Thing 24 - Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts

Listen to a podcast about podcasting. Too bad that I could not figure out how to make an alliteraton out of that sentence.

Podcasts
AUDIO FILE + RSS FEED = PODCAST. A podcast is an Internet radio show. What makes them special is how they are delivered to the user. It is distinguishable from other digital audio formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom. The software is always-on when the user’s computer starts and runs in the background. In other words, you do not need an MP3 player to listen to a podcast; your computer does all the work. In fact, 80% of all podcasts are consumed on the PC which they were downloaded.

Vodcasts
Video podcasting, sometimes referred to as vodcasting or vidcasting, is video-on-demand. It is almost identical to podcasting except the content is video versus audio. The content is also more likely to be played on a personal computer than on a personal media assistant. It may be delivered as a file or as a stream. Estreaming is a form of Vodcasting.





More on the topic

People often use the word podcast to refere to both a podcast and a vodcast as defined above. In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting over the last 24 months, it's easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries (like the ones used in this Learning 2.0 program) to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Discovery Resources:

• To find out more about podcasts, start with the Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial.
  
  
• There are many podcast directories and finding tools available. Here are just three of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, do not require a software download:
  1. Podcast.net
  2. Podcastalley.com
  3. Yahoo Podcasts

• What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too?
  (Optional Resources for those who want to learn create podcasts)
  
  






• Yahoo: Publish a podcast
  
  
  
• Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
  
  
  
• Beginner's guide to Podcasts & Creating Podcasts
  
  
  
• How to podcast tutorial

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
   



2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account.
   
   
   
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

Optional: If you're ambitious, why not try out the Audioblogger service and add an audio post about your experience to your blog.