MindSpace Art

Art, Technology, Opinions

What is a PodCast?

At its simplest, a podcast is a list of MP3 audio files you can listen to from almost any computer with internet access. You can simply listen to them on the web page, you can download them manually, or you can easily automate regular downloads.

The reason it is called a ‘cast’ is that you can subscribe (for free) to a podcast channel (sometimes called a feed) so that your computer automatically downloads the latest episodes at they become available. You subscribe by installing some ‘PodCatcher’ software (which is easy to use) and by then telling it which channels you want to subscribe to.

The reason it is called a ‘pod’ is that you can use the same ‘PodCatcher’ software to automatically copy all of the episodes it has downloaded onto your iPod. But NOTE – it does NOT have to be an iPod – it can be anything that plays MP3s, so the term PodCasting is actually quite misleading.

In summary, you can subscribe to audio broadcasts that are automatically downloaded to your MP3 player so you can listen to exactly what you want, when and where you want. There are at least 4000 podcasts out there on almost any topic you could be interested in, and most post a new episode weekly.

For more information, including what software to use and how to subscribe to a feed, I have a detailed help page here.

Web Logs (commonly called “blogs”) also use the same subscription technology, so that people can subscribe to a blog and have their “BlogReader” software download all the blog posts they are interested in.

The MindSpace Art Blog is both a blog and a podcast in one. Most blog posts have an audio version available too. The audio versions make up the MindSpace Art PodCast. You can read the blog here or subscribe to the blog or the podcast by using the following link: http://www.mindspaceart.com/blog/?feed=rss2

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  1. Pingback: MindSpace Art » Adliberation: One Time Only. Seriously.

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