Monthly Archives: May 2006

Los hispanos viviendo en los Estados Unidos han avanzado de una forma tremenda en los últimos años. Los avances parecen ser mas de espirito que de sustancia. Sin embargo, las voces de los éxitos provienen desde los Hispanos que ocupan lugares de responsabilidad gubernamental en EE.UU. hasta aquellos quienes se han hecho millonarios trabajando fuertemente desde los barrios mas pobres que hoy disfrutan plenamente de su labor incansable. Y ahora en esta época de políticas Estaunidenses donde amenazan con cerrar fronteras e ilegalizar a los inmigrantes, es más importante que nunca que se haga oír la voz de los hispanos. La comunidad de Evoca no es nada diferente. Es mas, nuestros miembros han empezado a utilizar las grabaciones en Evoca para grabar sus propios mensajes, experiencias y filosofías sobre el estado socio-político de los eventos que rodean este movimiento.

Uno de nuestros grupos más populares, Si se puede, es un buen lugar para escuchar más grabaciones y darle fuerza a la voz Latina.

Estos son solo unos ejemplos de aquellas grabaciones:
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The Hispanic people in the US have made tremendous advances in recent years. The gains seem a bit more of spirit than of substance. However, the voices of success are everywhere from the Hispanic American representatives in our nations government to the self-made millionaires who were raised in the barrios even to the most humble of farm laborers who bask in the sweet taste of daily success. And now in this age of US border policy and illegal/legal immigration it has become increasingly important for Hispanic Americans to make their voice heard. The Evoca community is no different. In fact, our members have started using Evoca recorders to record and post their own messages, experiences, and philosophies about the current state of socio-political events surrounding the movement.

One of our most popular groups on Evoca, Si se puede, is a great place to visit to hear more of these recordings and even to empower your own voice!

Listen to just a sampling of these recordings below:

(definition borrowed from Wikepedia.com)

Beatboxing (a.k.a human orchestration) is the vocal percussion of hip hop culture and music. Considered by many to be a fifth element of hip hop, it is primarily concerned with the art of creating beats, rhythms, and melodies using the mouth. It can also involve singing, vocal scratching (the imitation of turntable scratching), the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments, and the replication of a vast array of sound effects.

No longer is it limited to Australia, the UK, Toronto, New York City, or Tokyo. Beatboxing is now hitting the waves on Evoca as displayed here by user higashikage.

If you want to learn more about the beatbox movement check out www.humanbeatbox.com. If you have your own style, create a group on Evoca and start sharing your skills!

Q: What’s podcasting?

A: According to Wikipedia, “Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them.” Technically speaking then, this is accomplished using RSS 2.0 news feeds to provide information about a collection of audio files in MP3 format. To put it more simply though, podcasting refers to independent audio shows that can be downloaded from the Internet.

We hear this quite a bit. I know what podcasts are. I have even created one on Evoca and I update it regularly. How do I get it listed in something like iTunes or Podcast.net or PodcastAlley? It is quite simple actually. Once you have made a recording on Evoca we provide you immediately with an RSS.

Q: What is RSS?

A. RSS files are text files that contain information about things available on the Internet. For podcasting, RSS files are used to syndicate information about a podcast “channel” (the show as a whole), and also individual podcast episodes.

Then all you need to do is simply submit your podcast to something like the iTunes directory, so it’s searchable there as well as on Evoca. In fact, take a look at this FAQ article on the main site for more information.

A good example of a podcast that can be found on Evoca and subscribed to on the users company page is that of iTour Savannah. You can subscribe to their ‘cast on both Evoca (the original home of their recordings) as well as iTunes.

It is always a great surprise to find out Evoca has been chosen as a “best of” or even to know we were mentioned in a magazine or ezine. We were especially pleased to find out Semana, Colombia’s most influential and most popular magazine, had dedicated May 17th as “Internet Day”. We were even more psyched to hear that the readers of Semana chose Evoca as the “Best Tool to Share Your Voice” in their ‘best and worst of’ list. Other winners included [tag]Gmail[/tag] for email services and [tag]Gettyimages[/tag] as the best photography services.

Some stats to speak about:

• Online usage in [tag]Colombia[/tag] is at 9.9% (in the entire population).
• The criteria for selecting a ‘best of’ winner was found in the areas of navigation, content, and creativity.
• The sites that received the most votes were related to audio and video.

As I write this there is only 5 hours and 35 minutes left until the [tag]UEFA[/tag] 2006 finale showcasing [tag]Barcelona[/tag] (ESP) against [tag]Arsenal[/tag] (ENG). The Union of European Football Associations is the governing body of football on the continent of Europe.

