How to Podcast

1. Podcasting Overview

A podcast is a series of related audio or video files, placed online with a public URL and linked to via an RSS feed, accessed by free download subscription over the internet using digital media players.

Creating your own podcast is a straight forward process but does rely on you having the right equipment and software available first. The workflow you need to follow is outlined below:

Step 1: Create the content
Podcast media are not special files. Any traditional MP3 audio file or MPEG4 video file (two of the most common multimedia formats) can be used as a podcast. Simply record your lecture, keynote speech or other content in a digital format and save it to a computer. You may need to trim the file in editing software.
Step 2: Place the content online
Before a podcast can be downloaded it must be accessible via the internet. As long as you place your multimedia file on publicly accessible web space it can become a podcast.
Step 3: Add an entry into an OXITEMS podcast aware RSS feed
OXITEMS creates RSS newsfeeds for members of the University. Many colleges, departments and faculties already have multiple newsfeeds available. A podcast RSS feed is a normal RSS feed with one key exception; it includes the web address of a multimedia file and some basic information about this podcast. Check with your IT officer to see if there is already a suitable feed available. If not, they can create one for you.

When you have uploaded your podcast, simply add its web address and some information about the content into OXITEMS' podcast forms. Once this is done, your podcast is available for download. If you put the web address of your RSS news feed into iTunes you can syndicate and download your multimedia files just like any other internet podcast.

Always test your feed: subscribe to it and check it works!

Up: Contents Next: 2. Recording Requirements

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