Podcasting 2.0 - Explainer

podcasting2.0.md

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+# Podcasting 2.0
+
+
+## What is it?
+
+Podcasting 2.0 is a combination of ideas, and the technologies to support those ideas.  It's a vision for what the podcast user experience can and should
+be.  That experience has stagnated for over a decade, with almost all of the improvements coming in isolated sections of the ecosystem.  One app may figure
+out a way to improve upon a single idea.  Then, perhaps a hosting company makes a deal with a certain app to make headway with another challenge.  In this
+way we've ended up with fragments of innovation across the podcasting landscape with no central driving goal in mind.  Podcasting 2.0 is the expression of
+that goal.
+
+Stated eloquently, the goal is this:
+
+  > "I think our focus should be 100% on improving the podcasting experience in an open-standard way that allows every player to innovate faster
+  > and better than any one company could do on their own. This is our best bet at avoiding one company emerging as the monopoly of podcasting."
+  >
+  > --Tom Rossi [Tom Rossi](https://podcastindex.social/@tomrossi7/105839063781381384)
+
+
+Closed ecosystems can not innovate any better or faster than open systems.  We should know this by now.  The open world of RSS based podcasting can not only
+keep pace with closed systems, it can exceed them easily.  Podcasting 2.0 is simply the technological expression of this idea.  We can make a better podcasting
+experience for users than they can get behind any walls - no matter how high or expensive those walls are.
+
+There are three parts to Podcasting 2.0:
+
+1. The "podcast" namespace
+2. Web app friendliness
+3. Value for Value
+
+
+## Step 1. Declare the "podcast" namespace in your feed
+
+To be a Podcasting 2.0 compliant podcast you need to first declare the "podcast"
+[namespace](https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace/blob/main/docs/1.0.md) in your feed if you self-host your podcast.  If you
+use a hosting company for your podcast, check [here](https://podcastindex.org/apps) for a list of hosts that now support the new namespace.
+
+The namespace gives you (and your listeners) access to many new features:
+
+ - Transcripts: You can deliver a text transcript along with your episode to make your content more accessible to those with hearing challenges, or for those
+                learning your language.
+ - Funding: This points listeners back to a donation or membership page that they can click on to join or donate money to your show.
+ - Chapters: MP3 files have had the ability to embed chapters for many years.  But, now you can create a "chapters file" that gets delivered along with your
+             episode to allow rich content like images, embedded web pages, titles and silent markers.  This chapters file lives on the web, so it can be
+             changed later after publishing without uploading a new audio file or changing your episode.
+ - Soundbites: Specify short bits of your episode to serve as an intro or a teaser for your show.
+ - Persons: You can give multiple bio's in each episode that have short "about" descriptions of the people on that episode (like hosts, guests, etc.).  Did you
+            interview someone cool?  Point to their head shot image and link to their Wikipedia page or their blog.  It makes searching for people within podcasts
+            easy and enjoyable.
+ - Location: Is your podcast about a specific place?  Tag it's location right in the episode or podcast feed to let people know.  It makes your show more
+             discoverable on the web.
+ - Named Seasons: Seasons have been around for a while, but now you can name them.  This way you can avoid the hassle of trying to cram everything in your show title.
+
+
+## Step 2. Make sure you're web app friendly
+
+Next, you need to confirm that your feed does not use "mixed content".  That means that all of the parts of your podcast (the feed, images, audio files)
+
+
+## Step 3. Value for Value
+
+The final step is monetizing your content with cryptocurrency.