BlogHarbor's John Keegan was quoted in a recent article by Sean Michael Kerner at InternetNews.com. Here's the introduction to the article:

The RSS syndication format has spread like wildfire through the Internet, permeating most news sites and virtually all blogs. Now there's a new aspect of RSS ready to enjoy the same popularity. Called RSS enclosures, they're the next step in the RSS revolution and hold great potential.

One of the uses of enclosures is "podcasting," a name that is derived from Apple's iPod, though the technology can be utilized on any MP3-capable device. The RSS enclosure feature allows for the syndicated XML feed to not just serve text content, but also to package an enclosure (call it an attachment of some sort), as well. In the podcasting model, the RSS enclosure contains an audio file, which subscribers can listen to on their devices.

Read more to see what Keegan has to say about RSS enclosures and digital images. BlogHarbor supports not only enclosures in the main RSS newsfeed and in each category newsfeed, but Photo Albums as well have their own RSS feed which contains enclosures. You can use iPodder software to monitor a BlogHarbor Photo Album and automatically receive images as a blog is updated, making it possible to keep your iPhoto library automatically populated with images from your friends and family...

Looking to learn more about podcasting? This article will point you to some links around the web where you can learn more about podcasting. Our own articles on Podcasting are also a good place to learn more about the subject.

What is Podcasting?
Jon Gordon has posted a succinct definition of podcasting:

A podcast is a talk or music radio show that's sent directly to an iPod or other digital music player through your computer. It's a new take on the growing technology called RSS that pushes text-based Web content to computers. But with podcasting, a listener subscribes to audio feeds.

Other definitions:

• Dave Winer offers his definition
• Make Room for Podcasting is a nice summary of the phenomenon of Podcasting.
• The Wikipedia's definition of Podcasting.

How to Create Podcasts
Mac OS X users looking to learn how to create a podcast should check out Hugo Schotman's article that started Mac users podcasting: Audio Blog software studio setup, complete with a system diagram. Engadget documented an alternative technique for creating a podcast in Mac OS X.

Zef Hemel shows us Howto Create Your Own Podcasting Show On Windows. Jake Ludington offers detailed instructions on receiving podcasts in Windows and synching with non-iPod portable media players using Windows Media Player.

Finding Podcasts
audio.weblogs.com is where you'll find recent podcasts for downloading. Podcast.net is a directory of podcasts.

Adam Curry is creating a directory of podcasting related information, as well as the Daily Source Code podcast.

OpenPodcast.org is a dynamically generated podcast containing short, 5 minute podcasts, to which anyone can contribute.

Further Reading
How Podcasting Will Save Radio is a must read by Tod Maffin.

Comments?
Post your suggestions here or in our forums.

Attached to this article is a sample audio file to demonstrate BlogHarbor's support for attachments, and to show how attachments are automatically included within your RSS feed as an RSS enclosure.

Adding an attachment to your articles is easy, this page shows you how to add attachments: it's as simple as browsing your file system and choosing a file:

If the attached MP3 file were a real podcast, you would tell your listeners to point their iPodder software at your podcasting category RSS feed, and their iPodders would automatically be updated whenever you post a new podcast.

The category RSS feed for this category is at http://demo.blogharbor.com/blog/Podcasting/index.xml, so if you entered this URL into your iPodder aggregator, the iPodder software would automatically download new MP3 podcasts posted to your Podcasts category.

And if this MP3 file were a real podcast, it would be a lot more interesting.

Podcasting is a growing phenomenon where blog publishers create audio programs and upload them to their weblogs as MP3 files. Readers can access the weblog and download the audio file for listening at their computer, or use software such as iPodder to download content each day and automatically synch their iPod with new podcasts. The concept of creating and syndicating audio content with the expectation that it will be consumed away from the computer is something that gives podcasts a unique flavor.

BlogHarbor supports our users who are creating their own podcasts through our support of enclosures in RSS feeds.

Attachments and Enclosures

The BlogHarbor service allows you to add an attachment to your blog article, much in the same way that you would add an attachment to an email message. Attachments are a great way to permanently link a file to an article, and are especially useful when you are posting articles to restricted categories as the category restrictions apply to the attached files as well as the article.

Additionally, when you attach a file to an article, your RSS feed is updated to include a link to the attached file; the element in the RSS feed is called an enclosure.

The use of enclosures in your RSS feed allows iPodder programs to scan your RSS feeds on a regular basis and check for new files. When the iPodder finds a new enclosure in the RSS feed, it will automatically download the podcast.

Creating a syndicated podcast

Creating your podcast might be difficult, but syndicating it via your blog is easy. Just create a new article on your blog, and attach your podcast file in MP3 format to the article. That's it. Your RSS feed will automatically include the enclosure information for the attached file, which will be used by iPodder programs to download your podcasts.

Using Categories for your Podcast

We recommend posting your podcasts into their own category, so you can use category-based RSS feeds to make it easy for your listeners to download your podcasts. By posting your podcasts to their own category, you make it easier for your listeners to download only your podcasts and not those pictures of you at the office party last week.

So, for example, if you create a category called Podcasts in your blog at example.blogharbor.com, the RSS feed for that category is at http://example.blogharbor.com/blog/Podcasts/index.xml . Tell your listeners to subscribe to your Podcast RSS feed and get busy creating your podcasts!

Links and Resources

• http://www.ipodder.org/
• http://audio.weblogs.com/