We have now completed our first phase of beta testing. The focus of this phase was to test the structural integrity of the site, and elicit our first round of feedback.

It is nice to know that our integrity is intact! (No small accomplishment - at least in some fields.)

On the home page, under “This Week in Content,” you will find festivals with our comprehensive information. These are examples of where the site is headed. In addition to basic festival information, we provide stories about the festivals, links to articles and reviews, and other resources to enhance the understanding and enjoyment of events at the festival. As in all areas of the site, this is not static but will continue to expand and transform with input from our community: festivals, artists, and site users.

The home page is currently designed to best facilitate indexing by search engines. Once this process is complete you will see a slightly different layout of the home page.

Also on the home page, soon there will be a little “help guide” for using the global map. (If you haven’t yet played with the map, stop here and go to it.)

We have only just begun (yes, I know the song) but already users have come from Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, France, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Thailand, and United States.

The next phase of beta testing is about a broader range of user experience on the site. Through the community forum, comments@kadmusarts.com, and our individual emails, we welcome your ideas and participation in the conversation about the site’s development — and possibilities.

- Bill Reichblum

The last week has been similar to opening the rehearsal hall to an invite-only group of friends and colleagues to see parts of a production-in-process. The difference is that once the doors are open here, they do not close.

The site is now up and ready for anyone to “drop in” and to let us know what they think. New features and approaches will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

The “rehearsals” have gone well enough that - to keep the metaphor going - I am looking forward to the time when we move into the theatre. This means having access to all the possibilities - and space - of the site.

In the meantime, we have been talking about how well the tools on the site are working. Our main focus has been to ensure that the site is easy to read, and easy to navigate.

The site has not yet been fully indexed by the major search engines. However, our home page is starting to appear as a destination, so we know the full indexing is in process.

For searching within the site, Ruben has installed mnoGoSearch. [Mnogo means “many” in Russian.] This means that now you can search for a specific festival, country, time, or any combination.

Next part of the production-in-process: festival information that has been contextualized with background stories, articles and links to our affiliates.

We had a number of meetings this week to get face-face feedback on the site. Some of the comments will, I am sure, be echoed in the forum. One comment that won’t be in the forum: “Dad, this is cool.”

- Bill Reichblum

KadmusArts is beta-testing this website: a gateway to performing arts festivals. This week, we are inviting users to give the site a structural test drive. This is the first phase of our beta testing.

For this phase, we have invited technologist colleagues to hit the site from all directions. If you have found this site on your own, please do help us by doing the same and letting us know how it is working for you.

Participation is a key to our approach. We want each user to be a stakeholder of the site. As you will see, there are numerous opportunities for site users to provide content, context, programs, ideas, and participate in conversations with festival artists, producers, audiences, and cultural tourists.

To begin the beta test, please go to our home page for more information. Then let us know about your experience by providing your comments here, or in conversation with others on our KadmusArts Forum. You will also find the links to each KadmusArts team member’s email address in the About section.

During the beta testing we will be adding more festival content. This approach was an issue in our internal discussions and those conducted with fellow internet start-up travelers. We could wait to launch until we have a perfect set of information on every country and every festival. However, the site’s content is not static. The site is designed to be participatory - to expand with the needs and interests of our users. The process parallels the creation of art: you strive for perfection knowing that it cannot be attained. Art works when it resonates with an audience and the audience joins the process of discovery. We feel the best way to participate in our community of festivals and cultural tourists is to build the site with our users.

We have created a structure that can expand as the information and exchanges grow. This week’s focus is on how well the structure is working.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for joining KadmusArts as we begin this journey to the performing arts festivals around the world.

- Bill Reichblum