Léoville - Latest Comments in Don’t Call It A Podcast

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Kevin Crossman — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:53:46 -0000

I've been a big supporter of Rob Walch on the "it's podcasting" but I agree, tentatively, with Leo's position. They ARE shows. I agree with that. And it gives me pause to consider not using "podcast" as part of the name of my show, etc.

That said, netcasts is a name that really needs to go away. If it's really "shows" then you need to change your introduction: "Shows you love from people you trust"

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Mike — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:01:20 -0000

I agree that Leo produces shows but the method by way you can use RSS to download them to your computer is podcasting. As Rob states, that is here to stay. Just as people know what you mean when you say "pass me a Q-Tip, Kleenex, Hoover, Xerox, Taser" etc you don't literally mean pass me that brand - they are becoming generic terms. If you give it a chance and stop fighting, podcast will too, and Microsoft's adoption will only help this.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Lorna — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:58:07 -0000

I've never gotten used to the term podcast; that word itself deters me from ever making one.

I agree on the word webcast, or streamcast. Streamcast has a nice ring to it.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Leo — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:02:06 -0000

Not at all. I offer podcasts of all my shows. You can _get_ them as podcasts but they aren't _just_ podcasts. To call them podcasts would be to limit them. In fact, so does "netcast." I think they're just shows, period.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Rob Walch — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:27:41 -0000

Leo - you will always trump my Podcast and 99.99% of all Podcasts when it comes to audience. However does this mean you are removing the RSS feed and having your show removed from the Podcast section of iTunes and all the other directories - including the new Podcast section in Zune Marketplace? Becasue then "Today in iPhone" would be able to give you a run for your money :^)

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Leo — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:56:35 -0000

Make you a deal, Rob. You keep calling them podcasts; I'll call mine shows. We'll see who gets bigger. ;-)

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Rob Walch — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:14:58 -0000

99.9% of the time Leo you are correct - this is the 0.1% you are dead wrong. The name is here for good. It is not going anywhere. Even MS today announced the Zune Market Place is going to support Podcasts. The name has lots of mainstream up take. It is much better than any other name suggested. Please stop fighting wind mills and move on to figuring out how to get more people into podcasting - rather than fighting a loosing fight. One year later and a google for Netcast gives no more results than it did at last years expo.

Podcast - the name is here for good. Get used to it. Well that is what I think.

Rob W

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Juho — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:38:47 -0000

'Podcasting' has stuck with us, but it hasn't really become mainstream so I guess it could still be changed.

How about SOIP (=Show Over IP)? ;)

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Ryan Opaz — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:33:15 -0000

Always called my "podcasts" Radio, since most of my listeners have no clue what a podcast is. They tend not to be tech savy, and if I say it's radio via the internet the understand better.
Maybe Radio is wrong too, but it does communicate the idea.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

greg caldwell — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:27:32 -0000

i agree....i vote webcast.,its away from "pods" and expresses the idea of a show available on the www.ps..thanx a million for getting steve smoothed out you guys are a great team,good balance.i save all grc's webcasts ( :

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Eric — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:41:02 -0000

From the "About" page of this blog....

"Hello! My name is Leo Laporte. Iâ€™m a technology journalist and podcaster and this is my blog."

Q: if you can't call it a podcast, what is a podcaster?

Cheers,
Eric

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Helge Heggli — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:51:38 -0000

uhm.. i think its too late to change it now! even you Leo say podcast allot of times in your "netcasts" ..

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Derik — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:09:16 -0000

Does this mean you'll be dropping the word "Netcast" from all your webpages and podcast intros?

If not, this is an empty post. Back up the words.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

solak — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:13:05 -0000

When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "the medium is the message", he wasn't talking about tubes, wires, and radio frequencies, he meant that the new forms of communication that the medium enabled were the important thing. The internet enables new patterns and forms of communication, and whether we update our channel via an RSS reader or by visiting a website is a minor detail compared to the {many-to-many, no-FCC-license-required, low-cost} characteristics that are newly added by using the internet.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Anthony — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:00:08 -0000

Leo, when I saw this title I thought this post was going to be another call to "netcast" or another term and just want to say I totally agree with this thought process. ("Netcasts you love" is the only part of your shows that has ever made me cringe.)

When I set up the linklist in my tumblog earlier this year I made a conscious decision to list iptv shows next to tv shows I am watching and audio podcasts next to terrestrial radio shows with no distinctions noted. (Although I admittedly listen to all the radio shows exclusively via podcasts at this point for timeshifting convenience)

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

NicoleSpag — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 02:23:05 -0000

Great post Leo! Marc and I decided sometime ago to stop referring to The Wood Whisperer as a podcast, since most of the time an explaination of what a podcast was had to be stated immediatly after. Now we simply call it an online video show. There has been no questions since and we get to the heart of why we are speaking with the person much faster.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Austin B — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 01:50:39 -0000

I have to agree, no truer words have been spoken, Leo. In our mass comm colleges across the country, students nowadays are taught that the medium is the message and that couldn't be more offputting. I loved the description you gave about shows and content and I hope you continue to keep on doing what you're doing.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

rocketsmans — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:35:47 -0000

By rights we should be calling them internet shows. They are shows accessible via the Internet Just like radio shows are accessible via the radio and television shows are accessible via the television.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Lars — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:23:25 -0000

Peter, I agree with you 100%. When hosting my 'show' I refer to it as such. When pointing people to my site http://www.deepershades.net, I'll let them know about the possibility of downloading the 'show' but when it comes to the rss subscription, I refer to the 'show' also being available as a podcast.

and .. I forgot to give some props earlier .. Leo, I've been diggin' your style since I first saw Screen Savers years ago when I wasn't even living in the US yet ..

