Soundseeing

I’m really amazed by this new phenomenon called soundseeing. Perhaps this word raises some question marks. In fact, when I try to explain to someone what soundseeing means, they already start laughing as soon as I’ve used the word. “How can that be interesting?”. Well, to be honest, I’m a little surpised myself, but it definitely can be interesting. By the way, Wikipedia hasn’t covered it yet, so perhaps I’m early to discuss it.

Anyway, a soundseeing tour can be explained as a kind of mobile podcast. A podcaster – someone who makes any kind of audio report to publish it on his blog – talks to his recording device while going or visiting some place, describing what he sees. And yes, this can be fun to listen to. For example, Roderick Vonhögen, the Catholic Insider, has made a terrific soundseeing tour of his visit to the Vatican in Rome and Vatican Radio. (mp3). By the way: father Roderick will make his appearance at Blognomics.nl, the blogging seminar that I’m organising. Also Adam Curry, the founder of Podcasts, has made some soundseeing podcasts that are fun to listen to. And there many more, and many more to come.

As with a lot of new things, you should try it yourself to understand it. I’ve been away on a working weekend with my InterimIC colleagues. I’ve discussed podcasting with quite a lot of them, mainly resulting in raised eye brows. Back in the plane I tossed my iPod to one of them and told him to browse along the podcasts that were on it. One hour later when the plane had landed, he took off the ear phones and said: “wow, this podcasting is fantastic! This is going to be a huge hit.” So I guess in this case, hearing is believing.