1. Creating and Using Podcasts Stanford University Continuing Studies WSP 124 Mark Branom markb@stanford.edu http://www.stanford.edu/people/markb/ 650.725.1717 Course Web Site (with resources): http://www.stanford.edu/group/csp/wsp124/

2. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts2 Course Description Podcasting has become the most cost-effective and efficient way to distribute digital audio and video files via the Web. By subscribing to podcasts, listeners and viewers can consume valuable information whenever they need to, not just whenever a broadcaster decides to present it. In this hands-on workshop, you will learn the skills needed to develop, create, and publish engaging podcasts. Topics include: how to find and subscribe to podcasts, how to use software (e.g., Audacity) to create sound files for podcasts on the computer, how to plan and record your podcasts, how to edit, produce and publish them, and more. By the end of the course, students will know how to create and publish their podcasts from start to finish.

3. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts3 Administrivia You need: –Access to a computer –Familiarity with computer basics –Access to the internet (many free ISPs exist) –A tripod account (we’ll do it in class) –Access to the following tools: A text editor (TextEdit for Macs; Notepad for Windows) A web browser (Firefox / Internet Explorer) Audacity A microphone How to reach me: –markb@stanford.edu –650-725-1717

4. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts4 Course Agenda Obtaining, Using, Planning for Podcasts Recording the Audio Podcast Editing the Podcast Creating the XML (RSS) feed, Setting Up a Blog, and Publishing the Podcast! Wrap-up and editing, Video Podcasts

5. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts5 Introduction What Is a Podcast? “Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.” (wikipedia.org) Media File + Advertising via RSS = Podcast

6. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts6 Why Use and/or Create Podcasts? For Companies, Universities, or Organizations: Podcasts can deliver information about a department or group internally (to just the department), to the organization as a whole, or to the entire world. Podcasts can be used for newsworthy events in the department, for highlighting special events and/or people in the department, and for presenting and disseminating other information to the desired audience in an engaging manner. For Teachers and Other Instructors (or staff supporting them): Podcasts can deliver educational content for listening or viewing on a computer and/or iPod, freeing learning from constraints of the physical classroom. Content could be anything from curriculum-related presentations to professional development ideas and used to disseminate best practices between other faculty. Instructors can easily create a podcast of daily assignments and class lectures from class, and publish it for all of their students.

7. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts7 Why Use and/or Create Podcasts? For Individuals: Podcasts allow you to express yourself in a less-formal, more friendly manner than the written word allows. When communicating via the written word (sending email, snail mail, blogging, creating web pages, or writing books), you are limited by the medium – although you can indicate emphasis by bolding or italicizing, it’s difficult to indicate such things as sarcasm, emotion, or tone. Since podcasting involves the spoken word, and since speech is a less formal method of expression, you can convey such emotional tones more effectively.

8. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts8 Locating and Obtaining Podcasts Podcast search engines allow you to find podcasts: www.apple.com/itunes/ www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Podcasts/Directories/ www.podscope.com/ getapodcast.com/ podcast.net/ podcastdirectory.com/ www.allpodcasts.com/ Podcatcher software automatically downloads podcasts to your computer and/or iPod or other media device: www.apple.com/itunes/ juicereciever.sourceforge.net/ www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html

9. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts9 In-class Exercise: Using Juice 1.Download, install, and run Juice Receiver: http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/ http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/ 2.Subscribe to a podcast, such as NPR’s Car Talk: 1.Go to http://www.npr.org/podcasts/http://www.npr.org/podcasts/ 2.Click By Title, then C. 3.Click NPR: Car Talk. 4.In the POD section, copy the URL. 5.Return to Juice. 6.In the Subscriptions tab, click the plus sign. 7.In the URL field, paste the link from step 4. 8.Click Save. 9.Click the Check for New Podcasts button. 10.Double-click the podcast to listen.

10. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts10 In-class Exercise: Using iTunes 1.Open iTunes. 2.In the Store section, click iTunes Store. 3.In the iTunes STORE section, click Podcasts. 4.Click Today’s Top Podcast. 5.Click Subscribe to subscribe to the podcast. 6.To listen to the podcast, in the Library, click Podcasts. Then, double-click the podcast.

11. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts11 Creating a Podcast Planning a Podcast 1)Research your topic. 2)Write out what you plan to say. 3)Block out the segments of your podcast. a) Typical 60-minute radio show: 1.Introduction and “hook” (a snapshot of what is covered and why listeners would want to listen) 2.Segment 1 3.Break 4.Segment 2 5.Break 6.Segment 3 7.Break 8.Final points and summary of podcast b) Typical 10-minute podcast: 1.Introduction and “hook” 2.Main segment 3.Summary of segment 4.Final points

12. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts12 Recording and Editing Podcasts To record a podcast, you’ll need: 1.A computer (any modern computer will do – Mac, Windows, Linux) 2.A microphone (a good microphone will cost around $100) http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/blcomparemikes.htm 3.Software to record and edit the podcast. For audio podcasts, Audacity is a good choice. For video podcasts, Windows Movie Maker (Windows) and iMovie (Mac) are good choices. 4.Storage for the audio file you create (a web server such as Tripod, a free podcasting service such as Podshow or Podbean, etc.)

13. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts13 Software: Audio Audio Software –Free tools Audacity (Mac/Windows): http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ GarageBand (Mac only – it’s part of iLife, and is free with new Macs): http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ –Other tools ($35 - $500) Audition (Windows only): http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/ http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/ Soundbooth (Mac/Windows): http://www.adobe.com/products/soundbooth/ http://www.adobe.com/products/soundbooth/ SoundEdit Pro (Windows only): http://www.rmbsoft.com/sep.asp http://www.rmbsoft.com/sep.asp

14. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts14 Software: Video Video Software –iMovie (Macintosh only): http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ –Windows Movie Maker (Windows only): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/create/ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/create/ –MovieWorks (Mac/Windows): http://www.movieworks.com/http://www.movieworks.com/ –Quicktime (Mac/Windows): http://www.quicktime.com/http://www.quicktime.com/ –Director (Mac/Windows): http://www.adobe.com/products/director/ http://www.adobe.com/products/director –WindowsMedia: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia

15. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts15 In-class Exercise: Mapping Out a Podcast 1.Pair up with the person sitting next to you. 2.Map out a one-minute podcast with your neighbor. Don’t record it (we’ll do that later); just plan what you will say. a.Introduce yourself “Hello, and welcome to the [YourName] show. I’m your host, [YourName]. Today I’ll be interviewing [NeighborName].” b.Interview the person sitting next to you 1)“So, [NeighborName], please tell the listeners a little about yourself.” 2)“I see, and where do you live?” 3)“What exciting things are going on in the neighborhood?” 4)“Anything else you would like to add?” c.Closing remarks “Well, [NeighborName], it looks like we’ve come to the end of time for the show. Thank you so much for allowing our audience to learn a little more about you and your neighborhood. This is [YourName], and you’ve been listening to the [YourName] Show, brought to you by Stanford University and the Continuing Studies department. Until next time, thanks for listening.” d.Then, you will switch roles with your neighbor and practice again.

16. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts16 Obtaining Audacity Audacity is a free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X, and other operating systems, and is great for creating audio podcasts. About Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Downloading Audacity (don’t forget to download the LAME mp3 encoder, too): http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Audacity documentation: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/documentation http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/documentation

17. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts17 In-class Exercise: Record a Podcast Using Audacity, record the interviews you and your neighbor worked on in the Mapping Out A Podcast exercise. One interview should be recorded on your computer, the other on your neighbor’s. To record: 1)Launch Audacity. 2)Click the Record button. 3)Start talking! 4)When finished with the first interview, click the Stop button. 5)Save your sound file in the Audacity Project format (.aup) on the desktop (using the filename yournameinterview.aup ). 6)Repeat steps 1-5 to record the second interview on your neighbor’s computer.

18. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts18 Minor Editing Using Audacity After you record a podcast, you will need to edit the sound file before publishing it. The handout Sound Editing with Audacity – Basic Instructions, which we will use in class, was developed by Stanford’s Center for Teaching and Learning. It details the basic steps for editing sound files using Audacity, and is available at: http://ctl.stanford.edu/Podcasting/audacity.pdf http://ctl.stanford.edu/Podcasting/audacity.pdf In-class Exercise: Minor Editing of the Podcast 1)In Audacity, listen to the podcast. 2)Remove any large pauses, and alter the sound using one or more of the Effects, if appropriate. 3)Export (save) the interview as an MP3 file to the desktop (using the filename interview.mp3 ).

19. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts19 Establishing a Tripod Account — Step 1 You’ll need a web server to host your podcast once it is finished. Tripod is a free web hosting service that we’ll use in class. To establish a Tripod account, go to http://www.tripod.com/ and click Start Now! http://www.tripod.com/

20. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts20 Establishing a Tripod Account — Step 2: Choose the free version Under Tripod Free, click Sign Up

21. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts21 Establishing a Tripod Account — Step 3 Select a member name and password Personalize your account with your information (if you feel uncomfortable giving out personal information, use fake information) –Required fields are: Title, First Name, Last Name, Zip Code, Email address, Birth Year, Birth Month, and Birth Day Choose the type of ads you wish to appear on your site Uncheck the Tripod & Terra Lycos Network Offers you don’t want Enter the confirmation code Press the “I Agree” button

22. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts22 Establishing a Tripod Account — Step 4 Unless you want to take advantage of the “special offers”, scroll down and click “No Thanks”.

23. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts23 Establishing a Tripod Account — Step 5 Click “I’m an experienced site builder and want to upload my files – take me to the File Manager”, then click “Next”.

24. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts24 If all has gone well… You should see the following screen. You may now quit Internet Explorer. Be sure to keep track of your Tripod username and password!

25. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts25 Obtaining Music For Your Podcast http://www.podsafeaudio.com/ http://www.beatsuite.com/ http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/ http://www.magnatune.com/info/podcast http://www.uniquetracks.com/ http://www.productiontrax.com/ http://commons.wikimedia.org/

26. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts26 Adding ambient music as a new track 1.Obtain ambient music or other audio you wish to add to your podcast and save it to your desktop. 2.In Audacity, open the main podcast audio file. 3.Under Project, choose Import Audio. 4.Locate the ambient music you obtained in step 1. 5.Add silence (Generate > Silence), or other effects to the new track as needed.

27. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts27 Editing Using Audacity In Audacity, the sound is represented by a wave form. This wave form clearly indicates all words and pauses in the audio content. This representation is used to edit the sound file. Before editing, save your master file (it will be a.aup format). There is a time line above the wave form that indicates the length of the recording, and the cursor provides a mark on the wave form that indicates a point of time in the time line. Using the cursor, highlight any section of the wave form. You can cut, copy, or use one of the Effects to change the way the section sounds. You can be more precise in selecting sections (words) if you stretch the wave form by selecting View > Zoom in. The words then appear very distinct and allow you to make very fine edits. It's important when making fine cuts that you keep the rhythm of the conversation. Don't delete the word (um or ah) and not allow a natural pause (a breath or silence) between the words. This will otherwise sound very unnatural. In cutting ums and ahs, use your discretion. If it is preventing the flow of the information, cut them out. When selecting a word or phrase or sentence you wish to cut, highlight it, and then play it before making the cut, just to ensure your selection is right. If you made a mistake, you can undo (Edit > Undo). For detailed instructions, including screenshots, see the Audacity Reference book (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/reference.html).http://audacity.sourceforge.net/onlinehelp-1.2/reference.html

28. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts28 Adding New Dialog (to fix problems) If you need to re-record a portion of your podcast, simply press the Record button and begin speaking. A new audio track will be created. Be sure to add silence or other needed effects to the original section you want to replace and the newly created audio track (to lead in). Keep in mind that when you speak, you have different inflections in your voice, and different tones, depending on the topic and the previous words. For this reason, if you need to re-record something, try to re-record the entire sentence, not just the errant word.

29. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts29 Publishing Your Podcast Once you have finished creating and editing the audio or video files that will become your podcast, you need to publish them to the Internet. There are several ways you can accomplish this: –Publish to a web server (Tripod, Geocities, a computer you have set up to act as a web server, your personal or company web site’s web server, etc.) –Publish to one of the Podcasting Services (such as PodBean.com, MyPodcast.com, or PodcastPeople.com) –Publish to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)http://www.archive.org –Publish to a blog (http://www.blogger.com, http://www.typepad.com, http://www.wordpress.com, etc.)http://www.blogger.com http://www.typepad.comhttp://www.wordpress.com

30. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts30 Advertising Your Podcast Using RSS What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication)? “RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.” (wikipedia.org) An excellent 2-minute video explaining RSS in plain English is at: http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

31. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts31 RSS Feeds, continued RSS feeds are XML files. For a detailed explanation of what iTunes requires for the RSS feed, go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html The Apple/iTunes FAQ on Podcasting: http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcastingfaq.htmlhttp://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcastingfaq.html Here is a sample RSS feed: Title of Feed Goes Here Description of Feed Goes Here Link to the Feed Goes Here Title of Podcast Goes Here Description of Podcast Link to Podcast

32. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts32 Submitting RSS Feeds Doing it yourself: YahooMSN SearchFyber SearchBulk FeedsTruth Laid Bear MoreoverBlog StreetMemigoFeeds FarmBlogarama News KnowledgeBlog WiseNews TroveEvery FeedBlog SE Syndic8Boing RSS ClippingFastbuzzEatonweb Newsmob2RSSFeedsterSearch4RSSAnse SourceforgeBlog DiggerDay PopFeed-DirectorySarthak Blog BloggernityBloogzTechnoratiNews Is FreeRocket Info GenecastEasy RSSPostamiTopixHeadline Spot BlogdexFeed DirectoryPub SubBlog TreeFindory Blog CatalogStep NewzWeBlogALotNews GoblinNews Feeds FeedplexPopdex NewzfireRead A BlogBlog Pulse Press RadarRub HubFeed 24FeedsForAll Blog Map WeblogsFeed BurnerBlo.gsBlogRollingTechnorati NewsGatorPingomaticRSS NetworkPlazooFeedzie Feed CatFeed MinerIce RocketSphereMoz Dex Uncle FeedPluckRSS LocatorNews Net PlusFocus Look Blog BunchBlogtasticExplore BlogsFeed PubFeeds2Read RSS DirectoryHouse Of BlogsRSS MadBlog ResourceFeed Burner All FeedsContent DeskFeed SeeBlog Watch4GuysFromRolla GnoosOctoraRSSMicroFeedooyooGolden Feed RSS-Feeds-SubReadafeedFeedageRorseekRSS Junky Feed FuryNews on FeedsiTunes

33. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts33 Submitting RSS Feeds, continued Using a service –http://itunes.apple.com/http://itunes.apple.com/ –http://www.submitrssfeed.com/http://www.submitrssfeed.com/ –http://www.feedsubmitter.com/http://www.feedsubmitter.com/ –http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.htmlhttp://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html –http://allrss.com/rsssubmission.htmlhttp://allrss.com/rsssubmission.html

34. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts34 Creating a Transcript Be sure to create a transcript of your podcast. Having a transcript is important for accessibility reasons, but also since some people might not have the time to listen to the entire podcast, they might prefer to skim through the transcript to see what your podcast contains. Further, if you add a transcript to your podcast, you can make searching through your podcast much easier by search engines as well as human beings (i.e., at timestamp 3 minutes, 22 seconds the speaker begins talking about the influence of computers on society). While it is time-consuming to do it yourself, here are some places you can go to have transcripts created for you: –http://castingwords.com/http://castingwords.com/ –http://www.docsoft.com/http://www.docsoft.com/ –http://www.automaticsync.com/http://www.automaticsync.com/

35. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts35 Video Podcasts Creating a video podcast and creating an audio podcast involves the same process. 1.Research your topic, and plan what will be filmed 2.Film the video 3.Upload the video to a server 4.Create an RSS feed to advertise the podcast 5.Upload the RSS feed to a server 6.Notify search engines about the RSS feed

36. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts36 Filming Resources Hardware –Digital Camera Product Reviews: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ –Consumer Reports Digital Cameras: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/digital-cameras-photos/ http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/digital-cameras-photos/ Camcorders: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/camcorders/reports/ http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/camcorders/reports/ Software –Handbrake (to convert DVDs to podcast-acceptable format): http://handbrake.m0k.org/ http://handbrake.m0k.org/ –Vixy (to convert flash movies to podcast-acceptable format): http://vixy.net/ http://vixy.net/

37. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts37 Film Editing Software Windows Movie Maker: –http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/ –Getting Started Manual: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/ iMovie: –http://www.apple.com/imovie/http://www.apple.com/imovie/ –Getting Started Manual: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieHD_Getting_Started.pdf http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieHD_Getting_Started.pdf

38. Stanford University Continuing Studies Creating and Using Podcasts38 RSS Feed for Video Podcasts After you have shot, edited, and uploaded the video, you need to add the RSS feed to make it a podcast. The format is exactly the same as for an audio podcast, except that the tag will point to a video instead of an audio file..MOV.WMV.MP4 For a PDF file in your Podcast feed, the would look like this: