myspace profile restoration

It seems that Cat's correspondence with Myspace admin is yielding results. Our original profile is now reinstated - visible. Although we are not yet able to log in to pick up any messages. Hopefully this will come :-) WHAT A RELIEF!!

DIAL A DIVA RESCUED!

Our new URL is

www.myspace.com/dialadivarescued

We still hope to retrieve some of our original account info, but it's completely unknown how likely this is going to be. Fingers Crossed! We are still waiting to here from myspace.

In the mean time please add our new myspace profile to your friends and use your own personal networks to get in touch with folk you think might be interested.

We were making encouraging progress, and really felt the whole thing coming together this week. With nearly 1700 friends and, I'm sure, nearly 2000 pending requests we were generating a huge network of great performers, but now back to zero on the myspace front we've lost 2000 potential performers and friends.


Please spread the word. I'll be back on myspace full throttle tomorrow.

Good Luck folks all is not lost!

MYSPACE DISASTER

Well little did I think yesterday that I'd be writing this update.
For some reason our Myspace account has been deleted. We have no experience of this, but the current situation is that ALL of the contacts and communications that have been developing through Myspace are lost. We apologise to all who are effected by this. Please contact us by email: dialadiva [at] gmail.com or via the website: www.dialadiva.net

We will set up a temporary myspace account shortly and post the URL here.

44 days to go

A quick update: Cat, Jill (my mum) and I have been hard at work in myspace primarily. It is really an amazing experience finding so many inspiring and adventurous artists. All the positive and encouraging responses certainly keep us going as we jump the time consuming hurdles of myspace security checks and periods of painfully slow load times.
Jill has been exploring, Western Australia & French speaking Africa, I have been in South America and Cat has been traversing the Near and Far East. I think it is safe to say that my mum is more of a fan of folk music than hip hop, but we are both excited about some of the urban artists in the Ivory Coast - a thriving scene it seems. Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay have given us some fantastic musicians of all sorts - powerful songwriting and melody making.
Having written last time that artists from the Middle East were hard to find I tapped a rich seam in Egypt and Palestine - such strength and positivity.
We still don't have a Russian translation of the invitation text and it is very hard to make intelligible contact with Russians, Ukrainians, Siberians, Belorussians et al with out it. However we are making new headway in finding a translator and hopefully will be able to concentrate on the region before long.
This morning I have had the chance to stop and consolidate all the registered performers details and there are over 50 and at least 20 more in the myspace pipeline. A great international spread and it goes without saying I suppose but an amazing diversity of style.
Working with myspace mail does have it's issues - it is not searchable or indeed possible to order and it deletes after two weeks, so it is a jungle once the flow of correspondence is going - and it really is. We are trying to encourage those who want to take part to divert to the gmail account and/or register online. Apologies to anyone who is currently buried under a few days mail who we haven't got back to yet. We will!

60 days to go

So Gill's new site design is up (www.dialadiva.net), and the print is on its way with the new numbers. The invitations to perform are going out into the world and the responses, especially from those who took part last time, are very heartening.
Cat continues concentrating on myspace and is doing a fantastic job finding interesting performers all over the place. I have just joined her in myspace land.... so many amazing performers out there. Myspace has grown a lot since the last Dial-a-Diva and is so much more international than before, when it really was the domain of North America, Western Europe and Australia - great to be able to connect with African, Russian, Asian, South American performers... it is still not really a hotbed of middle eastern musicians who are harder to reach as yet.
My Mum (Jill) who was the backbone of the last Dial-a-Diva research operation, is back in action scoping for Oceanic, Samoan and Alaskan acts at the moment.
We now have information translated into 15 different languages that will be downloadable from the website soon.
It certainly is all hands on deck with the good ship Diva in preparation for the grand round the world voyage.

Supplier changes

Hmmmmmm..... well, where do I start.

As sometimes happens on a project, everything starts of well with negotiations, and you decide who the best vendors are. At some point after many discussions you even go so far as to agreeing contracts etc.
Then the fun starts!
The first Dial a Diva had a very successful run barring one part of the project, recording, so the vendor managed it well.
For Dial a Diva 2007, it was down to two vendors, who on cost were very similar, however one communicate well, and this is usually a good sign.

Upon asking for some of the extra bells and whistles, and some fairly basic things that are easy or commonplace, the communication stuttered a bit, and yep, extra costs were charged.

Communication slowing down is a big issue on the project, as the nearer and nearer we get to September the 8th, the more rapid things get, recordings, operator scripts, etc etc.

Micromanaging the vendor, or spending a massive amount of time holding their hand is not an option, so the vendor previously chosen is on hold.

Yes, we will have to change the numbers on the website and posters, but what is important is that the technical solution works, and works well.

Updates soon

Worldly Travels From The Hot Seat!!

I have been in Russia, and Indian with a couple of quick stops in Japan and Papua New Guinea, all without leaving my studio in Carnoustie, Scotland. The lists of singers, poets,story tellers and comedians grows longer and longer, while my knowledge of world music also increases.

I have now moved into the world of myspace, for a short break, and have posted on almost every poetry group bulletin board I can find...I will finish that off tomorrow.

I have also begun the search for singers and comedians country by country through myspace, which seems to be productive...at the beginning of last week we had 13 friends we now have 251 !! I've requested nearly 700 folk, so hopefully they'll keep rolling in as I keep getting in touch with more people.

I'll keep alternating between web trawling and myspace searching until we are confident we've searched the entire earth for willing performers. If you are a willing performer please get in touch it could save me some cyber-miles! :-)

I will also be revamping the myspace once I have all the necessary files which should give it a boost......and I also believe tomorrow is the first official day of emailing folk from our new lists.....so it really is lift off tomorrow morning with only 61 days until the performance... I can't wait!!!