Tung Podcast Player Goes Open Source

Tung logoTung, self-described as “a social podcast player,” has gone open source. Tung’s developer made the announcement via Reddit earlier this week:

Some of you may have seen my posts about tung.fm in the past. It’s a social podcast app I developed for web and iOS – “Discover podcasts by sharing comments, clips, and recommendations with your friends.” Well, now it is completely open-source…
I would like to invite anyone here who’s interested to contribute. I would especially love it if someone made an Android client.
I chose to make it open source so that it can have maximum benefit to the community.

Tung is a podcast consumption and sharing system that is currently available thru the web or as an iOS app. Podcast listeners can find their favorite shows on Tung and leave comments, share clips, and make recommendations. More from the Tung website:

Tung is a streaming podcast player designed to help you discover the best podcasts – the ones recommended by your peers and friends! With Tung you get a feed of what your friends are recommending, commenting on and sharing clips of.

While listening to a podcast, you can easily make an audio clip of any moment you find interesting and share it directly to Twitter and Facebook. And in the feed you can listen to clips your friends made of the most interesting or funny moments in a podcast.

Anyone interested in contributing to the further development of Tung as an open source project can do so via Github. The Tung app itself can be accessed thru the links above or on the iOS App Store.

Podchaser Is Creating the IMDb of Podcasts

Podchaser logoSince podcasting’s earliest days, there’s been an inherent need to try and organize the chaos that appears to be inherent within the medium. After all, podcasting was born of the old notion that the internet is a free and open environment, where not everything has to be stuffed into a singular vertical. While there are plenty of forces at work today that’d like to fence podcasting in, the medium is still mostly open, and still mostly free. Hence, the need for continued organizing of the ever-expanding podcast space remains essential.

If you’ve ever needed to look up specific information on a movie, TV show, or even a video game, you’ve probably visited the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). It’s one of the oldest and most trusted authorities on all things actor, director, producer, etc. on the web. A new startup called Podchaser is working on creating what it’s calling “the IMDb of podcasts.”

Podchaser was recently introduced via Reddit, where it spawned a lively discussion thread:

Podcast discovery is an ongoing problem for podcast listeners. Some recommendation algorithms exist, but they’re generally based off podcast show preferences, rather than episode preference. Generally, the same 10 or so podcasts are recommended and remain on top charts. So, we are building a system around individual episode ratings and reviews. Our front page will feature the hottest episodes rather than podcasts, allowing users to discover a broader array of content. Users can also check out reviews on individual episodes before diving in. Some podcasts have shows with varying degrees of quality, and now you can just check out feedback in one place rather than googling around fan forums and subreddits.

Podchaser is beginning a beta program on June 10, 2017, and is currently soliciting feedback from the podcasting community to see what features people would like from a service like this. To get involved in that discussion, follow the Reddit thread linked above. To sign up for Podchaser’s newsletter and see some teaser images of what the service may look like, go to the Podchaser website.

Meta Explosion – PCN Show 022

PCN iTunes artworkWe’ve decided to take things in a new direction with the Podcaster News Show, starting with this episode. Hosts Shawn Thorpe and Jen Thorpe will bring you a run-down of the podcasting related articles that we found interesting, but that didn’t get a write-up on the Podcaster News website.

Links Mentioned in this episode:

* Confessions of a Podcast Addict
By Rebecca Ladd at The Odyssey Online

* So You Wanna Make a Podcast/You Have a Review Request
By Captnq on Reddit

* NPR Editorial Training
A comprehensive guide to NPR’s editorial methods for content

* These 3D Printing Designers Used Podcasting To Create a Massive Audience Fast
By Cheryl Conner at Forbes

* 37 Podcasts So Meta, They All Cover the Topic of Podcasting Itself
By Harry Duran on Medium