This is a short review of Joe Weiss’s SoundSlides (rc10), the version I’ve been working with for a number of student projects in the last couple of months…as mentioned in my last entry.
As a professor of multimedia storytelling and online journalism, I’m constantly torn between teaching either technology or journalism first. With SoundSlides, I can finally focus on journalism first. I’ve seen the most technophobe student use SoundSlides to produce their narrative without opening Macromedia Flash. Within minutes of editing their photos and audio, they have a web ready directory with swfs, html, jpgs and mp3.
For any journalist (young, seasoned, focused on visual or sound) SoundSlides will get your story out there with minimal technical production know-how. This app will help storytellers focus on their stories and not the technology.
EASE OF USE
To illustrate how easy this application is to use, all I did was install the SoundSlides demo app on the Dock during our latest student project. My intent was to come back from a convention session to explain how to use the app but some of the students had already started using the application and putting together packages before I came back. It was a thing of beauty!
MADE FOR JOURNALISTS BY A JOURNALIST
The beauty of this application for journalists is that a journalist made it. For example, Joe has the application pick up the caption from the file info during the import process. Brilliant. The SWF and html output is all you need to upload it to your server. Efficient. And the multi_linear FLA template included in the download is an anticipation on how news organizations will be using this tool. Priceless.
IT’S ONLY THE BEGINNING
As Joe explains in his FAQ, SoundSlides won’t let you do anything beyond an audio slide show. But with what most news organizations are doing now in terms of audio slideshows, this is going to be a boon to the professional and academic community.
But it is only the beginning…
So download it. Buy it. Produce your story with it. And help make the next versions even better by participating in the SoundSlides Forum. In fact, I’ll start a few Feature Requests myself since i've been getting feedback from my students and other professionals during our projects. The most anticipated Feature Request I'm sure Joe will receive is the wish to get a PC version of SoundSlides.
Excellent work, Joe. I do hope that you get the proper recognition you so deserve for your contribution to multimedia journalism.
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