Audio publishing and podcasting

Registered users can upload audio content, and tag their content with keywords. Other users can then search for this content either by tag, or by searching on the title, description or author of the content.

All of the ID3 metadata embedded in the MP3 file is indexed and searchable. The edit audio file form that Plone provides, also allows for editing of the ID3 metadata. When the user clicks Save, this metadata is written back to the file.

This means that if a user forgets to add the ID3 metadata (i.e. in iTunes) before uploading the file, they can add it via the website by simply filling out a form. The metadata is then used by streaming software to display this pertinent information to the listener. 

Podcasts can be created by non-technical users based on criteria they specify (by genre, by artist, by year, by keyword, etc.) through an easy-to-use web interface.

See the Plone4ArtistsAudio page for more info.

Video publishing and embedded videos

You can upload Quicktime, Windows Media or Flash videos to your Plone site and the video metadata is automatically extracted, and an appropriate player is used to play back the video in the browser.

The Plone4Artists Video Embed product lets you add videos that are hosted on Google Video, YouTube and dozens of other video sharing sites. Once they are added to your site, you can make dynamic listings, comment, rate and assign additional metadata to them.

See TheDailyReel.com site and EngageMedia.org for examples of the video capabilities of Plone4ArtistsVideo.

Bulk uploading of files

Plone provides several mechanisms to make it easy for users to upload multimedia content to the site:

• Standard web form
• WebDAV/FTP - mount remote volume and drag-n-drop from OSX or Windows Explorer
• Upload a Zip file containing audio files, and they are unzipped on the server and added to the site. (Uses ZipFileTransport)
  
• Upload multiple files using the Flash upload tool
  
• Drag-n-drop audio files into a web-based Java applet. (Uses PloneJUpload)
  

Ratings of content

Using the ContentRatings product, users can rate content by giving it 1-5 stars. You can also distinguish between user rated and editor rated. Highly rated content can then appear in listings, or portlets on the frontpage of the site.

Tagging of content

Using the ContentTagging product, users can add one or more tags to any piece of content on the site. A tag cloud is generated to allow for browsing through this set of tags.

Commenting on content

Using the EasyCommenting product, users can add comments to a piece of content. These comments can be reviewed by a moderator before being published.

Stream and download multimedia content

The Plone4ArtistsAudio component for Plone provides for streaming and downloading of audio content. It also has a Flash player to play back MP3 files directly within the browser and a Java player to play back Ogg files.

Alternatively, you can stream the audio or video from a 3rd party hosting service such as Google Video or YouTube.

Workflow for moderation of content

Plone’s standard workflow tool provides a robust system for ensuring that uploaded content undergoes a review process. User submits content for review, and then when an editor with the reviewer role logs in, they will see a list of content items waiting for review. See the figure to the right for an example of submitting an audio file for review.

Once an editor approves the item, it is published to the site. The editor can also reject the item and add a comment which goes back to the author who originally submitted the item. A complete workflow history is displayed by clicking on the history link.

You can designate multiple editors who have the review role, and have different editors for different areas of the site.

Blogs

The site will provide the capability for each artist and fan to have their own blog. Plone has several add-ons which provide blogging capabilities. The most popular blogging add-on is Quills, which has all of the standard features that you would expect in a blogging tool (categories, commenting, trackback, pingback, RSS feeds). The blog entries are searchable throughout the site, and bloggers can include audio content in their blog posts.

Online maps of performance venues

There are a number of mapping products for Plone which let you enter places as data points, and these places are displayed on a map. There are also geocoding tools for Plone which, given a street address, will return latitude/longitude coordinates. (Uses Maps from Plone Solutions)

Community feedback (polls, surveys, forums, etc.)

There are many add-on products for Plone which provide community feedback features.

• PlonePoPoll - polls
• PloneSurvey - surveys
• PloneFormGen - through-the-web form generation
  
• PloneBoard - discussion boards
  

Events calendar

Plone4ArtistsCalendar lets you activate any folder containing events as a calendar with a special month view. Click on a day in the calendar to see a summary of that day's events. Also has an event listing view and archive of past events. Supports import/export of events via iCalendar.

Publishing calendar to site

Plone makes it easy to publish a calendar that was created in a desktop application such as Apple iCal or Mozilla Sunbird to the website. All of the events become objects on the website and can be displayed in a month, week or day views.

This makes it possible to create the radio station schedule in a program such as iCal and easily update the website with the click of a button.

Assigning Creative Commons licenses

You may want to let your members assign a Creative Commons license to their audio content when they upload it to the site. The ContentLicensing add-on developed by Utah State University provides this functionality.

Roadmap