The internet contains extensive information on podcasting. A selection of sites is provided:
For a number of years Dr Joanna Cobley presented podcasts as the Museum Dectective – the links to the podcasts were in a blog which also included a number of articles on podcasting including notes for a paper she presented at the Museums Australia conference in Canberra in May 2007. The Museum Detective website has now disappeared from the web but an article entitled Beyond the audio tour on the Te Ara website provides information about podcasting.
Podcast – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast
About.com – Podcasting – a useful site to subscribe to if interested in this topic http://podcasting.about.com/
How to create your own podcast – a step-by-step tutorial http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm
How to podcast tutorial
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/index.htm
Create your own podcast:
http://www.cnet.com.au/software/music/0,239025669,240055727,00.htm
(CNET.com)
Another podcasting site is Only Podcasting – http://www.onlypodcasting.com/
Recording a live presentation for podcasting
http://kay.zombiecoder.com/index.php/archives/recording-a-live-presentation-for-podcasting
Podcasting: the devastating lows, the dizzying highs, the creeeeeeeamy middles
http://www.westciv.com/style_master/house/good_oil/podcasting/index.html
Article on using RSS by Maxine Sherrin
Audacity – One of the programs used for recording and editing audio files is the open source program – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity tutorial
http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html
RSS
Type the phrase – What is RSS – or – RSS definition – into Google and you will locate a range of articles and topics on the subject. A small selection is provided below.
Article in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)
What is RSS? RSS explained
http://www.whatisrss.com/
What is RSS? A basic tutorial
http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html
Podcasting: the devastating lows, the dizzying highs, the creeeeeeeamy middles
http://www.westciv.com/style_master/house/good_oil/podcasting/index.html Article on using RSS by Maxine Sherrin
Compressing audio files
MP3 Tweak
http://mp3tweak.com/
MP3Resizer
http://www.skyshape.com/mp3resizer.html
RSS validation sites
Google search for – RSS validation – or – RSS code editor – may provide links to websites
Feedburner – http://feedburner.org/
Feed For All - http://www.feedforall.com/ - program for creating and editing RSS code [not free]
Feed Validator – http://feedvalidator.org/
Podcasting hosting sites
Search Google for the term – Podcast hosting
How to choose a podcast host - http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-choose-podcast-host-compare.html
How to Podcast – Podcast hosting – http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/21-podcast-hosting.htm
Our media – a non profit community site allowing free storage of media files –
http://www.ourmedia.org/
Lybsyn – Liberated Syndication – [monthly charge] http://www.libsyn.com/
Friday, August 1, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Podcasting basics - terminology
Definitions of some of the terms used when discussing podcasting
Podcast – an audio program or audio file or video file available for download from the Internet via a RSS feed with MP3 audio enclosures.
Making an MP3 file available online without the RSS feed is not podcasting.
WAV – a standard for storing uncompressed sound files. The large size of WAV files makes it impractical to use these files on the Internet, especially for podcasts.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Web Contact Forms
Websites hosted by Vicnet can include a web form on their contact page for people to fill in to contact the society. In the section re free web hosting on the Vicnet site there is a section on forms and formmail - Web Design: Forms and formmail.pl.
To use this function copy the code provided on the page into the section of the html page where you want the web form to appear. In the 'which address should the feedback be sent to' section add the email address to be used.
If the society does not have an email account with Vicnet, it is necessary to contact Vicnet either by using their web form or by email requesting that the email address to be used is added to the Vicnet list of accepted email recipients.
Some internet security packages block the usage of forms for sending messages - Vicnet provides information suggesting how to overcome this problem. It may be useful to include a link to this information on your web page to help people encountering such problems.
To use this function copy the code provided on the page into the section of the html page where you want the web form to appear. In the 'which address should the feedback be sent to' section add the email address to be used.
If the society does not have an email account with Vicnet, it is necessary to contact Vicnet either by using their web form or by email requesting that the email address to be used is added to the Vicnet list of accepted email recipients.
