Podcasting Resources

What is podcasting ?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,"Podcasting" is a web-based broadcast medium. Audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) are made available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect the availability of new files (generally via RSS), and download the files for listening at the user's convenience.
The word "podcasting" is a portmanteau of the words iPod and broadcasting. A podcast is like an audio magazine subscription: a subscriber receives regular audio programs delivered via the internet, and can listen to them at their leisure.

What you need to podcast on windows
* Windows XP (or maybe an earlier version, haven’t tested)
* Audio recording software, I used the open source Audacity. Be sure to also download the lame encoder library there to convert your output to mp3
* A microphone
* Optionally: Some songs, jingles, whatever and a player to play them (iTunes, Winamp)

How do I create my own Podcasts?
Creating a Podcast basically means recording a file, encoding it in a format supported by portable players (mp3, ogg, etc.), and publishing an RSS 2.0 feed which announces the Podcast via the enclosure item. The hardest part for most users is recording, which usually involves mixing one or more live voices coming through a microphone, recorded music or speech, and possibly live voices coming through an Internet phone.

Podcast Retrieval Applications
1.iPodderhttp://ipodder.sourceforge.net/(cross platform)
Formerly known as iSpider, iPodder is a console-based application written in Python, that runs wherever Python runs (ie pretty much everywhere). It supports all kinds of rss and scans for enclosures. If the enclosure is in the form of a BitTorrent file, it will download the torrent file in the background. If the mediaplayer on the system supports it, the downloaded content is automatically added to the playlist of the day. The content is kept on harddisk in a nested folderstructure where the foldername is the show's name.

2.Synclosure(cross platform)
A barebones Python script that fetches RSS enclosures, optionally invoking an external BitTorrent client. It uses Mark Pilgrim's Universal Feed Parser to fetch and parse feeds.

3.iPodderX (Mac OS X)
iPodderX is a newsreader based on the iPodder concept by Adam Curry that reads RSS 2.0 feeds with enclosures. It takes those enclosures and automatically downloads them in the background. If the file is an audio file, it then moves it to iTunes for download to your iPod. iPodderX downloads any type of file, even Torrents.

4.iPodder.NET(windows)
iPodder.NET is a media aggregator that automatically downloads content to your machine. All you have to do is subscribe to RSS feeds, and your machine handles the rest for you. It integrates automatically with iTunes, creating playlists and synching with your attached iPod. Requires the .NET 1.1 Runtime.

iPodder 2.0 released
The application has evolved from its basic beginnings as the world's first podcasting software to a mature, fully featured application. iPodder is the premier Podcasting application, allowing users to capture and listen to Internet audio programs anytime, anywhere. It allows users to select and download shows and music and to play whenever they want on their iPods, portable digital media players, or computers automatically, after specifying which music or shows they want to listen to. iPodder has been downloaded over 125,000 times since its premier last August, letting users tap into the growing popularity of podcasts. There are now thousands of podcasting sites across the Internet. iPodder continues to be free and cross-platform, playing on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms. Version 2.0 offers numerous new improvements: - Total redefined, fully-featured GUI (user interface) - New streamlined subscription process with an ability to check and uncheck items for download - New cleanup section allowing quick cleanup - History of downloads and click to play abilities - Proxy support - Threaded scans/downloads and resumable downloads - Import and Export functionalities (OPML) to enable easy transport of data between other applications - Many new smaller features including small add-ons like spotlight search, catch-up functionality, coralizing, and shortcuts enabled.
Download iPodder 2.0

Sources and Resources
1.Podcasters.org
2.Howto: Create Your Own Podcasting Show On Windows
3.Podcasting on WkiPedia
4.The PodCast network
5.ipodder.org
 
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