To continue from my previous post on story telling and social networks, I’ve come across another excellent piece of software (thanks to Museum 2.0) that allows people to tell collaborative stories.

VoiceThread is…

an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways – using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) – and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.

If you are curious, I suggest that you go to the site and experiment with it by setting up a free account. While rather limited, it will allow you to get a feel for the software. Although there are other programs that allow for you to post images and then comment on them as a slideshow, the collaborative aspect and ease of use set VoiceThread apart.

An interesting use for VoiceThread in a public library, that would create engagement with and among the community, would be to get patrons to submit photos of their favorite places and people in their neighbourhoods and them allow both them and others to comment on them, creating a collective and collaborative conversation.

I have created a small VoiceThread on a new section of my blog. Enjoy and please feel free to add comments if you have a VoiceThread account.