As previously mentioned, this week, Kassian Sheppard joined us on a professional placement from year two of the Creative Sound and Music degree at Newport University. As part of his placement, we asked Kassian to research and test the AudioBoo (audio micro-blogging) platform.

During our Media Sandbox dinner at the Pervasive Media Studio on Thursday evening, Kassian took the opportunity to field test AudioBoo, and find out some interesting nuggets from our participants. From discussing the commodification of street art with Steal from Work, to HMC's exciting software launch in May, to the opportunities for musician's within the Indie Mobile project, the Boo's are well worth a listen. We also asked Kassian to share his reflections on testing the software …

"I used AudioBoo to record interviews with the practitioners currently working on projects at Media Sandbox. This included, AntiVJ, Indie Mobile, U-Soap Media, HMC Interactive, and Steal From Work. I found the overall process very interesting, firstly researching the projects, putting together the questions, and meeting the people behind the projects.

My own personal experience of using AudioBoo has been very positive. AudioBoo made the whole process of interviewing very straightforward and enjoyable, it was quick and easy to capture audio and was simple to upload to our account afterwards, all due to the nice clean interface.

It is difficult to be critical of this app as it is still only in its early stages. However, there are a couple of minor things that are worth mentioning. Whilst interviewing I felt like it would have been useful to have more recording time available so that I could of performed a continuous interview asking each question in succession. We subsequently had to record one question, stop, upload, and then start a new recording for the next question. It does this quickly, however, it could be problematic if your interviewee does not have much time to spare. It would also be nice if you could store your boos, even if only a couple of them, rather than having to upload before starting a new one.

I am positive that the company will address these matters, if they haven’t done so already, and will make AudioBoo an even more brilliant little app."

You can listen to the Boo's, read Kassian's research into the platform, and read his reflections of working as part of the iShed team for a week.