– Simon Gall of Otodio demonstrated how their product turns print into an audio service for mobiles, a tool being developed in consultation with the RNIB. Otodio recently worked with the FT and the Evening Standard to introduce an audio version of their newspapers and the demo of the FT product combined journalist Lucy Kellaway reading her column with rather painful text-to-speech navigation of the menu. Users can also change the language and speed of the speech, and once they’ve downloaded the file they don’t need to stay connected to listen to it. He presented the tool against a background of stats on the decline of print newspaper readership, saying that consumers describe themselves as “time poor in a media rich environment” and want simple, reliable and immediate access to content wherever they are. I think they also want it to sound a bit better than an evil robot though, but that might just be me.
— The regulatory implications of user-generated content are “terrifying”, said George Kidd of ICSTIS. It does publish guidelines on decency and on not inciting violence or racist behaviour for example, but ICSTIS only regulates paid-for content which carries extra responsibility for the publisher. “As soon as you start charging for content you can no longer say you’re just a conduit.”
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.
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