-
1.
In, 1984, the emergence of the Internet Transmission Control Protocol as an officially adopted standard, allowed audio to be digitally transmitted over the Internet in an easier fashion.[6] -
2.
Then, by 1999, the emergence of serial port microphones, the proper software, and faster Internet connection speeds, allowed audio uploading and downloading to take place, with more ease. -
3.
In September 2000, the first system that enabled the selection, automatic downloading and storage of serial episodic audio content on PCs and portable devices was launched by another early MP3 player manufacturer, i2Go. To supply content for its portable MP3 players, i2Go, makers of the eGo player, introduced a digital audio news and entertainment service called MyAudio2Go.com that enabled users to download episodic news, sports, entertainment, weather, and music in audio. -
4.
In October 2000, the concept of using enclosures in RSS feeds was proposed in a draft by Tristan Louis,[7] The idea was implemented by Dave Winer, a software developer and an author of the RSS format. Winer had received other customer requests for audioblogging features and had discussed the enclosure concept (also in October 2000), with Adam Curry,[8] a user of Userland's Manila and Radio blogging and RSS aggregator software. Winer included the new functionality in RSS 0.92[9] by defining... -
4 continued.
A new element[10] called "enclosure",[11] which would simply pass the address to a media aggregator. -
5 continued.
Since Radio Userland had a built-in aggregator, it provided both the "send" and "receive" components of what was then called audioblogging.[13][14] All that was needed for "podcasting" was a way to automatically move audio files from Radio Userland's download folder to an audio player (either software or hardware) -- along with enough compelling audio to make such automation worth the trouble. -
5.
On January 11, 2001, Winer demonstrated the RSS enclosure feature by enclosing a Grateful Dead song in his Scripting News weblog.[12] For its first two years, the enclosure element had relatively few users and many developers simply avoided using it. Winer's company incorporated both RSS-enclosure and feed-aggregator features in its weblogging product, Radio Userland, the program favored by Curry, audioblogger Harold Gilchrist and others. Since Radio Userland had a built-in aggregator, it provid -
6.
In June, 2003, Stephen Downes demonstrated aggregation and syndication of audio files in his Ed Radio application.[15] Ed Radio scanned RSS feeds for MP3 files, collected them into a single feed, and made the result available as SMIL or Webjay audio feeds. -
7.
In September, 2003, Winer created a special RSS-with-enclosures feed for his Harvard Berkman Center colleague Christopher Lydon's weblog, which previously had a text-only RSS feed. Lydon, a former New York Times reporter, Boston TV news anchor and NPR talkshow host, had developed a portable recording studio with Bob Doyle of Skybuilders.com[16], conducted in-depth interviews with bloggers, futurists and political figures, and posted MP3 files as part of his Harvard blog. -
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When Lydon had accumulated about 25 audio interviews, Winer gradually released them as a new RSS feed.[17] Announcing the feed in his weblog, Winer challenged other aggregator developers to support this new form of content and provide enclosure support. Not long after, Pete Prodoehl released a skin for the Amphetadesk aggregator that displayed enclosure links.[18] -
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Doug Kaye, who had been publishing MP3 recordings of his interviews at IT Conversations since June, created an RSS feed with enclosures.[19] IT Conversations, now part of the nonprofit Conversations Network, remains the oldest still-running podcast, while Lydon's blog eventually became Radio Open Source and moved to Brown University. -
8.
Doug Kaye, who had been publishing MP3 recordings of his interviews at IT Conversations since June, created an RSS feed with enclosures.[19] IT Conversations, now part of the nonprofit Conversations Network, remains the oldest still-running podcast, while Lydon's blog eventually became Radio Open Source and moved to Brown University. -
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(AudioFeast shut down its service in July 2005 due to the unwillingness of its free customers to pay for its $49.95 paid annual subscription service, and a lack of a strong competitive differentiation in the market with the emergence of free RSS podcatchers.) On February 12, 2004, The term "podcasting" was one of several terms for portable listening to audioblogs suggested by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian, referring to Lydon's interview programs.[25] -
9.
The company AudioFeast (later renamed VoloMedia) files patent application for “Method for Providing Episodic Media” with the USPTO[24] based on its work in developing the AudioFeast service launched in September, 2004. Although AudioFeast did not refer to itself as a podcasting service and was not built on RSS, it provided a way of downloading episodic audio content through desktop software and portable devices, with a system simililar to the MyAudio2Go.com service four years before it. -
10.
The media-in-newsfeed idea was picked up by multiple developer groups. While many of the early efforts remained command-line based, the very first podcasting client with a user interface was iPodderX (later called Transistr after a trademark issue with Apple), developed by August Trometer and Ray Slakinski. It was released first for the Mac, then for the PC. Shortly thereafter, another group (iSpider) rebranded their software as iPodder[26] and released it under that name as Free Software. -
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The use of 'podcast' by Gregoire was picked up by podcasting evangelists such as Dave Slusher,[29] Winer[30] and Curry, and entered common usage. Also in September, Adam Curry launched a mailing list, then Slashdot had a 100+ message discussion,[31] bringing even more attention to the podcasting developer projects in progress. -
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The project was terminated after a cease and desist[27] letter from Apple (over iPodder trademark issues). It was reincarnated as Juice and CastPodder. The PodNova desktop client is also a derivative of iSpider. At the same time, Dannie Gregoire used the term podcasting to describe the automatic download[28] and synchronization of audio content; he also registered several 'podcast' related domains (e.g. podcast.net). -
11.
