Why Shakespeare Loves AudioBoo

We know that some really interesting people are using Audioboo in all sorts of clever ways. When we found out about the 60 minutes with Shakespeare project we invited them to write a guest post for the Audioboo blog. The following post is by Paul Edmondson & AJ Leon

Paul Edmondson also took a moment to record a special Audioboo about the project:

What is 60 Minutes with Shakespeare?

60 Minutes with Shakespeare is a free online conference powered by AudioBoo that focuses on answering the question, “Was Shakespeare a Fraud?”. It launches on 1 September, 2011.

Who is behind this project?

It is a creative partner project between The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Misfit, Inc, and is, of course, motorised by AudioBoo. The concept was originally conceived a few days after Shakespeare’s birthday (23 April) last year by this small group of conspirators: Paul Edmondson, Stanley Wells, AJ Leon and Melissa Leon.

Who is involved in the project?

In the end, there were sixty unique contributors to the project, spanning eight different countries and dozens of cities, including London, New York, Auckland, Montpellier and an undisclosed island somewhere.  Our AudioBoo-ers were from many different walks of life – academics, psychologists, students, film directors, authors and actors; ranging from Simon Callow and Dan Snow to Stephen Fry and Stanley Wells.

Why we chose to use AudioBoo?

A few months ago, we heard about a film being produced promulgating a conspiracy theory that Shakespeare was a fraud.  Naturally, as Shakespearians, we take exception to the idea that William of Stratford couldn’t have written the plays attributed to him simply because he was a glover’s son from a small town.  We started thinking of ways in which we could easily showcase the myriad of facts, anecdotes and research that prove that Shakespeare was indeed Shakespeare.  Then, one night, after a pint of ale and a bag of crisps, it came to us.  We could produce a simple online conference, providing the content in a soluble format so that non-academics could easily digest it.  60 Questions, 60 Scholars, 60 Seconds Each.  And thus, 60 Minutes with Shakespeare was born.

As a bonafide geek, I’ve been following AudioBoo since your launch in 2009, and have been looking for an excuse to use your software in a project.  Beyond the fact that we love you guys, however,  there were two obvious benefits to using AudioBoo.

1) IT’S OBSCENELY EASY TO USE

Many of the individuals involved in this project are Academics and Researches who *never* use social software.  To give you an idea, only five of them even had twitter accounts. Therefore, for those who were international and would be AudioBoo-ing on their own, we needed something dead simple to use that non-geeks could manage.

2) IT IS AN EXCELLENT MOBILE APPLICATION

There were some folks involved that Paul would need to meet physically in order to capture their 60 second segment.  With that in mind, we needed something with a slick mobile application that Paul could easily use while on the move. Utilising AudioBoo’s iPhone application, Paul captured Boos from all over the place – the Estates Theatre in Prague, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage garden, Harriet Walter’s Kitchen, and even Simon Callow’s dressing room.

If you’d like to find out more about the project, head on over to http://shksp.re/60conf and check it out and you can find us on twitter: @ShakespeareBT

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If you’re doing something interesting with Audioboo and would like to be featured on our blog then get in touch with us! You can send us a message here or follow us on Twitter @Audioboo.

Featured, Guest post, Ways We Boo