_Roundware

I built Roundware to realize the sort of location-based, contributory sound art installations I was interested in creating, but it turns out the platform is flexible enough to be useful for many different purposes, including more documentarian ones.

Halsey Burgund, Creator.

Roundware is a flexible, distributed framework which collects, stores, organizes and re-presents audio content. It can collect audio from anyone with a smartphone or web access, upload it to a central repository along with its metadata, and then filter it and play it back collectively in continuous audio streams specific to each participant.

Roundware features several core pieces of functionality:

* creates a seamless location-sensitive layer of audio comprised of musical elements and participant commentary in any geographic locale
* serves individualized audio streams to users in a flexible non-linear way based on participant inputs
* collects audio from participants via iOS, Android and web-based devices
* tags collected audio with location information as well as any additional project-based metadata such as age, gender or occupation
* organizes an ever-growing collection of participant contributed audio information

Roundware is used for its original purpose of audio art installations around the world, but is also being used by cultural organizations as a new, more modern way to interact with their audiences.

This said, Roundware is not audio tour software! In some ways, Roundware is the anti-audio tour platform.

* Audio tours are traditionally about a single authoritative voice whereas Roundware is about a multitude of voices, opinions and ideas mixed together.
* Audio tours tend to be linear experiences; Roundware is based on a non-linear, flexible, participant-driven, immersive experience.
* Roundware is designed for sculpting an aesthetic experience, not for explicitly delivering educational or interpretive information.

Roundware is an actively-developed open-source project and is free for anyone to use (https://github.com/hburgund/roundware-server).