Firstly if you don't know what podcasting is let me catch you up. To understand podcasting you first need to understand RSS; podcasting is simply a way of putting links to audio files in an RSS feed. The audio files are usually amateur radio broadcasts (or free form audio blog posts if you like) that are then downloaded as the RSS feed is updated by your podcasting aware RSS client. Yeah, I don't know what all the fuss is about either ?
Anyway now podcasting has been picked up by Nature, for more see this post via Notes from the Biomass. Another logical extension: academic lectures are being released as podcasts (via Eastern Blot, time to update the reading list).
Comments
Grabbing attention
I can't quite put my finger on it but Nature's recent moves (Connotea and podcasting) look like a grab for attention. Maybe instead of going for the open access publishing model they are thinking of using the money/brand to push new services that will keep people on their portals and reading their journals. To be fair there is absolutely no publicity on Connotea to any Nature journal or portal. Maybe they are just being nice.
Participation?
I suspect that they are also trying to participate more actively in the community. Open access and data sharing, coupled with ever increasing community size, means that a handful of editors can't hope to canvas even a reasonable minority of people on any issue. So rather than retract to the sidelines and risk losing sight of the interesting stuff happening in the middle, they're wading in. Good for them.
Of course, this also makes Science look so 1995...
Connotea has been featured
Connotea has been featured in Editorials in many of the Nature Journals. I suspect all they are trying to do is move with the times.
Amusingly nature also promotes "Debt consolidation services" and "Picnic Tables & Aluminum Bleachers", you can see a box containing other dubious sponsored links for phone cards etc. on the front page, this doesn't exactly say "integrity".
attention span
Spitshine comments on his limited attention span for podcasts - I know the feeling. Perhaps it's because we normally use the Web by surfing rapidly between sites (I think studies have shown that people generally stay on a page for something like 30 s on average), garnering tidbits of information here and there. It strains our minds to sit and concentrate on audio or video for a few minutes, even though we'd happily listen to a radio or CD on a stereo, or watch TV for far longer. Maybe it's just because computers are just not very comfortable to sit and look at for long periods? Strange.
Still, another good idea and it's good that a few academic institutions are open to the possibilities of "new media".