PODCASTING: The Rise Of The "Sliver-Cast"

The NYT jumps on the podcasting hype train today. Although I have yet to meet anyone who has listened to a podcast, several of the casters in the story claim to have daily downloads in the thousands.

The real interesting story here is not the iPod, but the availability of low cost recording software and the continuing evolution of the internet as a communication medium. It's obvious there wouldn't be so much chatter about podcasting as the new bottom-up media channel of choice if the name and identity weren't attached to the most popular and hip electronic gadget to emerge in several decades. The term podcasting was coined on the idea that folks would download these shows and play them on their iPod, but I think that might be more ideal than reality. Getting into the habit of downloading a podcast, uploading it to your iPod, and then removing it when you are done smacks of too much effort. If podcasting takes off it will be because the audience is listening through a medium of minimal effort and around which they can schedule a consistent and comfortable routine in their day. (Hmmm...maybe the old fashioned desktop?)

Will podcasting take off? It will have it's run as the flavor of the moment and savvy groups will strike early and build audiences while the cool factor is still running high. Over time the podcasting universe will get cluttered, popular favorites will emerge, and then they will get swallowed by bigger and broader media networks...and then we sit around and wait for the moblog craze, then the Triocasting craze, and then the chip-in-the-brain-casting craze....