Why ChoralNet is better than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Date: June 7, 2011

Views: 3861

Another congressman goes up in smoke because of his (mis)use of Twitter. A girl has 15,000 "guests" show up for her 16th birthday party because she did not understand that her Facebook settings allowed anyone to view her party announcement. Are you beginning to wonder about the benefits of online networking?

I don't know about you, but I don't have much time for Facebook anymore. I find it useful for keeping in touch with family and friends, but it's not where I go for professional contacts. I have a Twitter account, but last looked at it about two years ago. I have a YouTube channel and will probably use it more this year, since my institution is getting serious about its use for university recruiting. I am in that strange borderland between generations - old enough to have been on the ground floor of personal computing, email, and internet but very happily connected to the millenial generation and completely immersed in the use of smartphones, social networking, and constant digital input. I understood what my best tenor meant when I, about to begin rehearsal, told him to put the phone away (HTC Incredible, same as me) and he replied, "But, it's Angry Birds!". If you don't know, don't ask.

Here at ChoralNet, we've been in the online networking business for eighteen years. It was in April of 1993 that I launched a little email exchange forum for choral directors. Before the world wide web, before Yahoo, before MySpace, before IFCM or ACDA or Chorus America or anyone else was online, we were there. A few of you reading this were there also and are still out there and involved. Choralist began as a free service created by choral musicians for choral musicians for the benefit of the choral profession. ChoralNet is still here - after Facebook, after Napster, after Twitter, after I-Tunes.

Why has ChoralNet endured? Because it is your safe, professional social networking site. Do we have all the bells and whistles of Facebook? Of course not. We don't have a gazillion programmers and tons of advertising dollars. But because ChoralNet is focused on a relatively small professional group, it also means that your account is unlikely to get hacked or that you will be contacted via ChoralNet by someone who is unsafe or has unscrupulous purposes. Spammers are after money and the bigger you get, the more money spammers can make.

Everyone who creates an account on ChoralNet is vetted. New users are not considered "verified" until they have had enough ChoralNet activity to have passed one of our filtering mechanisms and proven that they are a legitimate choral professional. This might be posting a message to a forum - because all forum messages are approved by one of our ChoralNet moderators, a dedicated team of unsung heros who toil in the shadows to ensure that 99% of all things posted to ChoralNet are not spam or unprofessional. Until a ChoralNet user creates a user profile, posts to a comunity forum, or something similar, they are probationary. Are we perfect. Nope. But I know when I get an email message via ChoralNet that it is from another choral professional. There is a lot to be said for that because I receive about 250 messages daily.

The American Choral Directors Association has recognized ChoralNet as the best place to create its communications network and has endorsed ChoralNet Communities as its official medium. I urge all choral professionals to join that trend by 1) using your ChoralNet profile as your professional online page or at least linking your existing webpage(s) to your ChoralNet profile; 2) strengthening your professional networking by joining your state, division, and R&S ChoralNet community.; and 3) getting involved in the improvement of our system. You have very little impact on the operation and improvement of the big social networking sites because you are one of millions of users. ChoralNet exists of and for choral musicians. If it isn't what you want or need, it can be - but you have to make your wishes known.

Frankly, I do not like inappropriate email, ads, and solicitations. Why do we get so excited about attending international, national, division, and local choral gatherings? Because we are able to focus on what's important to us as choral professionals without the superfluous getting in the way. Within two years there will no longer be separate ACDA and ChoralNet websites. You can be involved in that process. Let's make ChoralNet our professional online home and a constant, ongoing meeting place for choral musicians.

[The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20) only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.

James D. Feiszli on June 9, 2011 7:56am

I've already received a direct email response about the above from a concerned user because they are a choral singer, not a choral director. Perhaps the term choral musician would have been better used in this blog rather than choral professional because ChoralNet has always welcomed anyone involved in the art of ensemble singing. It matters not to us whether or not you make money at the job of directing a choir, market to choral organizations or singers, or are a singer in or administrator of a vocal ensemble. You are welcome on ChoralNet. We'll still maintain our standards by checking you out and not allowing things that have nothing to do with the choral art on the site. Judgment calls are made daily about subject matter (Is this announcement on music research relevant? Yes, if it can be applied to ensemble singing.). But you'll never get asked to help someone win a Farmville game or be asked to join a I like/hate _______ group via ChoralNet.

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