Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@ZiglioUK
Created November 24, 2012 09:11
Show Gist options
  • Save ZiglioUK/4138979 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save ZiglioUK/4138979 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
musomap-la-rete-mondiale-dei-musicisti
http://www.ilcorrieremusicale.it/musomap-la-rete-mondiale-dei-musicisti/
From Australia, thanks to the idea of a young violinist and software developer, arrives a social network dedicated to professional musicians. Simple and useful, its basic principle is localization on Google Maps, for short and long term projects, via Twitter.
Rather than a planet, the info-sphere (Italian literary citations) looks more like a galaxy. A slap in the face to Gutenberg (the inventor of the press! Prior to the social network age, all you needed was either a website or an email, or both, but now the web citizen is forced to create an exorbitant number of accounts. So, in order to maintain human relationships (work and sentimental ones and so on) in the virtual world, one is forced into a tangle of platforms (with disregard for peace and quiet...). There's also another aspect and that's about the ever-changing landscape of communication media: if not so long ago user groups were an element of novelty, the advent of online communities and social networks have rapidly made the rest obsolete.
Now you get new platforms that integrate services from diverse origins - in the case of Musomap, a recent product by Khane, 31-year-old Australian violinist and software developer.
Let's talk about musical matters. Excluding pre-existing ensembles and other musical groups, it may happen that you're wanting to playing a score requiring more musical instruments than you have readily available.
Or it could happen that, during a musical tour, suddenly you're missing a component for the orchestra. That's when the hunt for a musician starts among friends, acquaintances or specialist web sites.
Or, even better, through social media where often those who deal with music provide news and information about their own musical field. How long might this research take? And what results might that lead to?
So an idea began germinating in the minds of a group young musicians from Australia (Sydney, precisely), led by Khane: why not create a worldwide digital network of musicians, from all sorts of specialities, to meet musicians' needs?
A network that'd show first and foremost where people are located thanks to Google Maps, so that searching in a specific area might actually provide a result. Second, that network would also provide information about musicians via their profiles, with embedded video and data from Youtube and Soundcloud.
From that idea was born Musomap, the social network for professional musicians who need to interact with fellow musicians about single and long term projects, thanks to the power of maps. Currently the website is still expanding but it already counts about a thousand subscribers. We've asked Khane how the idea of Musomap came to his mind:
-- put your English text here
«Confrontandomi con un gruppo di amici mi sono reso conto di quanto fosse difficile trovare i giusti musicisti per un concerto. Ci siamo anche accorti di quanto internet in questo senso non riuscisse particolarmente utile. Così ho cominciato a creare una mappa dove potessimo posizionare i nostri profili e invitare altre persone a fare parte del nostro network».
--
How long did it take you to release a first version of the web site?
--
«Fondamentalmente tre mesi. Siamo andati online il 6 aprile 2012. Da quella data ho continuato poi con aggiornamenti settimanali di altre componenti (messaggi di posta, embed in altri siti, forum, mobile messaging ecc.)».
--
When we asked Khane about Musomap's goals, he answered with a link to the blog. A hot topic is about possible future on-demand services: Khane has told us of having already received a compelling offer for the sale of Musomap but he's rejected it. In order to understand why, he's sent us another link to his blog. To sum up, the idea is quite clear: Musomap is not there to make money and, regardless, that will never be the main goal. It's a community, like Twitter and Wikipedia. Are you sold? Or curious? You just need to try it out: enter www.musomap.com, we wish you useful encounters.
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment