Podcasting Suite: Comparing Tools, Formats and Protocols

The well orchestrated hype surrounding the 'arrival' of Odeo's podcasting suite raised many eyebrows. An all too familiar scenario from the bubble era seemed to make a chilling comeback: declaring a winner and throwing a mainstream media party before the game had even begun, what's more: before the 'player's' skills and qualities had even been closely identified and tested.

Naturally, a negative buzz from the blogosphere followed. Odeo got the message, turned down the volume and Odeo founder Evan Williams declared "It's not that I'm not interested in the business model, startup thing .. but the bigger picture is let's make it easier, let's take it the next level and a business will come out of that."

One of the central critics was Dave Winer, the godfather of rss and podcasting. In his latest contribution, Winer tries to identify and discuss the central technical and functional aspects of a podcasting suite: its tools, formats and protocols. Here are the 'Feature/comparison chart for Odeo' and the comments.