list categories

From: Dan Gutwein (dfgutw@wm.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 18 2002 - 15:02:27 PST


Dear list,

My computer had a virus and I lost much of the recent email pertaining to
how the proposed FAQs pages might be organized. After reading Bill's last
email I've become aware that we're talking about organizing an entire
communities printable knowledge, an overwhelming task that may discourage
us from doing something that could be quite useful if limited to the most
practical matters. Let's cut down the scope of this thing - and eat the
elephant one bite at a time over the course of . . . well years. There is
really so much already out there on various sites, and I think we would be
doing a great service to beginners if we simply organized if for them. What
do you think about doing only a Beginner's FAQ with no "newly authored
contents", just (1) a centralized set of categorized links to resources
and (2) the categorical reorganization of the glossaries that are already
out there? Here is how I see the beginner's resource site (not in any order).

1. Categorized Glossary: combining material on Ronnie's site and on
Komuso.com (are there others that we could topically organize?)
2. History: "annotated links" to sites already containing historical
information (notes describe the orientation and topic)
3. Links to Manuals for self-teaching: name the manuals and provide
specific links to sites that sell them
4. Aesthetics, Philosophy, Zen: Links to on-line articles pertaining to
"Shakuhachi related" articles
5. How to practice: Links to on-line articles pertaining to playing and
practicing
6. What can teachers tell you that books cannot?.....(we need someone to
summarize the email responses to that question.)
6. Where to buy flutes: Links to on-line resources (for those not on
line, we could publish email addresses or phone numbers)
7. Players: links to the lists on sites that already contain lists of
players (for ex. komuso.com and Monty's site

I don't really know of an on-line fingering chart, and I know that it may
be problematic given the differences between teachers and the differences
in the notations styles of different schools. It seems to me that we can
make available anything on-line that anyone is willing to spend the time
authoring and producing in clear graphic formats. It would also be nice to
include link-lists for those interested in construction, but that could be
added later since it isn't a beginner's issue - or am I wrong? (beginning
construction?)

How many subscribers to the list feel that this would scratch the FAQ
itch? Or, does the majority feel that what is really wanted is a
categorized compendium of all the threads on this email list! Is this
project still too large? Are there people out there who would find this
useful or is it simply too duplicative of what is already available to
anyone who knows how to serf the web? Should I be playing shakuhachi or
making web pages?.......Don't answer that!

Dan



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