infoTECH Feature

September 08, 2010

Microsoft Broadcaster Finds Content for IT Blogs

Last week I wrote about Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Online Events and Webcasts page, which lets you find content on Windows 7 and related tools and technologies. Well, the folks in Redmond offer another tool that can help you dig up articles, podcasts, and other material on your favorite Microsoft products.

Microsoft Broadcaster can display links to different types of content based on your preferences. You select the products that interest you—Windows, Office, SQL Server, Exchange, and more. You then choose the type of material you wish to see—webcasts, white papers, videos, virtual labs. Broadcaster then pulls together a list of the most recent and relevant items for you to view.

Signing up for the Broadcaster program is free on an invitation-only basis. But unlike similar Microsoft tools, Broadcaster is specifically geared for people who publish blogs, web pages, or newsletters. To qualify, you must have an active blog, newsletter, web site, or other type of publication. Specifically, Microsoft lists the following requirements to sign up for Broadcaster:

- Active bloggers who meet certain minimum traffic criteria (i.e. approximately 300-400 unique users a month, approximately 4-6 blog postings a month).

- IT associations, developer associations, and user group communication

- IT and developer focused newsletter publishers.

- Must be based in the United States.

If you don’t have an active blog or web site, this might be a perfect opportunity to start one. As an example, you could set up a blog or web page for fellow IT colleagues to share useful information with them. Of if you’re a member of a local user group, you could publish the links and material from Broadcaster in your group’s online newsletter.

As you sign up for Broadcaster, Microsoft asks you for your contact information as well as a link to or description of your blog, newsletter, or web page. After you qualify, you then set up the preferences for the type of material you wish to see. In addition to choosing the different products and format, you can specify keywords to further focus your search. But you may want to keep the search fairly broad to start with and then gradually narrow the criteria if you find you’re getting too much content.

From there, the program’s Dashboard presents links and a brief description of each podcast, video, article, and virtual lab that it finds. Simply click on the link to view the content. Each item also includes an “embed in blog” link, which offers HTML code that you can use to point to that item in your blog or web site.

Microsoft offers a wealth of training and information material, and it can be difficult finding and sorting it all.

Services like Broadcaster can help you and your fellow IT colleagues by offering some of that material in a user-friendly format.


Lance Whitney is a journalist, IT consultant, and Web Developer with almost 20 years of experience in the IT world. To read more of Lance's articles, please visit his columnist page

Edited by Erin Monda
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