What does this mean? It may soon be possible to create mashups that pull dance videos, pictures and upcoming performance listings from multiple sources (YouTube, Upcoming.org and Flickr, for example) and then plots these performances automatically on a map. The resulting application would allow users to use a map interface to review in-depth, multimedia details about upcoming performances.

Imagine that this map I've been experimenting with for dance venues in the Washington DC area was automatically generated and featured videos, pictures and event details for each performance - click on the markers on the map for more details.

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February 7, 2007

My First Second Life Dance Performance

On Sunday night, while watching the Super Bowl, I attended the premiere performance of Second Life Ballet's "Olmannen" in the Second Life virtual world. I wrote about this upcoming performance last week.

Well, I had to give myself a crash course in Second Life to attend this performance because I've never experimented with this virtual environment. But just about everything went wrong on the computer and software side for me, which I'll explain more about below.

But first, here is background about the Second Life Ballet performance so you can have an idea of what an avatar dance performance is like:

- The program guide for the performance of "Olmannen: An Original Ballet."

- A news piece from OspreyTherian, uploaded to YouTube, recaps the Sunday night performance. You can see the dancers in the background for a few seconds, which gives you a glimpse of what dancing is like in this virtual world:

- View performance pictures by Pathfinder Linden in a Flickr photo gallery. And here are three of them:

- And here's my only successful effort at capturing this performance. This is a snapshot I took of audience members about 20 minutes before the performance started. I'm the generic guy towards the top left with my head turned to the left. I would have sat closer to the front but all of these empty seats kept rejecting me?? My Second Life name is Dance Merlin. I really need appropriate attire for Second Life - I'm going to have to figure out how to get a new wardrobe:

Click for Larger Image

Jumping into Second Life

As you can see from the above, you only get a limited idea of what a dance performance is like in Second Life. My goal was to make a screen capture of the entire performance but I just couldn't pull this off because I had too much to learn about SL before the performance started.

But I'm going to attend another performance soon and try recording it again. There are performances every Sunday and Wednesday throughout February at 4:00 PM (PST). If you want to attend, you'll need these map coordinates for this location in Second Life.

First I tried installing Second Life software on my notebook PC but it didn't run properly. My guess is that I have to upgrade the driver for my graphics card. So then I installed the software on my desktop PC. That worked but I had to deactivate my security software to run the SL software.

Once I entered Second Life I had to figure out how to navigate - walk, rotate, fly and transport myself to different grid locations. I sort of figured out the basics but there's a lot to learn. I tried speaking with a few avatars I ran into but that ended up being a bit challenging.

Then I searched for a software program that would allow me to record the ballet performance. I found a program called Fraps that seemed to work well. So after testing it, I bought it for $37 so I could make screen captures of any length.

Once I visited the Second Life Ballet performance venue I recorded a walk-through so that I could upload a complete tour of this theater for you to watch. I did manage to record the walk-through, but I just realized that I recorded it at the wrong number of frames per second - that's easy to fix the next time I do this. But the end result is that the recording looks terrible and I decided not to upload it.

Then the performance started. I thought it was intriguing and I want to learn much more about how it was created and performed. I'd like to understand how avatars are controlled, scripted, animated and synchronized. Plus, I haven't seen other performances in SL to make comparisons. So I'm going to have to go back to an upcoming SL Ballet and also find other performances to watch - dance, theater and other types. If you have suggestions, please let me know.

I did try to record the entire performance but the Fraps software crashed on me and I have nothing to show you. Plus, the performance had a recorded, original music score that I didn't hear until the very end of the performance. I didn't realize that there's a button that you have to push on the volume control panel to hear an audio stream. It would have been much different if I had heard the music throughout the performance. All I heard was too many audience members taking snapshots of the performance or people were typing away at their keyboards making too much noise - just like a regular theater!

So I was really just overwhelmed because I didn't have enough time to figure everything out. Next time I'm sure everything will work smoothly and I'll have more to write about the Second Life Ballet and their performance.

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February 2, 2007

Promote Your Blog with a Blidget

On Widgetbox, you can browse through a large library of widgets that you can place on your blog or website. A widget is a piece of code that allows you to embed content from one site on another. So, for example, you could use a Flickr widget to embed your pictures within your own blog.

I just created a type of widget that is called a Blidget (short for blog widget). With a Blidget, you can turn your blog into a widget that other bloggers and website publishes can add to their own sites.

