Hello boo family!
Kate here – finally managed to scratch out a bit of time to come and say hello. It’s been a busy couple of weeks since I first arrived here at Audioboo Towers, much of it writing out post-it notes about things that are on my wish-list for Audioboo.
Anyway, I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I’m Kate Arkless Gray – officially titled “Editor” – and I’m here to make sure that the community gets some love, the best Audioboos get featured and cool new partnerships are formed with interesting people and organisations around the world. I come from a radio, journalism and social media background so it’s possible we’ve crossed paths somewhere along the way already.
I may have only joined the Audioboo team a fortnight ago, but I’ve been an avid user of Audioboo, both personally, (RadioKate and SpaceKate) and professionally (BBC Save Our Sounds) since it started. I, (hopefully) like you, think it’s great.
That said, I know that there are areas that can be improved and I am already talking to the fantastic tech team here to see what we can do. I’m listening to feedback on the forums and making lists of suggestions. Audioboo is only a small team, and whilst we’re doing our best to add in lots of exciting new features, it isn’t going to happen overnight.
My priority at the moment is to ensure that our free app is working well on all platforms and that the website plays nice too. Audioboo is available on iPhone, Android and high-end Nokia devices, as well as offering the capability for web-uploads and recording. I know that there have been some bugs with the Android app, and it isn’t quite so shiny as the iPhone app, but I promising we’ve got a guy fiendishly coding away to change that for the better.
Other goals I’ve set myself include:
- Building up the Audioboo community
- Making more of the blog to bring you some recording tips and tricks as well as product updates and news
- Finding a good way of curating the fabulous content that gets submitted by boo family members – like you!
So hi! That’s me. I use Audioboo as a reporting tool, an audio diary, a rant space and for collecting interviews with interesting people I meet on my travels. What about you? How do you boo?
Hi Kate! I’ve been a fan of yours for a while. Good to see you on the Audioboo team. Audioboo is fabby! I use it to entertain listeners with my Audio Mystery series narrations, to report occasionally on current events (like the snowstorm last winter), and to update peeps on my news on the career front. I’ll be waiting for your next report.
Cheers!
Stefania
Audioboo is a powerful tool for me on AreYouMyParter (AYMP) for two reasons:
1) Protection of privacy and;
2) Imaginative Publicity.
AYMP is about respect first and foremost and will always strive to protect the privacy of those who come out to chapter events, but by the same token we must also enthuse new comers about upcoming events.
So instead of making videos or photographing people (which is very contrived, in your face, production heavy and can make people feel uncomfortable or part of a PR stunt), I record their audio reactions during the events/chapters and post up audioboos in Event posts.
Audio boos allow me to capture honest opinions in a none intrusive way (I use my iphone – so much easier than a big SLR camera or video cam) but also respect people’s privacy while inflaming new comers to the site about what they may have missed.
By extension, I have also started to use boos to answer FAQs I receive. It allows me to express myself, continue telling a great story, but also allow people to hear the answers “from the horse’s mouth” instead of always reading words. A lot more intimate than a written blog post.
And Boos may have other uses as the AYMP story expands: perhaps would be daters would like to setup accounts and start using audio as a tool in their own dating questions – to be seen!
Some examples of how I use Audioboo:
Using audioboo to capture participants reactions: http://www.areyoumypartner.com/category/all-chapters/chapter-1/
A video where I talk about some lessons I learned and why I use audioboo to protect people’s privacy while balancing good publicity: http://www.areyoumypartner.com/2011/02/24/flashback-2/
FAQs where I answer using audioboo: http://www.areyoumypartner.com/about/faqs/
Thanks for your comments. Some people were talking about how they use Audioboo over the weekend and sent me their thoughts via boos. I recorded this as a little response, which you might find interesting too.
http://boo.fm/b327288
Cheers,
Kate