Personally, I am not much of a soccer fan….I mean, [tag]football[/tag] fan. But this is finally it. This is one of the best matches in the professional sports world. Last year [tag]Liverpool[/tag] defeated [tag]Istanbul[/tag] in an amazing game. You can catch the game in the states on ESPN2 starting at 2:30am EST or you can listen to it on SkypeCast. Televised will be the opening and closing ceremonies and the match! Watch it. Record it. Share it! Speaking of sharing it…take a listen to our friend V Cosmin from Romania. He started the festivities on both his blog and on Evoca.

Idea! Send ‘em in. We want to hear your favorite clubs anthem…..

It is no secret that free speech is a major topic here in the Evoca offices. Since our team represents several nations it is difficult for us to claim one country over the other. Like the New York Times we just bring you “All the News That is Fit to Print”….except we bring it to your ears! So, we felt it was only right to bring the Presidential Address given tonight in Washington by George W. to our community. Make what you will of it. We look forward to future recordings of other politicos and other struggles and triumphs in other nations. If you want to sound off about the current border struggle in America, we encourage you to join a group like Si se puede…or create your own! Speak up and speak out!

George W. Bush speaks out about immigration policies. Listen here…

note: recording takes six seconds to begin.

One of the things we worried about when first establishing Evoca was the privacy and protection we were able to offer community members and their recordings. We quickly became aware of CC. Creative Commons helps you publish your work online while letting others know exactly what they can and can’t do with your work. So, it is with great excitement that Evoca now gives you the ability to apply Creative Commons licenses to your audio files. With six options for licensing, Evoca is pleased to offer you confidence and security when you publish your audio creations. The options are as follows:

• Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd)
• Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)
• Attribution Non-commercial (by-nc)
• Attribution No Derivatives (by-nd)
• Attribution Share Alike (by-sa)
• Attribution (by)

and are explained in detail here. For some frequently asked questions on Evoca and creative commons you can visit this page.

Let me first apologize for this rather long post. It’s been on my mind a lot lately and I just wanted to respond to some of the questions that come my way.

The topic? Social Networking. The questions? Where does Evoca fit in and how will it survive?

I think what it boils down to is the difference between a site that has a very specific focus and therefore limits itself to a niche audience and those with a broader focus and therefore, a more diverse user-base. Obviously with an international community and a huge presence of multi-lenguil recordings, we like to think of ourselves as the latter. So let us first set it straight as to who Evoca is serving. Everyone! Anyone with a voice and a story is welcome to our community. We welcome anyone from MySpacers to ebayers to streetcorner preachers. Important recordings are in the eye of the speaker. We hold very few requirements as to what can be posted on Evoca. Your site is your home where your voice is the loudest. But our big realization is that Evoca doesn’t have to be put into a box. You can use Evoca to create, organize, share, and search audio.

And speaking of the next big thing, yes, I believe it’s true that social networking is going to blow up over the course of the next year or two. We will see more and more sites that promote networking and community. I would expect there to be hundreds of social networking sites popping up in the near future.
Hundreds of social networking sites will appear across the web landscape and the ones that will survive will be the ones that are providing real value for their customers.

It’s all happened before though. Do you know how many free web based email services there used to be? Now there’s maybe three main ones because they are the ones that survived the market. Yes, my friends, the internet is still a market. At the risk of sounding overly corporate it does take money to support these free services and that money is coming from somewhere.

So how will Evoca survive the social networking boom and come out standing on the other side?

1. We have a solid business plan and brilliant leaders.

2. We’re creating a standard for internet audio recording. Far from a box mentality, our standard simply conveys the values of the community we’re trying to build.

3. We’re going to be inclusive.

Simply put…we love our product and we love your voice. We want you to record on Evoca and then put it on MySpace or HI5 or Xanga or ebay or any other site you wish. It is your voice. Likewise we appreciate your involvement in the web community at large and are working on ways to offer you space to put more blog-rich features and links to your personal sites. By integrating tools that other sites have provided to share content, (other blogs, flickr feeds, 43things goals, etc) we open up te Evoca community even more.

So, I guess what I am saying is that Evoca is always growing and changing. We are always listening to your voice and hearing what you have to say. We are not just a bookmark on the web. We are a home for a community of people who want to be heard!

You may have noticed in the Evoca community that many recordings are coming in in languages such as Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Arabic as well as in such dialects as Southern-American, British, Irish, and Welsh. In that spirit we have changed the blog so that it can be viewed in multiple languages. All you have to do is locate the line of flags on the right sidebar and click on a flag that corresponds with the language you prefer to read. It is very cool. So, to celebrate that spirit of global voice, we would like to share a few of our favorite (and foreign to the Evoca team) audio samples.

French

Spanish

Chinese

We have added something new again. I mean, aren’t we always? This time though the addition will enable you to tighten your circle of friends on Evoca and find out who is viewing and commenting on your recordings. As of Cinco de Mayo (May 5) you will now receive an email like the one below anytime someone comments on one of your recordings. It is very cool and I have already gone back and commented to some of the community recordings just so you can get an Evoca message! So start commenting away! Stay tuned….more new developments to come!