Creating and Using Podcasts (CS 43)

1. Creating and Using Podcasts (CS 43) Podcasting has become the most cost-effective and efficient way to distribute digital audio and video files via the Web. By subscribing to podcasts, listeners and viewers can consume valuable information whenever they need to, not just whenever a broadcaster decides to present it. In this hands-on course, you will learn the skills needed to develop, create, and publish engaging podcasts. Topics include: how to find and subscribe to podcasts, how to use software (e.g., Audacity) to create sound files for podcasts on the computer, how to plan and record your podcasts, how to edit, produce and publish them, and more. By the end of the course, students will know how to create and publish their podcasts from start to finish.

2. Course Agenda • Week 1: Obtaining, Using, Planning for Podcasts • Week 2: Recording the Audio Podcast • Week 3: Editing the Podcast • Week 4: Creating the XML feed and Setting Up a Blog • Week 5: Publishing the Podcast

3. Topics Introduction What Is a Podcast? Why Use and/or Create Podcasts? Obtaining and Using Podcasts Creating Podcasts Planning a Podcast Recording Audio Podcasts What You’ll Need Audio Software Publishing Podcasts at Stanford iTunes at Stanford Main iTunes at Stanford Community iTunes Web space (AFS, departmental, etc.) RSS Feeds What is an RSS Feed? An RSS Feed Example Submitting RSS Feeds Resources Exercises Mapping Out a Podcast (page 6) Recording Your Podcast (page 8) Editing Your Podcast (page 9) Publishing Your Podcast (page 11) Creating and Publishing an RSS Feed (page 16) Table of Contents

4. Introduction • What Is a Podcast? “Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.” (wikipedia.org) • Why Use and/or Create Podcasts? • For Staff, podcasts can deliver information about a department or group internally (to just the department), to Stanford as a whole, or to the entire world. Podcasts can be used for newsworthy events in the department, for highlighting special events and/or people in the department, and for presenting and disseminating other information to the desired audience in an engaging manner. • For Faculty (or staff supporting Faculty), podcasts can deliver educational content for listening or viewing on a computer and/or iPod, freeing learning from constraints of the physical classroom. Content could be anything from curriculum-related presentations to professional development ideas and used to disseminate best practices between other faculty. Instructors can easily create a podcast of daily assignments and class lectures from class, and publish it for all of their students.

5. Introduction, continued Locating and Obtaining Podcasts • Podcast search engines allow you to find podcasts: • www.apple.com/itunes/ • www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Podcasts/Directories/ • podcasts.yahoo.com/ • www.podscope.com/ • getapodcast.com/ • podcast.net/ • podcastdirectory.com/ • ipodder.org/ • www.allpodcasts.com/ • Podcatcher software automatically downloads podcasts to your computer and/or iPod or other media device: • www.apple.com/itunes/ • juicereciever.sourceforge.net/ • www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html

6. Creating a Podcast Planning a Podcast • Research your topic. • Write out what you plan to say. • Block out the segments of your podcast. • Typical 60-minute radio show: • Introduction and “hook” (a snapshot of what is covered and why listeners would want to listen) • Segment 1 • Break • Segment 2 • Break • Segment 3 • Break • Final points and summary of podcast • Typical 10-minute podcast: • Introduction and “hook” • Main segment • Summary of segment • Final points

7. Exercise 1: Mapping Out a Podcast • Pair up with the person sitting next to you. • Map out a one-minute podcast with your neighbor. Don’t record it yet; just practice what you’ll say. • Introduce yourself “Hello, and welcome to the [YourName] show. I’m your host, [YourName], of Stanford University. Today I’ll be interviewing [NeighborName].” • Interview the person sitting next to you • “So, [NeighborName], please tell the listeners what department you work for.” • “I see, and what do you do for [DepartmentName]?” • “What exciting things are going on in the department?” • “Anything else you would like to add?” • Closing remarks “Well, [NeighborName], it looks like we’ve come to the end of time for the show. Thank you so much for allowing our audience to learn a little more about you and your department. This is [YourName], and you’ve been listening to the [YourName] Show, brought to you by Stanford University and Technology Training Services. Until next time, thanks for listening.” • Now, switch roles with your neighbor and practice another podcast.

8. Recording Audio Podcasts To record an audio podcast, you’ll need: • A computer (any modern computer will do – Mac, Windows, Linux) • A microphone (a good microphone will cost around $100) http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/blcomparemikes.htm • Software to record the podcast (see below). In class, we’ll use Audacity. • Storage for the audio file you create (iTunes at Stanford, a web server such as your Stanford AFS web space, etc.) Audio Software • Free tools • Audacity (Mac/Windows): http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ • GarageBand (Mac only – it’s part of iLife, and is free with new Macs): http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ • Other tools ($35 - $500) • Audition (Windows only): http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/ • Soundbooth (Mac/Windows): http://www.adobe.com/products/soundbooth/ • SoundEdit Pro (Windows only): http://www.rmbsoft.com/sep.asp

9. Exercise 2: Record Your Podcast Using Audacity, record the interviews you and your neighbor worked on in Exercise 1. One interview should be recorded on your computer, the other on your neighbor’s. To record: • Launch Audacity. • Click the Record button. • Start talking! • When finished with the first interview, click the Stop button. • Save your sound file in the Audacity Project format (.aup) on the desktop (using the filename interview.aup). • Repeat steps 1-5 to record the second interview on your neighbor’s computer.