Here is the Great Dance Blidget:

And if you'd like to embed the above Blidget on your blog, you can click the following button:

[via Read/WriteWeb]

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January 25, 2007

Virtual Dance Studio

Canada's National Arts Center produces the ArtsAlive.ca performing arts-focused educational website. On this site you'll find a Virtual Dance Studio that lets users choreographer a series of dance moves for either ballet or modern.

Click for Larger Image

As you'll see as you experiment with this Flash-based application, you can drag beginning, middle and ending animated moves to a timeline at the bottom of the screen, and add a music track as well. Then you can play your choreographic creation. This application was built with DanceForms software from Credo Interactive. (To see other examples of DanceForms animations, visit the Credo Interactive gallery.)

I thought it was fun to experiment with the Virtual Dance Studio. But it does have its limits. You can't save your creations for future use or to share with friends, and I wish the individual animations were larger.

What I would like to see is a version of Virtual Dance Studio that was specifically for beginning ballet students. Movements for arms and legs could be broken down in separate animations, and basic sequences and excises that are usually done in introductory classes could be created.

But I could probably find this guidance in a good ballet DVD - if you have recommendations, please let me know.

[Via Critical Dance and Talent Speaks]

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June 29, 2006

Universal Dance Movement Vocabulary

I cam across this interesting post on TechCrunch about a new Israeli start-up, Zlango, that has created an icon-based language for exchanging messages via SMS.

SMS is essentially text messaging for cell phones. In the case of Zlango, their new application is not text messaging but two-dimensional icon messaging where each graphic icon conveys a specific meaning. So to send a graphic message to a friend, you select a series of graphic icons.

Here's a screen shot of how a mobile phone looks like running Zlango:

And here's a sample graphic message created by a user on the Zlango site. I turned on the text below each icon so you could see what the meaning of this message was:

Maybe not the best expressed thought in the world, but it did get me thinking about a universal dance vocabulary.

Say instead of a two-dimensional icon-based visual language, you were asked to create a 3D video-based language library that anybody could use as an alternative to written words? The goal would be to covey any idea, thought or action to others who may or may not speak the same language as you.

Would it be possible to create this universal dance vocabulary? Do certain movements cut across cultural borders and express universal emotions and reactions? Or is dance tied too much to the culture and society in which it is created? And if dance is culturally-based, how would different societies express common emotions and reactions through movement?

I realize that my project may not be that practical. With the visual icons from Zlango, you simply view a series of small graphic images to discern the meaning. With a video language, a recipient of a message would have to watch an entire video clip - even if just a few seconds - in order to understand the meaning of the message. But then again maybe the greater depth of meaning and nuance that can be conveyed by dance is worth taking the extra time to watch the video clips?

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April 27, 2006

Monetizing Your Dance Videos

Brightcove, a commercial platform for distributing video content over the Internet, launches its public beta program today.

After watching the video tour and reading an overview of their service, Brightcove looks like an intriguing way for video content owners of any size to generate revenue through ads, sales and affiliate network distribution.

While popular sites like YouTube are a great way to get exposure for your dance videos, you end-up reaching a lot of eyeballs but you don't generate any revenue.

The concept behind Brightcove is to provide video publishers with a system that allows you to organize your videos into channels, determine how you will generate revenue and choose who will have access to your video content.

You could, for instance, create three video channels:

1) Dance performance previews

2) Performance videos for the web

3) Dance instruction videos

The first category you could distribute for free. The performance videos you might distribute as part of the Brightcove advertising network and video ads would be inserted each time your video plays. You would get a cut of this advertising revenue. And the third category - dance instruction videos - you might offer on a pay-per-view basis.

I think it's time to experiment with services such as Brightcove because there is clearly money to be made - the main question comes down to what the optimal business model is. Will Internet users pay for dance content? How much will they pay for different types of videos? Or is the advertising model the best approach for dance video distribution?

Technorati Tags: brightcove, dance, instruction, performance, ppv, tv, video

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April 13, 2006

Google Calendar Not Worthwhile for Marketing

I saw a number of articles and blog posts this morning celebrating the new Google Calendar that just launched. (Click here for Google's guide to its calendar).

Given this praise, I figured it would be worthwhile to spend some time experimenting with this calendar application to see if it would be a good way to promote dance performances. After spending too much time tinkering with this calendar, my answer is that it's not ready for prime time and it's not a worthwhile marketing tool.

