The best way to start this blog post series is of course with a definition about what a podcast is. I have personally answer this question in previous post, but here is another take, which involves other related terms around podcasting.

Please read the post before continuing. I’ll wait here.

Ok, so you’re back. I hope by now you should have a pretty good understanding about what a podcast is. It really is an ordinary audio file, except that listeners can receive automatic update and sync the files to media players or portable media devices.

In fact, the technology really is about feed syndication with enclosures. The files enclosed in the feed are not limited to audio and video files only, but also to documents and virtually any computer files.

Over the years, I have seen many words become common. Each of the term refers to a specific action or person. In fact, it could be confusing. Here are some of them:

• Podcasting refers to the action of producing and publishing a podcast. This is the most common use of the term. While in the past, I’ve seen it was used as the process of receiving podcast files, it becomes clearer nowadays as there is a new term invented for the client part (see the next term.)
• Podcatching - Podcatching is what a listener do to subscribe to podcast feed, download enclosures and listening/watching the podcast audio/video files.
• Podcatcher - As you probably have guessed right, this term refers to the piece of software that is used to manage and subscribe to podcast feed, also to download and schedule podcast files download. Podcatcher is also known as podcatching software or podcast aggregator.
• Podcast feed is the RSS feed that contains enclosures. This is the frequently updated file that notifies the podcatcher about new updates. Podcasters communicate and syndicate their new shows via the feed.
• Podcaster - People who plan, produce, edit and/or publish podcasts.

My podcasting glossary post has more terms related to podcasting. Bookmark it just for your reference.

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