What is a Podlet?

A podlet is a small digital media file that can be embedded into one or more podcasts for playback on personal computers or protable media players.

The Podlet Vision

Closely related to the concept of article swapping, podlets are a way for an otherwise single burst of inspiration to be known on the world wide web

Perhaps you wake up in the middle of the night and have a "WOW" experience. You have a great inspiration to create something, you work at it, you push for it, and then it has passed. Once your creativity has expelled itself how do you get it seen, how do you show it to others?

If you start your own blog, this inspiration may be one of the only entries your write. Perhaps it will get noticed by someone, and referenced by others, and it will be popular, but how does it get noticed in the first place? Podlets are a way to put your inspirational idea, joke, funny quotes, or just plain comments into a condensed format. You can think of it almost like article syndication, only with a multimedia (audio/video) twist. You don't have to come up with an amazing idea every day. You just need one or two ideas whenever they come to you. You submit your original creative idea to a centralized place. Podcasters pick up this information, and mold it for their podcast, and viola !

What podlets are not

Podlets are not meant to convey marketing/promotional messages. Although it is recommended that some type of fair attribution be given to the podlet author. Podlets must not be confused with advertising. A podlet should enhance the experience of the podcast listener. It gives an oppertunity for banter, feedback, and interactivity.

Podlet examples

* A trivia question, posed to a podcaster, with pauses for the podcaster to respond and guess the answer and then a response, "were you right?"

* A joke or limmerick inserted between plays of two songs within a podcast

* A short story, perhaps used as a segway between sections of the podcast

* A pre-recorded review of a movie or book as part of a "review" section of an existing podcast

Podlets are not limited to only audio media, and may be used to distribute small videos as well to a wide range of podcasters.

Adding spice to your podcasts?

Just like the right spice can make your meal more tasty, a podlet can help spice up your existing podcast. To get started, simply grab this OPML file which contains a list of podlets to which you can subscribe

Want to add your own podlets?

For more information check out http://www.bwebcentral.com/podlets

Brad Detchevery is an IT Consultant and part time editor of BWebCentral.com a social newspaper with articles written by the readers http://www.bwebcentral.com