For the last six months, the team I lead has been toiling away on a really ambitious project. Our goal: the integration of web audio with slideshows. I am happy to let readers of this blog know that SlideShare has introduced a new multimedia format that we hope will add a new dimension to how knowledge is shared on the web. Its called ‘SlideCasting’ and this makes previously static web slideshows true, compelling multimedia experiences. This is by far the most challenging web interface (or tool) that my startup has ever attempted to build.
Micheal Arrington covered this on TechCrunch a few days back; here’s Guy Kawasaki’s perspective on this; and here is the coverage from CNet’s Webware.
Slidecasting is essentially a mashup of slides with podcasting. You can connect any mp3 on the web to your slideshow. Once you do that, you can synchronize ‘each’ slide to a particular section of the audio track. We think slidecasting has the potential to unleash a new wave of creativity – you can think of synchronised conference talks, audio stories, podcast interviews, webinars, slidetoons et al. This is the complete howto page about slidecasting.
We kept podcasting in mind while designing slidecasting. Podcasting has gained popularity, but nowhere near what it was once touted to be. And this is mainly because podcasts (unlike videos) are often long, but there is no way of navigating them. We think slidecasting offers a solution to this problem- you can visually navigate through your podcast by moving through different slides. Also we wanted to create a multimedia format that is suited to both creation and consumption on the web. So we are letting users reuse audio that already exists on the web. We are inspired by the idea of ‘small pieces loosely joined’. You can take any mp3 audio link on the web and link it to slides on SlideShare. You can decide how you want the audio to play with the slides. You can synchronize your slides with audio. Or you can choose the ‘I’m feeling lazy’ (no synchronization) or ‘Divide audio equally’ (suited to musical slidecasts) options.
Check out these two examples (click the central play button in the player to start the slidecast)
Lawrence Lessig’s all time classic speech on “Free Culture”!
This slidecast is a parody about everyone’s favorite punching bag- George Bush!
I am looking for some serious feedback about this from the readers of this blog. This is SlideCasting Version 1.0 and we think there is a lot of scope for improvement. So give this a try and help us refine it further. Happy Slidecasting!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome service. Great Work…
Sudhanshu,
Thnks but I am expecting criticism. I’d be much happier if you could tell me what you did not like about this or how this could be made more compelling.
amit
Congrats on the release, looks pretty interesting.
Since you ask, here’s some feedback –
- The synch between audio and slides looks weird. I browse thru’ most presentations quickly and do not have the patience to listen to everything the presenter has to say. This is true even in a live presentation where people pay more attention to whats displayed than whats being said
- The audio buffering was incredibly slow, and I am on a very fast connection
- The synching of audio slide by slide is laborious. A casual user will probably not make so much effort – and many presentations actually go back and forth between slides
You do have a hard problem to solve – but here’s a few things to think about –
- If audio is turned on, does it make sense to limit the user’s ability to transition between slides. Let it play by itself
- Provide users the ability to disable the podcast when viewing slides
- Most slides are self-explanatory – if i do come across a slide that needs explaantion, then i just need the audio for that slide only
- Figure out a way to make it work if the presenter skipped a slide or went back and forth between slides
Cheers!
I like the new stuff.
However, i do have the similar suggestions as Big V
i) ability to switch of the pod cast if i want to.
ii) Flipping back and forth through slides is clumsy.
iii) If the audio clip for a slide is 2min, and i want to traverse to the 1.2 min. How do i do that?
Overall a very good concept but need to iron out some issues.
BigV, Ramjee
Thanks for your detailed feedback. One quick note- the slidecast is optional; you can use the slides by themselves without the audio; just do not use the play button but use the back/next.
Otherwise valid points raised by you.
amit
for my busiess class i’m writing a study case about SlideShare, i would like to have more information is possible about the system.
Graph, flowchart, other study cases and what ever can be interesting… can you help me please?
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