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Saturday, June 10, 2006

What's in a name?


Interesting blog entry I found about how the name "podcast" just doesn't fit.


""Podcast" is, when you think about it, an absolutely horrible name for the technology. We don't watch a TVcast, we watch a TV show. We don't listen to a Radiocast, it's a radio show or a radio station. And much of podcast listening isn't even done on an mp3 player, let alone an iPod."


Now, Mark Ramsey makes a good point. However, in the trusty podcasting bible co-written by one of Arizona's finest podcasters Evo Terra, he has a little blurb about the name:


"As with most items that make their way into the conventional lexicon of speech, the precise origins and meaning behind podcasting are somewhat clouded. While the domain podcast.com was originally registered back in 2002 (nothing was ever done with it, as far as we know), and Ben Hammersley suggested that and many other terms in February 2004, it's generally accepted in the podosphere that the first person to use the term as a reference to the activity we now know as podcasting was Dannie Gregoire on 9-15-2004. While some assert the name has connotations to the popular iPod device created by Apple, Dannie didn't have that in mind when the phrase was coined. Regardless of the intentions, the term has been backronymed (that is, treated like an acronym and applied to a variety of plausible existing meanings.) Of all the possibilities, we prefer Personal On-Demand narrowcasting (not broadcasting), which shortens nicely to podcasting. But, of course, you can choose whichever one makes sense to you."


So Ramsey's idea as a possibility: audiomag.

Kay.
Any other suggestions?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have a problem with the name Podcasting. The expanation that Evo gives works for me. It doesn't matter what name you use for something, you will always have people that hate it and people who love it.

Rick

Audio Addict said...

I like Evo's explaination too. The only thing that I don't like is narrowcasting. I think podcasting is an even broader medium than broadcasting!

How about Infini-casting?