Ohio State HCS News Launches Podcasting
November 16th, 2005 by Victor van Buchem
In an effort to expand the reach of the Ohio State Horticulture & Crop Science News, enhanced podcasts of stories are now available for easy download to your desktop computer and your portable music player.
Utilizing the free iTunes digital audio content manager, users can subscribe to the Ohio State HCS News podcast. Each time a new podcast story is published, iTunes automatically downloads the audio and adds it to your list of previous HCS News stories. Users will then be able to listen to the audio story and watch the enhanced podcast on their computer. The enhanced podcast benefits users by including photos and chapter markers for easy navigation within a story. With an Internet connection, the enhanced podcast links users to specific reference websites that support the story.
Podcasts are available for free through the iTunes subscription service. This subscription system helps users by automatically searching for new content, thus relieving the user of the need to browse many different sites looking for updated audio files.
The podcast will also be transfered to your iPod automatically the next time you ’sync’ with iTunes and thus be available for listening wherever you go. The combination of podcast stories, iTunes content management and iPod technology allows users to determine when and where to listen to the News. Imagine driving in your car or sitting by the beach and listening to your favorite music, audio books, and HCS News stories. Users with iPods that are able to display photos will be able to see the images that accompany the enhanced podcast.
Since being launched in March 2002, Ohio State HCS News has delivered over 350 timely stories about the successes of the faculty, staff, students and alumni of Horticulture & Crop Science. This searchable archive of illustrated stories has evolved to include larger photos, “printer-friendly” format, “e-mail-to-a-friend” capability, RSS feed access, and now audio podcasts.
inVirtual Perspective Technology Team members Dr. Tim Rhodus, Bud Witney and Victor van Buchem developed this unique news delivery system that keeps alumni and friends informed about the teaching, research and extension accomplishments of the department. Professor Rhodus and Communications Coordinator van Buchem collaborate to create enhanced podcasts for each published news story, with van Buchem serving as host for each episode. With its launch in early November, Ohio State HCS News became the first news podcast available from The Ohio State University.
A complete history of podcasting is available from Wikipedia.