What's the difference between iTunes U podcast, and podcast on our own site

Nikki,

I'm not sure I'm reading you correctly…if I'm missing something, please let me know.

In any iTunes U course, there are three kinds of "groups" ("tabs") you can create within it…you can setup a "simple" group (this is the kind that you use to upload content to iTunes U, if your site allows it…sounds like yours does)…there is a "smart" group (this acts like a smart folder/search…it finds all content in your site that matches certain search criteria)…and last, but not least, there is a "feed" group. A feed group can be used to display content hosted at an RSS feed at your site.

So you could setup a feed group within one of your iTunes U courses and tell it about your local RSS feed. Apple will then pull the feed and redisplay it using iTunes. The actual content only lives in one place (your RSS server).

Does that make any sense?

Nikki (I think that's right…if I've got your name wrong, please feel free to let me know 🙂 ).

First thing is that you can just call me "Rich"…"Wolf" is my last name. 🙂

Nextly, "RSS" is "Really Simple Syndication". Loads of websites have RSS feeds. You've probably seen those little RSS icons on a lot of websites…they tell you when a particular website also offers up an RSS feed. And like any other kind of "server-y" thing, a web server admin can turn a web server into a RSS server.

Now it turns out that an RSS feed and a podcast feed are, for all intents and purposes, the same kind of thing. In fact, the combo of "RSS feed" plus "portable music player" equals "podcast" is what made both Dave Winer and Adam Curry famous guys. 🙂

Now your question applied to iTunes U might be answered this way...in iTunes U, a podcast feed can come from one of two places. Historically, the feeds have all come from Apple (you upload content to Apple and Apple feeds it to your users). What you can do now is tell Apple about a local podcast (RSS) feed at your own site and allow Apple to redirect users (in iTunes) back to your own feed. You can do this by creating a "feed" group in iTunes U as an iTunes U admin. When you create a feed group in iTunes U, you do not need to upload content to Apple…you just need to tell Apple enough about your RSS feed so that Apple can access it.

I think I understand how groups work but when I try to create a new group the "simple" option is not available in the drop down list. I can see the "feed" and "smart" options but not "simple". I am logged in as the administrator.

Message was edited by: SteveSanchez

I'm pretty sure I know why. I'm going to give you my take on it, but (as always) I defer to Duncan for the "official" explanation. 🙂 🙂 Please don't take anything I say as authoritative.

Let us say that there are two versions of iTunes U…we'll call the old version "iTunes U Classic" and the new version "New iTunes U". These aren't the official names…they are my names…I just made them up.

In "Classic" iTunes U, Apple gave your iTunes U site 500 GB of storage on Apple's servers. In order to use "Classic" iTunes U, you'd have to upload content to Apple. If you ran out of storage on Apple's servers, you were out of luck. "Classic" iTunes U was the way to do things from 2006 to early 2008.

Turns out that a lot of iTunes U Classic admins wanted to have a way to host content on their own servers, instead of Apple's. They had various reasons for wanting to do so…content could be in one place (one RSS feed for Apple or anyone else), fewer network hops for users to get to content, no need to upload content to Apple, the ability to have as much content as a site would like to have (no 500 GB limit), control over content for political reasons, and so on. So Apple added a feature to iTunes U Classic…the feed group.

Well, with the success of iTunes U (I don't know this for a fact, but I'm guessing that the number of iTunes U sites is between one and ten thousand), I suspect Apple decided the best course would be to simplify iTunes U by bringing it into parity with the podcasting world, generally speaking. Non-iTunes U podcasts in the iTunes Store are always hosted by private feed servers. So now we have "New iTunes U". In "New" iTunes U, we host our own content and just tell Apple about our feeds. No muss, no fuss. If you signed your iTunes U contract with Apple after the beginning of this year (2009), you've got "New" iTunes U; if you signed earlier, you've got iTunes U "Classic". Because Apple honors its contracts, "Classic" iTunes U sites can choose to use simple or feed groups. But if you're in "New" iTunes U, you just see feed groups.

I'm going to run for cover now. 🙂 🙂

Thank you! This is helpful. I gave up on "Simple" groups and we're in business. I had a question into an Apple tech at the same time, didn't hear from him so I posted it to this group instead. Heard back from him today. He included a helpful link...to your answer! So maybe that's the confirmation you were looking for. Thank you again.

Steve,

I am glad my answer was helpful and I am glad you got feed groups working. They're actually pretty cool once you get used to them. 🙂 I"m old-school in this…I'm used to simple groups. But feed groups are definitely A Good Thing and the wave of the future. 🙂 I am already thinking about how my own site might transition to them exclusively.

And trust me, I'm the farthest thing from brilliant when it comes to iTunes U…in the past three years, I've been fortunate to meet a lot of really smart people at Apple, engineers like Keith Mountin, Bill Duff, Mike Miley (no relation to Miley Cyrus 🙂 ), Jason Bruder, George Cook, Steve Hayman, Mike Bombich, Bob Frank…as well as a bunch of others, not least of which is Duncan himself. They set me straight on almost everything…all I have to do is remember it all. 🙂 Anything you read here is due more to their expertise than mine. 🙂