Twittergrams: Talking tweets

(Credit: Twittergram)

Dave Winer has released a cool experiment into the world: Twittergram. It's a voice version of Twitter (more coverage): You record a brief audio clip (200K max), and Twittergram puts it on a server and creates a Twitter post (a "tweet") that links to it. Twittergrams can be posted to your own personal Twitter account as well as to a public collection of Twittergrams (mobile version).

Initially (last month), posting a Twittergram required that you record an audio clip, then upload it via Twittergram.com, but now there's a phone interface so you can post from your mobile. Sign up for it here. It's the way to go: You can voice-Twitter while on the run--or on the drive, although I can't in good conscience recommend that--if you don't want to type a Twitter on your handheld gizmo.

Twitter.com links to Twittergrams via short URLs. I'd like to see Twitter embed a Twittergram player (maybe this is a feature that PowerTwitter could add), which would make for a better experience. It's likely one or more of the Twitter applications will do this. Likewise we might see soon an app or site that enables the quick recording to 'grams from a Web site.

Twittergram is a lot of fun. It could also be a very useful tool for citizen journalism. The service currently restricts people from posting more than one 'gram every 10 minutes to combat spam, but this could be dropped or modified for registered users, I imagine.

Is Twittervideo next?

[DorianBenkoil]

Useful Twitter

Rafe, you've finally found a USE for Twitter audio: citizen journalism. Imagine a scene from which dozens or hundreds are phoning in to report what they say. Could work.

[JBSacks]

I don't get it

Why do I want to hear someone's tweet? Can't you just write it out? I don't want to click on multiple links just so I can hear your voicemail that is directed toward everyone.

Sure, it's perfect for those times when you just NEED to twitter IMMEDIATELY but can't type it out. That has happened to me...never. The people who need to twitter immediately when they're driving? I don't want to hear what they have to say b/c they probably are writing too many annoying twitter quotes anyway.

My take? This product is lame, especially for the twitter friends of the person who is using twittergram.

[amylooo]

Re: "finally found a use"

Use? What is this... use? Isn't Twitter mostly just about fun? I like the idea of Twittergrams for audio trivia, name that tune, guess the movie or book passage.

[xxdesmusxx]

totally not working

Either I am a moron, or something is not working.

I dial the number it told me on the website, and nothing is showing up on Twitter. Yes, I registered...what am I doing wrong?

[BuzWeaver]

Twitter, really?

Far be it from me to poo poo on someone's fun, yet I still don't see the appeal or practicality of Twitter. If you want to talk to your friends call or visit them (email). Even social networking sites have a little more appeal if you can stomach the content.

[mark_baratelli]

Hipcast for longer phone posts

Cool idea. For longer phone posts, I'd try hipcast.com. It won't post directly to twitter, but you can talk till your blue.