Running with Scissors

I’ve been noticing lately that a lot of educators say they are “podcasting.”

I’ve also noticed that the way the word is being used is not accurate in many cases. Many times the “podcasts” educators say they are posting are simply single audio files that can be downloaded – that is not technically a podcast. Why?

In my view, I think there are at least two essentital items that must be present to use the term podcast. The audio or video files must:

• Have the ability to be subscribed to – this means some sort of RSS feed that automatically sends me the new files once I subscribe. I should not have to go to a web page to first see if something new is there and manually download the files to my computer.
• Must have content released on some sort of regular basis. One audio file with no intention to produce more or to continue the conversation is simply an audio resource, not a podcast.

Any other ideas on what is essential to call something a “podcast?” Am I just being too picky here?