Podcasting is moving from being a niche technology for the tech-savvy to being a mainstream way of accessing Internet content. More than 6 million American adults have listened to podcasts, according to Pew Internet.

Podcasting is a technology for synchronizing content between a server and computers and portable media players. The term “podcasting” was popularized by former MTV VJ Adam Curry, who, along with RSS innovator Dave Winer, acted as a catalyst in the growth of podcasting. Most podcasts are audio shows in MP3 format, but many people are experimenting with using podcasting technology to distribute and synchronize video content and other types of electronic documents.

Just as blogging was a threshold technology that brought web publishing to anyone with an Internet connection, podcasting promises to let Internet users deliver audio, video and other content to portable media player owners around the world.

Offsite Link: Podcasting takes off

Every month, it seems like the Internet brings a new word or phrase into the language. Tech writers typically try and explain the meanings of these terms the first few times they are used in an article. Nevertheless, it’s not uncommon to find yourself reading a tech article and wondering just what the heck a blog, podcast, mash-up, or the word-of-the-month really is.

2004 has been an especially rich year for new techno-jargon. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, here’s a guide to some of the terms that made it big this year.

If you already know all these strange words and phrases, do yourself a favor and pass this list onto the people you know and love. Then they’ll have some idea just what the heck you’re talking about!

Offsite Link: 10 Tech Terms from 2004

Lewin Group President, James Lewin, lends his expertise in content syndication to IBM’s developerWorks website. This article covers the latest format for content syndication, RSS 2.0.

Offsite Link: Content feeds with RSS 2.0