Podcasting: Amy Gahran adds her voice

It was neat to hear Contentious creator Amy Gahran's first podcast. She's had a series of articles about the phenomenon, collected in her Voices, Blogs, thread, which are well worth reading.

In this podcast she explains some of her objections to the term "podcasting." The reason which resonates most with me is when she talks about the mistake tying the name of a medium to a particular device, since devices and technology are ephemeral. Good point.

And her line about a possible future device made me laugh out loud.

I have no problem with the name podcasting, myself, although I can see how some people might be put off. Something that sounds like it came from a science fiction movie is not necessarily a bad thing. I think the name is actually part of what attracted the early adopters -- techy types who love to play as much with the devices as with the output. It's a clever turn of phrase, a twist on "broadcasting," and sounds like a cool hack. But that name will be a hinderance to catching the imagination and interest of the majority of people. In a sense, it's a usability issue.

I hope we'll be hearing more from Amy. I thought her podcast was fine and sounded just the right note -- not slick like a radio DJ, but still organized and professional.