I'm very bothered with some bloggers and online publications. It could be that a number of the posts and articles about Google Calendar were written by people who had different ideas in mind about what type of functionality they thought was important in a calendar and ended-up exploring different features than I did. Or it could be that some people just rehash the claimed feature-set and have no idea how it works and haven't experimented with it.

I don't know what the answer is to the above but I do know that I'm not taking anything for granted anymore. (At the end of this post I include links to write-ups about Google Calendar so you can judge for yourself.)

Here are the mostly marketing-related features that I thought would be worthwhile but do not work that well or don't exist or are too difficult:

First, I was intrigued by a calendar feature that allowed you to add a button to your website so that users could click on it and save all of the event information for, say, an upcoming performance to their own calendar. Well, creating this button is much too cumbersome and is not worth the effort. Here is the help page that describes this process.

Second, once you add your events to your Google Calendar, you can't even generate a public URL that you can promote and email to your audience so that they can see a listing of all of your upcoming performances. Without a public web address to access your calendar, it's not much of a marketing tool. Although you can publish an RSS feed that only reaches the segment of online users that actually subscribe to feeds.

Third, I was really intrigued by the integration of Google's Gmail with its calendar application. Supposedly, if you receive an email about an upcoming event within Gmail, you can click on a button and the non-structured event data will be added to the appropriate date within your calendar. My problem is I couldn't find the calendar button in Gmail and neither could some other users who posted messages to the help board for Google Calendar. But from some of the blog posts I've read, it appears that this Gmail integration capability does work for some users. I can't explain this??

Fourth, with the "Quick Add" feature you should be able to enter free-form text about an event and Google Calendar will structure this data for you and create an event item. For example, if you type:

"Breakfast with John at Starbucks on April 30, 2006 at 11:00 AM at 100 Main Street, Washington, DC NW 20016"

the calendar app will organize this text into an event. It does a decent job, but it does not appear to recognize the actual address, which it appends to the event's title.

Google Calendar does include email and text messaging invitations and RSVPs as well as group calendar management and sharing capabilities among its feature set. But I wouldn't recommend spending much time with this application until it improves and simplifies its marketing features.

Blogs and Articles about Google Calendar

- "Google Launches Web Calendar" - Washington Post

- "Google Calendar is Live" - TechCrunch

- "Google Unveils Web-based calendar app" - News.com

- "Google Calendar Now Online" - Internetnews.com

- "Google Calendar Impresses" - Mashable

- "Google Calendar Makes an Impressive Debut" - SearchEngineWatch

Technorati Tags: calendar, google

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April 6, 2006

Video Mashups Offer New Possibilities for Dance - Part II

In Part I of what will be a four part story, I wrote that as a result of the introduction of a new type of online video editing software program:

dancers will be able to share, choreograph, document, learn, collaborate, analyze and create in ways that have barely been contemplated before.

In this second part of the story, I would like to describe the key features of this new crop of web-based video editing software. And in the next part, I'll explain why these features are potentially so important for dancers.

Introduction to Online Video Editing

Whether you use a video editing software program on your computer or a web-based video editing software program, the idea is the same: You edit a video clip by placing video sections on a time-line, trimming portions of the video, adding transitional effects and including introductory and other titles to your work.

A fast way to gain hands-on experience with online video editing is by visiting the Jumpcut website [via TechCrunch] . From the home page, click "Explore" to find a movie to watch. You will now be watching a video and the screen will look like this - click for larger image:

Click for Larger Image

On the above screen, you'll see that on the right-hand side there is a column with thumbnail images for each section of the video, in the bottom left there is a listing of "tags" that are created by users to categorize this video, and in the bottom right of the video screen there is a "Remix" button.

This "Remix" button is pretty radical. Click on "Remix" and you will be taken to the video editing area that looks like this - click for larger image:

Click for Larger Image

So even though you are not working with your own video, you can now remix the video, audio, titles and transitions in any manner that you would like. Then you can save and publish your work. I guess using the word "your" is a stretch. So I'll say you can now save and upload your remixed version of the original work.

Jumpcut does not appear to allow you to edit an existing video by adding one or more of your own video clips to the remix. So when I discuss in Part III specific applications for dancers, I'll assume that there soon will be or already are online video editing applications that allow video clips from any source to be used for remixing.

