Another view of podcasting.
This article from Yahoo! Technology News points out some of the shortcomings of podcasting as a delivery medium for information. You can't "skim" or speed-read a podcast. You can't add marginalia. You can't link out of one. If the only thing in the podcast is information, people are going to be bored to tears, they are going to hate being chained to that iPod, they are going to want to take notes (which they can't do if they listen while they drive, jog, wait in the bank line) and then they are back to a piece of paper again. What was the point?
Here's what I get from this: Don't make podcasting a solution in search of a problem. To me, the value of the human voice is in the emotion, the conviction, and the nuance it can convey. Use podcasts to give the big picture, not the details. Use podcasts to tickle the imagination of the listener, to get awareness, to generate interest. Use podcasts to persuade or to convince, to call to action. Use podcasts to entertain. But don't use podcasts to make your lectures portable, to provide dense technical information, or to give directions.
Podcasting for Business: Next Big Thing? (NewsFactor). NewsFactor - IBM's (NYSE: IBM) announcement that it has embraced podcasting for delivering information to investors has sparked discussion in the industry over whether the technology is the next big communication medium or simply a gone-tomorrow trend. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]
文中关于podcast到底用来传递怎样的信息的思考个人觉得很有道理,我们现在可能更多的是把重心都放在了podcast能传递声音信息甚至图像信息、视频信息,但却没有对这些信息进行进一步的细化,这样势必会导致对podcast的滥用,这样也就不能充分发挥podcast的作用了。podcast说老底和书本、电视、广播等没有本质的区别,都是一种信息的传递途径,尽管它还是一个比较新的概念和思路。