DukeCast

What is DukeCast?

DukeCast is a homegrown resource for podcasting: http://dukecast.oit.duke.edu/.  It provides an easy-to-use space for Duke community members to publish audio and video files to the web. It is offered as an experimental pilot as we examine long-term service offerings for podcasting. Please publish only media you have created or which you are legally allowed to publish. Content uploaders bear sole responsibility for the content they provide using DukeCast.   

For content creators it:

• offers the ability to create podcast albums to organize and distribute audio and video files
• allows tagging of content for searching
• automatically creates the RSS feed necessary for allowing others to subscribe to an album as a podcast
  

Content consumers can:

• browse and search for interesting albums
• download or view audio and video files
• subscribe to a podcast to automatically download new episodes as content creators add them

What doesn't DukeCast do?

DukeCast does not currently provide capability for recording, editing, or producing the audio or video files which make up albums.  

• Please see related software resources for some suggestions of software that will let you capture and edit audio and video.
• Please see related peripheral resources for some suggested devices for capturing audio and/or video.
• Look for this icon for recommendations in each category relating to podcasting or the DukeCast service.
• For some suggestions of formats to produce your files in go here.

DukeCast is intended as a tool for public distribution of content and thus does not currently allow restriction of access to posted content. If this capability is needed please explore services like iTunes U or DukeStream.

DukeCast Documentation

Notice::We are currently seeing some minor issues using DukeCast with Internet Explorer 6, including long upload times for files. For best results you may wish to use the Firefox browser as we work to correct these issues.

Video Tutorials

DukeCast video tutorials are available as an Album inside DukeCast.  It is named DukeCast Training and is located in the Departmental directory/tab.  To jump there directly click here.  These video tutorials provide an excellent quick-start to viewing and creating podcasts.  For comprehensive documentation of basic and advanced features, see below.  

Quickstart Guide to Creating a podcast

• Coming Soon...

Podcast manager documentation

Home

• Returning to the home screen
• Logging In to manage your podcasts
• Getting Help
• Creating a new podcast

My Podcasts - Managing Albums and Identity

• Opening an Album (podcast) for editing or to add episodes
• Creating a new podcast
• Editing identity settings

MyFiles Library - Uploading audio and video files to use as episodes

Album Management - Adding Episodes to an Album and editing Album properties

• Edit or delete your Album
• Adding Episodes to your Album
• Scheduling publishing of a new Episode for a later date
• Editing or deleting an Episode
• Grant access to Manage your Album to other Duke users

Album Properties - Creating or Editing your Album

• Describing your podcast for search
• Podcast type
• Podcast image / Album Cover
• Choosing your Album's location(s)
• Advanced options

Advertising/Linking your podcast

Podcast manager documentation

This section is intended as a comprehensive guide to the screens, features, and choices you'll encounter while creating and administering your podcasts.

Home

For help navigating DukeCast and searching for Albums please see Documentation on Browsing DukeCast and viewing Podcasts.
The functions indicated below are specific to Administering podcasts.

Clicking on the large DukeCast in the upper left corner or pointing your browser to dukecast.oit.duke.edu will return you to this main screen.  You can browse, search, login to manage, and create new podcasts from here.

Clicking the white help link in the upper right of the page will bring you to the DukeCast documentation.
Clicking the Login/Register button will take you to a screen which prompts for NetID login. Upon successful login, the My Podcasts screen is presented.

Clicking the "Click here to create your own podcast " link in the middle of the main screen will prompt you to login with your NetID and will take you to the Create/Edit Podcast screen.

My Podcasts - Managing Albums and Identity

After login in from the main screen, you'll be automatically taken to the My Podcasts screen, which lets you manage any podcasts you own or have been granted access to.

From here you can also view and manage your My files library which is documented in Album Management.

Once logged in, you can return to the My Podcasts screen at any time by clicking the yellow tab that is added to to the tabs at the top of the screen.

Clicking the icon or text of any Album will open it for editing and present the Album Management screen.

Clicking the "Create a new podcast" link in the center of the screen will take you to the Create/Edit Podcast screen and allow you to create a new podcast Album.

Clicking "Edit my settings" will allow you to edit your primary DukeCast identity and create new alias identities.

Your name will show up in DukeCast as the album Producer.  In aggregators like iTunes it will be used as the podcast author.

Email will not be available to other users in DukeCast or to aggregator users but will be used by DukeCast administrators to contact you if needed.

New Identities can be created by clicking the "new" link at the bottom of this segment and old ones can be edited or deleted by clicking the check or X.  These identities can be used as aliases for creating Albums, but can only be used in Albums contained in Personal or Student life directories.

My Files Library

The purpose of the My Files Library is to let you upload audio and video files to DukeCast, which you will then be able to add to Albums as episodes.  The advantage of this step of uploading files to the My Files Library and then using them as episodes comes when you'd like a single file to be an episode in more than one Album.  With the MyFiles library, you only need upload each file once and then are free to add it as an episode to as many Albums as you'd like. 