Tagging and Deep Tagging

In the first screen shot above, you can see the tags for this video in the bottom left-hand side of the screen. The tags are: "squished, funny, humour, faces, distortion." This video was tagged by users (or the original creator) so that all Jumpcut users can group videos that share specific characteristics. For example, show me a list of all videos tagged "funny." This is the essence of the concept of tagging. The owner of a website does not categorize information; the users of the website are the ones that categorize content - in this case movies.

But there are some richer possibilities for tagging and that's what is now known as "deep tagging." The reason why I talked about the video editing software program Motionbox in Part I was because it is the only program that I know of that will have this capability (it is not yet launched). In the context of video editing, deep tagging means that you can tag any section within a video clip.

So let's imagine that in the second of the two screen shots above that you wanted to tag this section of the video clip "racinggoggles." You would use the video editing tools of Motionbox to mark off this section of, say, 5 seconds and add the tag "racinggoggles."

Now users can conduct a deep tag search for the word "racinggoggles" and find any sections in any video clips that have this tag. This is clearly a lot more powerful than just tagging an entire video clip. You can now tag just 5 seconds of a clip (or any length you wish) so that other users can easily find it.

Wrap-Up

So for the sake of the upcoming Part III of this post, this is what we have:

1) An online video editing software program that allows us to mix multiple video clips from any source.

2) A software program that allows us to add video clips to a timeline, trim sections as needed, add transitions and include titles. And,

3) A software program that lets us add tags to any section of a video clip.

Technorati Tags: dance, education, mashups, software, tags, video, web2.0

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April 3, 2006

Video Mashups Offer New Possibilities for Dance - Part I

A post by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch blog describes a soon-to-be-released video editing software program that has some compelling possibilities for the dance world.

With the online Motionbox application users will be able to edit video, tag sections of a video clip, and mix video clips and sections into mashups.

Click for Larger Image

Tag sections of a video clip with Motionbox
Credit: TechCrunch

By combing these features into one software program, dancers will be able to share, choreograph, document, learn, collaborate, analyze and create in ways that have barely been contemplated before.

In order to provide adequate coverage of this topic, I'm going to write four separate posts:

- In this first post, Part I, I just want to introduce this topic and give credit to Matt Gough (see below) for providing the theoretical framework for the dance applications I'll be discussing.

- In Part II, I'll describe the specific features and capabilities of Motionbox - as best as I understand them. Motionbox has not even been released to the public yet. But in the big picture whether Motionbox succeeds or not is not of critical importance. The important point is that we are about to see the introduction of new video editing software programs that will have far reaching benefits for all dancers.

- In Part III, I'll describe in concrete terms how dancers, choreographers, teachers, students, researchers, librarians, notators and dance enthusiasts will be able to use this new breed of video editing software. And,

- In Part IV, I'll highlight some of the potential challenges and limitations to the dance-specific scenarios I describe in Part III. Among the key challenges include: 1) intellectual property protection, 2) ensuring the wide availability of good quality dance videos, and 3) the creation of sustainable business models.

If it were not for dance blogger Matt Gough's post, "networked choreography - ii," I do not think I would have recognized the possibilities of a program such as Motionbox for the dance community. In his post Matt offers a theoretical description of how Web-based video editing and tagging applications can serve as the basis for a new type of collaborative dance art. I actually did not understand Matt's post - it's intended for an academic audience - until we talked about it for an hour by phone. Once I understood his premise, I was very enthusiastic about the possibilities for dance, which I'll elaborate upon in the upcoming sections to this post.

Technorati Tags: dance, education, mashups, software, tags, video, web2.0

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March 17, 2006

Projects for Dance and Technology Students

It's been nice to receive more emails lately from students at colleges and universities who are pursuing studies in dance and technology or are taking a class or writing a paper that relates in some way to the fusing of dance and digital tools. I'm happy to help answer questions, if I can, or forward your messages to others who can answer your questions or give you suggestions.

I was thinking that there are a number of projects students could work on that would be both worthwhile research endeavors and wonderful ways for dancers around the world to learn about the latest developments in interactive performances, new media tools and related technologies.

