There are numerous methods for the creation of an outgoing feed including the conversion of current HTML files to RSS, using fill-in-the-blank RSS creation forms like the new one from Newshour, and adapting database driven CMS tools. With all that ease of RSS creation in mind, it's still important to leverage your feed, play nice with RSS, and do all the promotion you can.

To explain what RSS is and why it has everyone so excited, let me just start out on common ground with something we already know, a traditional website. Traditionally, a website contained whatever content may have been put on it and that content may be static or may change constantly. The problem here has always been that a user had no way of knowing when or if that content had changed other than checking back periodically or being notified by someone.

It's been pointed out to me recently, and rightly so, that although I've been telling everyone how important it is to have and promote and use RSS feeds for their sites, I haven't stopped to explain anything about how one would actually go about doing that. Personally, I recommend the use of RSS Pixy Dust, but, if you don't happen to have that available, it gets a little more complicated.

Let's face it, we live in a world where any high school kid with a semester course in "web design" (if even that much training) and a copy of Frontpage can hang out a virtual shingle calling himself (or herself) a "webmaster." Factor WordPress into that with its five-minute install and innumerable themes and you have a job title glutted with people who don't know the first thing about what they're doing. An amazingly large number of otherwise intelligent business people are entrusting their entire web presence to such as these. The general public's lack of knowledge in this area only serves to exacerbate the problem.

Although most of the PBS member station websites routinely rely on the content they receive through PBS web modules to fill out their own sites, there is quite often a shortage of station web developers willing to help out in the beta-testing phase of their development. That's too bad since shortages of staff and time at PBS Interactive are already impacting development of new content. It's in our own best interest, if we're to remain relevant in the 21st-century, for us to be a willing part of this important aspect of content development.

ISPs routinely sell the concept of "Accelerated Dialup" with ridiculous phrases promising "DSL-like speed from your dialup connection." The way it works is to remove some of the quality from all of the graphics they display so that the page loads faster. The problem here is that within a week or two of signing on, most users have forgotten (if they ever noticed in the first place) this aspect of their ISP's behavior, and they begin to think that what they're seeing is just the way the web looks.

If you haven’t already heard about it–and I’m sure that most of you have–Microsoft is planning to release the first major upgrade to Internet Explorer since IE6 in 2001. With many new features, security upgrades, and changes to the core software itself, it’s a totally new browser that will suddenly be the primary browser of a good %70 or more of your audience. Is your site ready for that? If you don’t know for sure, now’s the time to find out.

Sam Bailey, Frontline’s Director of New Media and Technology, has spent the last two years developing a new, enhanced web video player designed specifically to play high-quality, large-frame video of full Frontline programs directly off of local station web sites. The new player will be able to play at a bitrate of 350k–a considerable increase over the current 220k–in a fairly large and customizable playing window, and PBS is providing the bandwidth for it. The only downside is that it’s available for broadband only.

I bring you the KIXE redesign. I have maintained the KIXE website (such as it is) for several years now with a complete redesign always pending but never approved. It's horrible design and coding has always been a thorn in my side and, with the launch of their new logo and look, I've finally gotten the go-ahead.

Introduction

In one of its most brilliant decisions ever, PBS decided to downplay itself as a national entity in favor of extending the perceived reach of every one of its local member stations. (Web: best medium for local/national convergence?) In other words, PBS in Medford, Oregon IS SOPTV, PBS in Redding, California IS KIXE, and PBS in your local town or city IS your local station. This doesn't just happen on-air, it extends online as well.

When a local station website links to a PBS program site like Frontline or Nova, it uses station-linking code to pass its station identification to that site which in turn dynamically generates a localized version of that page complete with a backlinked station logo and localized broadcast information. The end result for the user is that their local station website and the PBS.org national site (the most popular dot org site on the planet) work together as a single, cohesive unit creating the perception that they are one whole site. In fact, some studies have shown that many users are totally unaware of ever having left the local station site.

PBS localization has added to the perceived value of the local station site as a community resource. It extends the perceived reach of the local station into vast resources and archives of information that no one station could ever achieve. Basically, PBS was a Web 2.0 resource long before anyone conceived of such a term to describe that kind of online interaction and interconnectedness. Now, while the rest of the web tries to catch up to even that level, the time has come for us to extend this even further.

Individual stations across the country have for years been creating small (and some very large) pieces of original web content. Some of these are tied to local productions or events and hold little interest outside the local community, but many are very interesting slices of local history, art, and culture and have value to the system as a whole. This kind of web content along with content tied to nationally distributed programs would be ideal for localization.

The Proposal

I propose the creation of localized versions of such pages set up to take advantage of and function similarly to the already existing localization system in place on PBS.org. The beauty of this system is that it's so easy to tap into from outside sources. Actually, if you think about it, that's exactly what it was designed for.

In point of fact, creating such a localized page requires only a few things:

• the addition of the standard localized PBS navbar to the top of the page to carry users back to their local station or pass them on to PBS,
• a reworking of the page header to showcase the specific logo or content of the page rather than the organization behind it,
• the elimination of any internal site navigation, search boxes, or links meant to get site users around that specific site rather than just the specifically localized content,
• the elimination of any internal support link coupled with the addition of a PBS localized station support link (and this is very important to make it valuable to other stations,)
• a reworking of the page footer to again eliminate any standard internal site links and the addition of a sublimated organization logo, credit, link, and copyright/trademark statement,
• and, finally, a way to receive the station identification parameter through the URL and pass it into all of the PBS links.

It's really a lot less complicated than it sounds.

