PODCASTING, magic or just smoke and mirrors?

PODCASTING, magic or just smoke and mirrors?

Creating a pod is just half the fun. In terms of complexity, just about anyone with very rudimentary technology can create a pod. For most of us, we just create them, find a hosting site on the Web and upload them. That’s it…magically there they are on the Web!

…Actually…though it may not be magic to host podcasts, there are several things that need to be in place on the technical side in order for the magic to happen. Otherwise, you end up with just smoke and mirrors (broken links and dashed dreams of why my pods don’t work).

… and being on the technical end of this magic trick has taught me a lot about what it takes to host and manage podcasts for Broward County Public Schools’ Professional Development department, AKA HRD, AKA Staff Development, AKA Podcasters Rulers of the World J

Here is some of what I’ve learned from the first days:

First, Web servers come in many flavors and it doesn’t really matter which one it is. In our case, Broward Schools maintains a Windows server running Internet Information Services (IIS), the software that makes all of the pretty Web pages appear in your browser. This is where we host every Web site for Broward County Public Schools and by default, where BCPS HRD would host their content including their podcasts.

Second, podcasts files come in different flavors. You have your audio files (.mp3 and .m4a) and you video files (.mov and .mp4 for those delivered via I Tunes).

Third, in order for any of these three files to download via Itunes or an RSS feed, these file types must be added to the MIME types configuration within IIS. In other words, we must tell the Web server to recognize these files so that they will properly download and play via the appropriate browser. ……….magic!

…to be continued