Podcastplayer.org news

I was just looking through my referrers and found an unexpected one which turned out to be a great site based on a simple idea: PodcastExpert.com - Where the Podcasting community is the expert

In their own words:

PodcastExpert.com is a community-driven site for resources on creating, producing, and receiving Podcasts.

We strive to have the most relevant links about equipment, software, and audio production techniques that will assist you in making your Podcasts easier to produce, sound better, and attract more listeners.

Also, we seek to shorten the learning curve for those just getting into Podcasting by giving them straightforward information about how to receive Podcasts, and possibly start their own show.

From software to hardware, mics to mixers, RSS aggregators to audio editors, PodcastExpert.com has something for everyone!

They already have a bunch of good links, on various topics, including one to my recent essay on podcast hosting. Well worth checking out.

Judging by the comments on the site, GigaDial has been in operation since sometime in 2004, but I’d never heard of it myself.

It seems to be aiming at a kind of “bloglines for podcasts” spot - it lets users customise and aggregate podcast feeds into “stations", presumably with the intention of making ‘cast downloading easier. In a world where most people run local feedcatcher software such as iPodder or Doppler, it’s not much of an advantage. Adding one feed or five - no big deal.

It has just occurred to me that this would be really useful if typical MP3 players included simple feedcatcher software, though. Imagine being able to plug your player into any net-connected USB port and click a button to grab the next few ‘casts from your favourite feeds. In that situation, being able to remotely manage subscriptions and track which feed entries have been “read” would be a real winner. This idea is not even too far fetched, my most recent MP3 player came with a built-in email client!

Back to GigaDial - it also seems as if they have provided some sort of community feed creation facility. Some aggregated feeds seem open for other users to add feeds or files, to make something much more like a real radio station, where you never, quite, know what’s coming next. This does appear open to abuse, but there’s little sign of it on the site so far.