The main misgiving about iTunesU held by the original poster of this  
thread, that content was not discoverable by Google (and other search  
engines), is unfounded as this discussion is now showing.

It's important not to confuse the iTunesU URL with the URL of the  
resource itself. They're two different end points. The URL to the  
resource, the MP4 movie in the example Andy cites, is on our server.  
The deimos.apple.com etc URLs are to iTunesU pages that contain  
additional contextual information for the user, as well as the MP4  
object itself from our server. It's no different than if I went on to  
create a third web site and embedded that same MP4. The new page with  
the embedded video would be yet another URL, but the MP4 itself stays  
put in the single location. I can't imagine anything more web like.

Insofar as this is a repositories list, I don't think iTunesU is a  
repository in the sense most list members would agree with. Apart from  
the major limitation I pointed out originally - the restricted file  
types - iTunesU is quite clearly a publishing channel.

And for info, at Warwick, students access resources via our learning  
environment, not iTunesU. There's a different audience for iTunesU  
content, plus the U in my opinion is a complete red herring but that's  
a discussion for another list. As it happens we also have quite a nice  
and successful repository in every sense that members of this list  
would agree with, the WRAP repository, thanks to Jenny and team.

Cheers,

David.


On 5 Aug 2009, at 15:44, Andy Powell wrote:

> Just looking at the top ranked video in the first result set you  
> provide
> below - the 'No Paradise without Banks' one - and using it as a test
> case... searching Google for
>
> University of Warwick No Paradise without Banks
>
> (see
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=University+of+Warwick+No+Paradise+w
> ithout+Banks&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi= )
>
> Shows search results for the video as hosted in iTunes U (4th result)
> but not for the version provided direct from the Warwick website (as  
> far
> as I can tell):
>
> http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/video/?podcastItem=santand
> erlecture.mp4
>
> That might be because the metadata on that page is rather generic - or
> perhaps Google is blocked from indexing that page?  (Or perhaps I'm
> missing something?).
>
> Whatever...  it does mean that you are (implicitly) encouraging use of
> the iTunes U version (and therefore use of iTunes) rather than the
> lighter-weight 'web' version.
>
> I can understand that use of iTunes U encourages use and awareness of
> resources by a new audience - which is a good thing.  But I also  
> wonder
> if there are some potential downsides?
>
> In general, surfacing stuff at multiple places on the Web (or in this
> case at one place on the Web and one place half-off the Web) dilutes
> some of the natural behaviour associated with the Web architecture,
> people citing (or linking to) stuff consistently for example.  So, do
> people bookmark stuff consistently (in del.icio.us) given that  
> multiple
> versions are available?  (I note that the "https:// 
> deimos.apple.com/..."
> does seem to be bookmarkable though I'm not sure how intuitive it is  
> to
> use?).  Syndicated solutions are indeed great, but they are better if
> they don't end up assigning multiple URIs to the same thing.
>
> I wonder if there are also be softer issues?
>
> How consistently do lectures cite material for their students?  Are
> students getting different messages from different staff?  Do  
> lecturers
> provide students with an iTunes U URL (e.g. in the VLE)?  Do they have
> to describe the process of going to iTunes U and searching for a
> particular video?  Do they have to cite everything twice?  Do they, in
> practice, only ever talk about the iTunes version?  Does a consistency
> of approach matter in this context?
>
> Like Les, I must confess to being slightly sceptical about the growing
> use of iTunes U, not because of the use of a 'commercial' provider
> (though I think that is an issue, especially given Apple's generally
> proprietorial attitude) but because the solution seems so anti-Web.
>
> On the other hand, I suppose Apple have kinda won the 'ipod' war so
> maybe it is acceptable to align the university so closely with one
> particular platform?
>
> If these issues seem somewhat iTunes U-specific and are therefore
> perhaps not appropriate for this list I apologise?  I raise them only
> because it seems to me that some of them might also apply to other
> 'external' providers.
>
> (Oh, and, yes... I own an iPhone :-) ).
>
> Andy
>
> ________________________________
>
> Andy Powell
> Research Programme Director
> Eduserv
>
> [log in to unmask]
> 01225 474319 / 07989 476710
> www.eduserv.org.uk
> efoundations.typepad.com
> twitter.com/andypowe11
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Repositories discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Davies
> Sent: 05 August 2009 11:43
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Web 2.0 vs iTunes U ?
>
> Just to underline what Jenny has already said from Warwick's
> perspective, we don't see
> iTunesU as an either/or choice, it's complementary to our own web
> publishing strategy.
> For example we have a companion site to our iTunesU site where you can
> pick our all our
> content via other routes:
>
> http://itunes.warwick.ac.uk/
>
> Apple does not require exclusivity when publishing content, and as  
> other
> posters have
> pointed out the content is hosted on your own servers anyway. Having
> content on iTunesU
> allows us to reach audiences that we might not otherwise reach. And
> there are plenty of
> links back to our own web site, so iTunesU drives traffic to us. What
> benefit that brings
> remains to be seen, but raising our institution's profile
> internationally, and publishing
> great content are a couple of obvious benefits right now.
>
> A disadvantage right now is the limited number of file types it
> supports, essentially MP3,
> MP4 and PDF. So lots of learning resources are out of scope.
>
> By the way, content on iTunesU is discoverable via Google e.g:
>
> http://snipurl.com/warwickitunesu
> http://snipurl.com/abrahamsitunesu
>
> Such Google searches don't display content in Google's video search  
> for
> example because
> the file at the end of the link isn't a video, it's a link to a  
> iTunesU
> page, which is itself just
> an RSS feed page. But the pages, it's content and metadata are all
> discoverable by
> Google. Think of iTunesU as just a smart RSS aggregator for these file
> types. One of
> many ways of aggregating resources. That's the great thing about
> syndicating content.
>
> Cheers,
>
> David.