10. Exercise 3: Editing Your Podcast After you record a podcast, you will need to edit the sound file before publishing it. The handout Sound Editing with Audacity – Basic Instructions, which we will use in class, was developed by Stanford’s Center for Teaching and Learning. It details the basic steps for editing sound files using Audacity, and is available at:http://ctl.stanford.edu/Podcasting/audacity.pdf • In Audacity, listen to the podcast. • Remove any large pauses, and alter the sound using one or more of the Effects, if appropriate. • Export (save) the interview as an MP3 file to the desktop (using the filename interview.mp3).

11. Publishing Podcasts at Stanford At Stanford, there are several ways you can publish your podcasts. • iTunes at Stanford • Main iTunes at Stanford web site: http://itunes.stanford.edu • This is the public site, visible to the entire world. It is most appropriate for things like concerts, faculty lectures, sporting events, and other things that the general public or alumni might be interested in. • If you wish to contribute to the main iTunes at Stanford website, the rules and configurations are listed at https://www.stanford.edu/group/adci/contribute/ • Community iTunes: http://itunes.stanford.edu/community/ • This is the Stanford-only site, visible only to people with valid SUNet IDs. • If you wish to contribute to the Community iTunes site, contact Jeremy Sabol at jsabol@stanford.edu. • On the Stanford AFS Web server • Stanford University provides each employee and student 200 MB of disk space on the AFS Web server account to use as they wish. • Instructions for publishing to your AFS Web server account is at the websiteFile Transfer at Stanford, http://filetransfer.stanford.edu/.

12. Exercise 4: Publishing Your Podcast To publish the interview.mp3 file on your desktop (created in Exercise 3) to your Stanford AFS web space: • Launch SecureFX. • Click elaine.stanford.edu, and then click Connect. • Click Accept & Save to establish a secure connection to the server. • In the Username field, enter your SUNet ID and click OK. • In the Password field, enter your SUNet ID Password and click OK. • Double-click the WWW folder (or single-click WWW, then under File, choose Open). • Under File, select Manual Upload. • Click the […] button (the button next to the From field). • In the Look in field, select Desktop. • Click the file interview.mp3, and then click Open. • In the Transfer Type field, select Binary. • Click OK to publish interview.mp3. To confirm that the interview was successfully published, launch a web browser and go to http://www.stanford.edu/people/[yourSUNetID]/interview.mp3. Your interview should begin playing. Note: For screenshots of SecureFX and for alternative ways of publishing, go to http://filetransfer.stanford.edu.

13. RSS Feeds • What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication)? “RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.” (wikipedia.org) • An excellent 2-minute video explaining RSS in plain English is at: http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

14. RSS Feeds, continued • RSS feeds are XML files. Here is a sample RSS feed: <?xml version="1.0"?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Title of Feed Goes Here</title> <description>Description of Feed Goes Here</description> <link>Link to the Feed Goes Here</link> <item> <title>Title of Podcast Goes Here</title> <description>Description of Podcast</description> <link>Link to Podcast</link> <guid>Link to Podcast</guid> <enclosure url="Link to Podcast" type="audio/mpeg" length="file size in bytes" /> </item> </channel> </rss>

15. Exercise 5: Creating and Publishing an RSS Feed To create and publish an RSS feed, which will be used to publicize and broadcast your podcast: • In Notepad, open the interviewseries.xml file on your Desktop. • Substitute the content in square brackets [ ] with your real information. • Save. • Publish interviewseries.xml to your AFS web space (see Exercise 4).

16. Submitting RSS Feeds • Doing it yourself:

17. Submitting RSS Feeds, continued • Using a service • http://itunes.apple.com/ • http://www.submitrssfeed.com/ • http://www.feedsubmitter.com/ • http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html • http://allrss.com/rsssubmission.html

18. Resources • A list of 70-plus resources on creating and using podcasts (tutorials, how-to guides, hosting sites, advertising sites, etc.):http://mashable.com/2007/07/04/podcasting-toolbox/ • Validate a podcast RSS feed:http://www.allpodcasts.com/Tools/RSSValidator.aspx • Validate any RSS feed (including podcasts):http://validator.w3.org/feed/ • IT Services Tech Briefing iTunes at Stanford – includes podcasting resources:http://techbriefings.stanford.edu/itunes/ • Learn how to restrict access to podcast mp3 files (or any other file):IT Services Technology Training Course Web Design: Protecting Documents on the WebInstructions for signing up for the class are at http://techtraining.stanford.edu/ • Books: • Abel, Jessica, and Glass, Ira, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (Chicago: WBEZ Alliance, 1999) http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Store.aspx • Mack, Steve, and Ratcliffe, Mitch, Podcasting Bible (Indianapolis: Wiley, 2007) • Herrington, Jack, Podcasting Hacks (Sebastobol: O’Reilly, 2005)