The failure of audioblogging

I can only say amen to this audioblogging manifesto which basically says "Don't believe the hype".

Consider also this - the average person speaks at one hundred, perhaps
one hundred fifty words per minute. Meanwhile, an accomplished reader
can read ten times faster - up to a thousand words a minute, and that's
straight-up reading, not even skimming. You're forcing people to listen
to you at a speed that's barely faster than the speed at which they can
type. Why are you wasting their time? Is your voice really that
beautiful?

Dave Winers audio message that he was going to stop hosting radio weblogs, running ten minutes but communicable in 1 through reading exemplifies all the problems. Connecting via speech usually takes conversation. Good public speakers are rare, and audio blogging is public speaking. To me, there no additional information in spoken half sentences interspersed with coughs, uhs, uhhums and coughing. That wouldn't be so bad if speech helped the emotive connection. But that only happens in conversation - unless the speaker has rare natural talent.

The only real promise of audio blogging is good availability of speech for mashups.

By the way: Maciej, the author of the manifesto, not only likes the written language. The written language likes him back. Bookmarked.

Posted by Claus at September 25, 2004 09:12 PM | TrackBack (0)