Free Culture Podcasts

History

The project dates back to 2013 when the idea of keeping a list of Linux, Making, Hacking and other technical podcasts was suggested. Various attempts to build such a system were made, culminating in a Perl script called feedWatcher which maintained a SQLite database of podcast feeds.

For the FOSDEM meeting of 2020 a table was obtained to represent as many of the Free Culture podcasts whose details could be collected. The name Free Culture Podcasts was used, a website created (https://freeculturepodcasts.org) and feedWatcher enhanced to generate the HTML to populate it.

Other reports were generated for handouts, etc. The FOSDEM table was deemed a success as it created a fair bit of interest.

Post COVID

Another table was requested at FOSDEM for the 2023 meeting, which unlike the previous years, was in-person.

The feedWatcher script and the database

No significant development has been carried out since 2020. The script is still capable of generating HTML reports and other listings using TT² (Template Toolkit) templates.

More podcast URLs have been added to the database. Several were provided by the HPR host 'norrist'. A process of scanning the #podcast hashtag on Mastodon has also turned up some potential additions.

The original design of the script was to be able to scan feeds already in the database to determine their status. This was planned to enable deleted and fading feeds to be spotted. As feeds are loaded into the database details of their enclosures are also stored, so it is possible to give statistics about feed activity.

Unfortunately, the scan function was not implemented in 2020 and has not been added since, so this feature is not available yet.