On September 28, 2004, Blogger and technology columnist Doc Searls began keeping track of how many "hits" Google found for the word "podcasts". His first query reportedly returned 24 results.[32] On September 28, 2004, there were 526 hits on Google's search engine for the word "podcasts".[citation needed] Google Trends marks the beginning of searches for 'podcast' at the end of September.[33] -
12.
On October 1, 2004, there were 2,750 hits on Google's search engine for the word "podcasts". This number continued to double every few days. -
13.
October 11, 2004 Capturing the early distribution and variety of podcasts was more difficult than counting Google hits, but before the end of October, The New York Times had reported podcasts across the United States and in Canada, Australia and Sweden, mentioning podcast topics from technology to veganism to movie reviews.[34] -
14.
On October 18, 2004, the number of hits on Google's search engine for the word "podcasts" surpassed 100,000. See September 28, 2005. In October, 2004, detailed how-to podcast articles[37] had begun to appear online, and a month later, Liberated Syndication (LibSyn) launched what was apparently the first Podcast Service Provider, offering storage, bandwidth, and RSS creation tools. "Podcasting" was first defined in Wikipedia. -
15.
In November, 2004, podcasting networks started to appear on the scene with podcasters affiliating with one another. The first was the GodCast Network, followed by The Podcast Network, the Tech Podcasts Network which was later acquired by RawVoice, PodTech.net, the Association of Music Podcasting and others. -
16.
In February, 2005, PRI's The World became the first daily public radio news program to podcast on February 11, 2005, through its Technology podcast hosted by Clark Boyd. -
16.
June, 2005, Apple staked its claim on the medium by adding podcasting to its iTunes 4.9 music software and building a directory of podcasts at its iTunes Music Store.[38][39] The new iTunes could subscribe to, download and organize podcasts, which made a separate aggregator application unnecessary for many users. Apple also promoted creation of podcasts using its GarageBand and QuickTime Pro software and the MPEG 4 Audio (M4A) format instead of MP3. -
17.
In July, 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush became a podcaster of sorts, when the White House website added an RSS 2.0 feed to the previously downloadable files of the president's weekly radio addresses.[40] Also in July, the first People's Choice Podcast Awards were held during Podcast Expo. Awards were given in 20 categories. -
18.
On September 28, 2005, exactly a year after first tracking hits for the word "podcasts" on Google's search engine, Google found more than 100,000,000 hits on the word "podcasts." -
19.
In November, 2005, the first Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference was held at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. The annual conference is now called the Podcast and New Media Expo. -
20.
On December 3, 2005, "Podcast" was named the word of the year in 2005 by the New Oxford American Dictionary and would be in the dictionary in 2006. -
21.
In February, 2006, following London radio station LBC's successful launch of the first premium-podcasting platform LBC Plus, there was widespread acceptance that podcasting had considerable commercial potential. UK comedian Ricky Gervais launched a new series of his popular podcast The Ricky Gervais Show. The second series of the podcast was distributed through audible.co.uk and was the first major podcast to charge consumers to download the show at 95 pence per half-hour episode. -
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The first series of The Ricky Gervais Show podcast had been freely distributed by Positive Internet and marketed through The Guardian newspaper's website, and had become the world's most successful podcast to date with an average of 295,000 downloads per episode according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Even in its new subscription format, The Ricky Gervais Show is regularly the most-downloaded podcast on iTunes. -
22.
In February 2006, podcaster Lance Anderson became the first to take a podcast and create a live venue tour. The Lance Anderson Podcast Experiment included a sold out night in The Pilgrim, (23rd Feb 2006) a central Liverpool (UK) venue followed by a theatrical event at The Rose Theatre, Edge Hill University (24th Feb 2006) which included appearances by Mark Hunter from The Tartan Podcast, Jon and Rob from Top of the Pods, Dan Klass from The Bitterest Pill via video link from Los Angeles... -
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...and live music from The Hotrod Cadets. In addition, Lance was also invited to take part in the first ever Podcast Forum at CARET, the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge (21st Feb 2006). Lance was joined at this event by Dr. Chris Smith from Naked Scientists Podcast, Debbie McGowan, an Open University lecturer and advocate for podcasting in education and Nigel Paice, a professional music producer and podcasting tutor. -
23.
In March, 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper became the first head of government to issue a podcast, the "Prime Minister of Canada's Podcast". -
24.
In July, 2009, the company VoloMedia is awarded the "Podcast patent" by the USPTO in patent number 7,568,213.[24] Dave Winer, the co-inventor of podcasting (with Adam Curry), points out that his invention predated this patent by two years.[41]