In response to my blog entry yesterday about the podcasting grassroots having the wind knocked out of it by Apple's introduction of podcasting features into iTunes, Michal Migurski emailed this:

I'm curious how much of a community existed in podcasting prior to Apple's move a few months ago. Were there publishers whose activities changed as a result? Is this a case of feeling loss of control over the word "podcasting" and the attention around it? Or has Apple's change to iTunes actually made it more difficult to publish podcasts? I wonder whether this hand-wringing is actually a function of the community being weak to begin with, lacking identity built through custom developed over time and vulnerable to a sudden move from a giant such as Apple. It doesn't seem to me that the changes to iTunes should actually have any effect on the folks recording shows for small audiences.

What's left will be the important part.

The first order of business: find a new name and a new story.

The software known as iPodder when Adam Curry created it, and then known as iPodder Lemon when a community of programmers adopted it, is now called Juice. This is a fine name and a reasonable response to the situation, but where's the meme? For the community formerly known as podcasting to escape Apple's killing embrace, they need a new creation myth which doesn't mention or even imply the iPod.