Friday 25 March 2005

RSS, Podcasting, and Next

HindustanTimes has an article on Podcasting. Interesting to see how fast its growing and indian newspapers catching on the phenomenon. People are still getting used to RSS and blogs. There is a major shift coming in the future of content distribution. Video casting will be the next step, some things already might be there.

A public directory for podcast feeds is available at: see http://www.podcast.net

And yes there are hindi podcast feeds too. http://www.podcast.net/tag/hindi

The biggest value addition to the RSS, podcast or videocast world would be the interface to such technologies. Right now people need to know what RSS is, what podcast is or what a videocast might be. If one thinks why RSS or podcast is hit, its not they are revolutionary technologies, its just there is a demand and supply chain. People are creative and want to publish and share things. And the same people have different interests and want to consume things which they like.

Media Companies, TV channels, can serve specific interests but they won't be able to target interests at individual level. This is where simple technologies like RSS make a difference.

But there is still one technical challenge to be solved. The interface to such technologies is still complex. People need to understand what RSS is. Weblogs, media companies everyone is trying to make people understand what RSS is. I think once this interface changes, where people can have access to such technologies without understanding the technical part, this is when it will be as pervasive as the Internet. We are just witnessing early adopters of technology, the masses have yet to adopt!

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