I’ve been talking about voice communities for a while and after reading this article about VoIP-enabled social networking site Speecho, it seems the trend is continuing. The Speecho.com website is different from other sites as it has a unique set up of a 36-room house, the "Speecho Mansion" with rooms each dedicated to a specific topic and group. The foreign language room, gives people the ability to speak in their native dialects, the library, for sharing research and homework with classmates, or the gym, for sports enthusiast, are just a few examples.

 

Already realizing the immediate benefits of VoIP, Elliot Kransow, one of the brainchildren of the site, commented in a statement, "I'm already receiving thank you messages from parents, who through Speecho, have found a way to drastically cut down on their kids' telephone bills."

 

Kransow also commented on the value of VoIP for social networking, "It may not be something one thinks about, but every person belongs to a speech community, a group of people who share the same language." I agree 100%.