As director of products & content at D.C.-based Qloud — the solution for accessing music inside social networks –  Craig Smith (aka craigertiger) thinks a lot about how music and social connectivity fit together. He’s also lead guitarist for the indie rock band, Once Okay Twice so sometimes he just thinks about music. He’ll be joining us in Miami to think further about his own dream: filling in the gaps of public-school music education with engaging online music education.

Open social network platforms are my favorite digital communication tools. They facilitate friend communication, event planning, news diffusion, media discovery, and self expression (just to name a few). They also create a democratic environment where people can interact with third-party vendors, services and media outlets to determine the value of the latest life-hacking applications and decide what tools they really need in a digitally saturated world. 

My goal for the future is to create an online music school that will help offset the recent cutbacks in public-school music education programs. From the recent success of the console-based games Rock Band and Guitar Hero, we know people are interested in not only the performance but also the technical aspect of digital music. Can we extend this de facto digital teaching to include ear-training, sight-reading, theory, improvisation, collaboration, and history, not to mention improve on the minimal technical development that the console games provide? With custom curricula and the ability to provide “one-on-one” instruction and feedback, the possibilities in this field look very promising. Digital communication technology can provide new alternatives to the traditional under-funded and underestimated part of a child’s motor and neurological development.

I will attend We Media 08 with an open mind to learn how to make my goal possible. I also look forward to giving insight from my professional experience in building applications for open social platforms.