Podcasting 101

Summary

• Podcasting is a way of being updated to new media on the internet and downloading it to your hard disk or mp3 player.
• This is usually mp3s, but can be videos or images.
• To get started, download a client from iPodder.org, I use "iPodder" - the original podcast client - but they all have different features, experiment, find one you like or one that works with your mp3 player.
• Find Podcasts, either by looking in the directory, or going on favourite websites and finding "podcast" links (this is ours). Right click on these and select "copy link location" -- if you try to open them in your browser you'll either get gibberish, or an error -- then paste the link into your chosen podcast client, et viola! Your client will download the new files, whenever it's updated.

Introduction

Podcasting is a way of accessing content on the internet that's regularly updated, for instance; a radio show, blog, or news feed.

Podcasting is just a new way of using two things that have been around for quite a while. The first is RSS which is used on many news and blogging websites as a way of notifying users or "subscribers" of new content. It is essentially a machine readable outline of the articles and information on the website, summarised in a single file. When the site is updated, so is the feed. A program called an RSS reader stores the URLs of the RSS "feeds" that the user is interested in. The RSS reader checks the feed and from it learns what the new articles are, and can then notify the user.

The other thing is the growing prevalence of mp3 players, in particular the Apple iPod, which gives podcasting it's name. Podcasting uses RSS to update a "podcatcher" (a modified RSS reader) to the existence of a new media file - usually an mp3, although video and images are beginning to be used as well - which it then downloads to the mp3 player.

This file can be anything, go on iPodder.org and you'll find a whole host of media in their directory on any subject imaginable. Our sole podcast at the moment is Dave Jones' sunday sermon. This could be called a Godcast, the name coined to describe religious podcasts.

Getting Started

First, you'll need a podcatcher, a podcast reciever. You can find many of them on iPodder.org, experiment, play around, find one you like.

Install it, and then find some podcasts. Many websites have extensive directories, alternatively you could go on favourite websites and find "podcast" links (this is ours).

When you have a podcast, right click on the link in your browser and select "copy link location" -- if you try to open them in your browser you'll either get gibberish, or an error -- then paste the link into your chosen podcast client, et viola! Your client will download the new files, whenever it's updated.

If you want the details of how podcasts work and their history, a good place to start is the Wikipedia article.