PodCasts

Tune in to these blog-based homemade radio shows, and you'll hear any number of things: a weekly hour long program about board games; a daily amateur photography show hosted by an Australian computer programmer; regular people!

If you've never heard of a podcast, don't worry. Neither has Google. Type "podcast" into the search engine and it yields results but also asks, "Did you mean: broadcast?" Well, yes. Sort of.

Podcasts are broadcasts in only the loosest sense. They don't use megawatt transmitters to send signals tens or hundreds of miles like terrestrial radio. Listeners can't hear them live because they are prerecorded sound files; they don't stream in real time like Internet radio.

A sort of TiVo for amateur online audio, podcasts are radio-style audio files posted inside blogs as MP3s that can be downloaded to an iPod or other portable player. And they represent the next wave of peer-to-peer content sharing - unlimited by available FM-AM spectrum, untouched by Govt. regulation, portable and full of possibility.

In just four weeks the number of podcasts has jumped to at
least six dozen. Tuning in Blogosphere Radio: A weekly talk show about what's being blogged about, hosted by Canadian college student Mack Male. Launched: Sept. 21
Cyberspace address: www.blogosphereradio .com

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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