An interesting thread has been running in the Global Voices List on expanding GVO’s output to include audio content – a daily podcast including a summary of the day’s important posts. What I love about the GVO community is its constant efforts to come up with additional features and possible outputs, all under the big idea of amplifying voices from around the world, those which are usually not heard. Providing audio content on the site can raise its outreach substantially – providing access to disabled audiences and making it easier for readers whom English is not the first language. Fellow GVO-er Deborah Dilley wrote an insightful post organizing her thoughts on the topic. She writes that the most problematic part in regards to this idea is the actual manpower; getting people to record text is not simple, and requires much time. Jeremy Clark, hacker/designer extraordinaire suggested using archive.org for hosting all the content, and linking to GVO’s site from there. I really do like the idea of GV articles being read by their author’s voices, the visual side of me can’t help but want to take the experience one step further.
I am a big sucker for the New York times audio+visual slideshows. The interactive environment that the NYTimes has built is a fantastic way to receive personal stories – stunning photos, solid narration and lots of links to videos and texts. I almost want to build something similar for GVO. With the joint forces of the 100+ Authors from around the world, the slideshow can concentrate on a different topic every time. Its creator will need to fetch a variety of CC flickr photos, and attach a short recording of the topic. There could be additional links to videos and other stories on the topic – A visual representation of a story for those readers who engage with the content better through images rather than text.
Below, a screenshot from the NYTimes Interactive slideshow about life in Gaza. Shortly narrated at first, then accompanied by four different perspectives on people who live in Gaza.
Conclusion? I need many more hours in the day. On my list of to-do’s – find an effective, open source tool that would allow us to create these visual-audio slideshows for GVO. If that doesn’t exist… well… build it.
[tags]audio,news,global,voices,online,visual,slideshow,gvo[/tags]