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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| Website for finding and posting jam sessions | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16th, 2006 01:07 am |
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1st Post |
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folkjam.org Approved 
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A friend and I run a somewhat new web site called http://www.folkjam.org that has a growing list of user contributed jam sessions. Our scope is international, although the bulk of our users have contributed jam sessions in North America. As of this afternoon we have 138 acoustic jam sessions in our database, 121 of which are recurring weekly or monthly sessions. http://www.folkjam.org is a little bit different from most of the jam session list sites we've used to find music through the years. First and foremost, it is driven by user contributions rather than being an individual's or an organization's published list. We allow anybody to post the details of jam sessions. We do review every post to make sure it is appropriate for the site and not spam. Part of our goal with the site is to keep jam session details current by putting the editorial responsibility into the hands of the local community and the people who attend the sessions. They know best when a jam changes venue or day. Both of us travel for our jobs and pack our instruments with us. I've found it to be time consuming to locate jams in my destination city and then to work out how far each jam is from my hotel. When you visit http://www.folkjam.org the first thing you will see is a map that will show all of the jams in your area. You also get to see where 'you' are on the map, making it easy to figure out which jams are a 15 minute drive and which ones are too far away. Below the map is a summary of the next few jams as well as a link to the full local calendar. The local calendar lets you see when jams in the city you pick are happening, again speeding up the process of finding out where to jam in your home town or in a city that you will be visiting soon. That is the essence of http://www.folkjam.org. Stop by for a visit. If you have suggestions for the site please let us know. You can reach us via http://www.folkjam.org/feedback Play well. Scott Here is what folkjam.org looks like for a city with a healthy number of user contributed jam sessions. Attachment: folkjam-info-postcard,-fron.jpg (Downloaded 94 times) Last edited on Thu Nov 16th, 2006 01:08 am by folkjam.org ____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16th, 2006 08:46 am |
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2nd Post |
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Richard Hefner Administrator 
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Hey Scott, Nice site and interesting concept! Hope it does well for you. This could be something some of the ezFolkies would be interested in. Thanks for sharing! 
____________________ Richard Hefner MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner Running Blog: http://old-runner.com |
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16th, 2006 01:41 pm |
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3rd Post |
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folkjam.org Approved
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Thanks Richard, I am glad you like it and I do hope the ezfolk community finds it useful. If you have an area where you drop links to sites of interest to your community you can find folkjam.org linking guidelines and graphics on http://www.folkjam.org/link Have you contributed the jams in your neighborhood yet?  Scott
____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16th, 2006 06:44 pm |
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4th Post |
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Will Approved 
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Thanks for letting us know about this wonderful resource. I've registered the local jam that I frequent, held in Grayslake, IL: http://www.folkjam.org/node/2432 The Acoustic Music Jam (Grayslake, IL) home page http://jazzmanjeffjustman.tripod.com/acousticmusicjam.htm Last edited on Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 04:11 pm by Will ____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16th, 2006 07:17 pm |
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5th Post |
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folkjam.org Approved
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I saw that come through Will. Thanks a bunch for taking the time to contribute. We will probably hit the 150 jam session mark by the end of the month thanks to folks like yourself. Scott Last edited on Thu Nov 16th, 2006 07:18 pm by folkjam.org ____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 03:40 pm |
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6th Post |
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vrteach Approved 
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Very interesting, Scott. I hope this takes off.
____________________ Erich -- http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/bands/956/ http://vrteach.org |
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| Posted: Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 04:17 pm |
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7th Post |
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folkjam.org Approved
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I am glad you like it, and thanks for registering and taking a look around. We are taking a measured approach to getting the word out right now while we continue adding some additional core features. Up next we will allow people to organize groups around open jams and set up by-invitation-only jams within groups. Even with our minimalist approach our contribution rate has spiked up substantially, which we really appreciate. All we ask of our contributors is that they post jams where they are connected enough to know when the jam changes time, venue or date so they can update folkjam.org. If you are even somewhat regular at jams near Rochester stop by and contribute the details. We appreciate every single session we get. I was in contact with one of our new users last night who found us becaue his jamming buddies told him to look for jams in the city he was headed to on vacation this week. That is exactly the sort of thing we like to see. Scott
____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 04:43 pm |
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8th Post |
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Philj200 Approved 
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Scott, Can I ask a big favor? Could you run a list of areas and people who would like jams to take place in? Places where musicians haven't been able to hook up or find a place that could host them. Perhaps if enough people in an area knew of each other, it could create a momentum get a regualr jam working. Maybe a JAMS NEEDED section? And if it is possible, Nassau County NY is really hungry for jams. Thanks, Phil
____________________ My MP3 Section: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1143/ My Myspace area: http://myspace.com/philj200 |
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| Posted: Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 05:31 pm |
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9th Post |
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folkjam.org Approved
