Podcasts, Rivers and the World Outline

  With Apple's extraction of podcasts from iTunes to a standalone app, Dave asks if its time to re-boot podcasting
  Apple's appification of podcasts presents an interesting opportunity to compete with their version of discovery and subscription
  Before I dig deeper into the nuts and bolts, lets look at all the moving parts that make up "podcasting".
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    The content
      I'm only focusing on audio, it comes packaged as an mp3 file
      MP3's can contain additional metadata. One of these is Album Art. The art is a big USP for Apple, since they base most of their visual discovery on extracting it from the files and displaying it for each episode if available
      The data encoded in the MP3 file is irrelevant, but presumed to be some form of audio that has a consistent theme. It is a 'show', a lecture, a song, a news report etc.
    The Feed
      An RSS2.0 feed with enclosure, description and link for each 'item', or episode
    The Player
      Since the MP3 files can be played on any MP3 aware player, a player can displays the album art of each episode. Some allow for multi-speed playback i.e. listening a double speed or higher
      Many players allow you to create playlists that play a number of 'episodes' after each other as desired.
      Most players will allow you to resume playing a show where you left of the last time you were listening
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    The aggregator or 'podcatcher'
      Many players, such as Apple's podcast app will allow you to "subscribe" to a podcast from their catalog or discovery interface, or through proprietry chicklets on a webpage that open the apple app and subscribe with 'one-click'
      The podcatcher will download new and/or unlistened episodes to your internal storage for portability and instant playback when desired
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    Subscription lists
      A file in OPML2.0 format that contains a number of nodes of type RSS2.0 with enclosures
      These lists are meant to be simple, portable and compatible between podcatchers and other RSS2.0 aggregators
  Upon reviewing the new Apple Podcasts App, I realized that there is a huge opportunity in the discoverability of podcasts.
  It was Apple's typical interface choice that made it all click in my brain.
  The app wants you to discover podcasts by either browing through a 'radio dial' metaphor, a directory of pre-determined subjects, or search
  Considering that a podcast is no different from a blog with a different payload, this is not the way we have learned to discover content.
  If we did, then presumable there would be some huge directory of blogs with a catalog, search and some form of browsing interface with 'recommendations.
  The way we *do* discover content is by looking at what our social networks are consuming. We are inundated with links and collections from our friends where we are exposed to new things and if we find itof interest, we follow, friend or subscribe to the source.
  A new paradigm based on existing infrastructure
    My proposal is aimed at the only person who has the knowledge, skills and tools create this, Podfather Dave Winer. I am confident there is a large community eager and willing to help. I know I am :-)
    This infrastructure will facilitate exactly the discovery pieces that have been missing and misunderstood
    It utilizes Dave's existing and mature tools for aggregation, subscription and discovery
  Some assumptions
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    There is no need to build an mp3 player.
      There are many freely available mp3 players that have the features available that people want. Playing a podcast or managing playback is individualistic, and anyone interested in audio already has one or more they are comfortable working with
    Auto downloading and storage is not a nessecity
      When I presented the initial idea to Dave for background downloading of new episodes or items, it was before today's broadband infrastructure. Today one click delivers instant playback and download
      When a file is clicked for download, most modern mp3 players wil automativcally store the file for archive in an appropriate location for management with the players native content management
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    A River is the natural way to consume
      Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc have taught an entire generation to view content in a rolling stream of incoming data. This will work with podcasts as well.
      Here is an example of my Podcast River I can click on the player right under each new episode, click the Download link to get the file on my local storage device for immediate playback and each item will contain a subscibe button that adds that podcast to your own personal river.
      Currently my river only has RT links, that allow for 'ReTweeting'.
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    Lists are key for management, archive and 'catching up'
      On my River, there is a menu item for 'My Feeds', as well as the raw OPML file
      Clicking on the individual feeds expands to reveal all the most recent episodes. The same player, Download and Subscription links should be included here (not implemented in my example) This would be created by a new OPML nodetype named 'podcast'
      You can also subscribe to my entire subscription list, and anything new that I add will show up in your river.
  Dave probably has all of this already mapped out in his head, or maybe even running on a development server for all I know, but the key here is that there is tremendous opportunity in creating a discoverable web of podcasts that is inherently social, with many future benefits, such as comparison and recommendation based on OPML subscription lists, and cross platform, open development that no single entity can own.
  In closing
    Apple is telling us that we need to discover and manage our media on their terms. This makes no sense when history of social media is analysed. Humans discover and learn from other humans
    Local storage integrated with playback is negated by sufficiently high bandwidth
    One-Click subscription can be achieved through collections and rivers insted of proprietary apps and chicklets
    By linking OPML subscription lists through 'inclusion' and specific 'podcast' rss nodetypes, functions such as search and an open directory can be achieved without centralized ownership
  The one thing I have not taken into account in this overview is monetization. Frankly it has no place in the infrastrucutre and detracts from the core mission, which is discovery, subscription and sharing.