Category: 2. Live from The Formosa Teahouse

Live from The Formosa Tea House, was recorded over lunch in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on September 8, 2004.

The brainchild of Peter Rukavina, President of Reinvented Inc., the half-hour podcast was “just an experiment,” says Rukavina.  Following in the footsteps of Adam Curry, Dave Winer and Steve Gillmor, Rukavina recognized a new meduim was emerging with The Daily Source Code, Morning Coffee Notes and The Gillmor Gang, respectively.

So Rukavina thought: why not try it out?

Joined by Dan James and Steven Garrity, two of the men behind Silverorange, the trio met for lunch at The Formosa Tea House.  They brought their apetites and audio equipment.

Rukavina blogged about the experience later that day, an his post captures the excitement and thrill of their successful experiment.

My conversation with Peter Rukavina about Live from The Formosa Tea House can be found here:

[youtube= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rxhNS3TNfU]

“Live From the Formosa Tea House” was the seventh podcast ever to be listed on the PodcastDirectory.com website.

It is widely recognized as Canada’s first podcast.

⇒  NEXT: “1.  Live from The Formosa Tea House”  →  Episodes

All 5 of the Live From The Formosa Tea House episodes remain available online, via Peter Rukavina’s Blog and via the PodcastingDirectory.com.

For the sake of convenience I have included links to each episode here:

★  Episode 1: Recorded on September 8, 2004.

★  Episode 2: Recorded on September 16, 2004.

★ Episode 3: Recorded January 31, 2005.

★ Episode 4: Recorded July 13, 2005.

★ Episode 5: Recorded November 2, 2005.

⇒  NEXT: “1.  Live from The Formosa Tea House”  →  Acts of Volition Radio

Steven Garrity was producing an online radio show long before the Live from The Formosa Tea House podcast came along.

Acts of Volition Radio, named after his online blog, launched on November 29, 2003. The weekly thirty- to sixty-minute radio program featured music and a bit of conversation.

Garrity explains the rationale behind Acts of Volition Radio in the show notes he included with his first episode:

I’ve had the idea of doing a weekly radio show on the web floating around in my head since the Acts of Volition website started over three years ago. I like the idea of assembling a bit of music, talking about who it is and why I like it, and making it available for download. An hour show could be posted for download and those interested could listen at their convenience (much like we enjoy the Strong Bad emails at HomeStarRunner.com or a new edition of The Onion each week).

The on-demand format allowed listeners to “tune-in” whenever they wanted.  They simply had go to Garrity’s website, download an Acts of Volition Radio episode and listen to it on their player of choice.

★  Internet radio is not a new phenomenon.  Audio files have been streaming online since 1995, predating podcasting by almost a decade.

☆  What makes podcasting different from web radio??? ☆

★ Many articles have been published detailing the history of internet broadcasting.  Two of the earliest and the best are:

☆ “Webcast – A Concise History and Analysis Specific to Radio Broadcasting,” by  P. Sinclair, J. Anderson, P. Cruikshank, Feb 2001.

☆ “Internet broadcasting’s brief history,” by the BBC News’ technology correspondent Mark Ward, March 2001.

Although Steven Garrity was broadcasting Acts of Volition Radio long before he started podcasting with Peter Rukavina, Live from The Formosa Tea House still stands as Canada’s first podcast.

Garrity admits he even, “avoided the term ‘podcast’ for years hoping it wouldn’t catch on.  (I did the same with ‘blog’, but I know when I’m beat.)”

Acts of Volition Radio become became Canada’s third podcast on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004, when Garrity posted Session #14

⇒  NEXT: “3.  Early Adopters”  →  Canada’s Early Adopters