Said.fm makes it easy for you to discover, enjoy and manage excellent audio podcasts and programmes.
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The Next Adventure: Super Owl!
So join us, if you love exciting audio stories to enjoy on the go!
The Said.fm site has been taken down.
This is probably one of the most difficult blog articles I've written on Said.fm's blog so here goes...
Firstly I would like to say a BIG THANKYOU to all the great listeners and people who've supported and helped us build Said.fm. We've been trying to chat with as many users as possible to get feedback and we're always delighted about how nice our users are. This doesn't mean you haven't told us what you hate about what we're building - you have!... but it's always been constructive criticism that we're taking on board.
Secondly, and you may have sensed this part coming after my opening sentences, we have decided to wind down the Said.fm service. This was not an easy decision but after taking stock of many things - analytics, what our listeners have told us and the length of time we've spent nurturing this startup we felt the time is right to do this. Don't worry, your personal feeds and collections will remain in tact for another month so you can catch up on your Said.fm listening.
Having said this we are not dissapearing, Abdel and I have learnt a huge amount about this space and about doing a startup... we're taking all that learning and putting it into another venture, details of which will be revealed soon. It's been a rollercoaster journey and one of the most amazing things to come out of it for us is to gain a brilliant editorial team. We went from artificial intelligence to working with real people - wow!... on a web startup!
No one said it was going to be easy but it's defintely been a lot of fun :-)
Thanks for listening!
Today we meet Frank, another one of Said.fm's brilliant curators. Frank joined us via an Edinburgh connection (where we built some of Said.fm) and after a cup of hot chocolate we knew that this man would bring some intriguing and interesting listening recommendations for us all. Check out Frank's recommendations on Said.fm and indulge yourself in the following 2 minute interview to find out more about what he's into:
Hey, Frank!... So, what are you into?
Doing science, talking about science, writing about science, podcasting about science -- see a theme yet?
How can we tweet about you in 140 characters or less?
Quintessential geek with a passion for science, podcasts and storytelling. /
What's your favourite programme?
I listen to so many -- but I'd have to say Answer Me This, because it's the only one that can make me giggle uncontrollably on the bus.
Why are audio programmes appealing to you?
I get enough visual stimulus by sitting in front of a computer most of the day, so it's nice to listen to an audio programme on the walk home. They're also a very effective and simple medium for storytelling and conveying information.
Do you make your own programmes?
Of course! I'm currently helping to host the EUSci science podcast from the University of Edinburgh. Tune in to this podcast if you want to hear the latest science news and interviews with scientists, communicators and entertainers. Or just listen for a bit of silliness.
If you were to recommend 1 programme to someone who's never listened to podcasts what would it be and why should they listen?
Radiolab and I would recommend the EUSci podc-- what's that? Oh, right, no more self-promotion. In that case, I would recommend the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast as a great example of old media harnessing new media.
Said.fm's first press release has attracted some great press mentions and articles, including the following:
"Results of Said.fm’s suggestions are impressive, to say the least. I’ve found some truly great items on Said.fm that I’d likely have missed in the jumble that the iTunes Store has become." Brad McCarty, The Next Web, read the full article.
"...a site like Said.fm is not only interesting - it is outright necessary." Roger H, Killer Startups, read the full article.
Joshua Brustein wrote an article for The New York Times Bits Blog on Radio for the YouTube Era, where Said.fm gets a mention, read the article here.
Don't you think?... Clearly we do, we have 2 vowels in our startup name - we're bringing vowels back into fashion even!... hehehe... lot's of startups have dropped them so join us in celebrating 'em. Just a quick post from Said.fm HQ, while we're working away like busy bees in the sunshine.
Our final RadioBox / Said.fm hack won't dissapoint you. Patrick Sinclair has been hacking around with a geo-location app that let's you pick up and listen to sounds as you walk around a city - very cool!
For the RadioBox hack weekend Patrick worked alongside Said.fm's very own in-house hacker Abdel to extend this experience to feature soundbytes of programmes available on Said.fm. Patrick has written about this hack in more detail here, including links to the code, resources used and an ivitation to have a play for yourselves.
With awsomely fun projects like these, we're looking forward to the next hack weekend.
Jenny Ekelund was another RadioBox / Said.fm hack weekend attendee. Jenny has been testing the waters with hacking events by attending some and during our first hack weekend she also hacked her first creation - and, my what a hack!
Along with fellow seasoned hacker Rob McKinnon, Jenny built a prototype of a browser extension that literally extends your reading of Wikipedia to an audio listening experience. The extension alerts you if you are on a Wikipedia article which has related audio to it on Said.fm!... Genius! I personally can't wait to have a play, being an avid reader / editor of Wikipedia.
Jenny has written about their hack in more detail here.
Go on over to Said.fm and search for multiculturism. Enough said.
At the first Said.fm / RadioBox hack weekend some amazing things were built over 2 short days by the lovely people pictured. One of the hacks was a visualiser for our RadioBox events, where we play topical soundbytes in public venues (a social listening!).
Paul Battley, a hack weekend attendee and pro-hacker has kindly written about the RadioBox visualiser in more detail here, including links to the source code and test examples of the visualiser in action.
We're very excited about using this hack for future RadioBoxes.
Yes!... we are still shouting about our new Said.fm search and we think you should try searching for design today. Go on you won't be disappointed :)
