MetBlogger - Information Technology in Education

The Power of Podcasting

And Why It’s Not Just a Fad

By: Eric Durrand

Some words, such as blog (n.), phishing (v.), or googling (v.), are a mark of the age. Podcasting (n.) is the newest addition, and like the others – it can have a big impact on your school. According to the Oxford New American Dictionary, which termed Podcasting the new “Word of the Year 2005”, it means: “A digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.”

In fact, one does not have to be a radio professional, or any kind of professional, to create your own podcasting “station”; and you don’t have to have a portable player to listen to it – you can listen on your computer. All you need to have is a computer, a microphone (if you wish to record your own show), and a passion for sharing ideas. Today, big media companies like Fox News, Wall Street Journal, CNN, and ESPN all have their own podcasts. Even the President’s got one. But like blogs, which are also common now on big media sites, podcasting’s greatest benefit lies in empowering individuals who are not media professionals to express and share their ideas.

With the introduction of blogs to our lives, many came up with the idea of an audio-blog: similar to the online personal journals, only recorded instead of typed-in. Some services, such as AudioBlogger.com, allowed users to call a specific phone number and “leave a message”, which would then be published to their personal blogs for everyone to listen. That allowed many travelers to share their experiences even while away from their computer, but also started a trend that evolved into today’s podcasting. The podcasts of today don’t require a blog – they are usually a collection of MP3 files, with an RSS “feed” file that describes each file (Giving the specific show’s title, a short summary, etc.).

The name Podcasting was inspired by the iPod portable music player, and indeed with the portable players came podcasting’s great popularity. Owners of an MP3 player (of any kind, not just the iPod), can now subscribe to a specific podcast or “feed”, and always have the latest show of their chosen channel on their player. Latest versions of iTunes, the music player application that comes with iPod, have a built-in Podcasts directory, where you can find and subscribe to your favorite shows at the click of a mouse. And Yahoo! Podcasts service, while still in BETA phase, allows not only subscribing, but also creating and hosting your own Podcasting station, with naught more than a microphone and a computer with Internet connection.

In schools, podcasting can be used for any number of purposes. Teachers can record their classes and allow students who missed class, or want to review, to download them. School announcements and reports to parents can make a podcast, as well as lectures, sermons, or special guest talks. Students themselves can be offered the opportunity to manage their own official school podcast – similar to a student radio station, only with greater potential, and smaller cost. Students who have their own portable players would be able to carry the latest shows, classes, and lectures with them, and use spare time to catch up on what they missed.

Podcasting’s popularity is only increasing: According to a recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, nearly a third of US adults who own iPods or other types of MP3 players have downloaded podcasts. Among people 18 to 28 who owned an MP3 player, nearly half of them have at least tried podcasting. So can you start podcasting? Companies that offer blogging or website hosting services, would often offer a podcasting service as well. There are also dedicated podcasting services, such as the aforementioned Yahoo Podcasts, AudioBlog.com, BlipMedia.org, MyPodcasts.net, and iCanCast.com. Once you find a provider, you need to think up good ideas for the kind of show you want to produce (is it a news show, a music show, or a talk show?), think up some ideas for shows – and then get a microphone and start recording away!

Asterisk PBX: Telephony’s Future?

The Open Source PBX is Making Waves

By: Eric Durrand

VoIP, or Voice over IP (Voice over a Data Network), is hot! A growing number of organizations implement a network based Private Branch eXchange (PBX) Telephon System, and more individuals use VoIP applications like Skype to communicate while online. IP telephony offers greater functionality at a lower cost and according to Gartner Research, U.S. spending on VoIP systems will reach $903 million in 2005, up from $686 million in 2004. Gartner predicts that 97% of new phone system installed in North America by 2007 will either be pure VoIP or hybrid systems accepting both VoIP, and conventional phone calls.

Asterisk PBX, a popular Open Source telephony solution, is one of the forerunners of VoIP for small and medium size organizations, and a way for schools to enjoy features available only in high-end, expensive systems combined with the benefits of VoIP at costs lower then conventional systems. Running on Linux, BSD, Solaris, or OS X, and supporting both VoIP and old fashioned telephone systems, Asterisk provides full featured enterprise telephony services, including extensions, voicemail, music on hold, voicemail to e-mail, conference calls, caller ID, interactive voice response, call queuing and forwarding, distinctive rings, and more. Asterisk treats voice as data so one can receive voicemail messages into one’s e-mail inbox, log phone calls in a meaningful way, or easily manage the automatic call screening and routing system.

An additional benefit of Asterisk PBX is cost reduction: A free system under the GNU public license, it allows small organizations, such as schools and even homes, to enjoy an Enterprise Class phone system. Experts predict that moving from a traditional telephone system to VoIP can save consumers 30% or more in total cost of ownership. An Open Source (GNU) software PBX system can help you save even more by handling old telephony and VoIP, Asterisk saves you money on maintenance; the same technicians that service your computers can service your PBX and its configuration, by using none proprietary phones that are much cheaper, it is also compatible with many existing systems and supports various “Softphones” traditionally used for PC to PC calls, including Windows/MSN Messenger, X-Lite, and Kiax. PC phones and non-proprietary SIP phones can be used with Asterisk PBX to expand the reach of the school phone system. What this means is that companies can now deploy home based extensions of the school phone system; supporting the proliferation of virtual offices and the ability for people to be reached via their office phone system, anywhere in the world. In addition, people working from home can use the office phone system to make their work-related calls. Asterisk will also work with USB phones and SIP-compliant headsets, and even plain old phones, with appropriate adapters.

The functionality improvement over old PBX systems are significant: from authentication and blacklists, to call monitoring and recording, emergency 911 service, MP3-based music on transfer, to automatic SMS messaging – this solution is a 21st century, smart PBX; so smart and cost effective that, in fact, it is predicted that the telecommunications industry will be radically altered. A modified version of Asterisk, Asterisk@Home, brings the benefits of a PBX system into the home, allowing personalized menu systems, transfer music, and even wake-up calls!

You can find useful information in this newly released book by O’Reilly - Asterisk: The Future of Telephony. The book outlines the implementation options, discusses the ground-breaking economical and even social implications of open source VoIP telephony, and shows how to set up the various services, and merge voice and data traffic seamlessly across disparate networks.

Telephony, like other media today, is going through a Digital Convergence Revolution transforming it into a Digital Data Stream over the Internet. In telephony the transformation is almost complete and, in a decade or so, the old voice-only lines will be a thing of the past. The bottom line of this transformation, which your school can start today, is a considerable improvement in the cost effectiveness of telephony; reducing costs, improving productivity, the reach, and mobility of the telephone and the people who use it, through voice-data integration. Asterisk can get you there at a very reasonable price; are you willing to give it a try?