Following a new wave of wider opportunities funding to schools, I am now booked solidly for the Autumn term 2010. Spring is also filling up fast, so to ensure you get the provision you require, contact me soon to book your wider opportunities course. For full listing of all wider opportunities courses available, or for a workshop, visit the music services pages.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency, CEOP have just released a Facebook App. The app works much like their 'report' button, that can be embeded in to any website - users can report a site or activity that makes them feel uncomfortable, giving them a direct way to notify CEOP. This also represents a clear move by Facebook to support the work of CEOP, having approved the app in order for it to work within the facebook api. CEOP notified subscribers earlier today by email - as Posted by CEOP:

Every young person on Facebook needs the ClickCEOP app – this is why

If you work with teenagers, then you’ll know most of them will be using Facebook.  You might even be using it yourself...  if so, you will want to know about a new, free application in Facebook that is designed to keep young people safe while they are having fun networking online.

ClickCEOP is a new ‘app’ launched today (Monday 12 July) which links the young user directly from their Facebook profile to help, advice and reporting facilities of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre – the police agency set up to tackle child abuse.

By adding the app, young people and parents can get support from CEOP on a range of issues – viruses, hacking, dealing with bullying online and they can report someone who is acting inappropriately towards them online.

If you have a Facebook profile, app and bookmark the app.  If children in your care are on Facebook, get them to search ‘ClickCEOP’ in Facebook and give them to chance to be one click away from help – if they should ever need it.

The Local Youth Music Awards has become an interesting projct to follow - Run by Jamie Osborne, it draws together many local bands and young artists, and as well as culminating in an evening of performances and judging, incorporates a website where locals can vote on their favourite acts. This has been an exciting site to build, as from the word 'go' the visitor figures have shot through the roof, and an interesting study in the viral effect of a well maintained and targeted social network presence. The site showcases the ease with which a vote can be gathered and collated online, and can be found at www.localyouthmusicawards.com

Feedback on recent projects is a luxury that is perpetually hard to gather, as most of us are too busy to find time, too polite to be honest. You can really help me move my work forward to by taking a minute to complete an online feedback form - It can be anonymous if prefered, and will really make a difference to the quality of the provision and service I can provide, which hopefully will ensure you get a better service next time round! Find feedback survey forms here for

MUSIC PROJECTS or WEB / DESIGN PROJECTS

This year I have been involved in the Tiverton Brass Project, a collaboration between The Tiverton Learning Community, myself and Keith Price, of HornBlowers. From February I have extended my East Devon range of wider opportunities (whole class) brass instrumental teaching to include five of the Tiverton LC schools, and I look forward to seeing these, as well as some of the others perform both at the Devon Mix Festival (23rd June, Westpoint Arena, Exeter) and at The Tiverton Jazz Ambassadors event (29th June, Two Moors School).  I look forward to the posibility of returning to Sidmouth LC next year, and to starting to implement the course across the Exeter Central LC from September as well. To find out more about this, as well as help me by discussing next steps ensembles and carryon into KS3, visit the website, here.

I am very pleased to be running the junk music marquee this year at Devon's famous 'Mix Festival'. The event involves over six thousand children and young people, from all across the count, and with 90 places per 50 minute workshop, I look forward to working with approx 500-600 children that day! Good luck to the schools I currently work in who are performing brass as well, from the Exmouth, Exeter Central and Tiverton Learning Communities! You can make links to collaborate with any of the participatory schools, from my website.

I am very pleased to add mini-pans to the range of wider opportunities and workshop instruments which I offer. Mini-pans are an excellent choice for whole class instrumental teaching, as across KS1-2 they allow a class to fully explore the structures and textures of musical pieces, whilst also learning to play collaboratively, as soloists and to play melody, accompaniment, chords and rhythm on one easy to store instrument. I am delighted that so many of the schools I have re-booked for next academic year are considering mini-pans for their wider opps provision. Thanks to an excellent accompanying pack from DMS, the DCC mini-pans sets are very accessible, now you just need to book them...

Read the scheme description and details on the Mini-pans page.

Following a recent funding donation through Devon Music Services, I have been involved in a website design and build in order to draw together music making groups, services and individuals in the East-Devon area.

The site currently collates a directory of local musicians, teachers, venues and services, as well as a growing calendar of events and a news blog. It is free and open to all to join, and I look forward to it's formal launch in August.

To register free, or see what it can offer you, visit www.exmouthmusicnetwork.com In addition to making a useful resource, it also highlights an interesting model for other areas to consider.

