Jeff Jarvis: "...creating content for the iPod platform is an important evolution in media."

Everyone, according to some, is talking about Podcasting and "the iPod platform" but a lot of what I'm hearing and reading really distracts from what I see as the true value of this innovation. (Perhaps this is just "the vanity of Apple users" :)

Podcasting gives users a new "knob" to twiddle. It allows them to fine tune a variable that they never had access to before - "Time and Place ". Podcasting users get to define when high-grade multimedia content will be automatically downloaded to their mobile media devices like the iPod which unlocks the capability to allow a user to choose when and more importantly, where they will consume it. Someone who wants to listen to an audiocast of a specific radio show can subscribe to it, define that they want it downloaded overnight while they are sleeping and most importantly - specify that the audio file is copied to their  iPod or other MP3 player so that it is ready to go for the morning commute. Hence the term "Podcasting" - media is "broadcast" to a users portable player directly from an internet source to be "consumed" whenever the user wants.

The Podcasting name might be a bit of a misnomer. It leads one to believe that this is an iPod specific development that only iPod users can benefit from. Sure podcasting brings new functionality to iPod users and those with an investment in the "iPod platform", but from my standpoint, this is just a small and uninteresting slice of the podcasting pie. The real magic here is that this isn't limited to iPod users -podcasting is limited to internet users with media devices. Podcasting builds on and extends the internet platform - the RSS/Syndication platform. Podcasting brings timeshifting to user generated content.

The universe of potential device interconnects that this enables is huge. By creating forging these new interconnects between the network and a new class of devices, Adam Curry and his band of merry hackers have unlocked major value for any device that wishes to "listen" to the new message that the internet has to deliver. This is innovation of the highest degree and has the potential to radically change the entire content delivery landscape.

Podcasting  is, "A Big Deal".