Ditching the ‘Pod’

LeoLeo LaPorte is building a new media empire on podcasting technology. TWiT (This Week in Tech) is a podcast network, owned and operated by Leo which publishes numerous entertaining and informative shows to a global audience. He has a few dedicated listeners here in South Africa and is one of the pioneers in developing a business model for podcasting.

The thing is, he doesn’t call it podcasting. He calls it Netcasting (and therefore the Twit.tv website is called a netcast network). I’m guessing there are two major motivations for swimming upstream:

1. Apple was making a very corporate-like noise about anyone using the word ‘Pod’ in anything that resembles anything of commercial value, issuing cease-and-desist letter left and right to halt the cult.

2. ‘Netcast’ is a better term than ‘podcast’. It includes video podcasting (vidcasting? vodcasting?) and I guess any other citizen-driven broadcast using the internet as a platform.

So I’ll be referring to netcasts from now on. Actually, I’ll probably forget pretty soon, but I’ll try. Also, I may have one or two impending ‘netcasting’ projects up my sleeve – so let’s see if I can sell this one :)

  • http://www.rafiq.za.net/blog rafiq

    Your Web AddiCT is here to remind you. Netcast. why not Webcast? it could even be described as microcasting. plaster of paris & sling: broken arm in a cast. It is all broadcasting.

  • http://www.ddmcd.com Dennis McDonald

    I hate to say it, but the image I get when I hear the term “netcast” is a fisherman (or woman) throwing a net out to sea.

    And I really have a hard time believing that Apple REALLY is threatening people about the term “podcast.” I know they are a U.S. based company which may make them suspect, but my son just showed me the box containing an iPod Shuffle he just bought as a present and I must say that it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

    At any rate, you now will have two sets of tags to maintain! And do you do tag-specific RSS feeds? How about having a “tag feed face-off” — measure the number of new feed subscriptions generated over a one month period for the two feeds. Then make a decision between “podcast” and “netcast” (that fishing image again…)

  • http://www.aphotographicimagination.com/ Ron Diorio

    I think he is right to make the distinction but not for the reasons that you gave.

    One of the things most clearly articulated about 2.0 successes is that they give their users power.

    Now when it comes to audio and video, the single most important thing to create is a compelling piece of media, not a podcast.

    If you have that compelling piece of media why narrowly focus it on a single distribution strategy?

    I think that an “all band” philosophy needs to be in place to take advantage of the full rane of potential listeners. Flash is ubiquitous. From some vendor numbers I have seen most audio programs at iTunes are listened to as a stream in the iTunes player. RSS feeds may create subscriptions but as magazine publishers will tell you – you can send it out but can’t tell who is using it.

  • http://www.chilibean.co.za Paul

    I was also going to stop calling these things podcasts and start calling them netcasts and then I realised that you often have brand specific names that become generic as people use them more (kleenex, google etc). The term ‘podcast’ just seems to stick …

  • http://www.mikestopforth.com Mike

    Hmmm. Clearly not a good idea. The crowd has spoken, podcasts appear to be the way to go?

  • http://thehoustonmacbro.blogspot.com houstonmacbro

    i produce a podcasts at my college and we call it Podcasts because we use the apple rss techniques and such. i would hate to have to change the name…?