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Podcasting, A New Way To Share Family Memories
by: jpritchard
Total views: 120
Word Count: 2172
I've always loved technology. My wife thinks it's simply because I like gadgets, and that I'm simply mesmerized by blinking lights. As much as that may be true (I can't deny that I'm attracted like a moth to a flame to oscillating and pulsing lights. I might not understand why they're pulsing, but I know that it means it's working. Pulsing lights mean it's doing something for me) there's more to it than just that. Technology empowers. Technology enables us to adjust our environments. Technology enables us to communicate with each other in unprecedented ways.
One of the things that first attracted me to the internet was it's ability to connect with friends and families. I developed my first website back in 1995, filled with recent family photos. When bandwidth started to improve, I started to include audio files of my children speaking, so the grandparents could hear them. I recorded the baby's first words, their piano recitals, and everything I thought would mean something to family members living far away. When technology caught up the demands of video, I began to record and publish our family videos on the web.
Grandma could see the new baby's first footsteps. She could see the school concert. She could see the home improvements we were doing. That's what technology is about to me. It's about enabling us to connect with those that we love. Its about empowering us to touch those that we care about - and keep them involved.
The obstacle that I always ran into, however, was knowing that my work was actually getting "out there."
First, you're never sure that grandma knows how to get to your website. Even if she does, you're never sure if she has the right components installed to view the content. Next, there's the fact that people simply forget to look. If you're like me, you have plenty of content, but you don't have it on a regular/consistent basis. Grandma might look all the time at the start, but after a month of looking at the same content for a month, she'll probably lose interest. When something new does go up, she'll miss it until she remembers to look again.
About a year ago, I discovered podcasting. My daughter's school produces a podcast, which she subscribes to. I was on the computer one night, when I noticed that there was something downloading in the background on iTunes. I distinctly knew that I hadn't purchased anything, so I checked out what it was doing. It was automatically downloading an episode from her school's podcast. Apparently her teacher had put up an episode of the 3rd grade class performing a concert about an hour before, and my computer knew it. It was downloading to my computer automatically.
A lightbulb went off in my head! This is what I've been looking for. By creating a podcast, the teacher was able to effectively ensure that everyone who wanted to be kept up to date on the classroom activities instantly had the information available. They didn't have to remember to check. The teacher didn't have to notify everyone that the video was up there available to be seen. Once she put it up - everyone had it. She didn't have to worry about whether everyone had the right technology to view it. So long as they had iTunes - it was all automatic. With millions of people out there with iTunes, it couldn't be easier.
Like a 21st century geeked-out goldminer, I thought "Eureka! I've found it!" That's exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for a technology that simplified the process for my viewers, hopefully making the notifications automatic. I was also looking for assurance that they had all of the tools they needed to view what I was putting up. Podcasting accomplished both!
From there, it was simply a matter of learning how to podcast.
The hardest part of getting the podcast up and running was understanding exactly how a podcast works, and getting everything properly prepared. I hope to help you through that learning curve, by explaining everything in simple language. The concept isn't difficult whatsoever.
First, let's define what a podcast is.
A podcast is a text file located on the internet that points to a group of media files. This text file is called a newsfeed (or an RSS feed), and acts like a roadmap to media files that are also located on the internet. When someone views a podcast, what they are actually doing is reading this text file, and being pointed to the appropriate media files.
The program that reads the text file (newsfeed) is called an aggregator. The aggregator reads the text file, and grabs the media files that it is being pointed to. All of this is done in the background, giving you the illusion of "single" show that has multiple episodes. In reality, however, it's just a bunch of files located on the internet tied together via this text file.
This text file must follow a certain format, in order to assure compatibility across the range of aggregators out there (e.g., iTunes). The structure of the text file defines the details of the show (the show's title, description, etc), and where to find the show's episodes. It's done in a pretty straightforward manner.
