Marty Kearns picks up on the advocacy potential of iPodder, a new tool that automates the process of downloading new MP3 files by querying RSS feeds. iPodder integrates with iTunes, so that new content is downloaded whenever you sync your iPod with iTunes. (Neat tricks indeed.)

iPodder’s still on the rough-and-tumble bleeding edge of open-source software hacks, but the idea has huge merit.

This opens some interesting new possibilities for freeing content from our computers — folks could listen to daily campaign updates while commuting.

The big challenge in unlocking this potential is the dearth of engaging audio content. Marty suggests that we auto-convert existing written content, but I think this overlooks the fact that audio is an inherent different medium than print, and interesting audio requires completely different production techniques.

The environmental movement hasn’t yet demonstrated many multimedia production skills. I think this is because doing good multimedia production is extremely time-intensive and requires storytelling skills that our movement simply doesn’t select or train for. As a movement we desperately need to invest more in the skills needed to produce high quality audio (and video!) content. The internet is handing us all of these amazing tools for routing around the traditional media, but we need to rise to the challenge and produce strong content to fill the void.

The good news is that doing broadcast quality audio doesn’t require much gear anymore.