Newshoggers Archive: Speak To Tweet -- Egypt Speaks to the World

Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.

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Monday, January 31, 2011

Speak To Tweet -- Egypt Speaks to the World

By John Ballard

Monday afternoon [Google] introduced a speak-to-tweet service that allows callers to tweet by calling one of three numbers and leaving a voicemail. The project is a collaboration between Google, Twitter and SayNow, which Google acquired just last week, according to the Google blog. LINK

Techies make way for stranded Egyptians to be heard

For those stuck in Egypt without the Internet, Google, Twitter and SayNow have teamed up to create an innovative voicemail system: Call a number and leave a message, and the system blasts it out into the universe in the form of a tweet with the hashtag #egypt.

You can see the whole river of messages, all hauntingly uniform and anonymous, on Twitter at @speak2tweet. When you click on one of the short links, you're taken to a page on SayNow that plays back a unique message. Go ahead and take a listen for yourself.

Since loved ones will basically have to listen to each and every message with the hope of hearing their own friends and family members inside Egypt, the system does seem a little inefficient. And besides, it seems that the Mubarak government is shutting off cell phone service in anticipation of tomorrow's demonstration, so it may be harder for many Egyptians to get to a phone. Still, as a helpless bystander, it's both a relief and a sorrow to hear these voices escaping from the all-consuming crisis.

I just discovered this medium. It's somewhat cumbersome and users must click twice to discover if the message being sent is in a language they can understand. But hearing the sounds of speaking voices is much more realistic than words on a monitor.

Here is the Speak To Tweet feed link.

And here are a few links to speakers in English with thier brief messages to the world. Navigation is three parts. 1) Sender link 2)Tweet To Speak box 3)Click to play

Each link at the feed brings up a Tweet which contains another link to Tweet To Speak.
That link in turn displays a small dial ready to play when the start button is clicked.

?http://twitter.com/#!/speak2tweet/status/32119643594301441

?http://twitter.com/#!/speak2tweet/status/32225536390471680

?http://twitter.com/#!/YoSoyLu/status/32226199220523009

?http://twitter.com/#!/speak2tweet/status/32093185228414978