Some internet security packages block the usage of forms for sending messages - Vicnet provides information suggesting how to overcome this problem. It may be useful to include a link to this information on your web page to help people encountering such problems.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
More notes on email
About.com contains a section dealing with email - http://email.about.com/ - a useful resource for locating information
A recent post is a list of - 20 most important rules for email
A recent post is a list of - 20 most important rules for email
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Forums
An early form of Internet communication was the Bulletin Board where Person A posted a message and Person B would post a response. To keep up to date with messages on the bulletin board it was necessary to regularly log on to the site to read the messages.
Forums provide the opportunity for members of an online group to post and reply to messages but the original message and responses are emailed to all members of the forum group. Forum messages and responses are also usually accessible on a site in the same way as the former bulletin boards or have an archive facility where all the posts on a topic can be viewed together.
A number of organisations provide forums as part of their websites where members exchange views on topics of interest to members. Members subscribe (fill in an online form normally providing name and email address and password) to join a forum. As members they can then read and can post messages.
My Connected Community (mc²) provides a collection of Internet base networking tools for the free use of community groups – a forum being one of the tools. Members of mc² groups automatically receive messages posted in the forum unless they elect not to receive messages.
The forum can be used to ask questions, provide information on a topic of interest to group members, publicise a book, offer items no longer needed for a new home, provide information about grants or awards etc. They provide a great resource for sharing information. Sometimes there will be a great response to a topic in the forum with a number of people from all parts of Victoria sharing their views on a topic. At other times there may be no response. This does not matter as forums function as information resources as well as a discussion opportunity. I often meet people who receive messages from the History Victoria Support Group mc² forum who tell me that they had taken information provided in one of the messages and discussed the topic at a committee meeting.
Using the features provided in My Connected Community is easy. You just need to be able to type in a box and press a button to send the message.
Other resources provided in mc² groups include a links page providing links to useful web sites, an events page where members can publicise the activities of their group, an images section and a section for sharing files of interest to group members. Any member of the mc² group can add material to the mc².
The RHSV website – www.historyvictoria.org.au – provides information on joining mc² plus a list of mc² groups relating to local history. Mc² groups you might consider joining include the History Victoria Support group mc² containing information relevant for members of historical societies, Computers and cataloguing mc² for those particularly interested in computer related projects and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria mc² for information relating to Victoria’s history – this is an excellent site to post information about forthcoming events for your group.
Forums provide the opportunity for members of an online group to post and reply to messages but the original message and responses are emailed to all members of the forum group. Forum messages and responses are also usually accessible on a site in the same way as the former bulletin boards or have an archive facility where all the posts on a topic can be viewed together.
A number of organisations provide forums as part of their websites where members exchange views on topics of interest to members. Members subscribe (fill in an online form normally providing name and email address and password) to join a forum. As members they can then read and can post messages.
My Connected Community (mc²) provides a collection of Internet base networking tools for the free use of community groups – a forum being one of the tools. Members of mc² groups automatically receive messages posted in the forum unless they elect not to receive messages.
The forum can be used to ask questions, provide information on a topic of interest to group members, publicise a book, offer items no longer needed for a new home, provide information about grants or awards etc. They provide a great resource for sharing information. Sometimes there will be a great response to a topic in the forum with a number of people from all parts of Victoria sharing their views on a topic. At other times there may be no response. This does not matter as forums function as information resources as well as a discussion opportunity. I often meet people who receive messages from the History Victoria Support Group mc² forum who tell me that they had taken information provided in one of the messages and discussed the topic at a committee meeting.
Using the features provided in My Connected Community is easy. You just need to be able to type in a box and press a button to send the message.
Other resources provided in mc² groups include a links page providing links to useful web sites, an events page where members can publicise the activities of their group, an images section and a section for sharing files of interest to group members. Any member of the mc² group can add material to the mc².
The RHSV website – www.historyvictoria.org.au – provides information on joining mc² plus a list of mc² groups relating to local history. Mc² groups you might consider joining include the History Victoria Support group mc² containing information relevant for members of historical societies, Computers and cataloguing mc² for those particularly interested in computer related projects and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria mc² for information relating to Victoria’s history – this is an excellent site to post information about forthcoming events for your group.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Notes on Email
From time to time I receive questions about using email or how to set up an email account.
