Music and the Internet - Food for Thought

 My last post was dedicated to the very serious issue that South Africa's artistic communities face when it comes their relationship with the Internet. I learned of an incredible news story that I feel sums up the problem quite well, click the headline below to read the full story.

Carrier pigeons are being used to transfer data between offices because bosses believe it is quicker than broadband. 

Indeed, a carrier pigeon named "Winston" was able to deliver 4GB of data faster than the Internet. And not just by a little bit. The pigeon flew 70k and yet still managed to deliver the data card strapped to his leg and have the information successfully delivered in just over 2 hours, whereas the same information sent via ADSL downloading was only at 4% complete by the time the pigeon experiment was complete. 

It should be a fundamental right for musicians to be able to refresh the "job opportunities" page on a site like MusicalChairs.info or stay current with arts journals and such without it costing a small fortune. Once musicians leave the music conservatory, access to opportunity listings is greatly diminished simply by not being in an academic environment with artistic networks. The image of the 21st century classical musician is evolving quickly and so is the way we learn about other opportunities.

Since we couldn't bring our beloved pet guinea pig Webster with us to South Africa, perhaps we should consider getting into the pigeon scene; this new pet could really come in handy.