TIL: Podcast Index
The Podcast Index is here to preserve, protect and extend the open, independent podcasting ecosystem.
We do this by enabling developers to have access to an open, categorized index that will always be available for free, for any use.
Has an API. Interestingly, the entire podcast database (guessing not full content of enclosures isn’t included) can be downloaded. Mmmmmm… data.
The team behind the Podcast Index is leading a Podcasting 2.0 “movement” to add some features to RSS to improve the podcast experience for publishers and listeners.
Podcasting 2.0 is a set of forward looking ideas combined with the technology to realize them. It’s a vision for what the podcast listener experience can and should be. That experience has stagnated for over a decade, with almost all of the improvements coming in isolated sections of the ecosystem. There hasn’t been a single, unified vision from the podcasting community acting together with one voice. So, we’ve ended up with fragments of innovation across the podcasting landscape with no central driving goal in mind. Podcasting 2.0 is the expression of what that goal could be.
Bonus project: Sucky pulls down an RSS feed and all of its enclosures.
Hat tip to a great Changelog podcast episode, natch, discussing RSS with Ben Ubois, the creator of one of my favorite services feedbin.