Many historical societies now have email addresses. A major advantage of email is that an email can be sent at any time and the recipient reads and answers the email at their convenience. The original sender reads when they next log on to the computer. This is a great improvement on the telephone system where a message can be left on an answering machine and the recipient leaves a message on another answering machine to acknowledge receiving the original phone call.
Email can also use as a communication tool in real time. On more than one occasion I have replied to an email only to receive a follow up question a few minutes later. This can be a convenient (and inexpensive) way to communicate, especially if distance between the parties is a problem.
There are many different types of email accounts. Some can only be accessed only on the computer home computer.
However a number of html email accounts that can be accessed from any computer are now available including Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), Yahoo Mail (http://au.yahoo.com) or (http://mail.yahoo.com/) and Gmail (http://mail.google.com/). Although you provide details of an individual when you sign up, accounts can be established using the name or initials of the society as the user name, rather than the name of an individual. It is important to keep a copy of the user name and password in a safe place.
With email, remember there is email etiquette. It is always advisable to read through an email before using the Send button to dispatch the email. Because it is so easy to ‘dash off an email’ emails can convey a ‘tone’ which may not have been the intention of the sender. Most email programs have a facility for saving a draft of an email so it is possible to read it through again later and make changes if needed before sending.
Emails are correspondence. Copies of emails relating to the historical society should be included in the correspondence at society meetings.
Emails can also be used to send one email to a number of people as a batch email. Some email programs restrict the number of names in a batch so it may be necessary to read the Help section of the specific program for information on how to do this. This facility can be useful for sending a message to a group members or circulating a newsletter by email or for alerting members that the latest copy of the email is online.
Attachments – documents, images, spreadsheets – can also be sent by email. It is advisable to restrict the size of a file sent by email. Some email programs restrict the size of attachments. Large files take a long time to send and the person receiving the email may not have enough space in their In Box to receive the incoming email with the attachment.
Only send attachments that can be opened by the receiver. Some word processing programs use file extensions that are not recognized or cannot be opened on all computers. Documents ending in .doc are usually OK though some early versions of Microsoft Word cannot open Word documents saved in later versions. Microsoft Office 2007 saves Word documents with an extension that will not open in earlier version of Word unless a special program has been downloaded and installed from the Microsoft website. Files created in Word 2007 can be saved using the .doc extension so if sending email documents as attachments it may be advisable to save the file using the .doc extension. Files saved with .rtf extension should be able to be opened in any word processing program. Pdf documents can also be sent by email. The receiver, however, will need a program such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the document.
Two warnings: Never send an attachment that has not been scanned by virus protection software and never open an email, especially if there is an attachment, when you do not know the sender or are suspicious of the content.
Email is a powerful and useful communication tool. Use it wisely.
Many historical societies now have email addresses. A major advantage of email is that an email can be sent at any time and the recipient reads and answers the email at their convenience. The original sender reads when they next log on to the computer. This is a great improvement on the telephone system where a message can be left on an answering machine and the recipient leaves a message on another answering machine to acknowledge receiving the original phone call.
Email can also use as a communication tool in real time. On more than one occasion I have replied to an email only to receive a follow up question a few minutes later. This can be a convenient (and inexpensive) way to communicate, especially if distance between the parties is a problem.
There are many different types of email accounts. Some can only be accessed only on the computer home computer.
However a number of html email accounts that can be accessed from any computer are now available including Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), Yahoo Mail (http://au.yahoo.com) or (http://mail.yahoo.com/) and Gmail (http://mail.google.com/). Although you provide details of an individual when you sign up, accounts can be established using the name or initials of the society as the user name, rather than the name of an individual. It is important to keep a copy of the user name and password in a safe place.
With email, remember there is email etiquette. It is always advisable to read through an email before using the Send button to dispatch the email. Because it is so easy to ‘dash off an email’ emails can convey a ‘tone’ which may not have been the intention of the sender. Most email programs have a facility for saving a draft of an email so it is possible to read it through again later and make changes if needed before sending.
Emails are correspondence. Copies of emails relating to the historical society should be included in the correspondence at society meetings.
Emails can also be used to send one email to a number of people as a batch email. Some email programs restrict the number of names in a batch so it may be necessary to read the Help section of the specific program for information on how to do this. This facility can be useful for sending a message to a group members or circulating a newsletter by email or for alerting members that the latest copy of the email is online.
