Over the past several months, the Global Voices team has been grappling with the idea of podcasting and how best to showcase the splendid variety of material being produced by podcasters throughout the world. After numerous stops and starts, we decided to settle, as least for the time being, on what is perhaps the most obvious format — a magazine- or roundup-style show featuring podcast excerpts from around the world: in other words, the audio equivalent of the Global Voices web site. The first of these shows appeared on May 24, and the plan, at least initially, is for one to be released every two weeks.

By having called this show “The Global Voices Podcast #1”, we’ve come to realise that we may be obscuring the fact that several excellent “Global Voices podcasts” have appeared previous to this one, beginning with a Skypecast (which in those days simply meant an interview recorded using the VoIP application Skype) with Indian ethnographer and blogger Dina Mehta released way back in May 2005. Among the podcasts published on Global Voices over the past year have been Skype interviews with Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, Iranian blogger/podcaster Mr. Behi and Lebanese blogger “Lebanon.Profile”; audio dispatches from Accra, Ghana by Andy Carvin; and book reviews by Kamla Bhatt, who has also published interviews with GV regional editor Neha Viswanathan and author Eduardo Avila, and has others in the works. (A complete list of all the Global Voices podcasts published to date is available at this page).

In acknowledgement of this, we've decided to rename the magazine-style podcast “The Global Voices Show“. We also encourage all who produce podcasts for Global Voices to make use of the new podcast badge, which you can find here.

As with all things Global Voices, “The Global Voices Show” is a work in progress and involves balancing the needs, desires and points of view of the people involved in the Global Voices project. Over the next few weeks, we'll be dealing with matters such as how best to present non-English language material and developing a directory of podcasts. Once we achieve critical mass, we may even consider doing region-specific roundup shows.

We're also on the constant lookout for show suggestions, so if you're aware of any great podcasts you believe are worth showcasing, please send us a note through the contact link on the web site.

A few people have also asked about a podcasts-only feed: here it is. You can also find it at the top of the Global Voices Online – Podcasts page, along with direct subscription links for iTunes and Odeo.