When I got an e-mail asking "Are you interested in doing a podcast with me?" I immediately flashed on the Outer Limits woo-woo music.

I don't know what planet I've been on, but it turns out this wasn't for a new episode (you can relax, Pen Densham) but rather the latest Web phenomenon, "podcasting." (Story links open in new windows)

The term podcasting was first used by Ben Hammersley in an article for The Guardian in February 2004, and was perhaps first used in this context by Dannie J. Gregoire, who registered the domain name podcasting.net. RSS pioneer Dave Winer describes succinctly the technology used to pull digital audio (e.g., especially MP3) files from websites down to computers and devices where the audio can be played back at a listener's convenience. Podcasting was developed, according to [Adam] Curry in August, 2004. [Wikipedia]

Fans say the best thing about it is that it's like Tivo for audio - you can download programs and audio blogs to your iPod then listen to them on your own schedule.

If you want to get involved, or just learn more about how it works, I like How to get Podcasts and also make your own. The best list of podcasters I've found is at Penguin Radio but do a search as things are changing daily. And here's a list of the last 100 podcasts.

A developing sub-genre is what I call audio verité,

The idea here is that you determine a time interval, turn on your recorder and leave it running for that length of time no matter what happens. If the phone rings and you answer it, that stays in. Have to go to the bathroom? Leave it running.

This approach seems to be taken mostly with group panels and interviews rather than one-man blogs (e.g., The Gillmor Gang).

That's what I got involved in.

Adam Green, who I met when we were both part of the PC industry beginnings around 1980, has started the podcasting site Software Stories, A weekly podcast on software and the internet while he's working on a Master's degree as a software historian. His first entry includes Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston (creators of Visicalc), Jeffrey Tartar (Softletter for years, now consulting) and me.

But I'm still not going to get an MP3 player.