what is a podcast?

What is a Podcast? (Technical Definition)

A podcast is a digital audio file (usually MP3 or AAC) made available for download on the internet through an RSS 2.0 feed. The web address of the media file is contained in the enclosure tag of an item in the XML file. The enclosure tag was added to the RSS 2.0 standard in 2004 making podcasting possible.
A podcast's RSS feed is updated each time a new media file is published. An aggregator for podcasts (such as iTunes or iPodder) is used to subscribe to the RSS feed. The software automatically checks for and downloads new audio files. The file can then be synced to a digital audio player.
It is the convenience of this subscription model that sets podcasting apart from other audio available on the internet such as streaming and audioblogging. Podcasting makes it easy to create and disseminate digital audio content across the web.
The enclosure tag can be used to any type of digital file, but not all aggregators recognize and download all file types. Vidcasts have started to emerge on the internet distributing digital video files.
Podcasting offers a variety of content for listeners to consume how they want, when they want and where they want.
Hopefully this definition contained enough big words to make it a sufficiently techie definition of what is podcasting? Are you impressed?
Continue reading for a more complete explanation of podcasting.