As I was working on my Podcasting category in my zettelkasten file, I realized that I did not have a link to the history of podcasting. I started doing some searching, and decided that I should try to collect “original sources”, as they say in historical research. Here, then, is a start at a chronological collection of links to pages on podcasting from original sources and some versions of documenting the historical record. Feedback is welcome!
DaveNet – Initial description of early meeting with Adam Curry at a Scripting News meetup, includes description of “the last mile” (2000)
The Two-Way Web – Payloads for RSS – Initial description of podcasting technology (January 2001)
Grateful Dead Podcast Feed – Creation date of May 18, 2001
Adam Curry – Description of podcasting for a session at BloggerCon in 2004
Scripting News – More info on early podcasting (people/timeline) (2005)
Scripting News – The origin of podcasting (2010)
References the meeting with Adam Curry, and also this post on “virtual bandwidth”, which has more detail on the Adam Curry meeting in 2001
Harvard/Berkman Center – Essay on Dave Winer/Chris Lydon collaboration (2010)
Scripting News – No silos – comments on the rise of podcasting companies trying to lock in users (2017)
Scripting News – An addendum to the creation story of podcasting (2017)
Mentions Adam Curry, Doug Kaye, Chris Lydon among others
Scripting News – Podcasts are feeds. If there is no feed, it’s not a podcast (2018)
Scripting News – CBC podcast on the origin of podcasting (2017)
Andy Sylvester – Comments on “Alternate Histories of Podcasting” podcast (Radio Survivor), pointing out that Andrew Bottomley’s research on audio file usage on the Internet was not podcasting (no RSS feed! see Podcasts Are Feeds item) (2018)
Scripting News – Twenty years ago in podcasting (2021)
Dave Winer’s side of the story in how podcasting got started, also references Podnews story on first podcast feed
Podnews – The story of the first podcast feed (2021)
Covers first meeting between Dave Winer and Adam Curry in 2001 and first feed using Grateful Dead songs
@AndySylvester The Ricky Gervais Show is the first podcast I discovered in 2005. The first run was super successful (#1 on Apple?) and got me hooked on the medium. From there, I started to look for Mac tech podcasts, and was very active as a sponsor on behalf of Smile.
@jean cool – thanks for sharing!