Radio Vox Populi

March 4, 2004 11:33 PM

This is Radio Vox Populi"We are entering an age where every citizen will have the means to speak her mind in a public venue. Weblogs are the voice of the people, connecting millions of individuals to their own audience on a daily basis. But what does this communication sound like?"
posted by thedailygrowl (18 comments total)

And here I thought there was nothing that could make Web content more dull and sterile than RSS.
posted by jjg at 11:38 PM on March 4, 2004

Ouch! For what it's worth, it's not supposed to be a practical way of following weblogs. It's part of an art installation by Cameron Marlow. (I wrote a little bit about it on my site.)
posted by waxpancake at 11:52 PM on March 4, 2004

Urgh. That might be more interesting if the voice quality was more listenable.

As it is, I'll stick to Burroughs text cutups. Text, baby, text.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:16 AM on March 5, 2004

The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.
posted by dong_resin at 2:19 AM on March 5, 2004

Is this not a colossal violation of copyright?
posted by bwerdmuller at 2:22 AM on March 5, 2004

Robot Harvester. heh.
posted by internook at 3:02 AM on March 5, 2004

And here I thought there was nothing that could make Web content more dull and sterile than RSS.

I'm trying with great vigor and diligence to try and remember the last thing you said on Metafilter that wasn't negative and whiny, jjg, honest I am, but I'm just not having much success.

This Pox Vopuli, I'm not so sure about, but on the other hand I've only recently finally understood the Joy Of Syndication, and much as I love me some pretty design and info architecture and all that stuff (and been paid to do it, too, by golly!) on this web of ours, RSS and its cousins have allowed me to read many times the number of writers-on-the-web that I once did, now that I've actually started doing it again, and this is good.

After all, if it's not about the words, out here in the place where we are nothing but text, what the fuck is it about?

(PS : Tell me it's design, and I'll be forced to kick you square in the nuts. Metaphorically speakin', of course.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:14 AM on March 5, 2004

(...er, I sense I might have crossed an unchalked line there. Before anybody gets all freaked out, that last was just a semi-oblique South Park reference, I hasten to say, and meant in a sense more risible than bar-fighty.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:27 AM on March 5, 2004

This is hilariously absurd - I love it...a bizarre robotic smorgasbord. I think I may play it in the background next time I work onsite at one of my clients just as a social experiment.
posted by madamjujujive at 4:09 AM on March 5, 2004

The synthesized voice thing certainly isn't new - I can take a wonderchicken rant, cue it up, and pump it out through a variety of voiceboxes (it's amazing what an unemotional female larynx can do to male textual bombast).

(Actually, it's amazing what an unemotional female anything can do to any male bombast.)

Is 'risible' the new 'conflate'?
posted by Opus Dark at 4:24 AM on March 5, 2004

> We are entering an age where every citizen will have the means to speak her mind in
> a public venue.

Zero sum game. The more people are talking, the fewer people are listening. End state, everyone talking, no one listening.
posted by jfuller at 4:57 AM on March 5, 2004

Self-link ahoy : "When everyone is in a band, there's no one left to watch the shows."
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:03 AM on March 5, 2004

A juxtaposition error has occurred in Opus Dark's comment. Opus seems to be conflating 'bombast' with stavrosian ranting technique. This is a reader error; you are misapprehending innocent Opus to serve your own little risible ends.
posted by Opus Dark at 5:09 AM on March 5, 2004

Note that "having the means" to speak ones mind publically doesn't mean everyone will do so.

The point is that an ordinary person has the chance to reach a much larger audience without having to belong to a professional elite.

Sure, most of the time no-one gives a stuff about what an average guy like me is saying on websites and blogs. But very occasionally people do. A couple of times now I've gotten hundreds of thousands of people hitting an article of mine, just because it happened to touch a particular nerve.

Equality of opportunity is what it's all about.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 6:15 AM on March 5, 2004

Fitter. Happier.
posted by Peter H at 9:18 AM on March 5, 2004

"what does this communication sound like?" - it's like the din of those noisy little "popping shrimp" which produce such a racket, down on the on the sea floor, that they interfere with submarine communication.

Mass media outlets are the submarines and bloggers are the shrimp.

Pop~! Pop~!.......Pop!
posted by troutfishing at 10:26 AM on March 5, 2004

a cheese sandwich stamping on a human face forever.
posted by trondant at 11:14 AM on March 5, 2004

End state, everyone talking, no one listening.

I suspect the power of negative feedback may come into play.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 1:12 AM on March 7, 2004