I recently read an excellent article on running your own web server that I am sure is worth sharing. Most of the web development I do for client these days is based around open source CMS tools, such as wordpress, joomla, mediawiki, etc. All of these of course require a web server to run your MySQL and PHP to provide a hospitable environment for a CMS to exist. This can be tricky, as to build your site you would often need to have hosting in place to work 'live', and then only work when connected to the internet.

Running your own web server from your PC, or in the case fo this article, a USB key is great solution. It also means sandbox testing, etc can be done anywhere, any time. One great facility for this is XAMPP, which as a web server comes in two flavours - regular or light: Regular with everything ever, light with just MySQL and PHP - arguably enough for most CMS work. From this you can install a range of CMS solutions to work with and prepare if necessary, as well as other development work that would require a database facility and approach. Oh, and it's free.

This has worked great for me in the past, and I am sure, having now found an excellent explanation of how to do this, in the form of a 'How To Gook' article, this may be of use to you. I hope so - here it is.

Turn a Flash Drive Into a Portable Web Server

(Full Article on How To Geek)

I am now taking school bookings for Autumn term 2010. For a complete listing of all services, workshops and courses, 'Wider Opportunities' based or otherwise please visit the MUSIC SERVICES section of the site. Remember I am fully CRB checked, and able to work with KS 1-3. Should you have in mind a project that is not detailed among those listed, please make contact to discuss your needs.

I will be running the Junk music workshops at the Devon Schools Mix this year. To book places for the mix, use the online booking form, or find out more details, here.

Junk Instrument Workshop (Introductory) - 'Junk music allows players to engage in music making at any level, with vibrant and powerful percussive sounds, made with 100% recycled materials. Play, scrape, strike and shake it, to the creative, team-building and motivating funky beats of our barrels, tins, coat racks, gas tubes, shopping trolleys and a host of other original instruments.'
90 workshop participants

Workshops available are:

Zone - Junk Music

I am very pleased to release that from January 2010 all wbm projects, including websites, media and marketing and other services can be monitored, controlled and collaborated trough the 'Basecamp' project management service.

'Basecamp' offers an excellent  service to teams of any size, and allows for easy-peasy monitoring of work done, collaboration and editing of text and plans, as well as messaging, to-do lists and other excellent collaborative facilities.

wbm are now on 'Basecamp', and I am proud to offer this service free of charge as part of any project for which I am commisioned.

Dormant Stories is a project of my own, born from my love of writing, but frustration at never having time to persue one idea to fruition.This website is a catalogued collection of writing ideas, story starters, advice and banks for writing at KS 2-3, and teachers looking for ideas for their pupils.

The site uses a range of blogging tools, as well as news feeds, RSS, newsletter subscription and tags, categories and search facility to help the reader locate ther desired writing stimulus.

http://www.dormantstories.com

Ad-ology published Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010. This report identifies benefits of engagement in social media. Here are some of their statistical findings.

Keeping up with the industry

Very Beneficial: 16%
Somewhat: 29%
Not Beneficial: 55%

Monitoring what is being said about your business

Very Beneficial: 16%
Somewhat: 28%
Not Beneficial: 55%

Generating leads

Very Beneficial: 16%
Somewhat: 34%
Not Beneficial: 50%

Competitive intelligence

Very Beneficial: 14%
Somewhat: 29%
Not Beneficial: 57%

Improving customer experience

Very Beneficial: 12%
Somewhat: 29%
Not Beneficial: 59%

Resolving problems

Very Beneficial: 11%
Somewhat: 22%
Not Beneficial: 67%

Finding vendors/suppliers/partners

Very Beneficial: 10%
Somewhat: 28%
Not Beneficial: 62%

Recruiting for new employees

Very Beneficial: 8%
Somewhat: 19%
Not Beneficial: 73%

Background checks – employees, suppliers, etc.

Very Beneficial: 7%
Somewhat: 20%
Not Beneficial: 72%

Also, take a look at the comparative influence of each social network.

Facebook

Very Beneficial: 10%
Somewhat: 23%
Not Beneficial: 14%
Do not use: 53%

LinkedIn

Very Beneficial: 6%
Somewhat: 15%
Not Beneficial: 13%
Do not use: 67%

MySpace

Very Beneficial: 6%
Somewhat: 11%
Not Beneficial: 15%
Do not use: 68%

Twitter

Very Beneficial: 6%
Somewhat: 13%
Not Beneficial: 12%
Do not use: 69%

YouTube

Very Beneficial: 5%
Somewhat: 10%
Not Beneficial: 12%
Do not use: 73%