mmeiser blog is now podcasting!

I have been experimenting for the past week with podcasting via blogger.com. The bad news is Blogger's Atom feeds in no way support podcasting. However, the excellent and free service feedburner.com does. (Huge shout-out to feedburner. THANK YOU, YOU ROCK!)

Please subscribe to my latest feed (link below) in your iPodder, iPodderX, or Newsgator client and let me know what you think, especially if you have any trouble. My first and only podcast as of this writing is appropriately my last post on the Italian Pirate TV Network called Telestreet.

MY NEW PODCAST FEED: mmeiser blog RSS 2.0 podcast feed - powered by FeedBurner.com

One note. Make sure you have your podcasting application set to download ALL media, not just mp3's. I WILL NOT be podcasting my own audio show as most do. As you may have noticed I'm interested in the academic exploration of the interrelation between media and culture. As such, I am using this podcast to mix my own media rich feed (similar to a TV station) of content throughout the web such as trailers, music videos, documentaries, adverts, things funny, wacky, weird, and all sorts of MOV, MPEG, DIVX and other rich media.

Some might call this videocasting to distinguish it from podcasting since podcasting is generally thought of as audio only. I personally think what I'm doing could be technically labeled podcasting as the word itself is not audio specific, but I realize there are a whole lot of differences between what I'm doing and what most podcasters are doing and I think a new terms such as "videocasting", "blogcasting" and "audiocasting" will evolve to distinguish between these new forms of broadcasting over the internet protocol or "IP broadcasting". ; )

Now that I trust I have thoroughly confused the issue I offer you the following differences between this and a regular podcast.

• This is not an audio cast, most podcasts are specifically audio.
• This is a rich media feed that may include MPEG, MOV, WMV, Real Video, and other video formats (and possibly images and photos as well).
• This will not be able to be placed on an iPod or mp3 player like most podcasts unless it is a full on media player or PVR (Portable Video Recorder & playback device) such as the iRiver or RCA Lyra which support multiple video formats.
• Unlike most podcasts whom create their own audio content I am producing NONE of the content (at least to start). The value will be contained in what I choose to post and in the words I choose to introduce it. Though in the future I am hoping it will be possible to create my own video clips that will string together others disparate video clips with my introductions, segue between content and perhaps news and information to create a cohesive show (similar to a TV news show) WITHOUT downloading remixing and then hosting other peoples content. At this point we would be talking true interactive TV, which while brilliant is a TALL order.) Right now I simply hope to successfully blog about cool trailers, music videos, commercials, viral ads, and other video based content.
  
• I am hosting NONE of the content as I own none of it. Most podcasters host their own content as they own and produce most of the content. That I'm merely pointing to content already on line and not downloading it, remixing it and hosting it gives me SIGNIFICANT legal protection as well as ensures that the original owners can track, control and get credit for work. It also reduces my cost greatly and allows myself and others to offer scandalous comment and discussion on their works without any fear of legal recourse because there are clear lines of ownership and fairuse.
  
• This will be merely a channel where I "point" to and promote other peoples creations as is typical of a blog, the difference is these creations I am promoting are not merely other web pages, but are in fact rich media such as videos clips and highres images. This will I hope not only create a more enjoyable experience, but also a richer more elevated debate.
  

Goals: I hope this will do several things including:

1. create a richer and more enjoyable experience for those who read this blog
2. elevate and create a richer debate
3. inspire others to blog and/or podcast
4. encourage the development of more specialized software to progress podcasting
5. contribute in some small way shape or form to the democratizing of broadcast media which have been traditionally been accessible only by the few and the privileged. It's time broadcast media become a ubiquitous part of the mass communications ecosystem.
   

I will have more information on this later.

BTW, if anyone does have any information on how to get blogger.com's Atom feed to work with podcasting please do let me know. Also, I have not seen any official specifications on defining enclosures in Atom. I'd really like to get both feeds working.

Also, I will be updating this blog as well as my separate back channel blog with the new RSS 2.0 feeds as the default feeds, and adding a list of my favorite podcasts.