Podcasting - Radio on Demand

"Podcasting" may be something you have heard a lot and sounds familiar, but you are still not quite sure what it is and how you can listen in. And why is it called "Podcasting" anyway? As you might have guessed, it is derived from iPod and broadcasting. The concept is not limited to iPods, however.

Technically, podcasting refers to the distribution of multimedia files over the internet using news feed formats, such as RSS or Atom. In practice it is mostly audio files that are being "podcasted", and it can be thought of as a type of "radio on demand". In order to receive a podcast you need a podcast client, a program that runs on your computer and downloads multimedia files from RSS feeds that you specify.

Here are a few examples of podcast clients for Linux: Juice, BashPodder, and PerlPodder. However, there are many others. After you have set up your podcast client, you need something to listen to. For that you can consult a postcast directory, such as iPodder.org.