Dancing With Technology
Article By: Dan Land
A SteppersExpress.com 2009©article
Photo By: Bradley Dean
Every time I see a steppers website. I look for the creative flow in the design. I get excited when I see innovation. It remind me of when we first took steppin to the internet and youtube and how it grew in large numbers on both mediums.
I always been some what of a pioneer and innovator when it come to combining steppin with technology and my perspectives never changed during this past decade or the fast pace of modern day technology.
This might explain why I remained at the forefront of steppin for more then ten years as one of steppin's most passionate design artist.
I love to share my knowledge about the history of steppin: I love to share my passion for technology that enabled me to promote steppin in its most positive form; and I love to unite with other passionate steppers and share our positive efforts to elevate steppin to its highest level as one of the most positive African American dance forms to originate out of the city of Chicago.
The days are gone when I first designed SteppersExpress.com, the first dynamic steppers website. However, let me clarify a significant fact for those we know around the steppers culture who love to find conflict and controversy with words rather then positivity.
SteppersExpress.com was not the first steppers website. It was the first dynamic Steppers website, including but not limited to animation, interactivity, video embeds and other content outside the normal static content that was on steppers websites available on the internet preceding SteppersExpress.com.
As I was writing, the days are gone when I first designed SteppersExpress.com. There are no more long drawn out page designs, images to upload for each page, tables to adjust, photo albums to upload, cells to align or numerous buttons to select well into the early hours of the morning with hopes to satisfy clients. The days also are gone when we must solicit emailers and others to visit our websites to send us or FTP us content so we could populate our websites to obtain more traffic.
We currently have youtube, twitter, facebook, myspace and other social networks that provide us with CMS that allow us to receive and send data at the click of a button. In addition, many website design artist and developers are now members of web developer websites such as Joomla where ( C.M.S. ) content management systems offer templates and other web tools that make website building and management automatic and robust, including video embeds, post, blogs, emailing, animation, music and the latest in high tech web development tools.
Visitors are able to receive or post content direct fom their home computer, a laptop, a cell phone, a PDA or any other device with internet capabilities. Permission to use many of these websites and social networks are as easy as signing up for a membership with an approved user name and log in. But what is most impressive is time consumption, the time it takes to log on to an account and access these networks is minimal compared to years ago. In addition, account holders quickly access their personal pages from anywhere there is a global network with internet or wi-fi connections.
Yes, techniology has brought us to a level of innovation combined with steppin that excites me in ways that I can't place in words outside the phrase, " I am amazed", and I carry the same amazement and passion for the art of steppin that I carry for technology and innovation.
This is why I want to share as much of this great information as possible here at SteppersExpress.com .
The fact of the matter is when we visit steppers websites and social networks or invite others in to share our steppers culture. They should learn and they should see that not only are steppers sharp dressers, innovative and passionate dancers with a history that span for decades but steppers also are highly technical people equipped with the latest tools to express and communicate this art form.
So enough words about the current state of technology and on with the goodies that I and others use to elevate our websites along with this dance form, giving our visitors, clients and potential clients unlimited opportunities to enjoy steppin from a technical perspective.
Twitter.com is where I go to connect wih people on a daily basis. It eliminates countless email and spam threats from people I don't know but share common interest like steppin and day to day activity. It also allow me to cheat on those days when I want to post a motivational quote, quote some scripture or share with others my thoughts and views .
Twitter.com allows us to make quick and brief statements about our daily activities. However, like most things in life, safety is a must when using any internet network. Don't tell all your business.
Facebook is what I call really cool. it is plain and simple without reinventing the wheel. It keep networking basic and easy from video embeds to the latest topics around the globe, including photo albums and group participation in specific topics from special events, celebrations, views, opinions, classmate groups, family reunions, church socials all the way to hollywood stars movie buffs and the most popular fan clubs. I call it my personal lost and found. However, what I enjoy most about facebook is it is user friendly.
I remeber when youtube had six steppers videos on the entire network. There are currently several thousand and growing. Youtube is a perfect example of what happens after steppers are informed of tools and technology.
Youtube is a prime social network for people like myself and others who consider ourselves independent artist and filmmakers. It is a medium that allow us to showcase our projects without waiting to be discovered or signed with major companies or sponsors. It also enable people to communicate their views and opinions through video. Most, it is a place to share video.
Remember when music was hard to place on the web or on a website not to exclude the fact that music used quite a bit of memory and band width so if several visitors listen to a song at once. It was costly and could shut a website completely down. Blipfm has simplified this process and not only is it easy to host music, find music or share music with others on blipfm. One could live the dream as a D.J. and create their own playlist to share with others who have the same music taste. I like to list some of steppin's greatest and most classic music. It allow others to hear it as well as shop for it through amazon if they want to locate some of these classics.
