Library clips

Podchains

I posted about Podchains earlier, basically it allows you to save media files…a place to bookmark all your media files.

Now they have implemented the use of tags for each bookmark, plus now each tag has its own feed (podcast feed).
You still have your overall feed…to get a feed for a tag, just click “Filter your feed with this tag?”

I usually find out about an audio file as a link in a blog post, if I want to bookmark this audio file into Podchains I first have to click on the audio file link, then bookmark it…I wish I could instead just click on the bookmarklet from the blog post, and it would scan the blog post for media files and then insert that into the bookmark form to add to Podchains.
But what if there are numerous links to media files on a blog post, which one will go into the form, maybe it could pop up numerous forms, one for each audio file.

NOTE: what I mean by form is…a form appears when you click the bookmarklet, in order to fill in the details to add the bookmark to your account.

I’ve found that when I’m filling in the form to add a bookmark, I also include the blog post URL that listed the audio file in the description field as [Via …..], this way I remember where I found the audio file. Actually, I basically cut ‘n paste the content of the whole blog post into the description field.

Maybe there can be a field especially for the blog post URL you found the audio file from, or this could be a trackback field.

Ideally, after I listen to the audio file, I’d probably re-edit the bookmark (by the way, re-editing is a new feature) and write my own description, as I don’t usually want to fill in this field with my own content until after I’ve heard the audio.

Feedback

Social network like del.icio.us - browse all users, browse all tags, and global tagging (each bookmark can be tagged by all).

Also, perhaps like Furl, a read/unread check box, so you can keep track of which audio files you have actually listened to.

I’d also like to see global commenting, anyone can leave a comment for a bookmark (even if you haven’t saved it in your own collection).

OPML for each tag, basically this means you can import a list of your audio/video files into another application or browse them in an OPML grazer.

An OPML for your whole account would be two levels; level one are the tags (these would be OPML inclusions), and level two would be all the bookmarks in each tag.

Another type of OPML for your whole account would be just one level; listing all the feeds for each tag…this is a Podcast Reading List.

In the future I can see this as the del.icio.us for media files, an addition would be a media player like Odeo…I do like that you can play (stream) your bookmarks or subscriptions.

Odeo

Odeo is a lot different as you can not only save audio files, but you can also create a feed set (subscription list), it is also a social directory, ie. people can add feeds and tag them, you can browse feeds and tag them, you can tag audio files as well.

But I don’t think you can add audio files to the system, unlike Podchains…it seems you can only add feeds…is this correct?

Your account has a section called “subscriptions”, here you can list your subscriptions (also has an OPML Reading List), click on a subscription, and it will list the latest posts within that feed, click to play, or add a post to your “inbox” (this is where you collect your single audio files).

Your subscription list displays all posts from this feed with latest on top, all past posts are listed…there is no “mark as read feature”, so it’s not quite a fully fledged RSS Reader.
My problem is since I can’t “mark read”, how do I remember those posts I’ve read/heard.

My prefered method is to select the posts you like from your subscriptions and add them to your “inbox”.
The inbox is where you can keep individual posts, once you have listened to them, you can then delete it, if you like.
I’d like to keep them archived in the inbox, only if my inbox was like Podchains (with a read and unread box).

NOTE: You are not limited to adding a post only from your subscriptions into your inbox, you can browse in the directory for a channel and add a post to your inbox, or browse audio files and add these to your inbox.

When you look at a tag page eg. politics, it lists podcasts with this tag, and it lists audio files with this tag.

Here is an eg. podcast channel (this is what you can add to your “subscriptions”); add a post to your inbox, you can play it, add tags, discover other podcasts via the tags, add a comment, add a audio comment, email it, and add a star.

Here is an example post or audio file; play it, add to your inbox or download the file, add a comment, add a audio comment, put the audio on your website so people can play it, add tags, discover other podcasts via the tags, add a star, and email it or add to your peeps inbox (this is where friends can see in your peeps inbox).

The bottom of every page also allows you to enter a feed, as I mentioned I’m not sure if you can just add an audio file.

You can even create podcasts in Odeo.

Feedback

Issue I have is you can’t view your inbox or subscriptions by tag, and you can’t look at any other users unless they allow you to peep in their peeps inbox.

So, it is still a folksonomy because there is global tagging (lots of people tagging the same resource), but we can’t view other user accounts easily, and your tags don’t carry over into your own account.

Another problem is how do I know if I’ve listened to an audio file, I’d like it to act as an RSS Reader.
I’d like to view my subscriptions and just see the new posts, if I want to see past posts I can choose from a drop down (last hour, day, month). If I see a post I want to listen to I can play it now, download it, or add it to my inbox…or perhaps keep the post as new.
Later on I can go through my inbox, once I have listened to the post, I’d like to archive it in my inbox (and apply personal tags), this way its out of view.

Podnova

I also checked out Podnova, this isn’t a social network like Odeo (but it does have a directory of podcasts), just the same you can subscribe to podcast feeds, and save audio files…you can also stream and listen to any file.

NOTE: Podchains enables you to add audio files to the system, where Odeo and Podnova don’t allow to add outside audio files.
Odeo and Podnova enable you to add feeds to the system, you can also browse the existing feeds and add them to your account (subscriptions)…you can also choose to add the posts containing audio files from these feeds, into your inbox.
Podchains doesn’t allow you to add subscriptions (podcast feeds), it is more focused on single media files.

Back to Podnova…

It has both a web and desktop version, as mentioned in the note above, both versions allow you subscribe to feeds from the directory, or add an outside feed. It also allows gives you your own Podnova feed, this way you can add posts from your subscription feeds, or posts from feeds in the directory, straight into your personal Podnova feed (I guess it is similar to the inbox in Odeo).

The web version also has a player to listen to the audio on your PC (this is streaming), but if you want to download the audio files to your PC, just like Odeo, you have to do it manually, one by one, and wait…

That’s where the desktop version kicks in, the advantage of the desktop version is that it is a download manager.
You can view the latest posts from your subscriptions and check the ones you want to download, then come back some time later and listen to them on your PC or transfer the files to your mobile device.

Even better you can leave your PC on overnight and schedule it to check for new posts and download them, so when you jump on your PC in the morning you will see all the new audio files you have downloaded/saved onto your PC.
Keep the files you are interested in and delete the rest…transfer them to your mobile device for your own programmed radio show for your commute to work.

The desktop podcatcher version also synchs with the web version, if you are at your work PC you can save a file or subscribe to a podcast on your web version, then when you go to your home PC you launch the desktop version and it will instantly synch your desktop version to the web version.

Even if you don’t use the web version, you can still add subscriptions or save individual files to the desktop version, but you have to be on the PC that has the desktop version installed.

Generates a:

A RSS feed for your subscriptions
(be notified of the latest posts from my subscriptions)

A RSS feed with the episodes that you seperately added
(be notified of the latest posts I have added to my own Podnova feed)

An OPML Reading List of your podcast feed subscriptions

Podcatching Choices

ONE

Subscribe to podcast feeds in my regular RSS reader

- when I see a post I like I can add it to Podchains
- I will subscribe to my own Podchains feed in Podnova
- So when I launch the desktop Podnova it will list the latest audio files I added to Podchains (or if I have it scheduled to download, these audio files will be ready to transfer to my mobile device)

Only thing this method lacks is time, as I have to bookmark an audio file first in Podchains before it is in Podnova.

TWO

Subscribe to podcast feeds in my regular RSS reader

- when I see a post I like I can add it to Podnova
(actually I don’t know of a bookmarklet to do this, I tried to do it manually, and it worked, but it added it as a subscription…this also happened when I added the file instead of the post)

Anyway, if there was a bookmarklet, I hoped it would add to my own Podnova feed called “My Selected Podcasts Episodes”…same idea as having your own Podchains feed or Odeo inbox.
(So, Podnova may be similar to Odeo, in that you can only add audio files from feeds that already exist in the system)

Again this lacks time in getting fresh stuff as you have to bookmark it first…it also lacks having your files managed with tags, which is a great Podchains feature. In Podnova once you have downloaded a file you pretty much delete it (clean your cue).

THREE

Subscribe to feeds in Podnova web version (instead of my regular RSS Reader)

- when I see a post I like I can add it to my personal Podnova feed
- so when I launch the desktop Podnova it will list the latest audio files I added to Podnova web version

Even better, I don’t even have to add posts to my personal Podnova feed, I can have it scheduled to download the latest posts from my subscriptions, these audio files will be ready to transfer to my mobile device.

FOUR

Subscribe to feeds in Odeo (instead of my regular RSS Reader)

- when I see a post I like I can add it to Odeo inbox (subscribe to this inbox feed in Podnova)
or
- when I see a post I like I can add it to Podchains (subscribe to this inbox feed in Podnova)
or
- when I see a post I like I can add it to Podnova (subscribe to this inbox feed in Podnova)…but I don’t think this works, as mentioned above.

Web Podcatchers

The most economic way is to subscribe to feeds in Podnova (choice THREE), then schedule it to download the audio files from any new posts, so when you go to your computer all you have to do is transfer the files to your mobile device.

This way you don’t have to bookmark the audio files first, they are already downloaded for you…once you have listened to them, then you can bookmark them to keep in your collection.

But if you bookmark these into Podchains for your personal archive, and you subscribe to your Podchains feed in Podnova, then these same files will download again.
A solution to this would be as I mentioned earlier about the read/unread items in Podchains, you could have a separate feed for read and unread. This way you can just subscribe to your Podchains unread feed in Podnova.

The only issue with the automatic download approach is that it automatically downloads new files, and you may not like to listen to all the new files, no big deal I suppose, just delete the ones you don’t like.
This could be a problem if you subscribe to 50 feeds and each feed has a daily post. If you have the Podcatcher scheduled to download once a day, you will get 50 new posts downloaded, and it might be the case you only would like to listen to only 10 of these audio files…plus the storage room on your computer may be a problem.

Hmmm, what if Podcatchers had web versions…Podnova has a web version, but you can only enable it to download the files to your desktop version…what if the web version was a real podcatcher that downloaded the files on a host server. Same goes with Odeo, imagine you could download audio files on a hosted Odeo server.
This probably wouldn’t be cost effective for Odeo, people might subscribe to heaps of feeds, and have them auto download, and even worse they may not even listen to them, or abandon their accounts.

Scenarios

I guess there are two scenarios, it depends on how quickly you want to hear the freshest news.

Obviously subscribing to feeds in Podnova and have them automatic download for you overnight so you can listen to the freshest audio in the morning is absolutely deluxe…but as we mentioned, there is the storage issue.

(Maybe you could tell it to only download posts from a feed if it has these terms)

The other approach is to fire up your computer in the morning and choose the posts you want to download, but then you have to wait…

Regardless of these 2 scenario’s there are always audio files you find outside of your subscriptions, as you surf the web you can add these files to Podchains, and subscribe to your Podchains feed in Podnova.

(Again what about the audio files you come across in your Podnova feeds, that you want to save into your Podchains archive, then these files will pop-up again in Podnova…this is why Podchains could have an unread and a read feed, just subscribe to the unread feed in Podnova).

[ADDED: del.icio.us is similar to podchains, as you can save audio files, organise by tag, each tag has a feed with enclosures (podcast feed)…you can even stream audio files straight from del.icio.us, even streaming an audio file on your blog post via del.icio.us, just like the feature in Odeo]