Podcast / Plawdcast

Pepper Hamilton Shows its (Podcast) Stuff

Bill Gratsch — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:40:18 GMT

Pepper Hamilton has started podcasting and its initial effort is very solid. Hosting its podcasts at PepperPodcasts.com, it has taken a firmwide approach, featuring interviews with attorneys from myriad practice areas. The podcasting site offers visitors a number of ways to listen, from downloading an mp3 file, to clicking and listening online, to subscribing for later listening (and updating). Giving visitors flexibility and choice is a smart idea.

Overall, Pepper Hamilton's approach strikes me as a well thought out strategy. First, by reaching across the firm for content, they can tap more attorneys for material on an ongoing basis, rather than relying on just a few. This approach should give the firm a better chance of keeping the site fresh. Second, in the podcasts I heard, the firm adopted the interview style, which I personally find more engaging then lectures. Third, Pepper Hamilton keeps the podcast runtime to a reasonable length, which makes each "edition" digestible in one sitting. Finally, the site itself is clean and intuitive for the user, requiring nothing more than a single click to start consuming content. The last point is important, as many visitors to the site may not yet have an RSS reader (until Internet Explorer 7 takes hold, anyway), or may not be particularly comfortable with new technology, which podcasts (even though they are really just audio recordings at heart) are considered.

In the end, I would be surprised if we don't ultimately see variations of the Pepper Pod Center become standard issue at law firms across the globe. The cost is reasonable, the technology works, and the podcast itself gives lawyers another avenue to showcase their expertise to an unlimited potential audience. So, take a look at one of the early movers to see what may lie ahead: PepperPodcasts.com

Legal Podcasting Gets Some Buzz

Bill Gratsch — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 18:04:32 GMT

Eric Gardner at Corporate Counsel Magazine has written an interesting piece on Legal Podcasting, Lawyers Podcast a Wide Net.

You can find the article via Law.com.

American U. Law Expands Podcast Offerings

Bill Gratsch — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:12:13 GMT

The Washington College of Law at American University continues to push podcasting (plawdcasting) forward by adding a second collection of free podcasts.

The first collection, which was created in August 2005, covers Moot Court competitions and focuses on the school experience in the "creation of and participation in the Inter-American Moot Court Competition and the Summer Academy on Human Rights." You can access this collection here.

The second, and just added, collection offers "[p]odcasts from virtually all WCL Events. Speakers include: President Jimmy Carter, Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia." You can access this collection here.

If you are interested, you can also subscribe to both collections via the feed links the school provides at both collections' web pages.

I believe this is the first law school to start podcasting, but I hope it will be the start of a larger trend. Law schools worldwide continue to host a wide variety of interesting speeches, discussions and commentaries on legal issues of the day. Leveraging new communication mediums (such as podcasts) to disseminate this material is a worthy endeavor.

Viacom Starts Podcasting Radio Station

Bill Gratsch — Tue, 17 May 2005 16:01:02 GMT

The podcasting news is always more interesting when it involves a large company, isn't it? According to the Internet Daily feature at Marketwatch, Viacom has started airing podcasts on a "low-powered AM radio station in San Francisco." Viacom confirmed the news with this press release. The first podcast was a brief segment from blog pioneer Dave Winer.

You can apparently also listen to a live stream of the radio station by visiting KYOU Radio.

Now, who will be the first podcasting (plawdcasting) lawyer to get on the air there?

Forbes Columnist Offers Podcasting Insight

Bill Gratsch — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 15:39:56 GMT

Forbes columnist Sam Whitmore most recent column offers an interesting look at podcasting ('plawdcasting,' for the legally-inclined). Mr. Whitmore is himself a podcaster and he raises a number of interesting issues, questions and possibilities that arise from podcasting, including licensing issues, advertising possibilities and the disruptive nature of the technology itself.

Of particular interest, Mr. Whitmore highlights two areas of concern that he feels need to be addressed: licensing and podcasting integrity.

The licensing issue has been bouncing around the blawgosphere for some time, and Mr. Whitmore's experience in attempting to discern what is and what is not legal, follows closely a number of the discussions already started. Based on Mr. Whitmore's commentary, it seems apparent that organizations like American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the individual companies in the entertainment industry are still coming to terms with what their eventual policies and positions will be.

In terms of the issue of podcasting integrity (and this was something of which I had not thought), Mr. Whitmore offers a demonstration of how simple it is to manipulate the digital files created by other podcasters. In his case, he took a recording of a John Edwards podcast, digitally altered it and created a version of the original podcast that was very different than what Mr. Edwards created. As Mr. Whitmore continues:

[m]y purpose here is to demonstrate how effectively an amateur can misrepresent the words of a powerful person. As of this writing, there's no legal language on the Edwards site prohibiting me from slicing and dicing.

If I can do it, imagine what the malicious in both parties can do. Existing licensing structures need to change and new ones created where none exist. Perhaps a 'No Derivative Works' Creative Commons license might be appropriate: authors let others copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of their work, not derivative works based upon it.

[Read full article]

The issues Mr. Whitemore raises are only a couple of many that I am sure will arise. And, members of the blawgosphere like Denise Howell, among other plawdcasters, are already on the case.

Podcast, Plawdcast, Blawgcast?

Bill Gratsch — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:31:30 GMT

Podcast, plawdcast, blawgcast? No matter what you may decide to call your legal podcasting efforts, Kevin Heller and Evan Shaeffer will be covering it at their new site, Blawgcast. Self-described as a site "covering the legal podcasting universe," Blawgcast offers it own blawg on legal podcasting as well as links to recent podcasts. If you get a chance, stop by and listen...

Odeo and Podcasting Reviewed

Bill Gratsch — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:14:14 GMT

Two pod(plawd)casting stories in a row? Something must be going on over there.

You may recall some buzz last month regarding Odeo, a podcasting startup headed by Evan Williams, who was reponsible for Blogger.

Of course, the million dollar question is "what exactly is Odeo?" Well, one blogger who has seen it, Jason Calacanis of Weblogs, Inc, gave us all a glimpse in this report filed yesterday. I thought the report was sober and didn't spend a lot of time caught up in the hype of podcasting, which is probably a good thing. It is a good read for anyone interested in Odeo in particular, and podcasting in general.

iPodder 2.0 Released

Bill Gratsch — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:42:06 GMT

For anyone interesting in podcasting (or plawdcasting as legally-inclined folks are calling it these days), iPodder, a cross-platform podcast receiver, has this morning released version 2.0.

What is iPodder? Here is what the creators say about it:

What is iPodder? What can I use it for?

iPodder is technically a "Media Aggregator," a program that allows you to select and download audio files from anywhere on the Internet to your desktop.

iPodder makes the process easy by helping you select audio files from among the thousands of audio sources on the web and downloading those files to your computer. Once you select a feed or location, it will download those files automatically at times you specify and have the files waiting for you on your computer, so you don't have to spend a lot of time manually selecting and waiting for downloads. You can play your selected audio files using iTunes or other "jukebox" software, or load them on to your iPod or other portable digital media player to play anytime you want.

There is also a great FAQs section with even more details here.

You can get iPodder version 2.0 here.