Web 3.0 and Social Dance: West Coast Swing

West Coast Swing is one of the most fun social dances. It is highly improvisational, not choreographed at all, and the blues style music is always lovely! Many of the principles we discussed in the series Web 3.0 and the Argentine tango would apply to other social dances, including the WCS.

Web 3.0 and the Argentine Tango: Community, Personalization, Vertical Search

Social dance is a natural for building wonderful, sticky, rewarding communities around. What are missing from the tango community are well-thought-through mechanisms to naturally facilitate the community’s interaction needs. Some very old-fashioned forums still work amazingly well. Tango-L is a mailing list that numerous aficionados have been using for at least 15 years to discuss topics of interest. It is a dated technology, but it works because of the lack of any other, better option. >>>

Banani Dey Music Festival: Aji Je Rajani Jaye (Rabindrasangeet)

Banani Dey Music Festival: Amar Milan Lagi Tumi (Rabindrasangeet)

Web 3.0 and the Argentine Tango: Commerce

There is a plethora of obvious merchandise to sell to tango aficionados, and commerce is thus a very attractive category. From music to dance shoes to clothing to DVDs, the options are abundant. And, of course, we’ve been talking about travel experiences all along as possible commercial touch points. Other, less obvious commercial opportunities that have not yet been as well explored on the Web are ways to market private lessons, group classes, restaurant live shows, weddings, corporate events, and so on – methods through which professional dancers monetize their craft. >>>

Banani Dey Music Festival: Tomra Ja Balo Tai Balo (Rabindrasangeet)

Web 3.0 and the Argentine Tango: Content

Content, of course, because the tango is a dance form, is abundant on the Web. Just look at YouTube and you will find many video clips. There are lots of blogs written by aficionados from various parts of the world, but my general observation is that tango content on the Web is terribly disorganized, with opportunities for user experiences that are orders of magnitude better. >>>

Web 3.0 and the Argentine Tango: Context

As we design the portal, one of the first things we need to determine is what brings users to the site. In other words, what is the Context? This is an interesting question because tango aficionados come to the Web for multiple reasons. The first and most basic context is to look for places to dance tomorrow, this weekend, and so on. Most tango communities in the world maintain web sites where they publish the schedules of when and where various milongas are held. In addition, local usage contexts also include looking for teachers and practicas. [Example: TangoMango] >>>