February 17, 2006

Directory Bug - Update

Still working on the bug described below with the directory. Hopefully it will be solved today - Monday.

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Sometimes when you click on one of the category sections in the new Dance and Technology Directory, nothing will happen. So you end-up having to click twice on the category section to reach the listings you want to view.

Just wanted to let you know. We're working on fixing this bug.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:57 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 17, 2006

Updating Dance and Technology Guide

I'm updating the Dance and Technology Resource Guide. Please email me any changes or additions.

The Dance and Technology Guide offers about 200+ links to dance companies, performances, conferences, academic programs, articles, dance blogs and other resources.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:46 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 16, 2006

Great Dance Podcast Ready to Go

Well, after experimenting with too many different approaches to recording telephone interviews, I've finally figured out the best way to record telephone conversations with dancers from around the world.

So I'm officially starting the Great Dance Podcast this week. I'm looking forward to interviewing a lot of people with experiences and insights about many different aspects of dance. It should be fun.

One of the things I like about it is that an important performance, story or development can take place anywhere in the world and I can get on the phone and interview the people involved. Then, within a very short period of time, I can make the audio interview available to a global audience via my blog or my podcast channel on iTunes (You need free iTunes software to access).

So who would you like me to interview? What topics would you find most interesting? What have you wanted to know about dance but never found out? Please let me know your thoughts.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:36 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 9, 2006

Upcoming Podcasts

I decided to change how I record interviews that I'm doing for my upcoming audio podcast. So I'll probably start posting interviews starting later this week or first thing next week.

At first I had this ambitious plan of conducting many of the interviews using VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services - essentially making telephone calls over the Internet - and then recording these calls on my hard drive.

But my experimentation with setting this up with Skype ended-up being too much of a hassle and a waste of time. I like Skype and the voice quality is often excellent and the price for computer-to-computer calls is perfect - it's free. But I'm tired of trying to record high-quality interviews via Skype.

So I've gone back to the regular telephone. First I got the lowest rates I could get for International calls - I already have flat rates for all US calls. It's less expensive than I thought. England is $0.08 per minute, Germany is $0.10 and Japan is $0.10. And most interviews will be less than 10 minutes any way, which means that the cost will often be no more than $1.00.

Also, I have to buy a piece of equipment to improve the quality of interviews recorded by phone. If you've ever recorded a phone conversation, you'll have noticed that your voice is significantly louder than the person on the other end. If you want to broadcast this recorded interview, the results will not be very professional. What you want is for the sound levels of each person's voice to be the same.

So I'm buying a device from JK Audio called an Inline Patch Telephone Audio Interface. Once I connect this device to my telephone line, I can then independently control the sound levels for my voice and the caller on the other end of the phone, which means that the sound levels will be identical and the interview quality will be much higher. Then I'll output the voice to a portable digital audio recorder that I have or directly to my hard drive.

I should have this audio device this week and then soon start uploading interviews.

Posted by Doug Fox at 5:31 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 5, 2006

Audio Podcast Feed Now Available

I just added a feed for my new audio podcast. You'll see it located toward the bottom of the right-hand column under "RSS Feeds".

RSS feeds make it possible for people to subscribe to all posts included in a blog without having to visit the actual blog everyday. There are a number of software programs - some free - that are called news readers or aggregators that let you subscribe to whichever blogs you wish. Once you install such a software program, you can subscribe to a blog such as Great Dance and automatically receive all of the latest posts within your news reader.

I'll write more about news readers in the near future.

If you'd like to see a list of available news readers, here's a link that lists available applications in the Yahoo directory.

One of the reasons that I created a dedicated news feed for my audio programs is so that people who are interested can have a way to automatically download these audio programs to either their computers or handheld devices.

For example, once I created my podcast newsfeed, I launched Apple's iTunes software, clicked on "Podcasts" and then submitted my podcast newsfeed. My podcast is not listed yet on iTunes but I'm hoping it will be in the next day. Once it's included, then iPod users can download these audio programs to their music players and listen to the commentary and interviews at their convenience. I'll also write more soon about setting-up podcasts and listing them on iTunes.

