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While re-reading Mayer’s Fundamentals of Voice and Articulation to assist a group of incoming students, I thought about replacing a ‘voice’ with the exploding dynamics of technically enhanced communication of the Internet. The web has impacted overall communication. Our local and global dialects and jargon we use, provide the variety in our languages, mannerisms, and how we communicate. Speech dialects are traditionally geographic as well as socio-economic but they can also be technical and timely. Those thoughts shifted from an academic need to more social and financial need in a recent New York Times article. The focus was about individuals trying to save Revolutionary War soldier’s sense of voice through the relocation of lost mass graves in Brooklyn, NY and their need for funding.
Technological communication offers jargon that is enhanced by the speed of the Internet. In this situation why not use crowd fundraising or flash funding to assist in this archeological project? Crowd funding via the Internet has been used to support such charitable goals while flash funding offers rapid financial assistance. Our technological voices can make a difference. Like the instantaneous nature of public flash mobs, technology could provide the necessary means to assist in a local concern. There are multiple sites offering guidance and assistance on the Internet where people can contribute directly to a cause.
It appears there is a knowledge gap that limits the application. A variety of crowd funding platforms has emerged to allow ordinary web users to support specific philanthropic projects without the need for large amounts of money. The goal is to have voices lost to history be heard once more. How can we use the technology to intertwine with those who are seeking alternate assistance?
Burke, J. (2012, Aug 26) Seeking Brooklyn’s Lost Grave. New York Times, pp.CT1, CT4.
Mayer, L. (2008). Fundamentals of Voice and Articulation, New York, McGraw-Hill.
