EPN is a directory of Podcast programs. The best way to find a podcast in the area that you work is to go to the directory listing in the left panel of this page and click the subject area that is most related to your interests. A list of podcasts programs in that area will spread down. To view a list of individual shows, click the program title. After a moment, the show's listing will appear in the middle panel. From this listing you can:
Click the program title to access the web site for the podcast program,
Click the show title to access the web page for a particular show,
Most podcast programs publish themselves as RSS Feeds. An RSS feed is a file that is updated each time the podcaster publishes a new show. This file contains information that describes the program and each show that has been published for the program. The information is formated with a language called XML, that makes the information easy to understand by other computers. This is very important and is going to have an enormous impact on how we use information in the future.
To subscribe to a podcast, you need an aggregator. This is a web site or software program that helps you to organized podcast programs, blogs, and other syndicated (RSS) feeds. In order to subscribe to a podcast, all you need to do is to tell your aggregator where the RSS feed file is. The aggregator does all of the rest.
Here are steps for subscribing to a podcast using iPodder, a free podcast aggregator.
Download and install the iPodder program. Go to the iPodder web site (http://ipodder.org/) and then click Download Ipodder in the menu to the right.
Several folders will appear for various computer platforms. iPodder is currently available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. There are also other podcast aggregators available for nearly all platforms, but these instructions will apply only to iPodder.
Open the folder for your computer, Windows or Macintosh, and then click the download link for your computer platform. The SourceFORGE download page will appear. Click the file icon to the right of the location that is closest to you, though any of them will do (unless the Moscow version is written in Cyrillic).
After the file has downloaded to your computer, double-click it to install iPodder.
Run iPodder. There will be a number of tabs at the top of the application, including: Downloads, Subscriptions, Podcast directory, and Cleanup. Click the Subscribe tab to add a podcast to your iPodder.
Return to EPN and select a podcast, to which you would like to subscribe. When you click the podcast from the directory, a listing of shows will appear in the middle panel with an orange "RSS" chicklet image will appear to the right of the program description. Right-click on this image and select "Copy link location" from the popup menu in order to copy the feeds URL address into your clipboard. The wording in the menu may vary depending on the browser that you are using.
Return to iPodder, and click the green plus (+) button to add a new program. A small dialog window will appear. Paste your copied URL into the URL textbox, then click the Save button.
You can schedule download times by clicking the scheduler button. This will allow you to set specific times for iPodder to check for new podcast shows. You you can have it check at regular intervals, say every two hours.
The magic happens when you drop down the File menu and select Preferences. Here you can click the Player tab and select "Windows Media Player" to have all downloaded shows forwarded to a WMP playlist, or to "iTunes" for iTunes playlists. If using iTunes, the next time you connect your iPod, the shows will automatically be transferred to your mobile media play. Podcasting.
