Uncovering the real historical past of Podcasting [Infographic]

with the aid of Brian Roff February 23, 2016

February 23, 2016

2014 was once the yr our whole place of job began talking about podcasts. The up to now non-public exchanges of podcast recommendations—IMs between good friend and the occasional “whats up what are you being attentive to?”—become the unofficial however singular lunchtime matter of dialog. if you happen to hadn’t listened to the latest episode of Serial but, you were best possible off consuming at your desk. Our open-floor-plan office was a constant minefield of unintentionally overheard spoilers.

Like everybody else, we struggled to hold all of the Serial important points in our heads lengthy enough for them to make some roughly feel. One afternoon, i thought, “If there was only some way to see all the knowledge collectively, shall we more than likely solve this thing!” seems, growing visuals to higher inform stories is exactly what we do, so we set out to make a Serial infographic that used to be going to interrupt the case large open. Like Serial host Sarah Koenig, we arrived on the irritating conclusion that now not only do the information not match together, but the tips we now have can’t possibly be the actual details.

Podcasts seemingly came out of nowhere, and then for an awfully solid moment, they have been all over the place. i feel we are nonetheless in that second. Propoint designer Gregg DellaRocca determined to take podcast-mania further and create an illustrated history of podcasting. He initially assumed he would simply Google-search a timeline and adapt the details into one thing visual. seems the historical past of podcasting is, for probably the most section, unwritten and troublesome to assemble. Gregg requested for some assist.

together, we found the history of podcasting used to be piecemeal and a long way from definitive. We worked scattered important points right into a cohesive story, and Gregg created this animated infographic that received some awards and used to be featured on the Propoint website online. That’s where issues sat, unless very not too long ago once I discovered an episode of Benjamin Walker’s concept of the whole lot podcast called Secret Histories of Podcasting. i am an admitted fan of Radiotopia and their collective of podcasts (conception of the whole lot is one in all 13 Radiotopia podcasts). Benjamin Walker, the host, had been down an extraordinarily acquainted rabbit hole however with a lot better instruments. initially, he was there for and in fact a part of the historical past of podcasting. second, he knows and interviews most of the key figures in the episode, including Christopher Leyden, Ben Hammersly and Roman Mars.

Benjamin Walker struggles with exactly what we did: there are multiple categories of contributions to podcasting, and among the info are controversial. additionally, podcasting itself arrived as the confluence of many different idea and applied sciences. other innovations, like flight, have a defining liftoff moment. Podcasting is a extra advanced story. Benjamin Walker says it very best in the episode:

There are at least 3 ways that you may tell the secret history of podcasting. On the one hand it’s a story about technology. but it surely’s additionally a narrative about cash—a brand new industry variation for publishing. And it’s also a narrative concerning the birth of a new medium. And what’s truly cool is that the entire thing is like a Rashamon narrative: you can tell all three versions the usage of the identical people.

Our photo timeline of this story, like every first draft of historical past, incorporates a mixture of indisputable data and interpretations. one day, the web may agree on a novel narrative. unless then, hats off to Benjamin Walker and to everybody available in the market developing that very historical past in this present moment.