"Realizing" Our Idea

Here is a summary of what we discussed in the meeting with Adam today:

The main concern in this meeting was that it would be difficult creating something tangible from our original idea, to create a practice space available which would cultivate a community of musicians. Like we said before, starting a coffee shop is a huge undertaking in itself, and finding the space, sound proof material, pianos, security, etc. with limited funds is much bigger than a 6 week project.

The first question Adam asked is whether an organization like this already exists (we weren't sure...). This is something we definitely need to look into.

Adam also stressed that when "realizing" this project, we should be thinking that we take this idea and create something that has some kind of value for society. That is, create something in the world that didn't exist before us.

We mentioned the ideas we had in creating a website that would show a mock set up of practice rooms and space, the marketing idea we discussed last meeting (photographs of "homeless" or "soon-to-be-homeless" musicians with a blurb about this problem), and bounced a new idea off of him. Before the meeting we briefly discussed keeping the focus on the community of musicians and perhaps create a network or kind of consulting group that would help musicians find practice space in different areas.

Aubree brought up the idea of "couch surfing" (http://www.couchsurfing.org) and thought maybe we could come up with something similar - practice room surfing, homeless musician surfing - creating a network that could help you find a place where you could practice. We would still have the long term goal in mind, but work small scale until then.

Some of the issues with this idea are 1) building a website (who could do it, payment, etc.) 2) the security issues behind it. How could we insure that the information of those using the site would be protected? 3) Who would maintain this site after the course is over?

The last thing we discussed was in regard to the security issue of this site. To scale this idea down even more, perhaps it might help to test out this idea with Lawrence students, faculty, and alumni. Adam basically said that people are more willing to help and trusting if they know that its within the security of the Lawrence community.

Did I forget anything? Please comment if I did, or if I misinterpreted something...

Either way, we should meet about this and fast!

...Sammi