Stations cautiously interested in open-source site software
Sixty-three percent of public radio and TV stations responding to a recent survey by PubForge.org are using open-source software in their websites, and more are interested in starting. Ninety percent want to participate in a webinar or group discussion about doing more with open source.
But the interest is balanced with worries about relying on free open-source software, says Bill Haenel, former webmaster of North Country Public Radio, a founding member of PubForge, a group of webmasters who advocate open source.
But half of respondents expressed concerns about availability of support and other matters. Expertise is in short supply at many stations. More than half don’t allocate any full-time employees to their websites; a quarter assign just one full-timer. Many stations skip refinements of their sites; 83 percent don’t set up special formatting for handheld devices.
What open-source software is wanted? About 70 percent said they were interested in open-source online media player, with user-created playlists; tools for adding social networking to their websites; a complete content management and audio file management system; and tools for putting user-generated content online.
Sixty-one percent want a system for accepting audience micropayments online; 48 percent wanted tools for reporting music usage to the recording industry’s Sound Exchange copyright agent.
Of 64 responding, half assembled their websites page by page, without a content management system. Twenty use commonly available on-source CMS’s including WordPress (eight), Drupal (eight) and Joomla (three) for all or parts of their sites. Fourteen use a CMS hosted by Public Interactive.
About 60 percent of sites include syndicated material distributed by RSS feeds, and similar numbers use content received via widgets or podcasts.
To manage audio files, 35 percent use Enco Digital Audio Delivery software and 18 percent use Broadcast Electronics’ AudioVault systems.
In a survey heavy with radio stations, two-thirds put no video on their sites; 25 percent embed YouTube videos; 13 percent feed Flash players.
Web page posted Sept. 30, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC