About GigaDial.net
Who
GigaDial was programmed by Andrew Grumet. Graphics, visual and user experience were designed by Martijn Venrooy and Andrew Grumet.
Why
I built GigaDial.net as a way to share podcast suggestions with my friends, and to have to ability to feed individual episodes, piecemeal, to my iPod from anywhere on the 'Net. At first I had some pretty crazy ideas that would have turned iPodder into a much larger, much less-focussed codebase. And that's assuming I'd able to convince my iPodder team members of their value and suitability. After some thought I landed on the Web-based system we have here, which can be used with any podcatcher.
Since the software is Web-based, the marginal cost of offering it publically is low. So I offer it to you. Let's create culture together!
What
Use GigaDial.net to create podcast-powered stations by assembling
individual episodes from your favorite podcasters. Then tell your
friends to point their podcatchers at the station feeds, linked from
the XML button 
on each station's page.
Visit recently updated stations by clicking on the links on the homepage. Start by choosing or creating a station.
Is it really free?
No. Martijn and I invested time building it. Our friends invested time helping us test it. We could have spent that time sleeping, or with our families, or listening to podcasts. Also, the server hardware, setup, power and bandwidth cost money. But most of these are sunk costs, and not enough to worry about recouping.
If you like GigaDial.net, use it and share it with your friends! Or say nice things about us, or make a donation.
Will it ever become not free?
Barring bankruptcy, illness, acts of God, etc. etc. we'll keep anything that was free at one time free all of the time.
That doesn't mean we won't ever charge for anything, it's just too early to tell whether there is something here worth paying for. How many times has one person's idea of what is cool turned out to be not especially cool?
What's up with the name?
GigaDial.net has some of the same properties as a radio dial. You can use it to tune in audio from the growing list of podcasters that are breaking new ground by producing and distributing their own material. But the number of stations isn't limited by available broadcast spectrum, and anyone can become a content programmer.
How about a cheesy marketing slogan?
It's like a radio dial, times a billion.
Is this the first system of its kind?
It would be flattering to be able to claim that GigaDial is the first system of its kind. In November, 2004, to the best of my knowledge GigaDial is unique in its focus on podcasting, but it certainly isn't the first application to support customizable audio lineups and recommendations, or even the first to support customizable podcasts. Here's where we'll acknowledge work that came before (and after!) that we may draw inspiration from as we build out GigaDial.
- Webjay.org playlist community -- Webjay is a tool that helps you listen to and publish web playlists. MP3 players like WinAmp, iTunes, RealOne, and Windows Media Player can be given a list of songs to play. Most of the time the songs are on your computer, but they can also be on the web. Webjay is all about playlists of songs on the web.
- ITConverations Personal Program Queue -- Your personal program queue is the place to keep track of the IT Conversations programs you want to hear or read. You can add programs to your queue, prioritize them, rate them, and see the average ratings from other members. And if you have an RSS reader, you can even subscribe to your own personal program queue.
- Audioscrobbler -- Audioscrobbler builds a profile of your musical taste using a plugin for your media player (Winamp, iTunes, XMMS etc..). Plugins send the name of every song you play to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your musical profile with the new song. Every person with a plugin has their own page on this site which shows their listening statistics. The system automatically matches you to people with a similar music taste, and generates personalised recommendations.
Thanks
GigaDial.net is built on OpenACS, AOLserver, PostgreSQL, RSS, OPML, audio.weblogs.com and, most importantly, the people that make up the podcasting community.
Special thanks go out to Skype, which has been an invaluable transatlantic collaboration tool for Martijn and me.
Also, major thanks to the folks who helped us test the alpha version, particularly Matthew Bischoff and Nicole Simon.
Enjoy!
-- Andrew Grumet, November, 2004