FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
OrbitFlow + OrbitFeed Questions
- What is OrbitFlow?
OrbitFlow is a content distribution platform with a built-in multi-role workflow and approval process. OrbitFlow can distribute audio, video or text files to various internet end-points. OrbitFlow also collates all the usage analytics from all the end-points and delivers to the content owners in a slick real-time reporting dashboard.
- What is OrbitFeed?
OrbitFeed is a content distribution platform without the workflow engine. Its input is Rest API/Web-Services and it delivers audio, video and text documents to the various end points. OrbitFeed also collates the real-time usage metric from all the end-points to a real-time reporting dashboard.
- What is the difference between OrbitFlow and OrbitFeed?
The major difference between the two platform is how content is published. With OrbitFlow the publish happens through manual interaction with a multi-stage/multi-user content and workflow management system; with OrbitFeed the publish is done programmatically through an API.
OrbitFlow is ideal for marketing and sales department to deliver timely content to their customers and other audience members. The workflow UI is simple and intuitive and with very little training, they can start publishing.
OrbitFeed is ideal for customers who want to automate distribution to their audience. OrbitFeed can serve as a Ôpurchased infrastructureÕ that can easily integrate with any IT system.
- Is RSS the only way Infoble delivers content to various end-points?
RSS is an excellent means to deliver media and documents to a large audience in a timely manner. Both OrbitFeed and OrbitFlow can publish to social media sites (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc). We can also deliver content using email and text message. One unique advantage with the Orbit platform is that whatever the means of delivery to any endpoint, the platform captures the usage metrics across all the delivery points
RSS Questions
- Why RSS?
RSS is a very powerful and ubiquitous delivery mechanism. RSS Readers are available for virtually any device including computers and handhelds, but also GoogleTV, AppleTV, Kindle, etc. All smartphones have an RSS reader available (iPhone has dozens of them). Most news sites delivery their content using RSS because of the speed and convenience it offers.
- Why OrbitFlow or OrbitFeed for RSS?
RSS as it exists today provides a frictionless delivery of content to various Internet endpoints. Plain vanilla RSS has weaknesses. RSS is not secure and is used only for broadcast (if a subscriber is interested in a dozen different topics, that generally requires a dozen separate RSS feeds.)
Also, RSS in its basic form does not provide usage metrics. Both OrbitFlow and OrbitFeed have solved all the weaknesses of RSS so it is enterprise ready. With our platforms, RSS is very secure with our RSS narrow-cast technology where we only deliver specific content to specific users and we guarantee the delivery to that user. Our platform also provides a way for each user to get content to the audience in one single feed. The end-user can personalize and opt-in or opt-out of various topics within a single RSS feed.
- How can I personalize my RSS?
The current state-of-the-art with RSS is that it is a broadcast medium. A user who subscribes to an RSS feed gets all the content that is published to that feed. InfobleÕs platforms have a unique and proprietary technology to narrow-cast RSS delivery. This is very similar to MyYahoo where users can personalize their feed to only certain topics or content that are geographic regions. Content publishers can also push specific content to specific target groups with a single feed and control access to that feed as well. This combination of security and subscriber management can make RSS a compelling way to deliver high value content simply to a wide audience.
- How can I secure my RSS?
Infoble provides several enhancements to the feed so only the intended (or entitled) audience receives the content. Secure your feeds to only be delivered to specific domain addresses, to specific geo-locations, to certain named users, to specific devices and more. Infoble's feeds can also be configured to control the number of times a specific asset is consumed.
What Is RSS, Exactly?
For a simple explanation of RSS, we found the video below
to be helpful
(opens new window):
Podcasting Questions
- What is a Podcast, Exactly?
A podcast is a simple yet sophisticated transfer of audio or video content over the internet. It allows files to be shared among many users across the world with a minimum of work. Podcasts are usually MP3 audio files or M4A video files that are available to be downloaded onto your computer and transferred to an iPod or any portable media device that can play multimedia.
- Is a Podcast the same as a downloadable MP3 File or
M4A video file?
No, it's different. Podcasting delivers it to you on a regular schedule, using a few key technologies. Once you set it up, it works on its own -- you don't have to hunt down and download a file.
- How Do I Get Started?
If you have a computer that is connected to the internet you are ready to start. Using music management software, like iTunes, Zune, Napster, you can subscribe to podcasts.
If you don't use those programs a common way of receiving a podcast is through a podcast receiver. A podcast receiver is a piece of software that runs on your computer, and it is logically similar to a web browser. There are several popular non-iTunes podcast receivers such as Juice, and almost all of them are free.
- How Do I Actually Get A Podcast?
The next step is let the podcast receiver know which podcasts that you want to receive. This is easily done by 'subscribing' to particular podcasts. The process of setting up a subscription is usually as simple as copying a URL from a web browser to the podcast receiver.
At this point, a subscription has been set up, but no podcasting has been done. You can use the software to browse or to check for new podcasts. If there are any, they will begin to download, and may take a minute or two to complete.
