The PSWG wrote an interesting request for comment document on the current nature of podcasting, and where it's heading.  Whether you're a content producer, directory manager, diehard platform enthusiast, or just casual listener, it's worth a read: http://pswg.blogspot.com/2005/05/open-letter-to-podcasting-community.html

Specific attention is given to the fact that the podcasting "standard" is still highly technical in nature, and obfuscates the larger population of mainstream consumers from getting involved.  This, in large practice, has limited the range of people who can turn their ideas and thoughts into subscribable/downloadable audio files.

It's no secret that to date most of today's podcast producers fall into one of the following categories:

• web developers that extended their blogs and/or sites figured out the RSS spec enough to put together a feed
• niche market enthusiasts/special interest groups who got someone technical to help them extend their effective reach (see above)
• professional broadcasters who simply re-hashed their produced and aired shows as MP3s
• technologists who stayed on top of the timeshifted phenomenon popularized by Tivo
  
• former radio & media pros who tired of the required synchronicity and FCC-regulated nature of mainstream broadcasting
  
• hobbyists or media junkies who who bought into Adam Curry's "Last Yard" concept, tinkered with the <ENCLOSURE> XML tag in an RSS feed and got it right
  
• Mac advocates who stayed on the cutting edge

Hopefully, those of us in the software biz can keep coming up with new ideas to help people less technically inclined produce and publish great content as podcasts, abstracting away all of the XML editing and audio engineering.