I would be delighted if you were working on any of the following projects (or related one) and could make your final research public for others to access:

- Annotated picture guides of interactive performance tools and technologies: Let's say that you are taking a class or doing research on motion tracking options for dance performances. What I think would be great is if you take pictures at every step of the process so that people who view your project could have a solid understanding of how motion tracking worked. You could take pictures of your camcorder, dancers, software screen shots and other elements and upload these pictures to a photo gallery such as Flickr. Then you could add annotations to each of your pictures so that viewers would understand every part of the process. I'd be delighted to link to these pictures or pull them into my blog for people to access.

- Annotated video guides to interactive performances: In this case, I have the same idea in mind as above except that now you would work with video. You could take video to show how motion caption systems (or other technologies) are set-up and then used to capture the movement of a dancer. Then, you could edit this video and add a voice over that describes specifically what is happening. Finally, you could upload this video to You Tube, Google Videos or other free video hosting services.

- Documenting dance performances: You can, of course, take videos and pictures of works in progress and final dance performances that you're working on. Then you can upload these videos to the web. One of the things that I haven't seen that I think would be very worthwhile would be if you upload two versions of each video. With the first video of a rehearsal or dance performance, you upload it with the musical track. With the 2 version you create an audio track where you and other dancers/choreographers explain what your performance is about - essentially this is like the second audio track on a DVD where you listen to actors and directors discuss a movie.

- Performance blogs with videos: I'd love to see more experimentation with weblogs where the choreographers and dancers start posting to their blogs from the day of the first rehearsal through the actual performance. I enjoy getting inside the creative process and understanding how a dance work is developed from the initial idea to the final result - your performance. So at every practice, you can take video clips and post them to your blog. These videos would let your readers follow your progress and also provide a forum where visitors who watch your videos can offer you feedback.

Those are my thoughts for now. I'm sure there are many other possibilities.

Please let me know if you are going to pursue any of the above projects or other ideas you have for sharing your experimentations, research and performances with an online audience.

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March 7, 2006

Interview with Another Language About InterPlay

Today I interviewed Beth Miklavcic, the artistic director, and Jimmy Miklavcic, the executive director, of Another Language, an interdisciplinary dance company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that they started in 1985.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - Stereo - 9.1 MB - 19:18 Minutes)

During this interview Beth and Jimmy discuss their InterPlay series of performances that unite multiple venues in a real-time collaborative program that relies upon high-speed video conferencing over the Internet2 backbone.

Their next program, "Dancing on the Banks of Packet Creek: RealTime Distributed Surrealistic Cinema" will take place March 31st through April 2nd 2006 at multiple locations from the University of Alaska Fairbanks to the University of Maryland where I plan to watch this performance.

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March 3, 2006

Pictures from "Who's in Control" Program

I happened to stumble across these pictures on Flickr taken by floorvan from last weekend's "Who's in Control" program that I attended.

Here's a shot of Arthur Elsenaar preparing to have his facial muscles activited via electrical jolts sent through the electrodes you see attached to his face.

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March 2, 2006

Dancing - The New Computer Interface

Thanks to Microsoft research, you can now manage and manipulate your email and pictures through a "step user interface" like the one used by the computer game Dance Dance Revolution. You can read about this research and watch a video. (Article from CNN and post from We Make Money Not Art.)

Click for Larger Image

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March 1, 2006

Additional Motion Tracking Software

On Monday I wrote about a demonstration by Troika Ranch which featured the EyesWeb motion tracking software program.

Here is some brief information and links for two additional motion tracking software programs - I'll be writing more in-depth about these and other motion tracking applications in the near future:

- Cyclops, from Eric Singer, is a Mac-only plug-in for the Max/MSP visual programming environment that analyzes and tracks live video. With the Cyclops Max object, you point a video camera at a dancer and then analyze the grey scale and color information from the live video feed. This data is then used by Max to control audio and video images in real-time. You can also learn more about Cyclops on the Cycling '74 website, the developers of Max/MSP.

- The second program is EyeCon from Palindrome. EyeCon is also a motion tracking software program, in this case for Windows PCs, that facilitates interactive performances and installations. By analyzing a video feed, EyeCon can track movements that can then serve to trigger specific actions such as the playing of sounds and videos. Here are some video clips featuring Emily Fernandez that show examples of EyeCon at work. (Robert Wechsler of Palindrome pointed out that some of Emily's solos use EyeCon, but most of them use a software program called Kalypso - another software program from the same engineer, Frieder Weiss.)