For an example of how a newsfeed looks, check out Apple's technical document on podcast structure. http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html#_Toc526931673 "Channel" defines the shows, and "item" defines the episodes. Once you have the file created, to add more episodes, you simply add another "item" pointing to a new file.
That's how a podcast is structured.
Next, we're going to tell you what you need to get your podcast up and running. There are two options. The first is what you will need if you want to do it all yourself. The second (and our preference) is the simpler route, which is to get a podcast host. These instructions presume that you already have your sermon, or other audio file, converted into MP3 format and ready to go.
Option 1: Do it Yourself
1: Find web space available for you to upload your media files to.
- There are plenty of web hosts available for you to choose from. From Google, do a search for "Web Hosting".
- I recommend getting a Linux/PHP based host - because they are simpler to configure than Microsoft based hosting.
- As a general rule, try to find the most web space available, with the greatest amount of traffic allotted for your site. As your podcast grows in popularity - you don't want to get sacked with extra traffic fees.
- Before settling for a host, it also is in your best interests to do a little research to make sure they have a decent reputation. Lots of hosts over-sell their plans in order to get more business. There are lots of horror stories I've read of people that found their websites censured for excessive traffic when they were nowhere near the limits their plan advertised. A little research can help you avoid falling victim to an unscrupulous host.
- You will most likely transfer your media files to your host through what's called FTP. FTP is "File Transfer Protocol". On Windows, I like "Wise FTP" by AceBit the best. On Macintosh, my favorite is Cyberduck. You can find both on Google.
- One thing to keep in mind is whether or not your media files are supported by your web hosting company. If you're simply podcasting your audio sermons, MP3 is pretty much universally supported. If you're podcasting video files (M4V or MP4), you might need to configure your server to recognize those files. This is done via what's called a "mime type"; and is set up in a file called .htaccess on your web server.
- To find out more information, if you need it, google ".htaccess mime types" for a detailed explanation.
- Make sure that your newsfeed mimics the format we showed you earlier. If you follow that format, you should be good to go.
- Create your channel, and add all of your items.
- Once you have created your newsfeed file, upload it to your server as well.
- Test it out by going to feedvalidator.org.
- If your feed comes back invalid, it will give suggestions as to how to fix your feed. If it comes back saying the feed is valid, then you're good to go!
- Start submitting it to channels like yahoo, and the iTunes music store.
Those are all of the steps required to get a podcast up and running, if you wish to do it all yourself!
Option 2: Get a "Podcast Host."
Podcast hosts are podcast services that take care of all of the hosting, newsfeed creation and testing for you. With podcast hosting, you don't need to worry about file types, ensuring that your feed is valid, or finding web space. They take care of all of that for a nominal fee (usually about what you would pay to rent out space on your own.)
With a podcast host, you simply upload the media file, give it a name and a description, and you're done!
After a few months of maintaining our podcast and constantly updating the feed to reflect new additions to our podcast, this is the direction we chose to go. It really simplified the production process, and actually ended up costing us less per month than what we were paying before. This is an excellent option to consider for someone who doesn't want to bother with the tech side of podcasting. There are a lot of podcast hosts out there offering different packages.
When determining which one to contract - look at the following things:
- How much do they charge vs. how much space do you get for your podcasts?
- Do they limit your bandwidth? (This is particularly important. One host we went with charged for bandwidth beyond a certain point, and it cost us a pretty penny.) It's best to get a podcast host with "unmetered bandwidth". This means they don't charge you extra if your podcast becomes popular.
- Do they support transferring of the podcasts to another domain? This is also very important. If you, for whatever reason, become dis-satisfied with the service or want to transfer it to another location, will they facilitate this for you? We had to recreate two of our podcasts from scratch because one host wouldn't give us the ability to redirect our existing podcast to our new host.
- Do they have good technical support for questions you may have?
About the Author
John Pritchard is the father of two beautiful daughters, living in Charlotte, NC.
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