Review by: Meier, Christoph (2008-01-10)

For a few years now, a lively debate has been going on about developments in the World Wide Web labelled "Web 2.0". At the core of this are new technologies (e. g. AJAX) that enable web based applications and tools to be used through a web browser. These technologies and applications make it rather more simple than before for users / visitors of web pages to actively contribute content and collaborate with one another. Prominent examples of this emerging "read-write Web" is so-called social software, such as bookmark-sharing services, Weblogs, Wikis, and, last no least, Podcasts.

With regard to Podcasts, educational institutions as well as enterprises and political institutions have begun to explore the ways in which this new medium might be employed in useful or even profitable ways. While ideas regarding what might be communicated via podcasts are often straightforward (e. g., lecture recordings, radio shows, product information, political messages) how to best do this is more often an issue – particularly for those that do not consider themselves as technology freaks. This is what Steve Mach and Mitch Ratcliffe focus on in their book.

The authors come to this topic, appropriately, with backgrounds as professional musician, music producer and media designer (Steve Mach) and also as Web and technology consultant (Mitch Ratcliffe).

Podcasting: How to do it

In essence, the process of producing a podcast comprises the following steps:1) recording, 2) format conversion, 3) publication of media files both on a media server and in a RSS file. A user / listener / viewer can then 4) subscribe to the podcasting channel employing a podcatching application (e. g. iTunes or Juice) and 5) download the individual episodes that make up that channel. Podcasts can be 6) viewed / listened to on mobile devices such as MP3 players or smartphones but also on a regular PC.

The Podcasting Bible is structured into six major sections: 1) general background to podcasting, 2) podcast production, 3) encoding, 4) podcast distribution, 5) the business of podcasting and 6) case studies.

In the opening section with chapters on the background to and the hype about podcasting, Mach and Ratcliffe point out how the easy and cheap production as well as the flexible use of podcasts with mobile devices led to the emergence of new voices (and also new stars) outside of the established media industry channels.

The authors then delve into an extended discussion of issues relating to the production of podcasts. They cover the conceptualisation phase including the formulation of the basic idea for a podcast, the targeted audience, format issues (should the podcast come along as an audio-diary, as a talk radio show or in a magazine-like fashion?). Separate chapters discuss equipment (types of microphones, mixing desks, recording devices and software) and techniques for recording, editing and post-processing audio (e. g. removing background noise) as well as tools and techniques for video production.

A separate section is devoted to the encoding of audio and video data. Different codecs for audio and video (e. g., MP3, H.264), software that can be used in the process (e. g., Audacity, GarageBand, Audition, iMovie, Adobe Premiere) and specific techniques (e. g., setting recording parameters or applying filters) are discussed.

Once content has been produced, it needs to be delivered to the audience. This is the focus of the next section of the book and the authors start out by explaining Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and the 'subscribe and push'-approach to the distribution of content. The structure of a RSS file (RSS feed), tools for creating these feeds and the process of creating (e. g., FeedForAll) are described in detail. Subsequent chapters in this section cover ways of getting the RSS Feed with its information on the available podcast episodes and the actual media files to the users, for example through a web site or through a podcasting hosting service such as PodOMatic.com.

The authors devote an extended section with several chapters to what they call "The business of podcasting". Here, they discuss the costs involved in producing, distributing and promoting podcasts, the development of a business model for podcasting (e. g., opportunities for recovering costs through the placement of advertisements in podcasts, how to convert subscribers into customers of products), and the issues involved in licensing music.

The last section, finally, is devoted to three short case studies on podcasting. These cover a story of amateur-enthusiasts-turned-professionals (Dawn and Drew show), a story of a podcasting channel created and run by Microsoft and directed at the independent software development community and, finally, a story on the podcast of the Ontario Science Centre complementing the institutional Web site and addressing, among other things, questions of visitors through interviews with guest experts.

Conclusion

As the title suggests, this is a voluminous and basic book on podcasting. It takes the reader in a detailed way through all the steps involved in listening to as well as producing and distributing a podcast and provides a wealth of technical detail in the course. It does not, however, spare the reader the effort to experiment for her- / himself and to learn by doing. While, for example, GarageBand is mentioned as a tool for creating podcasts, neither its specific qualities for creating enhanced podcasts (consisting of audio and images) nor the requirement that graphics have to be in a specific format (square, e. g., 320x320 pixels) are pointed out. This was a lesson I had to learn personally and which significantly lessened my enthusiasm about turning collections of presentation slides into enhanced podcasts.

Discussions of educational scenarios in producing / distributing / using podcasts are few and far between. Also and to no surprise, tools for recording and podcasting lectures that emerged in Europe such as, for example, LECTURNITY are not in the field of vision of American authors.

The authors propose that "Podcasting is the foundation for a new media landscape, where independently produced content coexists with 'professional' programs created and distributed by the big media companies." (p. 44) What remains to be seen, however, is the extent to which the podcasting scene in itself will become more professional both in commercial and educational contexts.