wikiGong countdown

…in which we breathe deeply in rapt anticipation.

Eight months in the making…or is it twenty years? wikiGong is about to launch….

Back in the Eighties I was a member of one or more of the disintegrating-reintegrating electronic/rock/blues bands — it really was hard to tell how many — that percolated on one particular Midwest college campus and talking about how to engage members who had somehow migrated too far away to jam together. There were bulletin boards — CompuServe most memorably — but no “Internet” in the public eye, and certainly no land-line speed above 1200 baud. MIDI was young. Long-distance was not free unless you had a phreaker in the band, and T1 lines beyond reach of mere mortals. But we were thinking there had to be a way to jam long-distance.

Years and many intervening experiences later, I’ve decided there’s now no excuse not to do this. As was true twenty years ago, I have technical interests but too few skills to make swift progress. But the performance opportunity beckons, and why not? I will put it out there, warts and all. Get booed off the stage, perhaps, but build chops that way. The idea is that if the idea is interesting enough, some will take pity on this poor soul and lend a hand, or advice, and it will fly.

It’ll be no worse than some of my performances, if I’m any judge. And the audience probably won’t be any smaller. And I’m nervous as a cat. It’s my first web site. I’ve been out of the scene for twenty years. But I’ve got this idea, and the technology’s evolving fast, Moore’s law fast or faster. I’m getting tired of breathing the dust. So I’ll ask you all to be just a little patient at first as I try to figure this all out.

Had I been a little quicker off the blocks this could have coincided with the lunar landing anniversary, but that’s past and here’s to the present.

Ten…nine…eight…