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February 27, 2006

Troika Ranch Demonstration Video

Yesterday afternoon at the "Who's in Control?" event at the Eyebeam center in Manhattan, Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello of Troika Ranch described and demonstrated an inexpensive and effective system for staging interactive dance performances.

I've included below a link to a video clip that shows the entire demonstration - Thanks to Mark and Dawn for allowing me to post this video clip to my blog.

Click here to watch the video now in Windows Media Format. And you'll want to read the below details to learn more.

What Mark and Dawn demonstrated was a motion tracking system that enables the movements of a dancer to generate, in real time, images, graphics and sounds that are projected on a screen right behind the dancer. What's intriguing is that to stage this type of performance, you just need a video camera, infra-red lights, a Mac and two software programs: 1) Isadora from Troika Tronix to design this interactive performance, and 2) EyesWeb, a motion tracking software program.

This low-cost motion tracking system is the exact configuration that Troika Ranch used for its recent 16 [R]evolutions performance in New York. You can read about the motion tracking system used for this performance by visiting their technology page.

Click here to watch video demonstration (Windows Media Format - 14:17 Minutes - 23:35 MB - Encoded at 256k) - this is the same video link as above.

Screen Shots from Mark and Dawn's Presentation

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February 23, 2006

Harvestworks - "Who's in Control? New Interfaces for Artistic Expression

I'll be in New York this coming weekend at a program offered by Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center and 3-Legged Dog Media and Theater Group called "Who's in Control? New Interfaces for Artistic Expression." The performances and educational sessions will take place at Eyebeam.

This symposium explores developments in computer interfaces for the visual and performance arts. I'll write about the programs and performances over the weekend or next week.

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February 22, 2006

Isadora Software from Troika Tronix

I'm beginning to experiment with software programs that are used for creating interactive dance performances. Yesterday, I started working with Isadora from Troika Tronix. Mark Coniglio, a composer and new media artist, created the Isadora software program, which was first used by Troika Ranch, a dance company which Mark co-directs with choreographer Dawn Stoppiello.

With Isadora, dancers, choreographers and new media artists can create interactive performances that enable the movements and gestures of dancers to control, in real-time, the video sequences, images, sounds and lighting patterns viewed by the audience. Isadora is considered a graphical programming environment because you can control, in a visual manner, how this software program will output different types of media without having computer programming skills.

Yesterday, I started working with the Windows public beta version - a Mac version is also available and is the more commonly used edition. You can take Isadora for a test drive for 30 days at no charge. The program sells for US$350.00.

I've only used Isadora for about 2-3 hours. But at this early stage, I think the program is fascinating and well designed - I did encounter a couple programming errors with the Windows version. I've worked through the first two tutorials which walk you step-by-step through the process of choosing media - such as a video clip - and then outputting the video with a variety of visual effects. Next, I'm going to attach my camcorder to my computer and start experimenting with the real-time manipulation of live video feeds.

Isadora comes with sample files and a user guide that is about 275 pages. Once you install Isadora, I recommend that you first load the sample files and then turn to the user guide and follow the instructions for each of the 10 tutorials. The user guide is very well written and helpful.

After learning Isadora, I'm going to start working with Max/MSP from Cycling '74. My understanding is that Isadora is easier to use - so I figured it was a good place to start.

To learn more about Isadora, you can visit this page for this application which includes a detailed description as well as links to reviews.

To learn about Troika Ranch's latest performance work, "16 [R}evolutions," you can access this page to learn about the motion tracking and other technologies used as well as watch a 2 minute video clip.

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November 21, 2005

The Rise of People-Centric Applications

The Internet is increasingly people-centric as opposed to data-centric. This means that more people find online resources and meet others based upon recommendations from other people not just by searching for data.

For example, applications such as Furl and del.icio.us are link sharing services. You can browse lists of categorized links saved by your friends and then link to sites you find interesting. Or you can participate in social networking sites such as Friendster that facilitate meeting others and finding things of interest.

This on-going transition to more people-centric applications and services is important to dance companies and performance venues - and all marketers - because just about all mainstream applications are heading in this direction. In addition, there's no reason not to start using some of these services because they are inexpensive and you can reach large audiences in record time.

Here's a list of collaborative and sharing applications:

Link Sharing

- del.icio.us
- Furl
- Yahoo My Web 2.0

Picture Sharing

- Buzznet
- Flickr

Social Networking

- Friendster
- MySpace.com

Personalized Search Engines

- Rollyo

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