Pennsylvania State Senate Republicans To Offer Weekly ‘Podcast’   6/20/2005 - 1,067 views,

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 20 — State Senate Majority Leader
David J. Brightbill (R-Lebanon) announced today that the Senate Republican
Caucus has begun offering a weekly “podcast” on its website to expand its
coverage of news affecting the lives of Pennsylvanians.

The first program, now available at http://www.pasenategop.com, features
Sen. Rob Wonderling (R-24), chairman of the Senate Communications and
Technology Committee, discussing his legislation to repeal the gross receipts
tax on wireless phone service.

“Podcasting is a great new technology, and our caucus will use it to help
keep constituents informed,” said Sen. Brightbill’s chief of staff, Erik
Arneson.

A podcast is essentially a radio program that’s broadcast over the web,
but because it’s in MP3 format, listeners can play it whenever they want –
either on their home computer or on an MP3 player, such as an iPod or a Dell
DJ. Each week’s podcast will address legislation before the Senate and issues
of importance to Pennsylvanians.

“Podcasting will improve our ability to provide in-depth analysis, up-to-
date information, and insights from individual members about crucial topics
affecting people and communities around the Commonwealth,” Arneson said.
Podcasts use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds that make it easy for
web users to access news and information by allowing them to view the latest
headlines and summaries from their favorite sites in one place, called a “feed
reader” or “news aggregator.”

RSS feeds also can be viewed on XML-compatible devices such as a cell
phone, pager, or handheld computer. This same technology is what allows
podcasts to be downloaded to audio devices or home computers, Arneson noted.
“Many news organizations, blogs, and other web sites are now using RSS
feeds, making it more convenient than ever for people to stay up-to-date on
topics that are important to them,” Arneson said. “It’s revolutionizing the
way information is disseminated, and we want our members to be at the front-
end of that.”

News releases on the Senate Republican website will also be available via
RSS feeds in the near future.

To start receiving podcasts from the Senate Republican Caucus, enter the
following address (URL) in your web-based feed reader (such as My Yahoo!, My
MSN, Bloglines, etc.) or news aggregator:
http://www.pasenategop.com/podcast.xml.

More information is available at http://www.pasenategop.com.