I was just reading a Wikipedia entry about Thomas Pynchon. Scrolling to the bottom to look at some sources I noticed a link to some audio. (YES teachers wikipedia is cited.) Of course its in the open source audio format OGG. I had to find an app to open it. Fortunately I have the VLC media player installed on my Mac and it handled it easily. You can also listen to the OGG audio with a java applet in your browser. I think QuickTime may do it too. Soooo… while I was listening to the audio I realized it was a recording of the text of the Thomas Pynchon article I had just been reading. Wow! Audio recordings of spoken Wikipedia Articles.
Turns out anyone can record and submit them. There is a process for this outlined on the Wikipdedia:WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia page. Plus links to articles already recorded and ones people have requested be recorded.
I hope I find time to record some of these soon. I’ve recorded long writings before and let me tell you… it ain’t easy. People who record books for tape professionally have talent and skill! What a wonderful resource this is for the blind and people who learn well by listening.
Brian C. Russell 