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Phil - absolutely. Right now we offer up forums, and the "organize a jam" forum is on http://www.folkjam.org/forum/5 We have a feature in progress where a registered user can indicate in their profile that they are looking for other people to jam with. This will (probably by early December) place that user's name and location on a map of people who are looking to jam. That's phase I. Phase II is taking the same location aware logic we apply to the overall site and bringing it to the forums. If you have visited, you've seen that we customize the view of data on the site based on your location. We don't make you wade through jams in California and Copenhagen while you are hunting for a jam in Arkansas, we bring all of that right to you in what we think is a pretty compelling way. We are working to do the same thing for forums. We will continue to have forums like the one I referenced above - but there are plenty of sites that do that really well, including this one. What we will have in progress is a twist on forum sites, where we allow a forum to be pinned to a geographical location. Rather than sifting through forums called "Ozark Pickers" and "Apalachia bluegrass gatherings" you will, just like with the jams/festivals/camps, say where you are and we'll show you the nearby forums. Those forums are chiefly intended for people like you who want to organize jams, but I am sure they will be used in ways we didn't envision, which is always wonderful. We probably won't have this in place until around February. So, that's what our next batch of features look like. Our progress is tempered by half the team (that would be me) being on baby watch. Daughter #2 is due soon and my wife is on bed rest, so that February estimate can vary widely. My wife's family lives in Farmingville (out by Ronkonkoma), so I have an interest in jams out that way too. Anybody have some they can contribute to folkjam.org so that I'll know where to jam when I'm visiting my inlaws? Scott Last edited on Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 05:32 pm by folkjam.org ____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 06:49 pm |
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10th Post |
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Philj200 Approved
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Thank you! If I haven't registered yet. I will soonest. Suffolk County has a number of active openmikes. All seem to be singer/songwriter oriented. The venues for pickers are few and far -between. Both the Huntington Folk Music Society and Long Island Traditional Music Association are out there and are going concerns who will probably discover you soon. Congrats on your growing family. You have much to give tahnks for this year. Regards, Phil
____________________ My MP3 Section: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1143/ My Myspace area: http://myspace.com/philj200 |
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| Posted: Thu Nov 23rd, 2006 03:47 am |
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11th Post |
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folkjam.org Approved
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Phil, You mention a few of the local folk organizations, which brings me to some more nuanced features that I didn't talk about at the top of this thread. Our goal of improving the data accuracy of jam session listings goes beyond having users contribute the jam session listings. That is a core piece of it, but it is not the only one. There are countless acoustic groups who have web pages for their organization. A natural thing to include on such a page are the details of the jams run by the organization and the next session date for each one. How many of you have visited one of these pages and found that it said "and our next monthly jam will be on <a date in the past>"? Can I have a show of hands?  Right. Cute icons do have a use. Just collecting the information on folkjam.org was not enough to solve the accuracy problem, we also saw the need to provide support to folk organizations to keep their jam dates current on their own web pages. We've created RSS feeds out of the jam, festival and acoustic music camp information that people contribute to folkjam.org. What's an RSS feed? In non-technical jargon it is a way for one web site to incorporate information from another web site. Using folkjam's RSS feeds (http://www.folkjam.org/help/rss) a web site can incorporate listings into their pages. My favorite example of this is the Michigan based http://www.dulcimers.com. They have a jams page (http://www.dulcimers.com/jams.shtml) for jams in their region. It was carefully hand maintained by a very dedicated group of volunteers. They have entered all of their organization's jams into folkjam.org and now use our RSS feed to include not just their jams on their site (although they could have done that), but all of the jam sessions contributed for the state of Michigan. A banjo player who posts her jam to folkjam.org is helping dulcimer players find new folk sessions to attend. Perhaps I get a little too excited by this - think about what is happening here - a single user's contribution can end up on folk sites that they would never have known to contact about their jam, and folk organizations can get totally out of the game of maintaining information on area jam sessions. Or they can stay in it, but augment their listings with those from folkjam.org. Go check out http://www.dulcimers.com/jams.shtml and see what you think. This is the most basic default display of the RSS feed. An organization where the webmaster knows how to transform XML data can integrate and display that data in any way they want. Since these are RSS feeds they help individuals like you and I too. You can have an always-current list of local jams sitting on your desktop just by using a standard RSS reader. Many of us Windows XP users have recently been given the 'gift' of IE7. One thing it does handle better are RSS feeds. Here is the feed for my hometown of Kansas City: http://www.folkjam.org/feed/jam/postcode/US/64106 Shawn, the co-founder of the site, always admonishes me for writing too much. He is right of course, but there is just so much to say on the subject. If you work with or represent a group or organization consider using our service to keep your listings current and/or to bring more jam sessions to your community. It is free, and we don't and won't put ads on our RSS feeds. Play well and spread the word. We aimed to do nothing short of change the way all of us musicians use the internet to find acoustic jams and the fellowship they bring. Scott Chief Fiddling Officer (and guy who may write too much) http://www.folkjam.org
____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Fri Dec 22nd, 2006 08:32 pm |
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12th Post |
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banjo brad Super Moderator 
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>Bump!< I am bumping this back up because I hope soon to use the service, and I hate not being able to find the link when I need it! Brad
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27th, 2007 04:57 pm |
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13th Post |
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folkjam.org Approved
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Philj200 wrote: Scott, We've done this. It took a few months of work, but our groups feature is in place. You can now create a group on the site that will show up on local maps, allowing you to advertise that you are looking for other pickers in the area. Each group has a private map of jams just for that group, and each group has a private forum. Our hope is that people will use these to organize new jam sessions, or use a group to coordinate an existing jam. I'll start a new topic on how the groups work in the next week or so, but I wanted to at least repond here to let folks know that we have some new features to help locate local pickers. Give it a try. Browse the existing groups on http://www.folkjam.org/groups and while you are there, make your own group, pin it to the map and start to find pickers. Scott
____________________ http://www.folkjam.org Find jams. Post jams. Play well with others. |
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28th, 2007 06:39 pm |
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14th Post |
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Philj200 Approved
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Scott is good people. I've exchanged email with him on several occassions. This is a good service he's providing. As a refresh my "favorites" on Myspace, I rotate FolkJam through it. Might be a good idea for those of us (everyone?) to do as well. Last edited on Wed Mar 28th, 2007 06:40 pm by Philj200 ____________________ My MP3 Section: http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/1143/ My Myspace area: http://myspace.com/philj200 |
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