Hi Jonathan,
This is the thread I suggested: Wouldn't it be wonderful (see DanceTalk - Ballroomdancers - archive? (July 2000))

The purpose of this topic is to pack comments of this nature into one thread.
My reason: I surf as little as possible, therefore I might oversee some comment which might have saved me from making some foolish comment.

1) You're Planning
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Suggestion: Let one of those Video Viewers companies work with you. You sell their program on a CD and the rest of the CD is filled with your video material. Have them produce the CD (they can do it for sure with less work and lower costs than you could). Then you sell this CD, with a license pricing deal with you, this could cause the price to be so reasonable, that it could sell well and lower the chance of others pirating your material. As you are most likely in the States, you might want to have an European office. As always, times change quickly, so plan well. The launching timing and business partners are important, so be careful. Windows 2000 might be an issue as to launching time.
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Suggestion: Make a DanceTalk thread just stating what's new. That way you spend less time editing the pages. You write often there anyway, a logical spot to put a quick and dirty announcement that something is new...
Hammer me if I'm out of line...
Steve

This is not a reply, but I want to open a simular thread within this thread.

I want to save time running after information about dancing. Like most of us, I have deadlines. This means I can't go to those early evening classes without losing time by going there and then come back before going home.

One solution was to create a dance lesson evening for our company staff. It starts at 8pm and goes 90 minutes. We provide the dance floor and a dance teacher comes to us and gives us a weekly lesson. This means I learn what the others want to learn and our base is so small that we have very good dancers and very much beginners. I'm in the middle.
I'm looking for more ways to get to my goal.
I will carry on in the next reply.
How do the other members solve this problem?
I'm all ears.
Steve

Back again and carrying on:
I like the Ballroomdancers.com site and look on occassions in on it to learn more. As a beginner, I'm lacking knowledge of not only steps, but figures and getting the feeling for the music. I want to interpret the music in my dance language, but still have problems with keeping the rhythm. I miss the count and suddenly find myself doing the cha-cha during a jive or salsa dance. Or all of a sudden I'm doing double time or worse 3/8 time. This is quite frustrating for my wife and when I get that look in her face, I check what am I doing and get back into the right step. I've gotten better and I video myself to look at what I'm doing. Recently, I've been surfing to find tips as to avoid doing wrong movements. The best tip I have found is something I already know: I need to practice more. I don't get that much practise that I feel that I'm improving that fast, but my fellow workers think, I practise enough and suggest that I should sleep more.
So what's the point?
I would like to get a compact resource of dance details which I can pick at when I need it. Only recently did I go back to something I read last January. I didn't understand it at the moment I first read it, but now I am ready to understand what was meant.
Won't it be wonderful, if there was a thread to walk us beginners with our wide span of interests though all this professional advise we get on the web, without losing so much time looking that we hardly have time to practise what we have found.
Suggestion: What about a special Message Icon (see above) convention which states: This is a dance tip?
I'm all ears,
Steve

I believe what Steve is asking here can be accomplished this way: let me suggest to Jonathan that using all the material in this forum and this web site to write a book. Jonathan is a good writer and has a great knowledge of dancing and has a loyal crowd. Find a professional editor and publisher to do the bulk of the work - same concept as Steve's suggestion of making a commercial CD. I am sure I'll be among many beginners of this forum to order it.

Dave

[This message has been edited by Dave L. (edited 09-04-2000).]

Jonathan,

If you do find a way to make a CD of your dance clips, I'd be very interested to know what sort of source code was used and if it is available, and from where, or what company could do it. My partner and I are recording all our miscellaneous video clips onto his computer and will be burning them on a CD, but it would be infinitely more helpful to have it set up as a searchable database. I just haven't a clue how to go about finding a program that would allow us to have the equivalent of a video library. We're planning to code our files so we can search through it manually. We think that will still be easier than trying to copy them onto another videotape and still have to forward and rewind (not to mention only one person at a time can see the tape in our videocamera).

Thanks,

Belle

Belle,

Right now we just use html pages to link to the video clips. On our CD's, we supply Internet Explorer, Quicktime Player, and RealVideo Player so that the user has all of the necessary tools for viewing.

When we do start shipping with a self-sufficient .exe file, it will be one that we have custom built. That probably won't happenfor a while, since our first investment will be in the pay-per-view script, and the second will be the automated classifieds and directory listings.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson www.ballroomdancers.com