PodCasts – Directories for Legal PodCasts (BlawgCasts), Software, How-to and… Adam Curry

Hi Friends, I was working on setting up some PodCasts to be added to Stark & Stark‘s Web site by way of their LexBlog produced New Jersey Law Blog and Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog...

Approximate Read Time: 3 Minutes

Hi Friends,

I was working on setting up some PodCasts to be added to Stark & Stark‘s Web site by way of their LexBlog produced New Jersey Law Blog and Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog and thought I would share some of the basic information (search Google on PodCasting for more information :).

WHAT IS PODCASTING First, let’s go to the Wikipedia for a definition of Podcasting. In short:

Podcasting is a way of publishing sound files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new audio files automatically. Podcasting is distinct from other types of audio content delivery because it uses the RSS 2.0 file format. see Wikipedia.org for more information.

Basically you upload an audio or media file somewhere on the net, and then place a link (enclosure tag) to it in your RSS file. The RSS file also has the description, file size and other info needed to help to help the user to download the file.

Here is an actual Legal PodCast!

Click the PodCast icon to subscribe to Oyez – US Supreme Court Multimedia Resources Website’s PodCast.

PROMOTING YOUR PODCASTS – PODCAST DIRECTORIES Now to promote your PodCast… Let’s start with Adam Curry – Mac User – who has set up a directory I use called iPodder.org, where you can have your RSS 2.0 feed listed in the PodCast Directory… and it is just one of many PodCast directories to find and submit your PodCast.

You should submit your Legal PodCasts to:

Justia’s BlawgSearch.com’s PodCast Listings

Blawg.com’s list of legal PodCasts

BlawgCast – yes finally a site totally focused on legal PodCasts! Let them know about your Pod/BlawgCast!

iPodder – Law listings

Digitial PodCast – Politics & Government listings

PodCast.net Crime & Law PodCast listings

PodCastDirectory.com – put in the key words “law” and “legal”

PodCast Alley – put in the key words “law” and “legal”

Podcasting News – Law Listings

I am sure there are more, email me and I will edit/update this post 🙂

Yahoo! has some additional Media RSS markup that they would like audio people to use to help position it within the Yahoo! their Video and upcoming Audio Search.

Now to the basics…

PODCAST SOFTWARE

There are many free software applications for finding and listening to PodCasts. (I use iPodder) although Steve Jobs announced that iTunes will soon support PodCasts. Here is some more software that works with the iPodder.org PodCast directory.

YOUR PODCAST – WHERE TO UPLOAD YOUR AUDIO FILE

Audio files can be large, and they can lead to large bandwidth charges… but there is a nice non-evil place where you can upload your files for free and not pay for bandwidth…

OurMedia.org provides free storage for audio, video, text… anything, provided you own it and do not mind it being publicly disseminated. In any case, it is the best place to upload your audio files if you do not want to be worried about bandwidth and storage space.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR RSS 2.0 PODCAST FEED

Rather than repeat the steps, I am just going to give the links 🙂

MovableType – Brandon Fuller has written a MovableType plug-in MT-Enclosures with instructions on how to set it up.

WordPress – just upgrade to WordPress 1.5 and then read this post…

TypePad – Just use FeedBurner’s SmartCast. Read about here on the FeedBurner forums on SmartCast. Rick Klau works there – reason enough for law firms to use FeedBurner’s SmartCast.

Blogger – here are some how to instructions or use FeedBurner’s SmartCast.

And there are a number of services that help make it easier as well… such as AudioBlog.com.

ODDS AND ENDS

There are number of PodCasting Meetup groups. You can find some of them on Podcasting.Meetup.com.

Read these instructions to get your MP3 PodCast onto BitTorrent (read Andy Haven’s post on BitTorrent and the future of Law Firm downloadable media files…

You can turn your PodCast into a CLE course – as noted by Bob Ambrogi in writing about our local Santa Clara Bar Association’s CLE PodCasts.

And although Monica listens to XM Radio that Rocks with Baseball… Adam Curry’s satellite radio show called PodShow is on Sirius.

Okay… there are another 8,450,000 pages in Google with the word PodCast… most of which have interesting PodCasts and/or PodCast technology details, like what recording equipment to use, how to make
an mp3 file and more…

Peace – Tim

:: Hickory Wind, Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Legacy Edition) by The Byrds