Mayor now available for downloading

Mayor Thomas M. Menino isn't exactly the picture of hip, having crafted an image as the regular Joe from Hyde Park who likes oatmeal for breakfast and neighborhood barbecues.

But check out his podcast with hip- hop tunes.

Yes, now you can add the mayor to the soundtrack of your life, as Boston dives into the world of downloadable digital audio. The city's first podcast is now available on its website, featuring the sounds of local group Four Peace laying down an antiviolence rap before Menino launches into a press conference about his gun-buyback program.

Officials are planning regular installments of digital audio that could include bits on city housing programs and information on summer jobs. They envision reaching people with downloadable segments of the mayor and other officials talking about city initiatives.

``It's a way to reach young people," Menino said. ``You have to find where your audience is and communicate with them. A lot of people in our community are using iPods."

Like a lot of institutions that are looking for ways to exploit the technologies emerging from the Internet, Boston is feeling its way. The latest effort was hatched by a Health Department worker who came away from a recent podcasting conference eager to put new ideas to work.

The mayor liked the pitch, although he admitted that he has not quite caught up with the MP3 era. He is in the process of getting one, Menino said, so he can keep tabs on the city's new venture.

The City Hall workers in charge of producing Boston's podcasts concede that city business may not be riveting material, especially to the iPod-toting young people they hope to reach. They are looking to spice things up, possibly with theme music that might be composed by students at the Berklee College of Music. They also hope to have audio files translated into other languages, including Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

``We want to make sure that it's interesting and useful," said Tom Lyons, who is heading the effort. ``Are people going to care about this when they listen to it?"

The podcasts are currently scheduled to be available monthly, but the frequency could increase after more city employees are trained next month to create the podcasts using computer software and a digital tape recorder.

Podcasts, which are multimedia files that computer users can download from the Internet and put onto a portable music player such as an iPod, exist for topics ranging from poker strategy to calculus. The governors of Minnesota, California, and Arkansas have podcasts, and the president's weekly address is now available through podcasts.

But the latest technology craze has yet to take off among city governments, which have been more accustomed to older technologies, said Alex Nesbitt, president of Digital Podcast, a website that lists podcasts in categories.

``In terms of listenership, it is really going to depend on their content," he said. ``If it's just going to be your standard press release stuff, that's not going to have broad interest."

Indeed, the experiences of some other muncipalities might serve as warnings. In February, Grand Forks, N.D., launched a podcasting program, jubilantly announcing that its plan for a regular series of digital audio pieces posted on the Internet ``begins an adventure not yet undertaken by a government entity." The experiment, according to the announcement, ``will set the bar." The effort was ultimately discontinued.

Meanwhile, officials in Warren, Mich., were consistently getting ho-hum traffic with podcasts on subjects such as city efforts to deal with rising energy costs. But then they tried a different tack.

``We did a podcast a few months ago where one City Council member was accusing another of corruption and infidelity," said Joseph Munem, Warren's communications director. ``We had a big run on our servers on that one."

Menino said the Boston podcast, called Citycast, fits with his desire to foster technological innovation in his administration. The city is planning to launch a revamped website next month and is also looking into making wireless Internet access available throughout the city.

The debut of Citycast starts with the rap, which fades to a narrator and then Menino speaking at a press conference. In all, it is 14 minutes of interviews with police officials and community leaders supportive of the mayor's plan. Will such material bring listeners? Lyons says they'll soon find out.

``The great thing about podcasting and podcast listeners in general is that they tend to be pretty forgiving," Lyons said. ``If the content is good, they'll hang with you as you polish things out."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.