spoonford

ToonCasting?

I've recently discovered "Podcasting". For those of you who are unfamiliar:

Podcasting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them. Most podcasts are MP3 files distributed through RSS, but other formats and other types of files, such as video, can also be podcasted.

The word "podcasting" is a portmanteau of the words iPod and broadcasting. Podcasting does not require an iPod, however: any digital audio player can be used to listen.

A podcast is analogous to an audio magazine subscription, in that a subscriber receives regular programs without having to remember to go get them, and can listen to or watch them at leisure. It can also be thought of as the internet equivalent of timeshift-capable digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo, which let users automatically record and store television programs for later viewing.

Full Wikipedia entry here


I'm really enjoying choosing what content I want to have delivered. I subscribe to podcasts for audio and to blogs for interesting stuff to read. The other thing I like to do is watch Web Toons like Weebl & Bob. I was talking to Skoo a while ago and we talked about how it would be cool if there was a similar delivery system for web cartoons. You would download a programme that would check RSS feeds for new ToonCasts much in the same way that you can use iPodder for Podcasts. The software would have a built in players for the various different formats (mostly flash?). It would run minimised in your toolbar and inform you when there is new content for you to watch. The software would play the downloaded toon for you and could also have a panel for episode information and links to the main toon site. It could carry whatever messages the toon makers wanted to put in. Anything from info about site updates to apperances at confrences etc.

The possibilites are endless and there are certainly a number of commercial applications. Hopefully there will be more talk about this soon. Watch this space.

posted by spoons @ 5:38 PM