Podcasting : What the heck is it?

Some of LexBlog’s customers have recently asked about Podcasting. Assuring our customers we’ll stay on top of the latest in Internet marketing I was obliged to find out more about podcasting, something I had heard of but really was unfamiliar with.

Turns out some tech folks are saying ‘podcasting’ will be the technology word of the year for 2005. The basic idea is to create audio files that Internet users can download directly to computers and then to their iPods or other digital audio players. For bloggers this could be a recording of your latest blog entry.

Wilder yet, MIT’s Technology Review says:

…What’s especially cool about podcasting is that software developers are blending it with other types of many-to-many technology such as blogs and RSS syndication. One program called iPodder lets you set up automatic subscriptions to your favorite online audio sources, then listen to them on your iPod (or any other MP3 player) whenever you like. Think of it like TiVo for Internet radio.

…[I]t?s all just one more sign of ?the big story? in information technology, the one that is at or near the heart of nearly everything Technology Review writes about IT: the blending of computing, communications, and mobility into one seamless technology. Podcasting shows once again how a commercial technology invented for a specific purpose — in this case, the digital music player, which reached its pinnacle in the Apple iPod — can be creatively repurposed to more democratic ends by independent software developers using open technologies like RSS and XML.

Do you need to stay on top on podcasting today? Possibly, if you are going to take a flyer that members of your target audience are going to listen to your legal updates and commentary while stuck in traffic or riding the subway (ferry for us here in Seattle).

For the majority of law firms I would nail the basic elements of Internet marketing, which the vast majority of you have not done, before jumping on the technology word of he year for 2005.