The Hindu : Business : Podcasting: New frontiers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 13, 2005

Business

Business

Podcasting: New frontiers

The technology allows a content provider to distribute audio content

THE PROCESS of distributing audio content using RSS based news feeds is called podcasting. This technology, featured in this column previously, is treading new grounds. NetSpeak explores the latest trends on the podcast front.

Podiobooks

Podcast technology allows a content provider to automatically distribute its audio content regularly to netizens who have subscribed to its podcast feed. Some innovative authors are now adopting this technology for distributing novels and stories.

The podcast-only novel `EarthCore' (http://www.scottsigler.net/earthcore/) is an excellent case of this trend. Each week, a link to two chapters (with a textual summary) of the audio novel is made available to the podcast feed subscribers.

Audiobooks, serialised and delivered via podcast feeds, are also known as Podiobooks (http://podiobooks.com/whatIs.html).

The on-line service podiobooks.com (http://podiobooks. com/whatIs.html) is a podiobooks hosting service, where you can subscribe to podcast feeds on any of the books hosted on its server and automatically receive a chapter of each of the subscribed books every week.

Radio programs

Many radio stations are hosting the audio versions of their programs as podcasts. For instance, the Virgin Radio of the U.K. (http://www.virginradio. co.uk/thestation/podcasts/index.html) publishes one of its programs as a podcast that can be freely downloaded. Some of the BBC programs are also available as podcasts. Check out: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/fightingtalk_podcast.shtml) and (http://www. bbc.co.uk/radio4/ history/inour time/mp3_pod cast.shtml ).

The real significance of this trend in making radio programs available as free podcasts is that it enables a listener to tune in to her favourite program at her own convenience. Check out this link: http://www.publicradiofan.com/podcasts.html, for a short list of radio programs available as podcasts.

You may also try out Podshows (http://www.podshows. com/), the site with downloadable radio shows.

A notable trend on the podcast front is the adoption of this technology by several religious groups (http://www.podcastingnews.com/forum/links.php?id =73).

If you are one with a spiritual bend of mind, Podcasts from Tibetan Buddhist on-line radio (http://www.lamrim.com/) may amuse you.

Another offshoot of the podcasting technology is the newfound interest in the concept of KYOUradio's open source radio that broadcasts/streams on-line, listener-submitted podcasts (http://www.hindu.com/biz/ 2005/05/30/stories/2005 05 3000251600.htm).

Yet another podcast based product that merits a mention is the on-line service Talkr (http://www.talkr.com/faq/what_is_ talkr.html), created for converting text blogs into podcasts.

Instead of reading text-only blogs, Talkr helps you listen to them. You may note that this service is free only for some selected blogs.

To help you find podcasts relevant to your needs, the search service, `Podcasting Station' (http://www.podcasting-stati on.com/index.php), presents a categorised directory of podcasts. The service hosts information on a wide spectrum of podcasts that include educational podcasts, financial podcasts, law podcasts, science podcasts and audio blogs.

Searching MP3 files

As mentioned in an earlier column (http://www.hindu.com/biz/2004/08/23/stories/2004 082300341500.htm), Google has many powerful search operators (like `inurl,' `intitle,' `filetype' and so on) and if we incorporate them properly with the search query, we will get relevant links with ease. On sites like `johny.ihackstuff' (http://johnny.ihackstuff.com/) you will find several tips for using these commands intelligently.

If you have the habit of downloading MP3 files from the Net, access the on-line application that automatically produces the appropriate Google command for extracting sites that host MP3 files at: http://www. smacki. com/mp320 search 20 using20 google.

Yahoo! Mindset

Yahoo has started a new experimental search application called Yahoo! Mindset (http://mindset.research.yahoo.com/faq.php), which allows you to get the search results sorted according to whether they are more informational or commercial. You can invoke the search process as usual; but the output can be refined further using the slider available on the top of the `results' page.

If your intention is to get the sites that contain non-commercial materials, move the slider towards the right-end (Researching) else move it to the left-end (Shopping).

Filepc

It is common knowledge that we cannot attach a file with an e-mail beyond a given size. In the past we have seen a few on-line services created for sending large files (Yousendit — http://www.yousendit.com/-, and Send thisfile — http://www.send thisfile.com/ are examples).

The software FilePc, which allows you to send files of any size directly from your machine, is another product worth a trial. The uniqueness of this software lies in enabling you to send files with your favourite email client. For more details: http://www. filepc.com/filepc/.

Group Mailer

Often we need to send the same mail to a set of people in our mailing list. The most efficient way to accomplish this is to enlist the service of a group mail program that sends separate messages to all the e-mail ids available on the list.

The free software, Group Mailer (http://www.glhsoftware.com/freeware.htm) is a simple product worth a try.

Free software portals

Though a variety of free programs are available, we may not always find them when we need. Web portals that host links to free software help us locate them easily. The portal Combobulate (http://www.combobulate.com/coolprogs.htm), where you can find links to several useful free programs like Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) is one such service. File Hippo (http://www.filehippo.com/) is another portal of this kind worth a visit.

J. MURALI

Email the author at: jmurali@gmail.com

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Podcasting: New frontiers