Let’s take a trip down memory lane… Please turn the volume up to 11.
In May of 2000, I noticed that Wired had a news story as an MP3, it’s from their infrequently updated Wired News Radio section.
In June of 2000 we mention Greasy Skillet:
Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out Greasy Skillet yet, do so now… The ‘audio log’ thing is similar to an idea I had a while back, but of course, never executed…
Hurm, that “never executed” bit, should be my motto…
A month later in July 2000 I mention my new audio gear:
Listen Up! I picked up a desktop audio recorder over the weekend (aka, a tape recorder) so I’m back on the audio track. When I find interesting, but long, articles, I just have computer read them out loud while connected to the recorder, then listen to the tapes in the car. I’ve also started (trying) to find good audio stuff to listen to.
And one more from 2000, an AIFF file welcoming visitors. There might be more, but that was all I felt like digging through.
Now, I’m not trying to jump on the (small) bandwagon of folks who are saying that podcasting is nothing new, that it’s just like radio, or it’s just audio on the web, or whatever… I’m here specifically to say that while all this was good and useful, and I was recording audio to portable devices back in the late 1990s, this is different, and even though I had a loose collection of perl scripts for the past year that downloaded weekly web radio shows via cron jobs, this is different. Yes, podcasting, as it’s been named, is different. It’s due in large part to the community, of which I see Adam Curry as the center. Sure, others had similar ideas, or the same ideas, maybe even much earlier, but Adam managed to sort of pull a community together, and that’s what made the difference.
I remember the world of weblogs back in 1997/1998 (of course we didn’t have the word ‘weblogs’ as that came later) and it was full of energy and ideas, and I think that’s where podcasting is now. It’s gotten it’s “official name” much faster, and it’s detractors faster as well I suppose.
Damn, if this stuff isn’t exciting, I don’t know what is…