It was inevitable. With all the colleges and universities jumping onto iTunes U, Apple had to do something about the main iTunes U page. Otherwise that left column listing the participants was going to run from Cupertino to L.A.
A month ago, I received instructions from iTunes U HQ to start categorizing our tracks. I dutifully did this but I also shared my concern with Apple's iTunes U manager. I find the categories that we can select from extraordinarily limiting.
Let's look at the Phoenix Mars Mission site to illustrate this. I selected Science from a list of major categories. The sub-categories that are then available are: Agriculture, Astronomy, Atmospheric, Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Geography, Geology, and Physics. What to choose? For other podcasts that we have in iTunes U, I found the choices far more limiting. For example, one of the UA's best lecture series is Linguistics Lectures. Dr. Amy Fountain has been capturing the audio of internationally renowned distinguished speakers coming to campus to share their research findings. The major category for Linguistics Lectures is Social Science and the optional sub-categories are: Law, Political Science, Public Administration, Psychology, Social Welfare, Sociology. Would you select one of these? I just left it at Social Science.
I certainly understand the need to find a new way to organize iTunes U but I just wish there were more sub-categories from which to choose. Apple asks in its update message that "While multiple categories may apply to your content, select the most relevant category. If the content of your track does not match any of the categories, you should not select a category."
How will users find us? Users will find us by going to our itunes.arizona.edu and clicking the Go to UA on iTunes U blue button. If they find one of our podcasts via iTunes U's categories, they can use one of the breadcrumbs in the display.
click to retrieve larger version And, all this also means that I have some documentation to revise.
