1. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Podcasting & SMIL ALT-C 2006 Adrian Stevenson Internet Services University of Manchester Some slides in this presentation are based on original presentations produced by the JISC-funded QA Focus project provided by UKOLN and AHDSQA FocusUKOLNAHDS

2. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL RSS What is RSS? –RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs – from xml.com What does RSS stand for? –Several different views: Netscape called it Rich Site Summary (v 0.92) W3C felt it should be based on RDF/XML to provide extensibility and called it RDF Site Summary (v 1.0) Dave Winer (& others) valued its simplicity and developed an alternative called Really Simple Syndication (v 2.0)

3. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL RSS Viewers Ways of accessing RSS feeds: –Blog – eg. bloglinesBlog –Web pages –Bookmark interfaces – Mozilla Firefox live bookmarksBookmark interfaces –Browser plug-ins - Sage –Email clients - Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird –Mobile Phone

4. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Podcasting - What is it? RSS and Podcasting: –Podcasting is an application of RSS 2.0: It is simply the syndication of audio, typically mp3 files, instead of text (RSS news feeds) You can schedule the download of the mp3 files and listen to them offline e.g. on a portable mp3 player such as an Apple iPod –Very easy for the end user and relatively easy for the publisher –Can be difficult to do well –it helps to have some sound recording skills Many Podcast directories http://www.podcastalley.com/, BBC http://www.podcastalley.com/BBC

5. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Accessing a Podcast To access a Podcast: Install Podcast software e.g. iTunes, Juice, Jager, Blogmatrix, … Add the URL of RSS file to the podcast software –IWMW 2006IWMW 2006 –BBC Film reviewsBBC Film reviews Various configuration options are usually available Scheduling for downloads The download location of mp3 file Transfer files to portable mp3 player such as an iPod (using e.g. iTunes, Winamp)

6. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Podcasting and [e-]Learning The University of Bath provides a highly-regarded e- learning Blog, AuricleAuricle –http://www.bath.ac.uk/dacs/cdntl/p Machine/morriblog.phphttp://www.bath.ac.uk/dacs/cdntl/p Machine/morriblog.php Auricle has now added some Podcasts: –Skype interviews Stanford ITunes Stanford ITunes very successful However, Podcasting still fairly new to HE sector

7. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Creating a Podcast Make the recording: –Eg. Using audio recording software e.g. AudacityAudacity –Best to use good quality microphone and a PC –Recording usually delivered as mp3 file Upload the recording to a web server and create an RSS file for the recording Possible problems –Speaker moves about –High level of background noise –Interference

8. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Audio Processing Editing – pauses, coughs Equalisation Amplification - normalisation Pitch change Volume Compression Filtering –Noise reduction (Steinberg Cleanup) File Compression (typically to mp3)

9. Creating a Podcast (2) Early adopters approach – copy & edit an existing RSS file Podcast 1 For IWMW 2006 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/…podcasts/podcast-iwmw-2006-01.mp3 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/…/ podcasts/#podcast-01 This introductory Podcast describes what a Podcast is and …. ( 2.5 minute long MP3 recording, ~1.6 MB). Sun, 12 Jun 2006... IWMW 2006 Podcasts http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/podcasts/podcasts.xml Podcasts About IWMW 2006 en-gb Creative Commons - Attribution and Share-alike Wed, 15 Jun 2006 10:00:00 GMT

10. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL

11. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL

12. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Creating a Podcast (3) Some software now available

13. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Podcasting Usage Scenarios Podcasting is not a replacement for the real thing – the live lecture theatre experience But it means you can … –access lectures, conference presentations etc. after the event – Stanford ITunes. Some examples now in the UK. –Provide some support in case of problems (e.g. couldn't attend talk), conflicts (parallel sessions), … –Provide a 'taster', helps in marketing, addresses additional areas (e.g. social activities), … –Keep informed of developments elsewhere

14. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL SMIL W3C Specification –Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language SMIL presentations can integrate audio and video with images, text or other media type Syntax and structure similar to HTML –SMIL 2.1 released Dec 05 –SMIL 1.0 released 1998 Examples –Customers, Suppliers and the Need for Partnerships – Stephen EmmottCustomers, Suppliers and the Need for Partnerships –State of the Web 2005 – Molly HolzschlagState of the Web 2005

15. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Creating a SMIL presentation Record and process audio Create the image files –Assuming based on a Powerpoint presentation Write SMIL code Make SMIL code accessible Add other optional features

16. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Process Powerpoint slides Export from Powerpoint –Save as PNG – every slide –Can look a bit messy: –http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web- focus/events/workshops/trieste- 2005/talk-2a/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web- focus/events/workshops/trieste- 2005/talk-2a/ Process image files in graphics program such as Macromedia Fireworks

17. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL SMIL code ExampleExample Demo

18. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Accessibility alt and longdesc text attributes ….

19. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Accessibility Captioning –Makes SMIL accessible to those with difficulty or who are unable to hear –SMIL audio track improves accessibility for those with visual impairments –Requires a transcription of the spoken content (plus any important non-spoken sound), and associated a timestamp Add a textstream to the SMIL code: – Example

20. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Issues Technical Issues –Not many SMIL editors –Audio recording quality –Users have different SMIL players (or no SMIL player) Mixed media problem –Difficult to capture complex elements of a presentation –No control over a users audio and video settings –Large files sizes (can be solved by streaming) Non-Technical Issues –Time consuming – Flash and Quicktime easier? –IPR

21. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL SMIL Usage Scenarios A SMIL presentation is not a replacement for the real thing – the live lecture theatre experience But it means you can … –access lectures, conference presentations etc. after the event – eg. IWMW and this ALT-C workshop today –Provide some support in case of problems (e.g. couldn't attend talk), conflicts (parallel sessions), … –Provide a 'taster', helps in marketing, addresses additional areas (e.g. social activities), …

22. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester 6 th Sept 2006 Podcasting and SMIL Some references W3C SMIL Page http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/ http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/ W3C Accessibility Features of SMIL http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL-access/ http://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL-access/ Synchronized Multimedia On The Web - Larry Bouthillier http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/1998/09/bouthillier/ http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/1998/09/bouthillier/ SMIL Scripting for Quicktime http://developer.apple.com/documentation/quicktime/Conceptual/QTScripting_SMI L/index.html http://developer.apple.com/documentation/quicktime/Conceptual/QTScripting_SMI L/index.html SMIL del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/bias/SMIL http://del.icio.us/bias/SMIL