The term podcasting was coined by former MTV VJ Adam Curry to describe succinctly the technology used to push audio content from websites down to consumers of that content, who typically listen to it on their iPod (hence the “pod”), or another audio player that supports the MP3 format, at their convenience.
Podcasting uses an XML-based technology called RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. Content publishers describe new content in an XML RSS file which includes dates, titles, descriptions, and links to MP3 files. This auto-generated file is called an RSS feed. The key to making podcasting work with RSS is enclosures, a feature supported by RSS 2.0.
What makes podcasting special is that it allows individuals to publish (or “podcast”) radio shows, that interested listeners can subscribe to. Before podcasting you could, of course, record a radio show and put it on your website, but now people can automatically receive new shows, without having to go to a specific site and download it from there. Source: wikipedia
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