Web Design & Development Guide

Video podcasts

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Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is an evolution specialized for video, coming from the generally audio-based podcast and referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device.

Technology and History

From a web server, a video podcast can be distributed as a file or as a stream. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Downloading complete video podcasts in advance gives the user the ability to play the video podcasts offline on, for example, a portable media player. A downloaded version can be watched many times with only one download, reducing bandwidth costs in this case. Streaming allows seeking (skipping portions of the file) without downloading the full video podcast, better statistics and lower bandwidth costs for the servers; however, users may have to face pauses in playback caused by slow transfer speeds.

A podcast client may work with a separate, or integrated player. One such example of the latter is iTunes, which is an unusual case of a web feed aggregator being added to a media player rather than vice versa.

Channeling of on-demand content has major benefits for both publishers and subscribers. Publishers can still bundle content for their audience. Subscribers can consume content on-demand and don't need keyboard or mouse interfaces to choose channels and items, much similar to zapping through regular TV stations, and new episodes show up automatically, so the technology is ideal for on-the-go (portable media players and mobile phones) and living room mass media consumption.

Uses in Education

Video podcasts enable students and teachers to share information with anyone anytime. If a student is absent, they can download the podcast of the recorded lesson. It can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate curriculum, assignments and other information with parents and the community. Teachers can record book talks, vocabulary or foreign language lessons, international pen pal letters (podcast pals!), music performance, interviews, debates. Video podcasting can be a publishing tool for student oral presentations. Audio podcasts can be used in all these ways as well. It also allows people to leave a journal.

Timeline

On 31 October 2003 [1] Canadian film collective Rocket Ace Moving Pictures launches the serialized web-based video zombie comedy project Dead End Days at DeadEndDays.com while referred to by its creators as a "web-serial" throughout 2003 and 2004, it is adopted by the podcast community as a progenitor [2] . The creators retroactively add RSS features to the site.

On 1 January 2004 Steve Garfield launches his video blog and declares that 2004 would be the year of the video blog.^[1]^[2]

On October 1st 2005 Terra: The Nature of Our World launched making it the first Natural History video podcast. It is produced in conjunction with the MFA program in Science & Natural History Filmmaking at Montana State University, Filmmakers for Conservation, and PBS.^[3]

On the 8 June 2006, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, launch her video podcast via the bundeskanzlerin website, making her the first head of government to launch a regular video podcast.^[4]

On December 16, 2006, Time magazine named its Person of the Year as "You", referring to independent content creators on the web and video podcasters in particular. Crash Test Kitchen, a video podcast begun in April 2005 by home cooks Waz and Lenny, was featured in the magazine as an example of this phenomenon. The magazine itself was a distinctive issue that featured a flexible mirror on the cover.

On April 13, 2007, the British panel game Have I Got News for You started to broadcast a vodcast called Have I Got News for You: The Inevitable Internet Spin-off. The first HIGNFY vodcast was presented by Jeremy Clarkson.

On 25 May, 2007, another British panel game, QI, also announced that it would create a vodcast, starting in Series E.^[5]

External links

Lists of video podcast directories: (not individual directories)