The Catholic Family Podcast

Content management systems come in all shapes and sizes. Most of the well-distributed CMSs specialize in a specific area of service. Most of them are extensible through plugins and/or modules that can do certain things. Although there are commercial CMS systems available, I will focus on open source CMS systems.

A podcast is defined as the asynchronous distribution of information (usually audio or video) through the Internet using a syndication mechanism such as RSS or Atom. “Podcast” can be both a noun and a verb. For example, “I podcast my show every Sunday.” “Sunday’s podcast included information about educational technology.”

Most podcasts distributed today are in audio format, although an increasing number of video podcasts are becoming available. MP3 formatted audio files are the most common type of file used in podcasts because they are efficient on space usage and can be created easily and with high quality on inexpensive equipment. Apple has pushed the AAC format for audio which includes Digital Rights Management (DRM) features which hinders sharing of files. The AAC format also adds features such as chapter navigation which are absent in MP3 formatted files.

The advantages of podcasting over traditional “terrestrial” radio include a larger broadcast range (the Internet vs. a local region) which translates into the ability to produce podcasts with highly specific topics since the audience is so broad. This has led to an explosion in podcasts in a dizzying array of topics.

Definitions

• Web Syndication - published information that can be used by other sites to reference information on the publishing Web Site. Syndication can be used to publish articles from a newsletter, episodes in a series, or even aggregations of other syndicated content. Syndication is distributed through Web feeds, of which there are numerous types. Web Feeds can be referenced by feed aggregators which are software applications that can pull syndicated content from the provider. Two of the most widely used syndication feeds are Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Atom. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_syndication
• RSS feed - Really Simple Syndication - a type of web content syndication mechanism that uses an XML tree to represent a channel with associated information, and items within the feed. RSS is the most widely used type of Web feed but also the least defined. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29
• Atom feed - a type of Web feed that is based upon a tightly controlled standard, thus eliminating some of the problems associated with RSS feeds. Atom is the preferred feed mechanism for many bloggers. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_feed
• iTunes feed - With the advent of the Apple iPod, which controls more than 70% of the portable MP3 player market, Apple has also created the Apple iTunes Store, which provides one-stop-shopping for both paid and free content in both audio and video formats. Podcasters can post their podcast information in the iTunes podcasting directory for free, but the podcast’s feed must conform to several iTunes specific tags. These tags are add-ons to the RSS2 specification and are not currently used by any other podcast directory. However, because of Apple’s dominance in the market, they are necessary for most of the more widely distributed podcasts. Refer to http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/techspecs.html

Drupal

http://www.drupal.org/

The drupal CMS is a multi-purpose web-based application that shines where distributed information is needed. For example, Drupal is good at setting up support forums for different topics, group communication bulletin boards, collaborative book authoring, and file repositories. Drupal uses a variety of authentication schemes including LDAP authentication, which allows it to use virtually any authentication resource.

Although syndication is built-in to Drupal, it is not one of it’s best features. For this reason, the podcasting module for Drupal contains it’s own custom feed which is somewhat limited. Documentation of Drupal is barely adequate, although the forums for support are very repsonsive.

The current podcasting module for Drupal is still in beta and seems to be promising, but is somewhat buggy at the time of this writing. The one major advantage to this module is that it can easily manage multiple podcasts, whereas the other modules cannot (at the time of this writing). The podcasting module for Drupal can be found here.

http://www.narkoba.be/narkoba/index.php

Wordpress

http://www.wordpress.org/

Wordpress is the premier open-source “blogging” software in the world. Think of Wordpress as an electronic diary that can save “entries” in a variety of formats including audio/video material. Wordpress is not as versatile as Drupal, but what it lacks in features, it makes up for in ease of use and the most oustanding open source documentation I’ve seen. Where Wordpress really shines is in syndication feeds. RSS, RSS2, Atom, and custom feeds are built into the structure of Wordpress, making it a natural for podcasting.

The current podcasting “plugin” can be found at the following link:

http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/

The podpress plugin creates an easily managed podcast add-in to a standard Wordpress application. Episodes can be syndicated using the built-in feed generators based upon category. By simply creating an “episode” category (or similar tag) and applying it to all of the content that you want to include in the podcast feed. The plugin is very adept at adding the specific iTunes podcast tags and even displays how the podcast will appear in the iTunes store which is very cool. The newest version of the software also incorporates download statistics and premium content (for pay) tagging making it even more versatile. The main deficiency in the PodPress plugin is that the podcasting tags are site-specific which make it tough to host more than one podcast on a Wordpress installation. Of course, you can create a unique category for each podcast, but the top-level syndication tags cannot be easily customized.

This website is an example of a Wordpress/Podpress installation. You can access the podcasting episodes by clicking the Episodes link on the sidebar. You can also view the feed by clicking the RSS feed link on the sidebar.