Talk About It
| posted by Greg ClintonI would call it TalkAboutIt but that name is taken. It's a social
site where you can talk to another person about whatever. Talk...not
type. Audio...not video. You start by maybe choosing a topic from a tag
cloud. Maybe it's obama, or prius or atheism or calculus or patriots.
You get hooked up with another soul and you talk. Like a phone call.
It's relaxed. Unscripted. No prep work. No post-production. No
pressure. After you finish, both of you can opt to share the call. And
it gets published.
A lot of people go to this site just to
listen. Generally in the evening. Relaxing, like comfort food. Like
listening to Bill Maher sit down with Larry King. They're our favorite
uncles. We let them into our living rooms. Eventually you gravitate to
a handful of kindred spirits.
And so you can develop a small
following. But small in Internet terms might mean a thousand people.
It's the Long Tail. Imagine the bleachers in a high school gym filled
to capacity. These are your adoring fans who plug in every night just
to hear your next post.
What can be more satisfying than this?
The baby-boomers now have nothing to fear. Good company and genteel
conversations will see us through old age. Never be lonely again.
This
one-on-one, strictly audio format has many advantages over its cousins
-- podcasts, youtube videos, skypecasts, etc. We gave podcasting a
chance, didn't we? Hosting a podcast is just too much work, so not that
many people do it. Those that do, often just ramble or act crazy, or
try amateurishly to emulate talk show hosts. Yawn. We want compelling
content. We want drama. We want genuine.
Two people. Now that's
compelling. No script. Now that's drama. And it's civil. It's intimate.
It's genuine. But not four people. Group chat on the Internet tends to
degenerate. Skype had (has?) something called skypecasting where
anonymous strangers would wander into the discussion and usually spoil
things. That doesn't happen when it's just two souls.
Video,
like podcasting, is also too much work. You have to look good for the
camera. Lighting is important. You have to be somewhere presentable.
And in most cases all you get out of the deal is a talking head. Not
worth it. And the talking head only draws attention away from what's
said and the texture of the voice.
The site I'm working on uses
a thumbs up system. You can thumbs up but not thumbs down. Your
recommendations are public. The person you recommend will be notified.
People you've recommended will show on your profile as will the number
of thumbs up you receive. Based on thumbs, the site can recommend
people for you to listen to, just like amazon recommends books. And you
will be recommended to others.
The site will make use of
de.licio.us style toolbar buttons for your browser. This way you can
start a talk-about topic for the page or blog entry you are reading.
There will be facebook and OpenSocial apps that link you and your posts
to other social networks.
Mobile will work too. Talk and/or listen as easily from a rest spot along your hike, as from the lazyboy in your den.
That's it in a nutshell. The devil is in the details. Killer in my humble opinion. Please share your comments.
