One of the most fascinating and soon-to-be time consuming things to come out of this year’s visit to Balticon was the issue of Podcasting.

The term “podcast” is a portmanteau word (see previous post) ; a combination of “iPod” and “broadcast.” It is an audio (or video) digital file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable mp3 players (like iPods) or computers.  Basically, people subscribe to the podcast and ’episodes’ are then downloaded automatically to their computer as they become available. 

I thoroughly enjoy blogging, but more than once have lamented the fact that the amount of space available on a web log page for commentary is limited based on the fact that most people aren’t comfortable reading long posts on-screen.  Podcasting seems like an excellent addition for other more detailed subject matter.

It is my hope to start a regular (hopefully weekly) ”i on Washington” disability podcast and with the encouragement of CVS supporters (http://www.cvswriters.com) Renee and I also plan a second series to cover in more depth writing advice, comments and interviews; “Unleaded - Fuel for Writers.”  So far, we are in the midst of Tee Morris’ (http://www.teemorris.com) and Evo Terra’s (http://www.sliceofscifi.com/) ”Podcasting for Dummies”  (Hey, we met the writers so don’t feel so lame for reading an actual “dummies” book).  And, not one for wasting time, we’re already playing with microphones and testing out scripts.