I've been looking at a lot of Irish music web sites lately--I was intensively researching a rather narrow topic, using a search engine--and I couldn't help noticing that there's an awful lot of redundancy out there. Some people are creating web sites whose main claim to fame is that they contain lots of links to other web sites, which link to other sites, ad infinitum. The same musicians and the same web sites keep getting mentioned over and over. Google (http://www.google.com/) claims to find 13,500 sites that contain the words "Irish music." Most of these contain little or nothing that is unique, relevant, and useful. (Anyone care to see "The Complete Lyrics to 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" at http://www.virtual-media.com/vm/presents/ouzo/99bottles.html ? I found that one by following up a link from an "Irish music" web site!) Obviously some people have too much time on their hands. I hate to see all that time and talent going to waste.

Want to create a web site that performs a *real* public service? Here are some ideas: Find the names of some musicians in your area that don't have web sites of their own, and create a site for them, or use your site to give them free publicity. How you define "your area" is up to you. How far would you drive to hear good Irish music? How far do other people drive to get to your city to hear Irish music? A lot of the people who go annually to hear, say, the Chieftains or Altan, are unknowingly passing by a lot of venues they never heard of, where good musicians they never heard of appear cheaply and frequently. Make a list of venues in your area that sometimes present Irish music. List their names, addresses, phone numbers and schedules. If some musicians in your area have self-published tapes or CD's, describe them, and tell how to purchase them. Include dance venues, dance callers/instructors, music teachers, instrument builders & sellers, record shops. Don't forget Irish import gift shops--they often sell a few CD's. Talk to people to find out what isn't getting publicized--don't just regurgitate information from daily newspapers and other web sites. Concentrate more on providing useful information than having fancy graphics. Concentrate more on providing objective information than expressing your personal opinions. (Why should I trust your taste in music when I don't even know you?) Would you believe there are nonprofit volunteer organizations out there that print newsletters on paper and send them by snail-mail, and haven't yet learned how to create a web site? Find them and volunteer to be their web-site designer. Before you do anything, make sure you aren't duplicating what someone else has already done. Use a search engine (like Google--see above) to make sure. Redefine your scope accordingly.

Warnings: If you list gigs, it could be a lot of work keeping the list up to date. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't give people's home addresses or phone numbers without their permission. Don't include copyrighted material without the copyright-holder's permission.

Believe me, people will (or should) love you for this. Most musicians, occupied as they are with playing, practicing, learning new tunes, and trying to get gigs, as well as (often) working a day job and raising kids, just don't have time to learn how to create web sites.

Here are a couple of not-too-complicated sites that you could use as models: http://people.mn.mediaone.net/freshdlc/index.html http://members.aol.com/berrymanp/