Dircaster Package
It does not seem too difficult for many people to create the mp3 file which contains the thoughts, music and sound experiments they want to send out to the world as a podcast, but looking around, creating the RSS feed and pointing people to it seems a stumbling block, even for people who can edit web pages.
Ryan King has created a php script called “dircaster” which you put in a directory on a web server with the mp3 file or files you want to podcast and point people to “dircaster.php” as the feed. The script creates the RSS feed instantly by reading the tags in the mp3.
This script works really well, but is almost too simple. I have packaged dircaster with an index page. As well as creating a nice link to dircaster which people can put into their podcasting software, it lists the mp3 files in the directory so people who want to download or listen to them can do so without having a podcast client. To use the package, you unzip it into a directory on a web server which runs php4 (most of them). You put some mp3s in the same directory and you point a browser at it. You will almost certainly want to edit dircaster.php and index.php to have sensible values for your site, and to add a bit of interest and personality to the index page.
I have spotted that dircaster.php can have a problem or two obtaining the correct url for itself and for files on some servers. I have not quite pinned down the issue yet, so watch the discussion at Ryan King’s site.