Say Hi to the Canadian Music Wiki
The Canadian Music Scene is getting nerdier.
This because of the launch last May of the Canadian Music Wiki a joint project between CBC Radio 3 and University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
According to the website’s mission statement, it is “dedicated to using collaborative and social media to enrich Canada’s music scene by creating a comprehensive guide to Canadian music.”
Launched on the 21st of May, the site was 9 months in the making.
Steve Pratt, the director of CBC Radio 3, and Alfred Hermida, an associate professor at the UBC school of journalism came up with the idea. They asked Amanda Ash, a graduate student at UBC, to join the project because it combined her interests in social media with her background in music journalism.
“This was their initial idea to put together something like this,” she said recently over the phone, “and I took that idea and ran with it.”
The site currently has 2,300 pages of original content. The goal is to keep that momentum going. They are also updating the site so it’s easier to contribute. “We want everyone to be able to add, from your grandmother to a 16-year old kid that’s a Justin Bieber fan,” Ash said. She said the first step it get a base of contributors and keep it growing.
According to Ash, Radio 3 is the perfect kind of environment to experiment with a project like the Canadian Music Wiki. “Radio 3 is kind of on the fringe, and we’re given a little more space to experiment,” she said.
Ash said that although there isn’t a lot of resources available for the project, she hopes the community will come together and sustain the site now that it’s up and running.
|
Email This Post |
| CBC Radio 3 |
[...] Email This Post [...]
Say Bye to King Richard
CBC/Radio-Canada Announces Departure of Richard Stursberg
Ottawa, August 6, 2010 – Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, announced today the departure of Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president, English services, from CBC/Radio-Canada effective today.
“When Richard was appointed executive vice-president of CBC Television six years ago,” said Mr. Lacroix, “he brought with him a revolution that shook the foundation of the organization and eventually of the whole of our English services. He challenged every premise, attacked conventional wisdom, and uprooted whole parts of the internal culture. Six years later, the institution is better off than it was. I want to acknowledge his success in turning CBC Television around and thank him for his contribution.”
“We are in the midst of developing a new strategic plan that will guide CBC/Radio-Canada through the next five years. This is the opportune time to bring new leadership to English Services and to ensure alignment of the senior team on the future of the public broadcaster.”
Kirstine Stewart, general manager, CBC Television, will take on the position of executive vice-president, English services, on an interim basis. As the architect of CBC Television’s current programming success and Richard Stursberg’s official delegate for the past few years, and with the support of a talented team, she’s well placed to ensure that CBC maintains the considerable momentum it currently enjoys.
A comprehensive internal and external recruitment process will be launched immediately.
This could be an interesting resource. Certainly, a useful one.
Thanks for this.
Out of curiosity, I just now checked out this new site. My conclusion it that it is a big fat waste of time, currently featuring thousands of so-called “artists” with idiotic names that I’ve never heard of, nor want to! How can any site have aspirations of being a “comprehensive guide to Canadian music”, when it can’t even list any of the time-honoured true artists like Anne Murray, Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot, et al? This site is definitely geared towards the crap loving teens and twentysomethings who are constantly in search of “New Music”, as they seem to get bored after about a week spent on any single performer. The majority of names on this dubious list are obscure now and will be completely unknown after a short shelf life of limited fame.
The younger listeners matter, too, Pete. Whether either of us wants ‘em to or not.
Some of the newer players actually do manage to carry a tune rather well. But that’s a debate for somewheres else.