabilities built into the RSS 2.0 specification, which was developed by Dave Winer. Adam Curry catalyzed the podcasting concept in September of 2004, when he released a script that automatically downloaded audio files referenced in RSS files.
While there are many precedents for Curry and Winer's work, they put the pieces together and popularized the idea of podcasting. Because of this, they are generally considered the "podfathers" of the podcasting community.
Q: Do I need to use a Mac?
A: No. You can create and listen to podcasts using Windows, Mac OS X and Linux podcasting software.
Q: What is RSS?
A: RSS files are text files that contain information about things available on the Internet. For podcasting, RSS files are used to syndicate information about a podcast "channel" (the show as a whole), and also individual podcast episodes. The article Understanding RSS News Feeds discusses how to use them for podcasting.
Q: What can you do with a podcast?
A: A browse through a podcast directory shows the variety of podcasts that are available. Here are just a few things podcasting can be used for:
On-demand versions of radio shows
Personal audio blogs
Audio books
Music shows
Audio tour guides
Educational content that depends on audio (language, music, etc)
Marketing for musicians
Distributing sermons and other religious content
Storytelling
Sports coverage
Distributing/synchronizing audio and video files for business.
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