Law X.0

Is Podcasting Failing?

Check out what The Industry Standard's Ian Lamont has to say in:

• Why podcasting is failing
• Why podcasting is failing, part II: Lessons from PodTech

And Mashable's Mark Hopkins's retort, Why Does The Industry Standard Think Podcasting is Failing?

[JH]

Breakthrough of the Podcast Authors

Check out Mike Musgrove's Washington Post article about the growth of book podcasting. He reviews developments in mainstream book publishing and mentions obtaining some free, downloadable books from Podiobooks, a service new to me. See also the company's blog, Podiobooker. [JH]

Just Released, Producing Video Podcasts: A Guide for Media Professionals

...not just a book about Podcasting, but a full primer on professional audio and video production and digital publishing that is lavishly illustrated and full of practical tips. -- Philip Hodgetts, President and CEO, Open Television Network.

Producing Video Podcasts: A Guide for Media Professionals
by Richard Harrington & Mark Weiser

List Price: $39.95
Paperback: 228 pages
Publisher: Focal Press (March 14, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0240810295
ISBN-13: 978-0240810294

Book Description: Put the video podcast medium to work for you and your clients with a winning formula. Know how video podcasts work and every facet of what it takes to produce a professional-quality program that will meet every criterion for success. The authors are seasoned video production pros that have been on the crest of the video podcasting wave as it has risen. With over 2500 episodes produced, they can reveal what works and what doesnt with detailed, illustrated guidance. You get the nuts and bolts of the complete process, including:

• Preproduction: budgeting guidelines, mapping your production, and working with talent
• Production: the ENG shooting style, lighting values and portability, sound, essential camera features, acquisition formats, and gear lists
• Postproduction: resources for adding music and images, motion graphics, and editing techniques
• Delivery: cost-effective hosting options, creating RSS feeds, compression, and hosting processes
• Promotion: choosing directories, promoting your program, and monetizing your podcast

Instruction and case studies go in-depth on issues unique to the podcast medium. A full-color presentation delivers tangible, inspiring examples of creative video podcasts. The companion website, www.VidPodcaster.com provides a blog, templates, planning documents, sample clips, and state-of-the-art updates.

Professional Podcasting - Secrets Revealed

Michael Geoghegan, co-author of Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting (2005) and The Business Podcasting Book: Launching, Marketing, and Measuring Your Podcastis (2007), is starting a new series of articles at his blog on podcasting professionally. Check out Professional Podcasting Series - Secrets Revealed. [JH]

Launch of Law Talk Podcast Features Steven D. Smith on the State of Legal Philosophy

Nate Oman's inaugural episode of "Law Talk: The Legal Scholarship Podcast" features San Diego law prof Steven D. Smith. Smith's book Law's Quandary as well as his recently published lecture, "The (Always) Immanent Death of Law." is the topic of the podcast.  Oman writes, "along the way, Steve has some fascinating things to say about law, the state of legal philosophy, and what jurisprudence might (or might not) have to say to the 'real' practice of law."

See also Smith's Jurisprudence: Beyond Extinction? Here's the abstract from SSRN:

Of the various subjects of legal study, jurisprudence is the one in which the most momentous and profound questions about law are addressed, or in which, as Holmes put it, we might hope to “connect . . . with the universe and catch an echo of the infinite.” Or so we might suppose . . . but it seems we would be wrong. In recent years, at least, the questions addressed under the headings of “jurisprudence” or “philosophy of law” hold little interest for any but the purest (i.e., the most incorrigibly academic) of theorists. It is hard to resist the impression that the questions are merely semantic, and that some of the most powerful minds in the profession are amusing themselves with word play.

How to account for this peculiar state of affairs? Is jurisprudence a dinosaur that has outlived its time? This essay, written for a general-audience symposium collecting short interpretations of the state of jurisprudence today, reflects on those questions, and suggests that classic jurisprudential claims and questions have been translated into a secular vocabulary and framework that deprive them of their meaning and significance.

[JH]

New Video Content Portal Dedicated To Blogger Community

Podcasting News is reporting on VideoCafe, a new service launched by NewsMarket. From the post:

VideoCafé is designed to provide bloggers the same access to video content that television and large media sites have had in the past. Initial footage available for embedding into blogs comes from Google, Yahoo!, Intel, Nintendo, AOL, Dell, Dow Chemical and others. In effect, VideoCafé is trying to be a “Web 2.0″ style video press release service.

Unfortunately, VideoCafé requires bloggers to register and accept a lengthy user agreement in order to browse content and embed video. This will limit acceptance of VideoCafé’s offering, because bloggers are used to being able to go to video sharing sites and immediately grab an embed code, without any legal mumbo-jumbo.

During this initial Beta period, Video Café will be available on an invitation-only basis. There's plenty of other ways to obtain the same content so why bother... {JH]

Here's the Company's Press Release:

VideoCaf Brings Video Content from Google, Yahoo!, Intel and Others Directly to Bloggers
New Video Content Portal Dedicated To Blogger Community

August 8, 2007, New York, NY - The NewsMarket - the worlds leading online platform for raw video news content today launches a new service enabling bloggers to source and embed video from some of the worlds leading companies for use in their posts.

VideoCaf (accessed at www.thenewsmarket.com/vc) brings video content from major companies and international organizations to bloggers for use on their blog. In essence, bloggers will now have a similar opportunity as other media to acquire free video from the worlds major organizations. Initial footage available for embedding into blogs comes from Google, Yahoo!, Intel, Nintendo, AOL, Dell, Dow Chemical and others.

VideoCaf meets the rising demand for video from bloggers looking to increase their relevance and influence by providing multimedia content to their posts, says Shoba Purushothaman, CEO & Co-founder of The NewsMarket. As our video archive has grown, weve seen a sharp increase in requests from bloggers for access to the content. We now have new capabilities in our technical infrastructure designed to support the needs of bloggers who are keen to be able to link to and embed video within their posts.

Technorati estimates that there are about 15.5 million active blogs (ie. blogs updated regularly), and these blogs have about 1.5 million postings per day. About 8.3 billion video streams are viewed online in the US, reports comScore. And Pew/Internet recently reported that online video now reaches mainstream audiences - 57% of online adults have used the Internet to watch or download video, and nearly 20% do so on a typical day.

Bloggers can obtain the available video by either grabbing the video embed code for the content, which enables the VideoCaf player to play the content on their blog or by downloading the content using VideoCaf clip delivery system. During the initial beta period, video will be available on an invitation-only basis.

The NewsMarket fulfills about 30,000 requests per month for video clips from the global news media and expects to service at least as much demand from bloggers. Video clips are free to journalists and bloggers; revenue is generated from the organizations that want to ensure access to their content as part of their communications and marketing strategies.

New Podcaster Group Wants Your Input

Podango’s Scott Bourne has announced plans to form a new podcaster’s group, the Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers (APOMP). The group is a response to the recently announced Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), which some podcasters feel is too focused on commercial podcasting. Bourne’s group would like your input, and is asking podcasters to fill out an online survey.

There are some impressive members of the steering committee. Scott Bourne: Podango Productions, Apple Phone Show Michael Geoghegan: GigaVox Lee Gibbons: Podango Judith Hutchinson, M.D.: Medical Minute Leo Laporte: TWiT.TV Alex Lindsay: Pixel Corps Michael Mennenga: Farpoint Media Doug Smith: Podango Tim Street: French Maid.TV Gretchen Vogelzang: MommyCast Jeffrey Wilerth: Farpoint Media.

Hat tip to Podcasting News. [JH]

Widespread Quality Problems Found in Podcasting World

Podcaster, author and operator of the Podcast Awards, Todd Cochrane, assessed the state of the podcast world in these words: "The amount of garbage sites out there astounded me." His study of the 4,00-plus podcast sites nominated for awards at his Podcast Awards site uncovered some disturbing flaws:

• Of the 4097 shows that were nominated only 2911 had a visible RSS feed link on their Page or was auto detectable.
• Of the 2911 sites that had a visible RSS feed, 82% (2387) had feed errors. The 2387 that had errors 61% (1456) of those feeds were completely invalid according to FeedValidator.org
• 81% of those sites that had RSS feed errors were hosted on a Wordpress blog.
• 93% of the bad feeds were being served up by FeedBurner

Read more about it at Geek News Central. [JH]

The Podcasting Legal Guide for Canada

Creative Commons Canada has published The Podcasting Legal Guide for Canada. More than just an adaptation of the original U.S. Guide, this version required an almost complete rewrite of the copyright sections to describe Canadian law, as well as substantial changes to the discussions of trademarks and publicity rights.

Kathleen Simmons and Andy Kaplan-Myrth co-authored the publication with help from the Creative Commons Canada team and the faculty at the Law & Technology group at the University of Ottawa.

The Podcasting Legal Guide for Canada is available for download here in html format and pdf format. [JH]

2007 Law Student Podcast Survey Results

CALI's John Mayer has compiled the results from the 2007 Survey of Law Students who were in podcasted courses. Check it out. [JH]

New Directory of Law-Related Podcasts

Check out Blawgs.FM's directory of law-related podcasts. Also, Nolo Press is offering podcasts on a variety of different legal topics including:

• Business & Human Resources
• Patents, Copyright & Art
• Wills & Estate Planning
• Property & Money
• Family Law & Immigration
• Rights & Disputes

For a directory of educational podcasts visit Ed-Cast.org , a site devoted to listing podcasts related to higher education.  [RJ]