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The original audio Podcasting concept was developed by Adam Curry. It was created as a alternative content distribution method that allows people to produce and distribute audio programming. Video is a recently added feature.

Video Podcasting is the combination of video files made available for download, a specialized xml file and software capable of reading the xml file. The xml file is known as Real Simple Syndication.

Each video Podcast publisher creates a unique Real Simple Syndication ( which is more commonly known as RSS ) file. The purpose of the RSS file is to describe the video, distinguish it from other publisher’s material, presenting the most current content available and allowing people to subscribe to individual Podcast “stations”.

Anyone with a Internet connection and access to a web host that allows media file and xml file hosting, is capable of distributing their own video content with Podcasting.

Peer to Peer data transfer can be used to distribute the video Podcast media files and minimize bandwidth requirements. Bittorrent and Dijjer are both open source software applications that can be used for Peer to Peer Podcast distribution.

Creating a video Podcast is very easy. Video can be recorded using free or low cost software. Web cams or digital cameras can be used to capture video imaging. The “raw” video can then be edited using open source or free software. The completed video can then be encoded using open source video codecs, such as VP3, Theora or Dirac, to compress the video and optimize it for Internet distribution. Free software can also be used to create the RSS files.

Video Podcasting does not require special server distribution software such as Internet broadcasting does. There are no technical restrictions on the types of video encoding formats available for video Podcasting.

Dave Childers is a freelance Internet broadcast consultant, writer and webmaster of http://www.scvi.net, The Winamp TV, NullSoft Video information website.