You probably won't find the word podcasting in your printed dictionary. It is a word made up of 2 words iPod and broadcasting (not that you can find IPod in your printed dictionary either).
It is simply the syndicated broadcasting of MP3 files over the web. Think of RSS feeds except substitute text with audio files. Instead of reading about say your commentator on Open Source Software, you will just hear an audio recording, assuming of course that the commentator provides the podcast.
By the way, you don't need to own an IPod to try podcasting. I don't for sure. Most podcasting clients can download directly to iPods. You can also play back those audio files on your computer.
What does it do for you and I? For me, not much. I generally prefer reading over listening for various reasons: it is faster, I can better scan and screen it, etc. I guess I am just a reading type of guy. I also find that again in general to write something requires more mental/cognitive organization than speaking, and so in theory, the result should be of higher quality. Of course, there are exceptions, but then I could screen them out much faster with newsfeeds, can't I?
I did try podcasting out, though. I was curious if and how well Bottomfeeder, my news aggregator supports podcast feeds. It should, because podcast is just another RSS feed with a MP3 file attached.
In fact, it does support it. You add the podcast to bottomfeeder just like you would add any news feed. To listen to the audio, just double click on the MP3 file link under Enclosures.
If you really want a more podcast-specific tool, I heard jPodder is good. It is cross-platform (Linux & Windows). It is a Java tool, so you need Java installed on your PC.
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