Attachments – documents, images, spreadsheets – can also be sent by email. It is advisable to restrict the size of a file sent by email. Some email programs restrict the size of attachments. Large files take a long time to send and the person receiving the email may not have enough space in their In Box to receive the incoming email with the attachment.
Only send attachments that can be opened by the receiver. Some word processing programs use file extensions that are not recognized or cannot be opened on all computers. Documents ending in .doc are usually OK though some early versions of Microsoft Word cannot open Word documents saved in later versions. Microsoft Office 2007 saves Word documents with an extension that will not open in earlier version of Word unless a special program has been downloaded and installed from the Microsoft website. Files created in Word 2007 can be saved using the .doc extension so if sending email documents as attachments it may be advisable to save the file using the .doc extension. Files saved with .rtf extension should be able to be opened in any word processing program. Pdf documents can also be sent by email. The receiver, however, will need a program such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the document.
Two warnings: Never send an attachment that has not been scanned by virus protection software and never open an email, especially if there is an attachment, when you do not know the sender or are suspicious of the content.
Email is a powerful and useful communication tool. Use it wisely.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Putting the audio files online
Much of the day has been spent finalising the web pages for the podcasts. The general layout of the podcast introduction page and the page containing additional information and opportunities for accessing each item had been prepared some time ago but needed to be finalised and tested and recent audio files added.
The audio files can be played, using the media player on the page, or by clicking the Download Name of Podcast link. Right clicking on the link allows the user to save the file to a computer or portable digital player.
A page providing information about how to listen to and / or download the audio files is provided to help users who have not previously used audio files online.
The other page that had to be created was the xml page containing the RSS feed information. Podcasts can be accessed automatically when someone subscribes using the URL of the xml page and inserting it in RSS reader such as Bloglines or a podcasting program.
Getting the xml correct was a challenge as there are definite rules to follow. When the page is saved and then opened any errors are noted and the text on the page will not be displayed. Particular care has to be made that there is no white space - empty lines - in the code and that characters, such as ampersands, need to be coded - eg. instead of the symol (&), the symbol (&) followed by the combination letters (amp) and a (;) is used (no brackets of course in the actual code).
The coding chosen to be used for the RSS is the coding used by iTunes - details as to what is required can be found on the iTunes Specifications page. For the podcasts to be included in the iTunes store an account needs to be established and then a form completed to submit the podcasts.
After completing the pages I then tested the RSS using Bloglines and the Live Bookmarks feature in the Firefox browser. The RSS feed worked with the four items at present online appearing in the list of both sources. After much trial and error it was a good feeling to see it actually functioning properly.
Now that all the pages are set up any additions should be straight forward.
When the next audio file is added online, the section of coding for individual items will be copied and added to the existing code and then the information altered for the new item.
The audio files can be played, using the media player on the page, or by clicking the Download Name of Podcast link. Right clicking on the link allows the user to save the file to a computer or portable digital player.
A page providing information about how to listen to and / or download the audio files is provided to help users who have not previously used audio files online.
The other page that had to be created was the xml page containing the RSS feed information. Podcasts can be accessed automatically when someone subscribes using the URL of the xml page and inserting it in RSS reader such as Bloglines or a podcasting program.
Getting the xml correct was a challenge as there are definite rules to follow. When the page is saved and then opened any errors are noted and the text on the page will not be displayed. Particular care has to be made that there is no white space - empty lines - in the code and that characters, such as ampersands, need to be coded - eg. instead of the symol (&), the symbol (&) followed by the combination letters (amp) and a (;) is used (no brackets of course in the actual code).
The coding chosen to be used for the RSS is the coding used by iTunes - details as to what is required can be found on the iTunes Specifications page. For the podcasts to be included in the iTunes store an account needs to be established and then a form completed to submit the podcasts.
After completing the pages I then tested the RSS using Bloglines and the Live Bookmarks feature in the Firefox browser. The RSS feed worked with the four items at present online appearing in the list of both sources. After much trial and error it was a good feeling to see it actually functioning properly.
Now that all the pages are set up any additions should be straight forward.
When the next audio file is added online, the section of coding for individual items will be copied and added to the existing code and then the information altered for the new item.
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