Melbourne based Chinswing, an audio bulletin board, quietly launched with minimal angel funding a couple of weeks ago. The concept is pretty straight forward. Members kick-start a discussion thread by leaving an audio rant under the appropriate category channel (health, computer, etc.) with a relevant title and tags.
The discussion thread is a series of boxes, filled by users recorded comments in the order they are recorded. Each comment box also has space for a few lines of text describing the comment. Developments in each subject channel and individual discussion can easily be followed via RSS, watchlist, and podcast. Threads can be played all the way through linearly or you can start playing further down the thread. This makes for a very simple way to consume the audio, but the linear format robs the system of the meandering sub-threads that sometimes spiral off comments.
In order to post your own comments, you have to download and install a small .msi (Microsoft Installer) file with the recording software included. Considering the the simple play/pause/record features of the client, I would have much rather had the recording program run embedded in flash, like the karaoke service Singshot, or audio mixing site Jamglue.
There have been a couple other stabs at services like this before: the now defunct Audioblogger, Wildvoice, Snapvine, and Evoca. Unlike Chinswing and Wildvoice, Snapvine and Evoca are not destinations for conversations, but instead syndicate their technology as a blog plugin (Evoca) or flash embed (Snapvine). Evoca allows comments to be recorded off your computer or phone, while Snapvine relies on users dialing in by phone.
Being a destination and allowing for only one mode of commenting (audio) may serve to stymie Chinswing’s potential growth. Without the potentially viral capability of their own widget, Chinswing has to build a community around their site from scratch. Their support for only audio comments also leaves out any text commenters that want to pitch in their two cents to the discussion. Video sites like Youtube or audio site like Odeo have gained a lot of user interaction by supporting text replies.
I share the same concerns as you. While this is right up my alley, I’ve been a member of other communities where voice was available and just not used. Without a built-in alternative(simple text) more skittish folks might not touch a community where they -have- to use their voice.
Not to mention that voice isn’t as viable an option for many people while at work. Many folks who could get away with being involved in a text community all day on the company dime might start getting looks if they have to vocalize their various postings.
I can dig this either way, but adding the text option would improve the value of this site for a lot of folks, I’d imagine.
This concept is a long time coming - it is NOT for everyone, but it would be perfect for Dating Social Networking sites, or forums that attract theatre or performing arts types.
Can you imagine a voiceover, or singer message board with this technology.
They would have a ball.
I think this is a cool idea, but just something I cannot see myself ever using. For a few reasons:
1. I like being able to type shit into message boards that is non-identifiable - voices are always identifiable.
2. Storage space size - i.e. a site like myspace would have big problems with voice comments - imagine 1 billion voice comments?
3. Its really not all that new, been tried before.
Either way, wish this company good luck
Hi all,
I’m the creator of Chinswing. Just a few thoughts…
What you currently see is only the beginning. We decided to release this early (beta) version as soon as possible, with a minimal but functional feature set. More features are definitely on the way, including custom/group channels, blogger/podcaster/website tools (widgets), and an enhanced version of the voice recorder.
The comments about greater text options and integration are interesting. We’ve intentionally focused on audio-only, rather than mixing the two. There are already innumerable ways to connect with others via text, so we want to offer something new. We’ll give the idea some extra thought though (feedback is food!).
We believe Chinswing provides something new. We simply want to provide an easy way to get online at anytime and discuss personal interests and passions (no matter how obscure) with like-minded people. So far, we’ve never seen anything else do that one thing well, in a simple and user-friendly way. We’ll strive do it in the best way possible.
Anyway, great to see others thinking seriously about Chinswing! It’s a strange feeling finally having the cat out of the bag…
Cheers,
Dean Worth.
Audio Blogging is almost defunct. BUt I think all the formats of commenting should be supported. People have their own camcordedrs and high resolution cameras now days and can even video comment. It startedin India SareGaMaPA Programme long back where contestents were sent video recordings by fans in apprecialtion oftheir singing in the REality show.
This idea is worth a shot. I am looking forward to seeing how voice (and video) end up more native to a computing environment.
Maybe audio blogging is out but I think for issues/causes that have emotional appeal, audio commenting will be much more powerful than will text comments. Voice just has so much more emotional content than text. Video is better but its much harder to capture right. You need a good camera, you need it positioned or held right, you need good lighting AND you need to capture high quality audio.
Seems like a pretty cool idea, but it would be better if one had the option to either listen to the audio or read a transcript - perhaps they could use some transcripting software to perform this function. I like to read, but many people prefer to hear.
I think this is a good idea and I’ve let Chinswing know as much. I added that I would like to see outside integration into websites and blogs as well. Voice clips for comments fed via RSS take much less attention away from doing other things online.
I have also suggested that they allow for private threads of conversations as well. Since I host a Google Group for my extended family it would be great if we had this tool to gather insights from various members. This feature should also include the ability to tag messages for easier reference.
While they’re at it, they should throw in some advertising as well. I could live with an advert crawl along the bottom of the player or even a 20 second commercial for every 10 minutes of conversation. Seems fair, doesn’t it?
Do you know the companies PINGER and SNAPVINE?
Pinger and Snapvine are highly INSECURE!!!!
What this means: I can break into your Pinger and Snapvine phone accounts. I can listen to your messages. I can send out messages as you.
How do I do this? Easy. I mask / spoof CALLER ID / ANI. Anyone can do this, amateur hacks, etc.
Well, there are others, but suffice to say that these companies are doing new things with social networking sites and phones that help to connect people.
The problem is that these companies have a scalability problem based on inbound calling.
You see, if you have hundreds of thousands or millions of users, you can’t give everyone a unique dial in phone number.
SECURITY PROBLEM
What these companies have done is based user identification on Caller ID / ANI – meaning that you call their service, and their systems recognize your phone via Caller ID.
The problem is that Caller ID is highly insecure and can be faked.
The problem that these “dial in” companies are trying to solve is one of scalability. They simply cannot have enough dial in numbers for each user.
Therefore, they have architected a way to recognize each caller by Caller ID and to base the entire user authentication system on this insecure method.
This can easily be hacked.
SOLUTION
The solution is funny – both Pinger and SnapVine make you enter in a PIN CODE when you dial in without validating your phone.
After you validate your phone, you no longer need to enter the PIN CODE.
So in effect, when you validate your phone, you make your account INSECURE.
What Pinger and SnapVine need to do is always require the PIN CODE.
Dean from Chinswing here. Just thought I’d let readers know that due to popular demand, Chinswing now uses a simpler, in-browser voice recorder. It’s Java-based, so it works on most systems including Macs. No need to download & install the recorder anymore
Enjoy.