Clark Internet Publishing has announced that it will add a Podcast tool to its CIP Sitemaker content management system. The tool will manage audio files and display a list of podcast episodes.

Podcasting is a new way to add sound files to a web site. The files can be played from a web page, downloaded for replay on the computer or a portable player, or retrieved from any of several podcast indexing sites.

Applications abound. Businesses can embed sales pitches or training files. Churches can embed music or sermons. Schools can embed lessons or learning resources. With Sitemaker's Podcast tool, these will appear as a seamless part of the same site, accessible with a single click, inline with related content.

Unlike sites that only host podcasts, the Sitemaker Podcast tool is embedded among other content. This allows a visitor to experience sound files without leaving the site (and being diverted to other content by advertising).

Like other Sitemaker tools (blog, calendar, directory, roster...) that manage specific types of web content, the Podcast will manage audio files from the Sitemaker Editing Suite and display playlists on automatically formatted pages in a user's site.

Content managed by the podcast tool may also be embedded in other parts of the site, erasing the distinction between visible and audible content. This is also an exciting new way to add parallel content for the visually impaired, which has been a major deficiency of the web experience since its origin in the 1990s.

In addition, the Sitemaker Podcast tool will automatically generate an index file (XML) whose address (URL) can be added to indexing sites like Apple's iTunes Store, iPodder, etc. The XML file will be recomposed whenever a file is added or deleted. Indexing sites on which the podcast is registered automatically retrieve the XML file and reindex their own records, making the current podcast list available to their users soon after it is made available on the Sitemaker platform. (Indexing frequency varies among the indexing sites.)

Manual podcast support is available now. The automated tool will be available December 1, 2006. The first site to incorporate podcasting with Sitemaker was Shift Break with Tom Herriman, a Seattle based news and commentary program on KBCS-FM radio.

The term "podcast" is of recent origin. It derives from Apple Computer's popular iPod music player, which has been adapted from its original musical application to include sound files of all types. Approximately 70 million iPods are in use among about 140 million MP3 players of all types.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, "Only a year ago, podcasting was an arcane activity, the domain of a few techies and self-admitted 'geeks.' Now you can hear everything from NASCAR coverage to NPR's All Things Considered in downloadable audio files called 'podcasts'. Thousands of podcasts are available at the iTunes Music Store, and websites such as iPodder.com and Podcast.net track thousands more. That's why the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected "podcast" as the Word of the Year for 2005. ...Podcast, defined as 'a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player,"' will be added to the next online update of the New Oxford American Dictionary, due in early 2006." (After govtech.net, 13 Dec 2005.)

The term "podcast" is sometimes used both for an individual file or for a collection of files. A podcast as found at iTunes or iPodder refers to a series of episodes indexed by source or producer. In Sitemaker a "podcast" will refer to a series, and an "episode" will refer to a single sound file available for play.