Reasons For Doing This

If you're wondering why a station would want to do this with their own content, there are a number of reasons:

• Showcasing your local art, history, culture, entertainment, and educational resources to stations and web users across the rest of the country is yet one more way of adding value to YOUR station as a modern and relevant connection to the rest of the world.
• It makes YOUR local station a more attractive and valuable outlet for the people who create this kind of content to bring it to.
• It supports and adds value to the system as a whole.
• It adds some small bit of value to your nationally distributed programs when stations considering running them know that there's localized content that they can link into.

Station Example

If you're tired of just hearing about this and you'd rather see it in action, then check out Sierra Center Stage, a new program being distributed by Southern Oregon Public Television. To reach that page normally as a part of the SOPTV website, you would go to www.soptv.org/scs. That takes you to the non-localized version of that page meant for users of the SOPTV site. However, with the simple addition of a question mark and your station's call letters (try www.soptv.org/scs?wnet) you get a localized version of the page complete with station logo and a support link tied to your local station's membership page (provided your membership link is current with PBS Station Remote Control.)

Potential Worries

If you're worried that this could somehow affect currently localized users and perhaps "relocalize" them to a different station, it can't. The already existing PBS localization cookie system is not affected in any way by this kind of "homemade localization." Since it doesn't store anything on the client computer, it's temporary and page-specific. When an already localized user clicks through to the PBS main site-even on the support link-the already existing PBS localization cookie will override any parameters passed in the URL and localize them accordingly. Therefore, you can't lose already localized viewers though you might potentially gain a few.

If you're worried about what will happen to users who bookmark a page like this, they'll bookmark your localization code along with the site URL. That means that unless they alter the properties of their bookmark, it will always open localized to you.

If you're worried that localizing your content for other stations could cut into potential revenues by turning the support links away from you, then this one you'll actually have to weigh against your own records. For the most part, stations do not make support money from web content linked into by other stations. However, if your station actually does, then that content would not be a good candidate for localization. No one should lose money or users by doing this.

Beyond Even The Stations Themselves

This kind of extension of station localization and what it can do goes even beyond public television station websites. Any piece of web content on any site can be localized to make it useful and valuable to PBS member stations that want to link into it. That means that any organization or individual out there with a website can make localized content available to stations to use or not use as they see fit. I don't think that it takes a major stretch of the imagination to envision a time when web producers and web content distributors will approach public broadcasting stations in much the same way as program producers and distributors with the hope of having their content featured by those stations.

Non-Station Example

If you're wondering how even a non-station website could manage this, then check out Online Xtras, a page I created on my ptvguy.com website as a collection of links to PBS online-only content (and, yes, I still hate the name, but I can't think of anything better.) If you go to the page directly at www.ptvguy.com/xtras/ (spelled without the "e" as x-t-r-a-s,) then you'll see that it wasn't designed to be used as anything other than a localized page. All the localized station linking ends up missing the station identification and the navbar at the top is taller than it should be, because there's no image where the station logo goes. However, if you go to the page with station linking by adding a question mark, the word "station," an equal sign, and your station's call letters (as in www.ptvguy.com/xtras?station=wyes) then you'll see a version of the page localized to your station. If you'd rather see how an actual station website might link into this, then have a look at the left sidebar on the homepage of SOPTV and click through to Online Xtras. It not only can be done, it IS being done.

How To Do It

If you're wondering why my two examples use different station-linking code, it's because I set them up using two different server technologies. One utilizes simple SSI directives that you'd normally see on an SHTML page and the other utilizes PHP. The point I wanted to make with this is that it doesn't really matter how you set it up as long as it localizes correctly and you make the method clear. I kept it as simple as possible. The only reason that I didn't create an ASP example is that I don't have anything available on a Microsoft Windows server worth localizing.

I've put together a downloadable file with all the pertinent underlying code and included content from both of these examples, so that you can look it over and see how simple it is. If you have content that could be used in this way, why not give it a try. If you know of content that could be used in this way, why not suggest it. You don't lose anything by doing this. You do, however, have a potential to increase your audience while simultaneously supporting PBS member stations everywhere.

How Will We Use It

If we can get enough localized content together to justify the effort, then we could create portal pages (like my Online Xtras example) to organize or categorize the content and create a single link-in point for stations to connect to. Who knows, maybe we can get enough high-quality content together to get PBS itself interested in creating more portal collections like Global Connections or African American World. I already know of some more local content that could be added into this, and I bet you do to.

"PBS.org's top priority is presenting content that supports the broadcast schedule," said Cindy Johanson, Senior Vice President, PBS Interactive and Education during an interview back in 2002. Although many aspects of the web itself and how PBS uses it have changed and evolved since then, budget and staffing cuts have forced PBS to be extremely selective in what they put out and support on their website. Witness the move of PBS LiteracyLink™ from PBS to KET (speaking of which, there's a broadly used resource that I'd love to see localized,) and the cutting of PBS Campus, PBS YOU, and a number of other PBS resources. Frankly, good content is not always supportable content.

I don't believe that local stations can or should be solely dependent on PBS to provide original web content any longer-which is not to say that we don't still need them. However, we are more than capable of (and in fact already are) producing such content. It amazes me that we are not tapping into ourselves as the incredible resource that we are. We are an already existing network of interconnected content providers and developers. If we open up our own resources to each other and tap into other organizations and individuals willing share their content with us, then, in combination with PBS itself, we will become something greater than the sum total of our parts and, in fact, something greater than anything else on the web.

"Can we build it? Yes, we can."

Thank you all, code well, and good night.

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