4544 North Lincoln Ave. and 909 West Armitage Ave
Chicago IL

Review by:
John Cash
Indiana University

The twenty-year-plus conversation between academic folklorists and public sector folklorists has often turned to a stammer over the issue of money. Most of us feel unconmfortable viewing the people for whom we speak, or their work, in commercial terms, and this is a good thing. Folklorists are disinclined to view the mere presence of an organization or individual on the Net as a positive thing, because even those sites which register mere presence turn communication from "what I want to know" to "what we want you to know," or from "telling" to "selling." This is a very commercial approach, and it is everywhere on the Net, and folklorists shy away from it.

Nonetheless, a website is increasingly an essential for any organization whose business is dealing with the public. This includes not-for-profit organizations. A website is the equivalent of a "presentation of self" on the Internet. It is also the equivalent of the door-to-door salesman, and so it is a "presentation of product" as well. The effectiveness of a site to communicate to and with its visitor/customer is both the subject of professional study, and the impetus for new fields of employment.

This is not really news. The news is that a folklore presence already exists in the commercial environment of the Web. It was created by means of the websites of state and local folklore societies, arts councils, museums, and college folklore programs and courses, as well as many, many amateur collectors and folk music sites. So what does folklore look like on the Web?

Many folklore sites are useful as adjuncts to traditional research tools. Many more sites provide information of dubious quality, repetitious character or limited depth, but perhaps not below the standards for an undergraduate term paper. Still more sites cater to storytellers, musicians, and performers who make a living with folklore or folk music, or announce the presence of performers or exhibits in the context of regional or national culture. For more and more people, these sites are their first exposure to folklore or folk music. This means folklore's own "presentation of self" is involved.

If folklorists want to retain control over the definition of their discipline (why does this sound familiar?) they need to learn how folklore is presented and represented on-line. They need to discover the resulting qualities or characteristics, and to work for its renewal on the Internet. I'd like to take a look at one website for a non-profit organization engaged with folk music in a commercial way, and see what it might tell us about how folklore and folk music are presented and represented, and consider the possible reasons why the presentation/representation has taken this form.

The Old Town School of Folk Music is "the world's largest permenent center for the study of folk music from all cultures," according to its website. Since opening in 1957 the School has offered its community folk music lessons and concerts, and has remained an effective institution through its ability to respond effectively to the changing map of folk music in the United States. It currently has a faculty of 175 instructors, and an enrollment of over 5,000 students per week, of which 2,000 are children. It draws an additional 50,000 annually to its concerts.

In other words, the Old Town School is in business. The website of the Old Town School of Folk Music is an easy-to-use site providing information its paying customers -- aspiring students, musicians, and concert-goers -- are likely to want. It is not unique as sites go, but it illustrates two elements essential to any website that make it worth a look from any folklorist concerned with websites. These elements are usability and content.

The first element receives a lot of attention from web designers. Good usability implies that a site is visually comprehensible, well organized, and easy to move within. At the Old Town School's site, the School's logo and address appear in a header at the top of the home page; the visitor receives a "welcome" and is told briefly about the School, and given the number to call to register for classes. The visitor may also view a special feature of the site, an on-line companion guide to the Old Town School of Music's Songbook (more about this below). A side bar contains a dozen subheadings, divided into information about current events and information about the school's courses, policies, and job openings. It's also pleasant to view, featuring photo portraits of some of its students and instructors in a strip at the right edge of the page.

From the home page the visitor can select one of four topics -- adult classes, kids' classes, concerts, and music store -- from either the top header, the side bar, or from a list at the bottom of the screen. The format of the home page is maintained on each topic page. From the side bars the visitor can connect to descriptions of classes, to the "Wiggleworms" music program for children, to information on registration and tuition, or to concert announcements and CD releases. There is one important problem to movement within this site: nowhere is there a "return home" command, so searching is difficult outside a single topic. I couldn't cross from the Adult Classes on Banjo to the Concerts for November without using the "Back" command on the Netscape browser screen.

Usability is in fact a very subtle element in web design, but it is not as complex as content. This is because content means more than information. The Old Town School's site is clear, informative and pertinent to the organization's mission: teaching folk music through classes, concerts and outreach programs. Saying this, I seem still to be talking about usability. Class descriptions include class times and locations, required books, and prerequisites. Concert-goers can go directly to a brief description of the upcoming band and its musical heritage, and from the side-bar can review the concert schedule for the next three months as well as view photos of the concert hall.

Ticket information and contact information appears as one scrolls down. The concerts page also features links to a number of music festivals, clubs and recording companies (each in a different color). A list of instruments and their prices is available at the School's music store page. In other words, the information a customer would want is made easy to get, and in a simple yet savvy way that leaves an impression. The site is _crafted._ (I hate that word, steeped as it is in the stew of advertising, but that's the site's function exactly.) So, by implication, folk music can also be simple, savvy, and crafted. That is the first bit of content, almost purely visual, and perhaps its the most important bit.

Folk music and folklore as savvy things? Is that a bad piece of content?

We know there's more to folklore and folk music than savviness, just as we know there's more to organizations like the Old Town School than business. The School's education mission is still valid forty years on: bringing folk music to the public, and introducing people to its traditions. A closer reading of the School's on-line material indicates they have a particular philosophy of teaching, involving small classes and intimate learning experiences. A clearer statement about their teaching philosophy, or even why folk music is a good thing to learn, might be worth posting.

This brings me at last to what I expected to find as content: folklore, and folk music. The value of the enterprise of 1957 is not very visible as content today, perhaps because today it is so self-evident that folk music is a valuable enterprise. Still, it would help if somewhere there were a statement about what folk music was, and what makes it worth hearing and learning.

Visitors might get a very good sense of what and why by viewing the site's special feature. "Song Notes" is an on-line companion to the Old Town School of Music Songbook organized by performer and staff instructor Mark Dvorak. This admittedly less-than-scholarly collection relies in good part (but not only) on Alan Lomax' "Folk Song USA" and "Folk Songs of North America," and Dvorak's personal recollections of many folk singers. It contains brief informational notes on particular songs, and biographical notes and quotes from musicians associated with the School. It is searchable alphabetically. Every entry has at least one "recording on file" at the School.

This is content worth advertising; and I think the folks at the Old Town School are missing an opportunity here for some long-distance learning. The School benefitted from the folk music revival of the 1950's and 1960's, when its concerts featured such names as Pete Seeger, Mahalia Jackson, Big Bill Broonzy, and Josh White. Considering this heritage, and the authority of these performers, I wouldn't think it would be their mission to spread the word about these archives of recordings, or perhaps include a few 30-second MIDIs of concerts.

Even as it stands, by using the words of many it explains the value of folk music better than any packaged statement. Further use of such assets would add to the research potential of any site, and perhaps lead to making such recordings available to schools or universities as an on-line resource for teaching music. There might be sound business reasons for not posting it where anyone can hear it for free, such as copyright, but I invite the Old Town School of Folk Music to consider it. Increasing their Web visitorship, even to researchers (who after all are customers of a sort) is a savvy thing to do.

Newfolk :: NDiF :: Archive :: Issue 4.2 :: Page 1