My Baby
Monsters

(appendix with glossary follows)

What is the purpose of communication?

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings." (1)

Why do we open our mouths?

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. (2)

To share our knowledge and experience ...

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws the bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!" (2)

To make connections...

To be Podcast, or not to Podcast:
that is the question (3)

To find answers to life's real questions ...

To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles? (4)

To share our passions ...

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! (5)

To share our insight ...

What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty!
in form, in moving, how express and admirable! (4)

To secure a place in history...

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one. (1)

To share our thoughts and hopefully be understood.

by Baumgarten, Carroll, Fleming, and Shakespeare
(2006, 1871, 1939, 1599)

So, the question remains, to Podcast or to Netcast?

Should we cast off one tech portmanteau word just to embrace another another? I don't think so.

Don't get me wrong, I love good portmanteau as much as the next linguist, and I do get it... the problem is, I don't believe many in the NPC (Non Podcasting Community) will.

Not too long ago, the word Podcast was not even a glimmer in the milkman's eye. But today, after a year of intense media coverage, Apple's embarrassment of it, and being selected as the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year... well, many people still don't get it.

Na na na na na ... I can't hear to you... I don't have an iPod™.

And to make matter's worse, there's juvenile litigation over this "pod" word whose origins – though classified as unknown (6) – dates back to, at least 1688, and even further back when you include its Greek cousin, "Pous".

Language is alive. New words enter its vocabulary, and old words fall out of favor and die. And as our digital world changes at exponentially accelerated rate, so does its lexicon. We sure do live in interesting times (7).

And for this I am glad.

I love how each Web-tastic day brings with it new a collaborative wisdom that has the potential of redefining our world. And while I sped countless hours enjoying this bubbling pool of life and its winged monkeys on the Yellow Net Road, I realize that most people don't.

Most people don't have the desire to relearn what they already know, and we shouldn't expect this of them if we want to connect with them.

So, this brings us to our back to the Podcast.

Is Podcast a bad word?

Yes... not four letter bad, but bad in the sense that its meaning is not obvious.

So, should we cast it out and embrace the word Netcast?

As much as I hate to disagree with you, I don't think so. Netcast's meaning is not obvious to NPCs and the introduction of another foreign word would just confuse them further.

So what should we do? I think we have a few options.
1) Keep the bad word (Podcast) because it has some penetration.
2) Use Netcast because it is not Podcast, and currently no litigation.
3) Use a new word (or words), one that would be easily understood by NPCs.

I vote for Option 3 because clear communication would help us reach more NPCs. I've begun brainstorming on potential words. Everything keeps circling back to TV and Radio, and while these word may not be completely accurate, i believe, that like horseshoes, they would be close enough for NPCs... I also have not done a trademark search.

Easy to understand (and possible) replacements for the word Podcast:
1st choice: Internet TV / Internet Radio
2nd choice: iTV / iRadio
3rd choice: Web TV / Web Radio
Last choice: ipTV / ipRadio / ipFreely

APPENDIX

The Lewis Carroll Glossary (from Wikipedia)

• Bandersnatch: A swift moving creature with snapping jaws. Capable of extending its neck.
• Borogove: A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop.
• Brillig: Four o'clock in the afternoon: the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
• Frumious: Combination of "fuming" and "furious."
• Gimble: To make holes like a gimlet.
• Gyre: To go round and round like a gyroscope.
• Jubjub: A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion.
• Mome: Possibly short for "from home," meaning that the raths had lost their way.
• Mimsy: Combination of "flimsy" and "miserable."
• Outgrabe: Something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.
• Portmanteau: A word that is formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words. Word first used by Lewis Carroll in "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" (1871).
• Rath: A sort of green pig.
• Slithy: Combination of "lithe" and "slimy."
• Toves: A combination of a badger, a lizard, and a corkscrew. They are very curious looking creatures which make their nests under sundials. They live on cheese.

Resources

1. The Walrus and The Carpenter (Lewis Carroll, 1871)
2. Jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll, 1871)
3. (Hopefully) obvious not a real quote
4. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (by William Shakespeare, mid-1599 and mid-1602)
5. The Wizard of Oz (film)
6. The Online Etymology Dictionary (pod)
7. May you live in interesting times (translation of Chinese proverb)