Al Setka of the Great Ape Trust of Iowa listened to a podcast for the first time the other day, and his employer just started producing podcasts of its own. At iMed Studios in Ames, they expect to be providing some form of podcast service to major pharmaceutical companies within the next three months.

The Greater Des Moines Partnership is considering how podcasts might help sell the image of downtown Des Moines and Central Iowa in general. In Windsor Heights, Bob Singer is already producing “Political Kitchen” podcasts in, of course, his kitchen.

In short, podcasting seems to have arrived.

The business world is starting to see podcasts as an efficient way to distribute specific chunks of information to employees or targeted clients. For many individuals, it sounds like a great way to keep up on topics you care about at times of your own choosing — whether it’s “This Week in Technology” or reports from Barenaked Ladies’ current recording session.

Podcasting’s odd name derives from Apple Computer Inc.’s ubiquitous iPod, which can be used to download audio files or, if you have the newer version, video files. But you can use any computer with an Internet connection for the purpose, too.

You can search for podcast topics through the iTunes Web site, and if you find one that you like, you can subscribe, usually at no charge. As a subscriber, you receive a podcast whenever the sender puts one out.

As Computerworld magazine sized up the situation recently, “Podcasts range in format from crude, bloglike individual diaries featuring personal rants and ramblings to slick, professionally produced interviews and discussions and redistributed programming from commercial and public broadcasting organizations. The subjects of podcasts cover the gamut of human interest and experience.”

“I subscribe to some National Public Radio podcasts, including the morning news summary,” said Mike Sellberg, executive vice president and chief technology officer at iMed Studios. He also listens to one from Scientific American, but he’s not all high-tech; he feeds his woodworking interest with “Matt’s Basement Workshop.”

At iMed, the emphasis is on animation and multimedia products for marketing and communication. “We’re looking at podcasting in two different ways,” Sellberg said. “Our pharmaceutical company clients could use it in the area of sales training, keeping salespeople up to date with the latest key messages and market data. The second way is for the physicians themselves; podcasts could be a great way to keep them up to date on products, including FDA-type technical information. We are actively pitching using podcasts for that.”

Sellberg said iMed is working closely with three or four clients and “a couple are pretty close to biting on it.”

As for himself, “I’m not addicted to my iPod,” he said. “I like nature and the sounds of ambient noise. But if I’m exercising or waiting for 20 minutes to pick up my kids, I like having podcasts to listen to. And when you travel for business, it makes the time fly by.

“A buddy was saying he loves satellite radio, and I showed him this; now he’s hooked on it.”

Dan Murray is working with iMed on the podcasting effort. About a year ago, he left Phasient Learning Technologies, a company he started, and began focusing on new technology and communication methods, including podcasting. Now he operates a company called Murray5.net.

“We have companies talking about developing podcasts and giving people in the field iPods,” he said. “Something they can watch on an iPod while they’re traveling on a plane is a pretty effective way to deliver information.”

“I listen to NPR’s five-minute news update every day on my iPod,” Murray said. “I get ‘Meet the Press,’ which is available as soon as the show ends. I watch a video podcast of ‘This Week in Technology.’ Some people are doing podcasts out of their home for their kids’ soccer programs, and I’m involved with my daughter’s soccer team, so who knows?”

At Applied Art & Technology in Urbandale, Courtnee Carstens likes to start and end her workday with podcasts. “I use them for light entertainment,” said Carstens, an editor. “I listen to Ebert and Roeper’s movie reviews, a satire called ‘The Unger Report’ and the ‘All Things Considered’ story of the day.” She likes a podcast from Ricky Gervais, the creator of the British version of “The Office,” but recently a $1.99 charge was tacked onto that one. “I haven’t decided whether to pay,” she said. “There are 12 podcasts in the original series, so I can listen to those a couple of times.”

Podcasting is simple, but there are costs involved. George Christ, a partner at Applied Art & Technology, said: “It can cost the podcaster, depending on how he does it. A huge majority of them hardly anybody watches or listens to, but [a popular podcast] can rack up huge bills from all the downloads.”

One study of advertising on blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds found that podcast advertising made up 15 percent of that market. But the researchers projected that in 2010 podcast advertising will account for 43 percent.

Ideally, podcasts saves you from surfing the Web for information. But first you have to find them, and that process is in the midst of change too. “There are podcast directories now,” Christ said. “They actually search audio to recognize words, so you can search by word or phrase and listen to a clip that contains what you searched for.

“Podcasting has its place, but the content has to be there,” he said. “There are more bad ones than good ones, and the mainstream broadcasts are still the ones people listen to.”

Al Setka figures that a specialized place such as the Great Ape Trust should be able to attract a select group to its podcasts. “When we created our Web site, it was a place where people could find out about the Great Ape Trust, because they wouldn’t be able to come on campus for some time,” he said. “Podcasts extend that and give a better understanding of what we’re about. It’s more proactive than just having people come to the Web site. They can go to iTunes and see us under the science section. If they do a search for apes, we’re one that will come up.”

The Great Ape Trust has produced three video podcasts: one giving an overview of the institution, anothe taking the viewer through the home of the bonobos and the third touring the home of the orangutans.

“It was not ‘should we do this?;’ it was ‘when will we start doing this?’” Setka said. “I got exposed to this like a lot of people going into last holiday season, then we talked to Trilix Markeitng Group to come up with a marketing plan beyond what we had already done.

“We could create a Great Ape TV network on the Internet,” Setka said. “That’s what I see this eventually becoming. Why not?”