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Speak Up or Listen Up: Podcasts at MIT

• Lisa Mayer

As a web trend, podcasting hit its stride in the spring of 2005. By August, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) officially moved the term “podcast” from technology jargon to certified vernacular. The word is defined by the OED as “a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.”

How Does It Work?
A podcast is composed of an RSS feed written in XML plus multimedia “episode” files. The RSS feed tells your podcatching client software (e.g., iTunes or Juice) when there is a new episode ready to be downloaded. Originally podcasts were limited to audio MP3 files. Recently, video files have become popular as podcast episodes.

Anyone with a computer and software such as iTunes or iPodder can subscribe and listen to podcasts. Once you’ve downloaded the files to your computer, you can transfer them to a handheld multimedia player. Any MP3 player will work for the audio files – you are not limited to iPod!

IS&T Support
IS&T recently launched the Podcasts at MIT web site to increase awareness of this new technology. MIT departments, labs, and centers can use the submission form on the site to post podcasts of lectures, seminars, and other presentations. MIT-sponsored events such as forums and readings are also welcome. Documentation on the site steps you through how to create a podcast.

Members of the community can post less formal fare – such as radio programs – on the IS&T Podcasts Wiki.

All submissions must be free of copyright infringement. IS&T recommends that contributors look into getting a Creative Commons license, which enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others.

Staying Tuned In
If you are interested in posting and receiving information on podcasting trends, initiatives, or peer support, you can subscribe to MIT’s podcast mailing list. Visit the List Management Services page and add yourself to the podcast-news@mit.edu list (certificates required).

IS&T welcomes your feedback on this project. Send suggestions or questions to podcast-pilot@mit.edu.