Category: Terminology

Streaming? Downloading? Why RSS?

I have been struck by the continuing confusion in the marketplace in defining a download. The overly simplified convention holds all video within a web browser is streamed and all without is downloaded. I wrote a recent article on Downloading on the Internet and how at VoloMedia we define the three different types of downloads - RSS, Progressive and Direct. One of the challenges for ADM will be to concisely define our medium and explain why RSS matters to publishers. With the existence of suitable metrics and advertising solutions, there is no justification to keeping any media locked just within the confines of a web browser.

I’m a New Media Producer not a Podcaster!

I recently attended the “Podcast and New Media Expo” in California and the issue of using the name “Podcasting” was up for discussion again, however, this year some speakers went to the length of declaring “Podcasting is Dead”. Perhaps supported by the fact that for next years Expo, the term “Podcast” has been dropped from the show title - it’s just the “New Media Expo”.

Now this is nothing new as the topic of “Podcasting” terminology was actually brought up in Leo Laporte’s keynote from last year, when he suggested that the name “Podcasting” was bad for the industry.

Since then, negative connotations with “user generated content”, the detrimental effect of not having Microsoft fully supporting podcasts (although this seems now to be resolved at least for the Zune 2) and the general misunderstanding that podcasting was only available on iPods, all seem to have validated Leos suggestion on calling for a terminology change.

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