Learn more about podcast feeds

What is podcasting?
Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files over the Internet for playback on mobile devices or personal computers. Through podcasts, you can be automatically notified as soon as updates are made. Podcasting's essence is about creating content (audio or video) for an audience that wants to listen or watch when they want, where they want, and how they want.

To listen to podcasts, you will need some software on your computer (a podcasts reader client) or access to a Web site that offers the same functionality. To "subscribe" to a feed, simply right-click the related button and click Copy Link Location or Copy Shortcut, then paste it into your podcast reader.

What clients are available?
There are two main types of clients available, some free, some available for purchase. These are:

Desktop aggregators are available for Windows, Linux, and just about every other platform.
Web-based or online clients are special Web sites where you set up an account and then subscribe to listen to all your podcast feeds from one location.
The desktop-based based clients have the advantage of letting you listen to information offline and being as fast as your computer. The online ones have the advantage of letting you listen to your feeds from anywhere you have an internet connection and web browser.

How do I add a feed to my client?
The exact procedure depends very much on the capabilities of your podcast software, but basically it is as follows:

Using your Web browser, go to the site of the organization you want to follow and look for the image.
Right-click the icon and click Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer) or Copy Link Location (Firefox), or the equivalent for your browser.
Start your podcast reader software or go to your preferred Web based podcast aggregator.
Look for the button, link, or menu that says Add a Feed or similar.
Paste in the URL you copied in step 2 (either right-click in the field and click Paste, or click the field and press Ctrl+V).
Click OK or Add to add the feed.

The feed should now be added to your list of feeds.

OPML
To aid organizations (aggregators) that share lists of podcast feeds with others, IBM also offers an OPML-formatted file http://www.ibm.com/ibm/syndication/podcasts/index.opml. For more information about OPML, its use, and its specification, see Wikipedia's OPML page at http://wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML.

Disclaimer: Any references to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those web sites. Your use of any non-IBM Web site is at your own risk.