The latest trend just might be Pod Casting. A combination apparently of the word i-Pod (question can we use that without getting sued?) and broadcasting. The concept is that you put your thoughts, an article, or whatever you want into a digital format, like mp3, and then people interested in what you have to say — literally — can hear you say it, as opposed to themselve having to read it. I personally think the idea is kind of stupid — but it is catching on, so maybe it is me who is stupid.
Now I suppose, if I download the items to my i-Pod or other mobile device, I could listen while commuting (that’s a good 6 minutes out of my day), jogging (I don’t jog, I run, and I do it with someone to talk to when we aren’t going so fast that talking is impractical), gardening (yeah right), waterskiing (well maybe that isn’t too well advised) … etc. Anyway, I guess if I wanted to listen during downtime, maybe it isn’t so bad.
We do live help here at htmlfixit.com for web design and program code related issues, as well as support our modest product line of scripts, both free and low cost. We use a screen reader through mIRC so that we can hear when someone asks a question. Once they have our attention, we tune in. That doesn’t take bandwidth, because we recieve it as text and convert it on our end.
So my question is this, if what you want is the content, isn’t it a huge waste of bandwidth to get a podcast via download, verses using a screen reader? That is why I think podcasts aren’t all that big a deal. Like a comment to the popular Lessig Blog said to the author on his first pod cast, don’t read me what you wrote, tell me what you are thinking. That makes sense to me, unless you can add understanding and breadth … save your breath.
