Seattle Flamenco (dot org!)

Soooo. As many of you know, I start to feel guilty when it's been a long time between blog posts. Like several weeks. Or almost a month. And I start to scramble around and come up with excuses as to why I would be so negligent. You've no doubt already noticed that I've clearly plunged into "excuse mode"--but what you might not yet know is that the excuse is a good one!

So what have I been doing, you ask? I've been website building! No, not another flamenco magazine (like Ravenna Flamenco) and not another site dedicated to my own pursuits of flamenco. Rather, this site is one dedicated to everyone that's involved in flamenco in my little geographical niche (and, for all practical purposes, available to anyone who wants to find more out about that niche). It's called SeattleFlamenco.org and it is exactly what it sounds like: an open format non-commercial (i.e. not-for-profit) site that represents (or at least aspires to represent) all of the flamenco in the Seattle area.

Why would I do such a thing? There are several reasons. The first is that many of my fellow flamencos (and myself) have, for some time, been in the habit of complaining that the flamenco "community" around here is a bit disjointed. (And I'm sure Seattle's not alone in this complaint!) I can't guarantee that this will fix that problem, but at least if it doesn't our fragmentation won't be for lack of trying.

Beyond just getting the flamencos on the same page, however, I also wanted us to have a central place where people outside of the various Seattle flamenco circles could look in and discover a bit about what's going on right under their noses (and hopefully come out to support it!). I mean, let's face it: individual groups (mine included) spend a lot of time getting people to their own shows, but not a lot telling people about all the other options out there. Truth be told, it's not directly in their interest to do so. But it's in everyone's interest to stir up excitement about the scene. That's what this site is after.

Finally, there's quite a bit of "because I can" involved in the creation of this site. Mind, I've never built anything like this before (we'll see soon enough if it stands up to the test of traffic!), but I'm (evidently) not the type to let obliviousness stop me. Good idea? Or not? Well, we'll find out.

This, of course, all begs the "how?" question--and, perhaps more importantly, the "and what the hell gives me the right?" question. Fortunately for all of us, these two are answered in the same way: I get around both of them (I hope--we'll see) by making the site user generated. Show and event postings, artist and instructor listings, they're all user modifiable. Which means that even though I'm the one that set the thing in motion, how it eventually takes shape is up to the community as a whole (or at least to whoever decides to participate).

And which also means that aside from making sure the databases don't fall apart, I only have as much say in how the content shapes up as everyone else. Of course, I also play interference for spammers, and potentially referee for disputes, but ultimately the idea is that since this is a community built project, some sort of reliable and communal account of the scene will emerge. We'll see!

I guess the final question is this: will people actually use the site? This is something else we'll have to see. So far, as of two days "post-site-launch," things are looking good: the site has almost three dozen "fans" on Facebook and twenty followers on its Twitter feed. This all equals free publicity, which strikes me as a pretty good reason for anyone to use a site. As I mention above, though, if folks let this one fall flat, the days are over that they can complain that no one ever tried to help!

And now, dear readers, I am going to go play.

I suggest you do the same!

~A