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Peter — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:40:59 -0000

I posted this over on the TWiT.tv forums, too... And I haven't read all of these responses, so I apologize if this point has been made.

To the technically non-savvy public-at-large, ANY digital music player is an iPod. So calling something a "Podcast" is building on the awareness of that. It's simply good marketing.

Yes, language is a powerful thing. But just think of the word "show." How did that come to mean anything dealing with entertainment? I'm going to "show" you something, on stage... Theater. Show was simply easier to say. We're going to a show. Then radio, ironically, adopted it. You can't "show" something on radio. But because show had come to mean a program of entertainment, the programs started being called "shows." Radio shows. Then TV eclipsed radio, and the term stuck there. By all rights, we should be calling what we're doing "PodShows." but it sounds pretty dorky.

So somebody came up with "Podcast" rather than "Broadcast." And it had a ring to it and stuck. It has a visual element to the name; "Pod." Something you can associate with sound. And "Cast," a distribution system.

Netcast on the other hand has a muddier meaning to it. The internet is pretty huge and nebulous and means many things to many people. So adding "net" to the word "cast" muddies the meaning of the phrase.

Anyway, I think Podcast is here to stay, and we have to deal with it, like it or not. And unless someone huge like Microsoft starts promoting "netcasts" or "Microcasts" or "MSCasts" we're not going to see a change anytime soon.

And I think Podcasting has reached a plateau. Without reaching that critical "Tipping Point" of popularity. (Read that book, "Tipping Point." It's fantastic) I think as content producers we're doing as much as we can. There just needs to be that little thing that pushes it over the edge to the public-at-large.

Anyway, I'm rambling. So I'm just going to say that whatever one calls it, Leo, you're a big part of the independent net/pod/web/cast industry. So keep it up! :) I listen to 4 or 5 of your shows a week. They're awesome.

Also, kind listeners, check out my humble internets show at
http://weeklyradioaddress.com

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Rusty — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:26:11 -0000

"Independent Network Show" seems to me to be a reasonable title. It gives you the option of calling yourself an Independent Network Show Producer, Reporter, Instructor/Teacher/Educator, or other title as is appropriate for the content you create.

Leo does a great job both as a producer in the sense of directing, engineering, editing, and publishing the content, as well as being the host of most of the shows, interviewing guests discussing news, etc.

From what I've done, and talked with others about, engineering, editing, and publication uses most of the same skills, just different tools related to the medium the content is on. You package the content as appropriate for the system that will utilize that content. That may mean connecting the output of a sound card to a phone line, or a broadcast transmitter, storing the recording on a web server, or ftp server, or streaming it.

That distribution part is rarely the critical aspect of the show itself. It does affect who the audience is, and as a result may affect the content, but in most cases that's decided far enough in advance that it does not directly impact the production itself. (It may affect advertising, and expenses...)

-Rusty

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Leigh — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:19:42 -0000

radio show
tv show
internet show

simple no confusion.. make sence. I like it Leo ;)

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Lars — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:52:08 -0000

hmm . I do a radio show on XM Radio - The Move and offer the same thing for download on my site and give people the chance to subscribe to the show via RSS .. if I all just call it the show, won't I miss the opportunity to let people know about the different ways they can access the show?

one thing I've seen on a few websites is a link to 'Automated Download' .. sorta describes a Podcast but sounds even worse imho.

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

The Pawnbroker — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:20:30 -0000

I have to reiterate that I think referring to them as "Internet audio show" or "Web show" or even "Netcast" is completely wrong. The method of distribution (or even production) should not in any way be included in the name. A lot of peoples eyes glaze over when they hear that. What Leo does is produce content. He has a network that produces entertainment and information content. It doesn't matter how it is produced or how it is distributed. Those technologies can change. More rapidly now than ever. Also, everyone in the world knows how to turn on a TV or a Radio. A lot of people still have no idea how subscribe to a podcast or netcast or internet show etc. Keep whatever the new name is production and distribution neutral. Just talk about the content and maybe whether it is audio or video. I can get "podcasts" on my Tivo now. That's the type of way mainstream consumers are going to get involved. Having a confusing name for the product is going to hold its acceptance back. Can anyone think of a really cool sounding synonym for "show" or "program"? Or should we just go with Show or Program?

p.s. This kind of stuff is driving the big networks crazy. I love it!

Re: Don’t Call It A Podcast

Nite — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:51:31 -0000

Pssst... Leo, there is a "Blogcast"...

https://www.godaddy.com/gds...

It can be just the option some people need.