One of my highest priorities in my push to get my web-presence up and on-line was to create a home for the audio productions I have been involved with. I mean, how hard can it be?

The first thing to arrange was online hosting for the audio file itself and in this I had a great option in using Ourmedia which uses the resources of the Archive.org. Unlimited webspace and unlimited downloads - I don't think you can get that anywhere else for free. Usually there are either limits to the amount of space you are allowed or the amount of download traffic allowed.

I might point out, too, that my interface for using Ourmedia was SpinXpress which holds some interesting opportunities for extended sharing of media and production resources and online collaboration. A bit like Energia Production's (did you see the new trailer for Iron Sky?) idea of Raven's Nest.

Yup! Great resource but, um, not the prettiest interface in the world, eh? With the range of options open to us today, the way that the internet bombards us with bright and stylish websites, your interface with the online world says a lot about your production. I decided to go with a connected network of specially designed Blogs under the name of The House of L'Stok. Before I go on though, I must admit a debt to Ourmedia for their hosting and to just use their webspace seems a little rude to me. I've decided to keep my Producer's Blog there, since they have a quite an international community to mix with.

Creating the website itself in Blogger was an adventure in CSS! I learnt a lot, and I don't mind doing the leg work myself, but it gets a bit time consuming when you have to design the website as well as produce the material! Perhaps I'll write up how I did it but even that is time consuming. This is where the value of a team is paramount! If I had a website manager (or even some support from the CSS community!) it would free me for other things that need to be advanced. >sigh<

Anyway, the audio drama webpage, Silvertongue productions, was finally created - along with chicklets for links all over the place! - and the next step was to create an RSS feed so that people would know when I had created something new and could automatically download it. The thing that took me a while to get my mind around, was that the RSS feed was for the website, the production group, Silvertongue Productions, rather than the episode itself.

I did this by registering with Feedburner and filled in the on-line paperwork for getting my work listed on the iTunes store - the Holy Grail of podcast feeds! Since my first production was (and probably many others will be) an audio book, I pondered whether I should make Silvertongue Prod's an audio book production group. However closer inspection brought to light the unfortunate fact that virtually all of the audio books on iTunes are commercial offerings from Audible.com. Evidently not a Fanfic friendly zone.

The birth was difficult and painful but the baby is strong and, if not thriving, at least surviving! Still to come is the process of making it as easily available as possible for people to find and listen to it, an ongoing process! What I need now is feedback! Did we get it right? Am I being too manic depressive writing Klingon tragedies?

Rather than create my own discussion forum in php or yet-another-Yahoo-Group, I'm going to use my Star Trek forum of choice, TrekUnited, as my discussion forum. Drop in and leave a comment - you'll find a lot more of interest!