As for people continuing to podcast and listen to podcasts–some definitely do, but many of the shows I used to listen to have podfaded, growth has slowed down (my next post, almost finished, is about statistics), and a great many of the services once available to podcasters have disappeared. New ones are not springing up very quickly in their wake.

As I said in my reply to Chris, PodCamp may serve the wider community best as it is, but audio podcasting as a medium is different from social networks, blogging, and video. And it’s different from either terrestrial or satellite radio and even from Internet radio. There are common points between podcasting and all those other platforms, but is there really so much less to say about podcasting now than in 2007?

I’m not suggesting that audio podcasting should be headline news just for its existence, or that it should be enjoying the shiny-object attention that, say, Quora is getting, or the mainstream media attention that Twitter enjoys. But there’s a difference between the public not talking about podcasting, and podcasters not talking about podcasting. If Edison/Arbitron’s statistics are correct and only 23% of Americans have ever listened to a podcast, the reason we’re not hearing about podcasts is definitely not because they’ve become so widely integrated into mainstream culture that people take them for granted.

And you have to call it something, because human beings need labels and words to communicate with. Descriptive names, if they are accurate, help people figure out whether they want to attend the event. But they limit events (and businesses) from growing beyond their original scope, leading to business for my occasional clients over at Strategic Name Development in re-naming them.

Now, obviously, PodCamp Boston and PodCamp Toronto are terrific, thriving events that benefit a lot of people. I’m not saying that the events themselves need to be changed, since people seem to be happy with them as they are. But other platforms do have events dedicated exclusively to them, and right now it seems podcasting does not. If PodCamp is not going to be that event, then podcasting needs a new home.

I honestly don’t remember that question coming up for the Boston PodCamps for some time.

As for podcasting itself, just because people aren’t talking about it by name does not mean they aren’t doing it. But I think you know that, Sallie.

When someone stops using a word, can we assume it’s because it has become entrenched in our business processes and no longer NEEDS to be distinguished? I don’t know. Your post is food for thought, for sure. Thanks.