Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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As the father of four teenage sons (this explains a lot, Delia) and the proud owner of my second
iPod, I have been watching the emergence of podcasting with great interest.
For some time now it has been possible to download sound files, like music and audio books,
from the internet. But it was only in 2004 that the software was developed to make these sound
files available through subscription, so you can download files automatically or on request.
However, it really took off in June 2005 when iTunes (www.itunes.co.uk) launched its own
podcast-friendly software, which you can download onto your PC. On its website, you’ll see a
section devoted to podcasting which allows you to subscribe for free to a wide range of radio
shows and information podcasts. For many weeks, Chris Moyles from BBC Radio One held the
top spot, until Ricky Gervais knocked him off with a podcast for the Guardian.
If you want to subscribe to a podcast, you just click the subscribe button next to the listing, and
it will set up the "feed" for your computer using a special version of RSS. When a new podcast
is available, your system is notified and you choose whether or not you want to download it. A
half hour radio-style show takes less than a minute to download with broadband but it can eat
up around 18MB of memory. If you only want one item, you just click on it and it starts playing
straight away.
We are producing our podcasts on subjects ranging from how the new civil partnership law
affects people applying for immigration through to issues such as redundancy and written
particulars of employment. Within a week of going live, and thanks to publicity in the Law
Society Gazette and various local publications, there were 1,500 downloads from our site and
a number of enquiries. The most popular items of interest related to wills and immigration.
We now plan to record more of our 21 advice guides which also include family law, accident
and personal injury, employment and conveyancing. As well as our own site, there are dozens
of podcasting directories now emerging, to which we can add our podcasts, thus attracting (we
hope) further visitors to our site. We feel that by podcasting our advice guides, we will
encourage a younger audience to seek legal advice. Podcasts are also welcomed by people
with visual impairments who struggle with heavily text-based sites.
All you need to do your own podcast is a microphone which you can plug into your PC or MP3
player, some recording software (which can be downloaded from the internet for free) and a
prepared script for the person doing the podcast. You also need software to create the RSS
feed and to load the MP3 sound file onto your website.
But you’d better hurry – it won’t be long before vodcasts take over and videos will be the order
of the day!
Tony Fisher is a partner at Fisher Jones Greenwood, in Colchester. The firm's main website is at
www.fjg.co.uk and the special site for podcasts is at
www.i-legal.info.
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Podcasting for Lawyers
Podcasts are broadcasts which can be downloaded onto iPods, or any MP3 player, including
mobile phones, and listened to whenever and wherever you like. You can also hear them from
a PC; if you click on the relevant link on the site "hosting" the podcasts, in our case, a special
site we have set up for this purpose, at www.i-legal.info, the audio files will play automatically
via Windows Media Player, which about 99% of PC's will already have installed.
by Tony Fisher
Email TFisher@fjg.co.uk.