Today marks the 107th year of Independence of our country, the Philippines. On June 12, 1898, the proclamation of Philippine independence took
place between four and five in the afternoon at the window of
Emilio Aguinaldo’s house in Kawit, Cavite.

I remember the time when we went to this historical place in Kawit, Cavite. It has been very well-maintained through the years despite its  antiquity.  I recall that it had a very interesting  sculpture – a  wooden carabao — in the balcony where the red, white and blue Philippine flag was unfurled for the first time and our national was played in the background.

The Philippines is a sovereign country of its own right but the current administration has made no secret of the fact that it still relies on First World countries when it comes to fiscal policies or political decisions. We might have proclaimed our Independence a long time ago but how free are we really to pursue our own destiny as a people?

A podcast is simply
an online audio file in MP3
format* that is delivered via RSS feed (webfeed) subscriptions. Podcasting
is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to
a feed and receive new files automatically. Developed by Adam Curry in 2004,
podcasting uses the RSS 2.0 syndication format to make podcasts available to
subscribers just like news feeds. It first became popular in late 2004, used
largely for audio files.

The term podcast was derived from the
words: iPod (an Apple MP3 player) and broadcast. It was coined by the pioneers
of podcasting who are iPod users. Possibly the first use of the term podcasting (a blend of the terms
"iPod" and "broadcasting") was as a synonym for
"audioblogging" or weblog-based amateur radio in an article in The
Guardian on February 12, 2004.

Despite the origin of this term, you don’t need an iPod nowadays to
broadcast and/or listen to podcasts. Various non-Apple iPod tools and software
may be used for podcasting and podcatching (the method of subscribing and
downloading a Podcast). Any computer audio software that support MP3 (Windows
Media Player, QuickTime, etc.) and any portable device that supports media
download and playback may be used to listen to podcasts.

Podcast subscribers can listen to the show at their own convenience, which
is the main attraction of this medium. And unlike Internet radio shows, which
are generally listened to as they are broadcast, there is no schedule to follow
in podcasting.

Users subscribe to podcasts using podcatching software (also called
"aggregator" software) which periodically captures the audio feeds
and synchronizes them to the user’s portable music player.

Podcasting’s initial appeal was to allow individuals to create their own
"radio shows" but this field holds the most promise for journalists
and news organizations. As the technology for podcasting progresses, it is
increasingly used for other reasons, including:

• A new outlet for commercial and public radio stations. (List of radio stations with podcasts)

• Unofficial audio tours of museums. (New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/arts/design/28podc.html))

• Education. Musselburgh Grammar School, Scotland, began podcasting foreign language audio revision and homework, possibly
    becoming the first school in Europe to launch a regular podcast.
  

• Religion. St Mark’s Anglican Church, Clayfield Australia podcasts talks and sermons from their evening service. Other groups also
       use podcasting for religious purposes.

NOTE: *MP3 is just the standard media format for podcasts. However, podcasts may also be in other media file formats such as .wav, .mid, .mpg, etc. However, these formats may not always be supported.

Also Known As: webcasts, web broadcasts, web broadcasting, online broadcasting, portable shows

Common Misspellings: ipodcast, i-podcast, pod-cast, pod-casting

Additional resources:

• What Is Podcasting and Why Should You Care? from the Contentious blog. It provides an almost comprehensive list of uses for podcasting.
• Last 100 Podcasts from audio.weblogs.com. A good grab bag to help you get a feel for what currently is and is not offered in the podcasting realm.
• Podcast.net, another podcast directory.
• This is Simply Smarter Broadcasting, by Chris Pirillo, Lockergnome, Oct. 12. You won’t want to miss the first half of this podcast (just right-click that link to download the audio), in which techie Chris Pirillo explains podcasting to his nontechie girlfriend Ponzi, and gets bluntly confronted with the problems of how geeky podcasting seems to regular people. This is very important for counteracting the podcasting hype.
• Wikipedia on podcasting 
• DIY radio with PODcasting, Doc Searls, IT Garage, Sept. 28.
• Podcasts: New Twist on Net Audio, by Daniel Terdiman, Wired News, Oct. 8.
• Will Satellite, ‘Podcasting’ Bring a Renaissance to Radio Journalism?, by Mark Glaser, Online Journalism Review, Oct. 12.
• Podcasting invades newsprint, by Steve Rubel, MicroPersuasion, Oct. 18. 
• Podcasting 101: Illustrated Tips for Newbie Podcasters, from ILoveRadio.org. 
• How-To: Podcasting (aka How to get Podcasts and also make your own), Engadget, Oct. 5.