What's interesting is to go to the Performing Arts section of the available podcasts on iTunes. There are virtually no listings for dance related podcasts. People in the dance world are simply not taking advantage of this free distribution channel to reach larger audiences.

The only dance podcast - actually a dance video podcast - is the Video Sketch Book of the Sys-Org Dance Collective. If you have iTunes installed on your computer, click this link and you'll be taken directly to the podcast for the Video Sketch Book.

To see a large screen shot of what the Video Sketch Book podcasts look like on iTunes, click on the following image and a larger image will open up in a new browser window.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:30 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 3, 2006

Great Dance in 2006

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

I look forward to continuing to learn about and cover dance around the world with a strong focus on technology developments and Internet marketing.

Plans for 2006:

- Write and research a workbook with the title "Dancing into the Future," which will offer extensive coverage of all aspects of technology that relate to dance. I posted the initial outline for this book in December. You'll see in this initial outline that I was first thinking of writing a series of publications - the first focusing on dance companies. But in the end, I've decided to write one larger publication that covers all aspects of technology that relates to dance.

- Launch an audio podcast for the dance world, which I'm starting this month. Many of the interviews will be for my upcoming publication, but I'll also be interviewing people who are making news and have interesting insights about different aspects of dance. I'm hoping that I can do many of the Interviews using Internet telephony software such as Skype and Vonage. These Voice over IP programs (this is term for software that allows you to make telephone calls over the Internet) are much better than I thought. I've been using Skype to talk to a friend of mine in England. If both you and the person you're talking with have Skype installed, there is no cost for the call - - not bad for making international calls. In addition, with Skype you can host conference calls as well. So if I interview people that are using one of the Voice over IP programs, I can record the interview directly to my hard drive and then quickly post it to my blog.

But I also have a digital recorder for interviewing people over the regular telephone system or in person. My guess is that I'll probably start by conducting informal interviews with dance bloggers to test out different recording approaches and to figure out what people are interested in listening to.

Please don't hesitate to make suggestions of people I should interview for upcoming audio interviews.

- Develop a series of seminars that cover how dancers can use the Internet and other digital technologies to build audiences, sell products and enhance public relations efforts. I've conducted Internet and technology educational programs for many years. I love conducting these programs. I've always enjoyed explaining and demonstrating how new and emerging technologies can be used for marketing, promotional and educational purposes. The first educational program that I develop will probably focus on how dancers and dance companies can develop websites, publish blogs and conduct Internet marketing campaigns.

- Take more jazz dance classes. Right now my legs feel like rubber. I took a class last night with Maurice Johnson at Joy of Motion here in DC. The class was fun and challenging. I never took a class with Maurice before. Last semester I took a 13-week Intro to Jazz class, also at Joy of Motion, with Doug Yeuell who is the dance center's executive director. Doug is a wonderful instructor. I'm going to try to take at least two jazz classes a week. As I conduct interviews and research for my upcoming book, I think I'll be spending a lot of time in New York so I'll probably take jazz classes there as well. If you have suggestions for where and with whom I should take jazz classes, please let me know what you think. I'd like to be exposed to as many instructors and teaching styles as possible.

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:30 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 7, 2005

Embracing Blogs White Paper Now Available

I've just uploaded a new white paper: "Embracing Blogs: A New Blueprint for Promoting Dance on the Internet"

This paper is in PDF format and requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Here's the brief overview of this 24-page document:

This white paper delivers a concrete plan for how dance companies can create and promote Internet marketing campaigns that increase audience sizes, generate more revenue, get more press coverage, create more knowledgeable audiences, and inspire greater enthusiasm for all forms of dance.

I'd appreciate your thoughts and feedback about this blueprint.

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:14 PM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

October 7, 2005

New Dance and Technology Resource Guide

I've just uploaded our new Dance and Technology Resource Guide. You'll find about 200 links to a wide variety of resources that relate to dance and technology topics.

I take a pretty broad view of the intersection of dance and technology so you'll find everything from interactive Flash ads that feature dancers to promote products to academic articles that describe research into motion-tracking systems for analyzing the movements of dancers.

Please email me if you have recommendations for new resources to add to this directory.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:36 AM - Permalink | Comments (0)