Word of the Day: podcasting

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Title: Word of the Day

January 18, 2005 Published by  WhatIs.com Word of the Day LOOK IT UP     LEARNING CENTER     FAST REFERENCES     CAREERS         Issue Sponsored By:   > Whatis.com Learning Center IN THIS ISSUE:   >  Word of the Day: podcasting   >  Today's Tech News   >  Brain Food   >  Additions and Updates   Whatis.com Learning Center Visit the Whatis.com Learning Center to get a crash course on the latest technology, industry standards and top issues that affect your business every day. You'll get a summary of current topics from across the TechTarget network of sites. From here you can view news, educate yourself with learning guides or utilize the resources of a crash course to stay up to date on the latest technologies. View topics now.   podcasting Podcasting is the preparation and distribution of audio (and possibly other media) files for download to digital music or multimedia players, such as the iPod. A podcast can be easily created from a digital audio file. The podcaster first saves the file as an MP3 and then uploads it to the Web site of a service provider. The MP3 file gets its own URL, which is inserted into an RSS XML document as an enclosure within an XML tag. Once a podcast has been created, it can be registered with content aggregators, such as podcasting.net or ipodder.org, for inclusion in podcast directories. People can browse through the categories or subscribe to specific podcast RSS feeds which will download to their audio players automatically when they next connect. Although podcasts are generally audio files created for digital music players, the same technology can be used to prepare and transmit images, text, and video to any capable device. Podcasting has been likened to TiVo because it allows users to listen to their selected podcasts whenever they like, similarly to the way time-shifting lets viewers watch television programs when it suits them. Furthermore, because of the portability of the player devices, users can listen to audio files from the Internet as they go about their daily activities - for example, listening to a news blog entry while at the gym, commuting, or just walking around. Content producers are increasingly turning to podcasting as an inexpensive and user-friendly new distribution channel that has the potential to reach a large audience. Not surprisingly, musicians and bloggers are prevalent among the early adopters, but mainstream media organizations, including ZDNet and the National Public Radio (NPR) Web site, are beginning to venture into podcasting as well. The cultural milieu supporting podcasting is sometimes referred to as the podosphere, just as the cultural environment surrounding the blog is called the blogosphere. MORE INFO: > PodFly.com is a podcast portal with a directory, tutorials, commentary, and more. > A Wired News article is called "Podcasts: New Twist on Net Audio." > Want to create your own podcasts? Phillip Cairns explains "Podcasting on a budget." > Read ZDNet's article, "Will Microsoft's monoculture take the 'pod' out of podcasting?" or listen to the first-ever ZDNet podcast. Microsoft to begin patch testing program [SearchWin2000.com] Microsoft is making the Security Update Validation Program a formal part of its software patch testing process after a yearlong pilot project. No new customer-participants need apply, however. Will 2005 measure up as the year of business biometrics? [SearchSecurity.com] Enterprises looking to biometrics for more than just security may be pleasantly surprised if they take the time to investigate what the technology can offer. Mobile phone malware: an enterprise problem? [SearchSecurity.com] Enterprises don't face much of a threat from cell phone malware right now. But that could change "very rapidly." More Tech News Catch up on all the latest IT news! Secret Word of the Day If you surf the Web on your television set or send photos over your cell phone, it's an example of this -- the combination of diverse technologies in a single device. What is it? Answer Today's Trivia Question What Canadian author recently made a foray into application development with an automatic book-signing device? Answer IT Alphabet Soup SMB is an abbreviation describing businesses with 1-999 employees. What does SMB stand for? Answer Learning Center Update: Career advice '05 Find out which skills are expected to be in demand this year and how outsourcing may affect you. 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