Walking down Sparks Street the other day, I ran into one of the Chief Evil Geniuses behind some of the technical innovations at the Conservatve Party of Canada's Web site. He is now plying his black geeky arts for the Prime Minister's Office. (I say this as someone who aspires to be and is quite jealous of those who have attained the status of Chief Evil Genius/Supreme Geek). We started chatting about my new iPhone and how the political class in Ottawa could harness the mobile Web to advance political goals, communications, fundraising, etc. During our chat, he encouraged me to check out AudioBoo.fm . I had remembered that Ian Capstick, the former NDP caucus press secretary and now principal of MediaStyle.ca, had fired up an AudioBoo.fm account during the NDP convention in Halifax last summer.
Here's what AudioBoo does:
• As a creator, I record short audio bits using my iPhone. They'll probably be mostly me talking about something but, as Ian demonstrated, I might include some interviews with political players from time to time. I tag the recording with a few keywords, give it a title, attach a picture if I want, and then hit publish. Couldn't be simpler.
• At the other end, an audience somewhere out there, can access these audio updates in a couple of different ways:
First, you can just head to my page at AudioBoo.fm. The URL is http://audioboo.fm/profile/davidakin . There, you can click the title of a post and you'll see the picture I've attached and, most of the time, the geo-location of my iPhone when I made the recording.
Second, at my page, you can click to subscribe to these audio podcasts through iTunes. Do this, and if you set up your iPhone or iPod correctly, my audio updates will automatically be pushed out to your device so you can listen at your leisure.
Third, you can pick up the RSS Feed for my AudioBoos and, whenever I've done a new one, you'll see a notification in your favourite RSS reader.
Now the tough question: What should I talk about? How should a reporter use this tool? Got any ideas? Love to hear him in the comments below or e-mail directly.
So, today, I fired up