Tech: New Folk Arts Community Portal

Subject: Tech: New Folk Arts Community Portal
From: Mark Coyle
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 04:52 PM

Hello everyone,

this is Mark from Woven Wheat Whispers, run with Ian of the Mudcat group. We have just launched a new collaborative community portal for the folk arts called 'Harvest Home'.

We have for a while wanted to build upon our various sites and support the folk arts community directly. This includes our traditional / folk music interests but also extends into folk art, craft, folk dance, pictures, literature, folklore, Forteana, culture and other areas,

This site goes beyond our commercial folk download service and establishes a free, non commercial resource we can all use. Everyone interested in the folk arts can add their own content, review and comment on others, share information, post news and collaborate.

The name Harvest Home complements our wheat seasonal custom theme for Woven Wheat Whispers.   We took the phrase after recently re-reading the classic study of British folklore by Bob Pegg and finding how relevant the seasonal Harvest Home festival seemed to our intentions.

At the portal with one simple log-in you can do all the following:

1. read our forum and add new items, discussion topics etc.

2. read and write your own articles, reviews, theories, notes and literature.

3. have your own blog area and write about the folk arts

4. add your own events to our calendar for others to see - live events, album release dates, seasonal customs etc

5. share legal downloads such as your own music, artwork, literature

6. Create and view themed picture galleries

7. Find people and skills or make yours available

8. Add and use links to a growing range of folk arts sites.

9. Send each other messages and share content.

10. customise your page layout and included content.

11. Bookmark content you want to return to at the portal

12. Manage your profile and track your portal use.

13. Take our news as RSS feeds into newsreader applications.


We invite everyone here to take a look and use the portal where it is useful for you.

Feel free to take a look now at
http://www.harvest-home.org
and if interested you can register an account.

We invite
...all relevant sites to add their links
...artists to add events to our calenders
...everyone to write reviews
...add your news to our forum
and use our features in any way helpful.

We aim to complement rather than compete with anyone. There is no commercial aspect to this, no advertising, no products being sold, it's just part of our commitment to the wider folk community.   

If you want to become a regular featured contributor with your own area - just let me know about this and I'll set it up at [e-mail]

We hope you find this resource useful and look forward to collaborating with everyone here.   Please do feel free to spread the word by telling friends or forwarding this to interested parties.   

cheers
Mark and Ian

Woven Wheat Whispers
http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.com
the music of the fields will be heard.