• To upload files to the My Files Library, log in at the home screen and navigate to the My Podcasts screen.
• Click "New file" in the My Files Library box on the right side of the screen.

• The file name and notes can be retrieved later from by clicking a file in the My Files Library but are not used for Album information.
• Click Browse... to search your computer for audio and video files to upload and then click Upload to add the file to your My Files Library.
• Clicking Link to a remote file instead changes the File: and Browse... to URL: and Save and will accept a remote URL as an item in the My Files Library.  Instead of uploading the file to DukeCast, the file will stay on the remote server indicated by the URL and be passed to DukeCast when Album users preview, download, or check their subscriptions.
• Once a file is added to the My Files Library it can be used as an Episode in Albums you create.  If you should wish to edit or remove a file in the My Files Library, simply click the file's name and the below information will be presented, along with links to edit or delete the file.  Deleting or editing a file here will change it across all albums which use that file as an episode.

Album Management

Album Management refers to a set of interfaces for adding episodes to a podcast and changing the properties of that Album.  It also includes the My files Library and granting access to the album to other Duke users.  The screens below can be accessed by logging on at the home screen and clicking on an Album you own or have permission to edit, and wish to manage.

Clicking on Edit this Podcast will take you to the Album Properties page, where you can edit various options for this Album.
Clicking on Delete this Podcast will remove the album from DukeCast but will not remove the episode files from the MyFiles library.

Clicking on the large plus sign will add an episode by opening the dialogue below. You'll select the MyFiles Library file you want to add from the dropdown menu. Alternately, you can drag items from the MyFiles library and drop them into the Episodes area to open the dialogue and automatically populate the dropdown menu.

"Publish on" allows you to indicate a release date when the new episode will be available to browsers and subscribers.
The Explicit checkbox, when checked, will mark the episode with an explicit warning icon. Please remember you are responsible for your own content and to follow applicable laws and policies regarding the content you post.
When finished entering information you can click Save to post your new episode to this album.
Click Cancel if you want to discard this episode or changes you have made to an already posted episode.

The permissions box allows you to make Album Management functions available to other NetID holders.
Clicking the Grant access link will allow you to add other "managers" to this album by NetID, using the interface described below. For managers that have already been added, clicking the check mark will allow you to edit their permissions and clicking the X will remove them and their assigned permissions from this album.



Read: since all users have read permissions to DukeCast albums at this time, granting this permissions essentially changes nothing.
Contribute: the user you add by NetID will now be able to add episodes to this album.
Edit: the user will now be able to edit album properties.
Administer: checking this box will allow the user to have full control of this album, including adding other user permissions.
When you have finished assigning permissions, click Save to accept the changes or Cancel to discard them.

Album Properties

The Album Properties screen is accessed by clicking the Click here to create your podcast link on the DukeCast home screen or by clicking Edit this podcast in the album management screen. It allows you to define properties, search criteria, and album covers for new podcasts or edit those items for existing albums.

	The Name you choose for your album will be used in both DukeCast and aggregators for the podcast name. The Description you give to the album will likewise be displayed in both DukeCast and aggregators. Both name and description are searchable fields in DukeCast. The Podcast type is used by DukeCast when searching albums and by aggregators as the category tag.
	This portion of the dialogue lets you upload a picture file for use as the album cover and icon in DukeCast. File name and notes are how the uploaded image will be represented in the MyFiles library. The Browse... button lets you locate and select the picture file to upload. If the file is located on a web server, Link to a remote file instead can be used and the file located by URL.
	You may check none, one, or more directories (the tabs and containers on the home screen of DukeCast) for your album to be available in. If you choose to post in departmental or courses be advised that aliases cannot be used for the publisher identity the album displays.
	Clicking Advanced options will reveal a few additional options. Publishing anonymously is not currently available but you may use Publish as: to choose from your aliases so long as you are not publishing to one of the two restricted spaces. If some or all of your episodes will be marked explicit, you may wish to also mark the album explicit. Choosing to keep episodes numbered will automatically add "Episode #" to the title of episodes as you add them, where # indicates the order in which you added the episodes.

Advertising/Linking your Podcasts

Albums published in DukeCast can be linked from other websites or advertised via email in two ways:

1) Posting a link to the Album

2) Posting the link that allows direct subscription to the Album Podcast

Posting a link to the Album:

1) Point your browser to dukecast.oit.duke.edu

2) Navigate to your Album and click on it to view the episodes

3) Copy the URL at the top of the page

4) Paste that URL into the email you want to send out or link to it from another web page.

5) If you are logged in the URL will look like this . You can remove the auth/ piece of the URL and distribute the rest.

Posting a Subscription Link:

1) Point your browser to dukecast.oit.duke.edu

2) Navigate to your Album and click on it to view the episodes

3) Copy the URL for the RSS feed, which appears just below the Album title.

4) Publicize the URL to the RSS feed. If you'd like to create a "subscribe in iTunes" button on your website simply make that link to the same URL but replace 'http' with 'itpc'.

5) Users will take this URL and paste it into their aggregators. An example of where they do this appears below, in the popular aggregator Juice.

Please send update requests or corrections here.