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Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Let's see if I can get this straight.

First, Chris Pirillo says (timecode 37:59) he's not entirely pleased with the word "podcast" in Episode 11 of This Week in Tech. The Seattle-PI then reports that the sentiment is shared with "several Microsoft employees" who have coined the word "blogcast" to replace it. Next, c|net picks up the story and says that the word "podcast" is a "faux-pas" on Microsoft campus. [Typo fixed: 9am]

In this manner, a remark by someone who isn't even a Microsoft employee becomes, through rumor, speculation, and wild extrapolation, a word-ban at Microsoft.

Pretty neat trick.

Published Monday, July 18, 2005 7:00 AM by oldnewthing
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Comments

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 10:50 AM by Brent Newbury
That's chinese whispers for you. A pure case of people not checking their facts before publishing.

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 10:57 AM by Mr Cynical
"A pure case of people not checking their facts before publishing."

Welcome to the internet... thankfully places of respite (such as this site) do exist.

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 11:34 AM by jonathanh
Typo? I think you mean 'says that the word "podcast" is a "faux-pas"'

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 11:48 AM by James Schend
Ok, "welcome to the Internet" indeed, but I'd expect better of, at the very least, the Seattle PI, since they're:
1) A print media, not solely online,
2) aware of the huge ruckus that's been thrown over the New York Times' problems in this area,
3) owned by a company that has a monopoly over Seattle-area news distribution.

(BTW, number 3 there is really sad... do other cities have a newspaper monopoly, or is Seattle it? I'd hope this isn't a common thing... but the realist in me thinks it probably is.)

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 11:53 AM by John Goewert
I think the comments over at CNets page are hillarious, ferverous anti-MS stuff.

Blogcast is 1000% better than podcast as "podcast" says to me: This will only play on an iPod. If you don't own an iPod, don't even bother downloading it.

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 11:58 AM by vince
While we're at it can we get the term "blog" banned? I think it's one of the worst words ever invented.

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 11:59 AM by ATZ Man
In San Diego, CA, there's only one major city paper. Within memory it was the "Union" in the morning and the "Tribune" in the afternoon, and "Union-Tribune" on Sunday (roughly two sets of journalists). It is now the UT all the time, and I think it has been a very long time since the two papers were independent businesses. Such arrangements are actually common and almost always given a go-ahead by the anti-trust authorities, because it is seen as important to have a surviving paper rather than no paper. There are two suburban papers in the San Diego area, and they both seem like healthy businesses. Perhaps in Seattle there are suburban papers?

You can scan the "Language Log" blog for instances of different sports writers quoting the same statement from the same athlete and all quoting it differently, and never matching the transcript of the news conference at which the athlete spoke. For example, http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002263.html

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 12:01 PM by Merle
Vince: hear, hear! Let's ban "blog".

It's even worse than "website" (meaning "web site", of course).

# re: newspaper market monopolies

Monday, July 18, 2005 12:54 PM by kbiel
<i>(BTW, number 3 there is really sad... do other cities have a newspaper monopoly, or is Seattle it? I'd hope this isn't a common thing... but the realist in me thinks it probably is.)</i>

It has become more common over time as print news has had a difficult time competing with broadcast and online media to the point that competition among newspapers is unsustainable in a lot of big cities. OTOH, some of the monopolies (Dallas Morning News, for example) were created before the internet became a major news distribution point.

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 4:34 PM by Matt
Oy. I personally think it doesn't matter. Some of the terms that are bred out of technology just sound dumb linguistically.

# From Bad to Funny

Monday, July 18, 2005 4:55 PM by John Goewert
Auntie Spam, who is a writer for LockerGnome (owned by Chris Pirillo) just contributed to the chain...

http://www.aunty-spam.com/whats-in-a-name-the-blogcast-formerly-known-as-podcast/

# From podcast to blogcast to Microsoft ban

Monday, July 18, 2005 5:27 PM by TomorrowYesterday
The Old New Thing : Watching the game of &quot;Telephone&quot; play out on the Internet First, Chris Pirillo says (timecode 37:59) he's not entirely pleased with the word &quot;podcast&quot; in Episode 11 of This Week in Tech. The Seattle-PI then...

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Monday, July 18, 2005 10:10 PM by EAW
I used to hate "blog" too, but what do you suggest to replace it? "Journal", "Diary", "Periodical", and "Magazine" all fail to describe what "Blog" does.

And I don't understand not liking "website". It's how people ending up saying it, so why not form a new label?

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 2:42 AM by vince
EAW:
> but what do you suggest to replace it?

I don't even mind "web-log". It's just something about "blog" that grates, especially how it has been verbed and adjectived.

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 4:04 AM by Michel
Blogcast? Try saying that 10 times and not gag.

# Podcast Podcast Podcast

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 12:19 PM by scooblog by josh ledgard
&amp;lt;Looks left&amp;gt; &amp;lt;Looks right&amp;gt; Wow, I'm still here and no one has taped my mouth shut.&amp;nbsp;...

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 1:04 PM by JenK
</i>3) owned by a company that has a monopoly over Seattle-area news distribution. </i>

FYI, the P-I is owned by Hearst Corporation. It is printed & distributed via a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with the privately owned Seattle Times Company. ;)

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 2:57 PM by EAW
Vince:
Yeah, "weblog" or "web-log" was my last stand too. But working on a blogging product, surrounded by people who use "blog" as both a noun and verb (and probably adjective eventually) , has worn me down.

Let's welcome our new blog overlord! Everyone get a blog! And blog your blog every day (It's all very blog).

(apologies for the thread hijack)

# re: Watching the game of "Telephone" play out on the Internet

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 11:47 PM by Al
vince: "It's just something about "blog" that grates, especially how it has been verbed and adjectived."

You just verbed "verb" and "adjective".

But anyway I never really minded blog and in fact actually have always felt a bit awkward saying weblog/web log/web-log/whatever. I think that's probably just because blog is so popular that I feel like I'm speaking in Middle English! And no-one feels right doing that in daily conversation.


So... back to the "podcast"/"blogcast" topic...

# It's Not a Podcast. It's a BLOGCast

Monday, July 25, 2005 2:18 PM by Gizmodo
This came out last week but warrants mention. Apparently in the halls of Redmond it is forbidden to speak the word &quot;podcast.&quot; It is, in fact, a &quot;blogcast&quot; and this &quot;pod&quot; thing is just clouding the issue. I mean the...

# iTunes mainstreams podcasting

Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:55 AM by Signal vs. Noise
In One Stroke, Podcasting Hits Mainstream (NY Times) discusses the impact of podcast integration in iTunes 4.9. [Apple] has thrived by executing the same essential formula over and over: Find an exciting new technology whose complexity and cost keep it...
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