tuaw.com — "If you're a TWiT fan (or a listener of almost any of Leo's other 200 podcasts), you might have heard in the past couple of weeks that he's pushing to change the term 'podcast' to 'netcast.' Now before you run off and flame TWiT's forums, just hear the man out - because I think he has a good idea."
Oct 7, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountOct 8, 2006
cr - ap - ple
ravenmuffinOct 8, 2006
Its called trademark law. If a company doesn't defend their mark, they lose the rights to it. It's the same reason the Digg game sites got their C&D letters.
vprice509Oct 9, 2006
Ummm..., but it is a PODCAST. Podcast rhymes with broadcast AND describes the portable nature of it. Media on demand, on the go. "Radio" when and where you want to listen to it. Apple may be able to claim "pod", but not "podcast". Netcast rhymes with... wet mast? pet blast? and makes it sound like it's "internet radio"; streaming content, which has largely been a flop. You can pry my podcast out of my cold, dead hand.
streakOct 10, 2006
I would suggest a more generic term than "podcast" be coined for program material provided over the Internet. The term should be simple enough in its root form (even simpler than "netcast") that it can be naturally extended with prefixes and suffixes so as to indicate more specific temporal and spatial modes of content delivery, storage, and consumption.Take for instance "iCast", which would mean "Internet broadCast" in the most general of senses. If an iCast is targeted or restricted for use on an iPod, it might be embellished to "podicast". Or if it could be stored on any computer for later consumption, it might be called a "laticast". If the consumption could be later but only during daytime hours, it might be called a "latidacast". If the iCast could be downloaded on-demand for contemporaneous viewing, it might be called an "ondenowicast".
Closed AccountOct 10, 2006
Sure you can explain to people what a podcast is when they keep assuming you gotta have an ipod to listen to it. But this is the problem with it. People DO assume you gotta have an ipod when you don't need to. That's what the term podcast makes it sound like to most people. So instead of explaining it to people. Simply rename it. If you had to explain to a million people what it was and it took 10 seconds for each one, that would mean you had to take 10 million seconds. But if you rename it to netcast, they don't assume that you need an ipod and thus you are saved that time where they ask you that specifically. THAT is why it's being now called netcasts. After all, what version of windows was named windows chicago as it's code name? Can you remember? Probably not.
Closed AccountOct 10, 2006
Sorry, tried editing the comment but didn't finish in time. Here's a better example. Say you had the song End Of The Road by Boyz To Men. Now let's say for the artist of that song you instead put Stevie Wonder. But when you listened to it, you knew clearly it was really Boyz To Men who sang it. Now for people that don't know, they will assume originally it was Stevie Wonder who sang it. Simply because that's what the song info says. Or some people might even recognize that it is Boyz To Men who sang it. Sure you can keep telling people who don't know that it's really Boyz To Men that is singing it. Or they might even ask why Stevie Wonder was put their as the artist. That seems easy to do and takes a few seconds of your time. But what should have been done in the first place is to put Boyz To Men as the artist. Then people wouldn't assume it was Stevie Wonder or ask why Stevie Wonder was put their when Boyz To Men was the artists that sang it.Do you get the idea now? Netcast is a more appropriate term then podcast. Giving it a proper name is a better thing to do then continually being asked why something wasn't named properly. Those people who assumed they needed an ipod when told they don't need one, might then ask why it was named podcast when an ipod isn't necessarily needed. And the answer will be because it's just a bad name. Netcast fixes it. That's all.
karmavsOct 11, 2006
RSS (really simple _syndication_) based media broadcast - Syncast
wethackreyOct 22, 2006
Jeez... first of all, Apple didn't coin the term "podcast" and has never claimed ownership of it. It was first coined by Ben Hammersley of The Guardian in early 2004 and was in general use by Dave Winer, Adam Curry and the rest of the community by late 2004. Sure, it was influenced by the fact that the iPod was then, and continues to be, the dominant portable media player, but it was NOT an Apple invention or an Apple marketing term. All you Apple-bashers out there, suck it up and live with it. The term was coined by the RSS/audio blogging community and it sounds a lot like iPod precisely because that community acknowledges the influence of the iPod.Leo, it is simply too late to change the term now. "Podcast" was the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year in 2005. You remind me of a brilliant guy I consulted to back in 1993. He wrote some software that made a completely different use of mouse buttons than all other software. He'd go on endlessly about how much "better" it was. Perhaps. But in 1993 it was simply too late to re-invent the paradigm. You don't want to be the ONLY software out there that nobody can figure out how to use.Then there's the Blues Foundation. For years the "Grammy" of Blues music was called the W. C. Handy Award, named for the renowned "father of the Blues". People called the awards the "Handys" Then, last year, some advertising hack convinced the Blues Foundation that "W. C. Handy" was "too obscure". They renamed the awards the "Blues Music Awards", immediately surrendering decades of brand identity and buying themselves instant obscurity.Honestly, even if you COULD rename podcasts at this point, it would be a terrible idea. "Podcasting" is well recognized by almost all of the developed world. And, just as most people know that they can be "Kleenex" from any paper manufacturer they choose, they know that they can play a podcast on most any media player. Does use of the term give a nod to Apple? Absolutely. But you have to admit that, were it not for the iPod, there would be no "podcasting."I love ya Leo, but sometimes you have the lamest ideas.