I would put audio in one of the
next big things category. Textual conversation is nice, it sure is efficient, but if so much is gained, so much is also lost in the process. Would you argue that SMS has finally managed to displace in person meetings? I don't think that will ever be possible. If online video has not managed to displace in person meetings, what are the chances of SMS?
SMS is convenient, it is efficient, and by now it is also cheap. Free is cheap.
There is an inherent richness to audio that textual conversation simply does not capture.
There are a few things that get in the way of audio. One is bandwidth. Audio files are half way to video. They take so much space. There are huge hurdles in search when it comes to audio. We don't have machines that "read" audio files as readily as they read textual files. A comparable search engine for audio files would figure out the language of the audio files and their content, and there would be the option to translate the content into a language of your choice.
Maybe literacy is overrated. And I mean literacy even for the literate. It has always amazed me how the so-called illiterate masses of the Global South tend to be so verbally gifted in their mother tongues. It is a waste that they do not fall under the knowledge worker umbrella.
There should be buttons attached to the comments sections of top blogs that would allow you to join group, real time audio conversations on the topic at hand.
Audio blogging is not as easy an option as textual blogging right now. Believe it or not, I was a huge fan of what the Twitter dudes had before they gave up on it and launched Twitter. I have missed it since.
The best way to reach out to the "illiterate" masses of the Global South is to tackle audio.
