SpokenWord.org is a free non-profit service that helps you find, manage and share audio and video spoken-word recordings. All of the recordings are found elsewhere on the Web and submitted to our database by members like you. SpokenWord.org isn't a place to upload videos or podcasts. It's a directory and a search engine where you can find the best audio and video spoken-word recordings regardless of where they are published.
Information about the audio and video programs on SpokenWord.org is stored in our database in three ways:
Collections are the secret sauce of SpokenWord.org. Once you're a registered member -- it's free! -- you can add programs to your collections in many ways.
Other things you can do with your Collections:
Learn about collections
An Introduction to Collections
Collections: Advanced Topics
Absolutely! Go to your Collections page and click on the [Create] link.
By default we add new programs to the top of your collection because that's what most podcast subscribers expect (most-recent first). You can change this behavior by editing your profile and selecting the option to "add new programs at the bottom."
No. We link to media files on other web sites. We don't copy files or pages.
You can use SpokenWord.org as a better way to manage podcast subscriptions for iTunes or other podcatchers. Think of SpokenWord.org as a funnel. You collect streams (RSS feeds) of programs from all over the Web, then combine them into a singe collection on SpokenWord.org. Then in iTunes you subscribe to just one feed: the feed from your SpokenWord.org collection. Most people find that SpokenWord.org's collections are a much better way to manage RSS subscriptions. Not only do you have easy access to a vast array of spoken-word programs already found by other members, you can also add any other feeds or programs from anywhere on the Web.
Start by adding programs to your collection. Then subscribe to your collection as a podcast using iTunes or any other podcatcher or RSS reader software. For iTunes, just go to your My SpokenWord Page and click on your collection's iTunes icon:
For other popular podcatchers (My Yahoo!, Newsgator, Bloglines, Google Reader)
click on one of the rectangular buttons. For other RSS readers, use the RSS 2.0 icon.
After a great deal of discussion and experimentation, we settled on using the same taxonomy (categorization) as Apple's iTunes. This has proven to be extremely valuable for our members, the majority of whom are in fact iTunes/iPod users. We use tags to support a larger, more-flexible and user-managed superimposed taxonomy.
Rather than ask you to upload an image just for our web site and repeat the process for every web site you visit, we use a service called Gravatars (globally recognized avatars). If you change your photo or avatar on the Gravatar web site, it will instantly be changed on all the sites that use their service. And if you don't yet have a picture, Gravatar will create a unique snowflake for you.
Most programs with mature or potentially ofensive content are flagged as 'explicit'. If you encounter material that you believe should be flagged as 'explicit' but is not or that is otherwise inappropriate (eg, a program that isn't primarily spoken-word) click on the [report] link on any program, collection or feed page. Our website administrators will be notified and take appropriate action. Note that you must be registered and logged in to report inappropriate content.
Of course you can always edit the metadata (titles, descriptions, tags and categories) of your own collections. But you can also edit the metadata of individual programs submitted by anyone. It works like a wiki. We allow you to edit these metadata in order to improve the quality of our catalog. In particular, we encourage you to add tags to programs to make them easier for others to find. Also like a wiki, we have the ability to keep track of who made each change and to roll back to any earlier version.
We don't copy media files or web pages. Everything in our database comes from public RSS feeds or embeddable players. But if one of our members submits your programs or feeds to SpokenWord.org and you'd like us to remove them, just send email to support@conversationsnetwor.org and we will gladly remove it.
If you want to prohibit others from deep linking to your media files you might want to configure your web server to prevent the practice. For example, if your web site is running on an Apache server you can use mod_rewrite to restrict access to your files from external sites.
Badges are awarded for actions performed on SpokenWord.org. See our Badges page for details.
If you find a great spoken-word audio or video recording on the Web you can submit it as an individual program or an RSS or Atom feed.
SpokenWord.org is a project of The Conversations Network, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and a section 501(c)(3) public charity under the (U.S.) Internal Revenue Code.
We don't. We're a nonprofit and we depend on donations and dues from members like you to bring SpokenWord.org to the world for free.
SpokenWord.org's database includes previews of programs that are fee-based and which are only available with usage restrictions or DRM (digital-resource management) from sources such as Audible.com for two reasons: (1) We want to be a source for all spoken-word recordings; and (2) We receive affiliate-program commissions from vendors, which helps us bring you SpokenWord.org for free. We recognize that the inclusion of fee/DRM content is controversial and we're trying to do so with full transparency. If you believe our presentation of these programs is in appropriate, please join our discussion.
We process incoming feeds as follows:
