Web Syndication & Podcasts Presented by: Jordan Adler Andrew Schumacher

Syndication (In General) Television/Radio –Right to broadcast shows to multiple stations without going through a broadcast network –“Local affiliates” Print –News articles, columns, and comic strips made available to newspapers and magazines What’s the theme?

Web Syndication General Definition: –A section of website is made for use by other websites Realistic Definition: –“web feeds” from a site to provide others with a summary of recently added content

History of Successful Web Syndication Beginning Year: 2001 Publisher: Miniclip (online gaming website) Use: Syndicated browser based interactive games

Uses of Web Syndication Media Outlets (Newspapers/TV websites) –Publish “Latest News Headlines” Commercial Websites –Publish “New Product Offerings” Bloggers –Publish “Latest Blogs”

Benefits of Web Syndication Benefits to both the providing and receiving websites –Receiver: More information = more attractive to users –Provider: Exposure across many websites Online Marketers –Use Personal feeds instead of lists/newsletters

How does Web Syndication work? “Web Syndication” is a news feed –Transported through: HTML Javascript XML (more common) –Formats: RSS (Really Simple Syndication, RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary) Atom –Read By: RSS Reader Other webpages nn_topstorieshttp:// nn_topstories Web Tool that helps you import RSS feeds onto your webpage

RSS People keep updated with their website in an automated way –RSS reader/feed/aggregator –Many available on the web Subscribing to a feed: –Manually enter in feed’s link –Clicking on this icon: Reader checks for updates periodically (based on default settings or user input time)

RSS Reader

RSS Advisory Board Maintain/publish RSS specification and answer questions about format –Mozilla Firefox started using this: –Internet Explorer/Outlook, Opera followed –The orange RSS square can be considered an “industry standard”

RSS/Syndication Examples It’s Everywhere!!!!

Making RSS (Code) Xul Bare Minimums: Additional Tags (optional):,,,, document that specifies format of the file

Making RSS (Code 2) Xul news some text... Item Bare Minimums: Item Additional Tags (optional):,, string of characters unique to item (like an ID in JS)

RSS Example Note the RSS symbol on the top right of Mozilla Firefox Browser

RSS Example (Code 1) - HTML RSS Example RSS Example Click this image: <img src="rss.jpg" width="50" height="50" alt="RSS"/> to get the RSS feed.

RSS Example (Code 2) – RSS/XML Running Updates Provides users with running updates from the Chicago Marathon Runner #1 Runner #1's time

Podcasts Definition –Digital media file distributed over the internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players or computers –Podcasting –Podcaster – author of podcast Podcasts: syndicated, subscribed to, downloaded automatically when new content is added (via RSS/Atom) iPod – 1 st portable media player to accept podcasts via podcasting scripts

How Podcasting Works 1. User creates a media file 2. User uploads file to some webserver (file can be accessed by public) 3. User modifies RSS/Atom/XML document by adding an “item” which contains the file information 4. Subscriber’s feed is notified that there is an update via a periodic check (how often is setup by the user or default programmed value) 5. File can be downloaded to computer or portable media device

Social Podcasting When more than one author inserts their own content into a podcast

Civilian/Military Importance of Podcasts/Feeds Why do YOU think podcasting is or isn’t important?

Make Your Own Podcast See supplemental paper.

Works Cited Wikipedia – – – – – – RSS Creation – RSS Reader –