I started podcasting just two months ago, using the Internet Archive to store and host my 100% Royalty-Free "Eclectic Music" Podcast, Amateur Zen. I was informed by some web how-tos (I'll try to find and credit those sources) that one way to podcast for zero cost (as in beer) is to use the 'Internet Archive - Feedburner - Wordpress' triumvarate. I've been wholly satisfied with this method, and my handful of listeners have too. Although the learning curve is steep-ish, submitting audio content to the archive is extremely easy and reliable. I've come across plenty of podcasts hosted there in their comprehensive 100+ "episode" glory (Note: Creating playlists of episodical 'casts in sequence MAY entice enforcement of payment of fees to 'Pro Audio').

The issue tackled in this article truly doesn't compute with me. As long as podcasters are independent creators, they can't expect a free automated platform to pick up where their own laziness or lack of spare time leave off. Wordpress is certainly not that platform. The various podcast plug-ins don't bother to help producers get their content submitted to archive.org either. What do they do? I'm getting snarky so..'nuff for now.

If a podcaster intends for his/her works to be archived, that is their own responsibility - and hopefully a responsibility shared with one's eager-to-contribute audience. If podcasters who are unable to do this make up a significant portion of the WP user-base then I'd work on a solution proritizing the creation of a simple automation script by WP. A script automating the upload of podcasts containing a given tag ('archive', perhaps?) to archive.org under an auto-generated account there. Perhaps we put a limit of X gigabytes on this process, after which a podcaster must go and actually interact with archive.org manually to prove his/her interest/sentience. I'm no developer, so i'll stop there.

To suffice, this is a solution in search of a problem.