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Denise Howell Denise Howell
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Dennis M. Kennedy Dennis M. Kennedy
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Tom Mighell Tom Mighell
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Ernest Svenson Ernest Svenson
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Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs, Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law. "Sound Policy" is Denise's show at IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at dhowell@gmail.com.

Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his gmail address.

Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at tmighell@swbell.net.

Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at marty@schwimmerlegal.com.

Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally, to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at esvenson@gmail.com.
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Between Lawyers provides just-in-time group commentary on the issues raised when technology, culture and the law intersect. We take you behind the firewalls and conference room doors to show you how experienced lawyers deal with these issues and help you prepare for the new challenges we all face. For more, see our introductory post.

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March 28, 2005

Re: Podcasting - My Two Cents

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Posted by Ernest Svenson

I'm definitely getting older, and I'm clearly losing my edge. That's the best explanation I can offer for my inability to achieve 'tech-epiphany' over the whole podcast revolution.

I like the idea of RSS as a way of scooping up information on websites quickly. My newsreader is filled with thousands of posts from about 203 different sites. I'm not going to pretend for even one second that I read all of these posts everyday. But I do scan the headlines. If I see something interesting I can zero in on it quickly, which is nice. I only subscribe to sites that have 'full feeds' because I don't want to have to wait for web pages to load. That's the point of RSS right?

Well, not completely. Now, a new feature of RSS is the ability to download audio files (a/k/a 'podcasts'). These files are generally not small (average is a couple of MBs). Can I quickly scan these files to see if they contain information I want to assimilate? Sort of, but not anywhere near like what happens with RSS feeds of HTML content.

So are podcasts useless? No, not at all. Audio files are great if you are driving in your car. By contrast, trying to read a news reader while driving is sub-optimal at best. Podcast afficianados seem to like the fact that they can listen and learn at certain moments (i.e. driving, jogging, sky-diving) that would otherwise be wasted by only paying attention to one thing at a time.

I agree this sort of multi-tasking is a wonderful. I just don't happen to be one of those people who gravitates towards listening to audio files, unless it's music. But, for those that like on-demand learning, podcasting is a great thing. Maybe one day bar associations will figure out that podcasts are a good way to provide CLE content in a form that might actually make it easy and convenient to learn. Then, I'll really be excited. Of course, I'll probably be in a nursing home too.

Hopefully, Amanda Congdon's vlog/podcast will still be available then.E:

Comments (2) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Podcasting


COMMENTS

1. Tim Hadley on March 29, 2005 12:40 AM writes...

Podcasting hasn't really caught me for a few reasons. The most prominent reasons: I have neither an iPod nor a commute. If I find myself with an iPod and a bus ride, I'll try a few, but on the bus I really prefer listening to the music and either reading a book or staring out the window turning over whatever's going through my head at the time.

I just can't get enthusiastic about listening to podcasts while sitting in front of my computer. I've tried, but it just doesn't work for me. But then, I don't usually last long with NPR on while I'm at the computer, either.

So I listen to Evan Schaeffer's two- or three-minute humorcasts, and that's about all, unless something in someone's show notes grabs my attention.

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2. William L. Wilson on March 29, 2005 10:24 AM writes...

I have listened to a few podcasts and even produce my own to accompany my wine blog. But I've found that the best podcasts are more akin to a radio interview or discussion, such as Grape Radio (http://graperadio.com/).

At its best, podcasting will be a way to get programming that's not available on commercial or public radio in your listening area. At its worst, it's a guy reading the very same material on his blog, and not doing a good job of it.

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