How to Create a Podcast
Podcasting is easy to get involved in for anyone who
wants to create a podcast. The first thing necessary is
access to a web server. The user needs to be able to
upload files to the server itself, so podcasting can't be
done from a simple blogging or journal site. It's
probably best to register a domain and find a host for
the site. Once the site has been set up and the user has
access to the host server, a small program called
dircaster.php should be customized for your site, and
can be used to automatically generate the RSS feed that
the subscribers will download. The mp3 files should be
uploaded to the proper directory after all the
information about the file has been attached. After they
are in the directory, the address of dircaster.php, as long
as it is in the same directory as the mp3 files, will
generate an RSS file that will tell your subscribers
where to download the latest podcasts from. To update
and and a new episode, create and upload the new mp3
file to the same directory. When dircaster.php is
accessed, it will recognize the new file and relay the
information on to your visitors.
With these steps, it is easy for anyone to create a
podcast with a small expenditure of time and effort. The
site is easy to set up; domains and hosting are now
cheap enough almost anyone to have a small site, and
the programs necessary are all easy to find and use.
Some producers use it ashave created and to showcase their work.
Podcast Alley
A Brief History Of The iPod Podcast
By Steven Sharpe
 What is now called a podcast traces its orgins to the first ipod podcasts, the creation of distributed mp3 files that could be downloaded and played on Apple's music player, the iPod.
When the iPod came out, and users discovered what a wonderful thing it was for holding music, some people had the idea of loading things that weren't necessarily songs. Some of the people that got their hands on the iPod took the route of reverse engineering the iPod and loading on different firmware, or operating system, but others had the idea of sharing small sound files that could be played on the iPod.
The technology for distributing the files already existed, with RSS feeds. RSS feeds were a means of generating machine readable files that could share information between a server and a user. Many blogs already used them to keep readers up to date with the latest posts, but some hopeful podcasters had the idea of enclosing links to sound files within the RSS feed and downloading the file to the computer.
With the change in RSS feeds, ipod podcast took off, and podcasting became a popular way to share files. Users saw podcasting as a way to become radio hosts, or dj's, and a variety of podcasts began popping up. Software was written to automatically check the RSS feeds, extract the links to the podcast episodes, and download the files. These programs became known as podcast clients.
By this time, podcasting had moved beyond the ipod, and they were not simply making an ipod podcast anymore. Some people had figured out how to use even the PlayStation Portable gaming console as a podcast player.
It was more difficult than downloading podcasts to the ipod, since the PSP used a different format for it's files, but PSP podcasts began popping up. In addition, podcasting made inroads into the wider audience of people without iPods, who simply saw podcasting as an extremely convenient way to receive news, music, and entertainment over the internet.
Today, while the iPod podcast type still exists, fewer people subscribe to podcasts as a way of gaining portable media files they can listen to anywhere. Although that is still an attractive part of podcasting, it seems to be eclipsed by the ease with which podcasting has become a content delivery system. Now, podcasting has become tied up with the rising number of audio and video blogs, where blogging is done not by post, but through media files uploaded to the blog.
These blogs, and podcasting in general, take advantage of the shrinking cost of broadband internet connections, and the rising number of people with high speed access to offer a picture of the internet rich with multimedia files.
Steve is the CEO & Editor in Chief of Article Land. He is offering a free ebook on his site entitled Article Marketing Avalanche, a great read, a great book, go get it now.
These podcast feeds are subscribed to by peoplethey come out. The user needs to be able to done from a simple blogging or journal site. com and This American Life do notoffer that. computer, without even using a web browser.
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