Big IDEA

Serial Podcaster

23 October 2007

I‘m getting ready to presented my serial podcasting system at a conference, so I wanted to create a static page for it. Watch this page for updates.

• What is serial podcasting?
• Why should I care?
• How does it work?
• Screencast demos
• Installation
• License

What is serial podcasting?

Serial podcasting means serializing the release of your audio files (mp3’s). For example, you might have 10 podcast episodes you want to release in a particular order and at a predetermined interval; serial podcasting allows you to set your program start date and update interval, then releases the files to visitors or subscribers at the proper time.

Why would I be interested in serial podcasting?

I first became aware of the need for serial podcasting when I was helping an instructor set up and use a blog. Once her blog was set up, she used it to broadcast assignments to students. The following quarter, I noticed she was editing her blog posts to change the publish dates. In short, she just wanted to reuse her content in the same order, quarter after quarter; however, the blog software didn’t allow her an easy way to do it. She was actually implementing a pretty clever hack to get her blog to do what she wanted it to do. (When I found out what she was doing, I convinced her to switch to Blackboard.)

Many blogging platforms allow authors to podcast. Unfortunately, it is still not possible to republish content so that it appears “new” to the audience. Authors still need to hack the publish dates to achieve the desired effect. Serial podcasting allows podcasters to remedy this situation.

So, you might be interested in serial podcasting if your podcast episodes are reusable and should be consumed in a particular order. Think mini-series. I had educators and trainers in mind when I developed serial podcaster.

How does your serial podcasting system work?

Since I support faculty, I built an interface for creating new podcast sites; however, you do not need to use serial podcaster as a multi-podcast system.

All podcasters have to do is upload mp3’s, set the start date and update interval, and let their audience know the site URL. Serial podcaster only displays the episodes it should. For example, if you specify your podcast should start today and update weekly, you will only see one episode. If you tell it to start next week you won’t see any episodes. If you tell it to start four weeks ago, you will see four episodes.

The system reads the id3 tags in the mp3’s (metadata) and fills in the author, title, and comment fields on the site. An embedded player lets visitors just click to stream the desired episode. Of course there is an RSS feed available.

Podcasters can change the start date and update interval for their podcast; they can also upload and delete mp3’s.

Serial podcaster does not need a database.

Screencast demos

• Creating a podcast site
• Using serial podcaster (managing your podcast, and what your visitors see)

How do I set up serial podcaster on my own server?

Software Requirements

I built it on a Red Hat box running Apache and PHP 5.1.6. The script makes use of getID3(), which I include. It should work on anything that has PHP.

Admin skills

You just have to be able to create and update password files (htpasswd).

Podcaster (faculty) skills

Assuming you can create the audio files, there are no special skills required.

Installation

1. Download the archive and unpack it wherever you want it on your server.
2. Edit the file ‘/admin/siteconfig.php’ per your requirements.
3. If you don’t already have a password file you want to use, create one and add user ‘admin’ :
   sudo htpasswd -c /path/to/password/file admin

   Or, edit ‘/admin/.htaccess’ and specify a user of your choice to be site admin.

You are now ready to start using serial podcaster. Point your browser to yoursite.com/directory-you-installed-it-in/admin and log in with the username/password you created in step 3.

License

Serial podcaster is licensed under the CC-GNU GPL.