学步园

    podcast现在已经是一个很热的词汇了，尽管从hopesome的播客宝典上看即使在ipod相当普及的美国也只有很少的人知道podcast，但越来越多的人和越来越多的行业和podcast联系起来确是不争的事实。娱乐业就不说了，IT业也有人用起了podcast（见“软件测试人员也开始使用podcasting了”），甚至于政界也和podcast扯上了关系，新加坡的政客还有老布什都搞起了自己的podcast，整体的感觉就是大家一下子都podcast起来了。podcast更多的是和新技术、新思想、新的淘金点联系在了一起，那到底podcast能给我们带来什么，我们怎样才能使用好podcast，才不会滥用podcast。这些问题我还没仔细想过，即使仔细想了也不一定有什么好的答案，毕竟我暂时还是以一个旁观者的身份来接触podcast，不过今天看到的一小段文章倒引起了我的不少共鸣。下面就把这篇文章贴在下面，供大家一起学习思考。

Another view of podcasting.

This article from Yahoo! Technology News points out some of the shortcomings of podcasting as a delivery medium for information. You can't "skim" or speed-read a podcast. You can't add marginalia. You can't link out of one. If the only thing in the podcast is information, people are going to be bored to tears, they are going to hate being chained to that iPod, they are going to want to take notes (which they can't do if they listen while they drive, jog, wait in the bank line) and then they are back to a piece of paper again. What was the point?

Here's what I get from this: Don't make podcasting a solution in search of a problem. To me, the value of the human voice is in the emotion, the conviction, and the nuance it can convey.  Use podcasts to give the big picture, not the details. Use podcasts to tickle the imagination of the listener, to get awareness, to generate interest. Use podcasts to persuade or to convince, to call to action. Use podcasts to entertain. But don't use podcasts to make your lectures portable, to provide dense technical information, or to give directions.

Podcasting for Business: Next Big Thing? (NewsFactor). NewsFactor - IBM's (NYSE: IBM) announcement that it has embraced podcasting for delivering information to investors has sparked discussion in the industry over whether the technology is the next big communication medium or simply a gone-tomorrow trend. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

    文中关于podcast到底用来传递怎样的信息的思考个人觉得很有道理，我们现在可能更多的是把重心都放在了podcast能传递声音信息甚至图像信息、视频信息，但却没有对这些信息进行进一步的细化，这样势必会导致对podcast的滥用，这样也就不能充分发挥podcast的作用了。podcast说老底和书本、电视、广播等没有本质的区别，都是一种信息的传递途径，尽管它还是一个比较新的概念和思路。