It’s NOT a Podcast, ALA!

by David Lee King on December 20, 2006

I was just getting ready to dump the ALA District Dispatch feed into iTunes and/or just download their podcast… but I can’t.

Why? Well – first of all, there’s no direct link to the audio file in the post. And second – because it’s not a podcast (see Greg Schwartz’s way cool Podcasting: An Introduction for an in-depth explanation). A true podcast has an enclosure thingie embedded within the RSS feed that makes audio (and video) files recognizable to feed readers. This is especially useful with podcast aggregators like iTunes or Fireant – those podcast readers will automatically dump the podcast into your mp3 player of choice.

ALA – thank you, thank you, thank you for recording audio and sending it out on your blog. Now – go one tiny little extra step, and make that podcast available for download!

Thanks

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  • http://ala.org/ Jenny Levine

    Actually, until yesterday it was a true podcast. However, a problem cropped up with the enclosure plugin this week, so we had to remove it in order to restore the feed to working order while we figure out how to resolve the issue. That’s why you can already find the feed in iTunes, because it was real for a brief, shining time!

    I’ll let you know when we get this fixed. :-)

  • http://ala.org/ Jenny Levine

    Actually, until yesterday it was a true podcast. However, a problem cropped up with the enclosure plugin this week, so we had to remove it in order to restore the feed to working order while we figure out how to resolve the issue. That’s why you can already find the feed in iTunes, because it was real for a brief, shining time!

    I’ll let you know when we get this fixed. :-)

  • davidleeking

    Ah – good to hear! I’ll post an update when you do!

  • http://openstacks.net/os Greg

    I’ve never gotten it to work in iTunes, having been subscribed for over a week. Still waiting…

  • http://openstacks.net/os Greg

    I’ve never gotten it to work in iTunes, having been subscribed for over a week. Still waiting…

  • http://freerangelibrarian.com/ K.G. Schneider

    Just to press to test… what’s an “enclosure plugin”? Don’t you just modify an RSS 2.0 feed to enable media enclosures (a little tweak, when I did it)? Or maybe this feed is assembled from widgets… an interesting concept… if it works :-)

  • http://freerangelibrarian.com K.G. Schneider

    Just to press to test… what’s an “enclosure plugin”? Don’t you just modify an RSS 2.0 feed to enable media enclosures (a little tweak, when I did it)? Or maybe this feed is assembled from widgets… an interesting concept… if it works :-)

  • davidleeking

    Well, I said an “enclosure thingie”… but yes – you need to do just what you said. You can also use a feedburner feed, if you don’t want to mess with your xml/rss feed page. And I think you CAN install a plugin to do the enclosure thing, too. Technology is truly amazing these days!

  • davidleeking

    Well, I said an “enclosure thingie”… but yes – you need to do just what you said. You can also use a feedburner feed, if you don’t want to mess with your xml/rss feed page. And I think you CAN install a plugin to do the enclosure thing, too. Technology is truly amazing these days!

  • http://ala.org/ Jenny Levine

    It turns out the enclosure plugin for the b2evolution software was actually working and that the problem was with a new switch we put in our network. The b2e server couldn’t see the web server, which is where the audio files are located. It took a while for us to figure out that was the problem and then have it fixed, but I think the District Dispatch podcast should be working now. At least, it is for me (again), but can you folks test it and let me know if it works for you, too? Thanks!

  • http://ala.org/ Jenny Levine

    It turns out the enclosure plugin for the b2evolution software was actually working and that the problem was with a new switch we put in our network. The b2e server couldn’t see the web server, which is where the audio files are located. It took a while for us to figure out that was the problem and then have it fixed, but I think the District Dispatch podcast should be working now. At least, it is for me (again), but can you folks test it and let me know if it works for you, too? Thanks!

  • Pingback: David Lee King » Blog Archive » Update on ALA’s District Dispatch Podcast

  • davidleeking

    Ah – good to hear! I'll post an update when you do!

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