Vocal social networking talked up
A NEW KIND of social not-working site based on verbal communication has been launched by a 22-year-old software engineering graduate, who cobbled it together between writing essays and running a web design business to pay his bills.
Chris Ridgeon, who graduated from Coventry University this year, came up with ‘Vocal Networking’ and his venture Internet Shout when he spotted a gap in the market for voice-based discussion forums.
The site purports to be the world’s first ever purpose-built voice based forum, allowing mouthy users to record sound clips to the website and start conversations, participate in ongoing conversations or, if you’re shy, just listen in.
Ridgeon sounded off, “voice has only been exploited for live chat and yet it is far more useful if we let conversations build up over time, with many participants from different backgrounds and locations”.
The site, which is quite similar to a regular online forum, except that all interactions are verbal, also features private voice messaging. Like other social not-working sites, Internet Shout allows users to add hundreds of random strangers and pretend they are 'friends', as well as having a notification system for keeping up with all the clamour.
To protect younger users from being exposed to things not meant for their delicate little ears, the site automatically blocks private messages to young 'uns unless they come from a pre-approved 'friend'.
With all the noise, the site decided it would do well to have some background music, or at least a dedicated ‘Music Arena’ section, an area of the site where unsigned bands can upload their music tracks for all to hear. Smells like Teen Spirit.
Chris has teamed up with Derby based Internet Provider Node4 to enable the website to deliver high-quality voice directly to its user’s computers.
The site, which is free, can apparently run from any broadband Internet connection worldwide, and Ridgeon hopes to soon be able to make a bit of cash out of it by opening it up to advertisers.
Having the last word, Ridgeon notes “A major step in development is features for the blind and visually impaired as I think this would enhance their Internet experience. This is just the beginning!”
Well, you heard it here first. µ
Share this:
ShareBusiness Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
Yeah, audio social networking. That totally won't attract the copyright infringement gestapo like flies to a zoo in summer. Right.

Ok fine let's be optimistic and say it works. You want a real killer app? Try social networking, tied to something like iTunes, with full audio/video sharing, and set it up so anyone you friend can listen to/watch anything you buy for free. They get ads with theirs and can only watch it when logged in, unless they buy it like you did. Set it up so it only works for direct friends though, and sanity limit it at like 1000 or so, otherwise you'll get the one guy with the entire internet as friends who spends 99 cents on the next episode of the most popular TV show each week so the entire world can watch it for free instead of paying for cable. Oh wait we already have that for free, it's called Hulu. What's the difference then? With this system people constantly get little notifications of what everyone they know is watching/listening/reading/buying. Can we say cascade advertising? And all the nifty filtering to target the right products at the right people is already done by their friends, without the need for proprietary Google algorithms. ;)

Why do this? Because people feel a need to maintain social synchronization. This is a pretty deeply ingrained thing in our psychology. People who hear, see, and read the same things communicate better, and so we enjoy sharing stuff that interests us with our friends because since the dawn of language that's been an advantage for survival. This is why DRM is just spitting into the wind, a couple years of encryption R&D is not going to save a decades-old business model built on a couple hundred years of legal concepts when it goes up against 50,000 year old evolutionary programming. First person to remember the first rule of showbusiness will make a killing if they do it right.

Oh and bonus points if the social network runs transparently across cellphones, so people are *always* on it. That way pesky corporate firewalls can't keep them off it most of the day. Let's see them try to ban cellphones at work. ;)
Just what I've always wanted. The ability to actually hear the forum troll spout off.

A study that could be done on this, is to see how many people are murdered based on nasty messages left on the site.
Some very negative reactions here. I say good luck to this, although it isn't something that I desire personally. I'm a bit worried if accessibility is an afterthought - it should be higher on the agenda, particularly if this service "speaks" to users with particular needs. Oh, and it could go on a premium rate phone line. £££££!!