What is a podcast?
A podcast is digital audio or video content that is compressed for delivery and sent over a network, via free subscription. Once subscribed to, podcasts are distributed over the Internet or your internal network. They are accessed on a desktop computer, laptop or a portable player such as an iPod.
What is RSS?
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a technology for delivering regularly changing internet-based content. Many news-related sites, blogs, podcasts, and other online publishers syndicate their content as an "RSS Feed" for whomever wants it.
How does RSS work?
RSS works behind the scenes allowing users to easily stay informed by automatically retrieving the latest content from websites containing information you are interested in. Users save time by not having to visit each site individually to get the latest news. RSS does the work for you!
RSS utilizes a Reader or Aggregator. ITunes, Internet Explorer 7, Google Reader, and Yahoo Reader are the most popular "podcatchers" in use today. You probably have several podcatcher applications on your computer right now. You and your customers can easily download these and many others aggregators for free. They work on either the Windows PC or Mac platforms.
You'll see buttons that will allow you to subscribe to a podcast. Simply select one of the podcatcher options shown (iTunes, Google Reader, My Yahoo, or AOL Reader).
The Internet and the influence of the Web have given every business in the world—your business—a global village of customers. In that village, the National Podcasting System is the local news.