You can see some pictures from the event and a link to the video that we premiered below…

CHECK OUT OUR CELEBRATION FILM!

For more information visit the official Explore Media website and Twitter.

We’re going to be doing a second screening of the film (hopefully, we’ll get through the whole thing) in the coming weeks, so we’ll be doing full coverage of that when it happens.

All the best,

Dom and the Explore Media team.

Here are a few of our favourite photos, but you can find some more here. 

Colm opening equipment before the workshops started

Nick worked on the vision mixer for every live broadcast

Filming the Knit and Natter group - see the video below

People working as part of the TV broadcasting workshop

Colm on camera while I talk blogging in the background

A very special effort from this young lad working out the vision mixer in Tang Hall

Mike with the Accessible Arts and Media team

We’re going to be showing a film celebrating the conclusion of the Explore Media project, On Thursday, April 22, we will be serving drinks and there will be a short film screening at 5.50 pm, showing some of the highlights of the project. The event will last around an hour. 

There will the opportunity to meet some of the mentors from the workshops  including myself, Colm, Emma, Becky, Dave, Liam, Nick, Mike, John and Kirsty as well as some of our managers at the council, Dave, Helen and Tricia who are all lovely and have helped us throughout the project. 

Unfortunately, the event is invite only, but you are more than welcome to request a ticket by contacting us – however, please be aware it is on a first come first served basis.

Below you can see some of the fantastic work our film-makers, volunteers and workshop participants shot while we were working on the project: 

We think you will agree that this selection of videos provides a very positive take on everything that we did as a group from late last year when we started, through the workshops and before we finished it off earlier this month – it’s been fantastic and we really hope that when the new central Explore library opens in York next month (May 24, to be exact), we will have more opportunities to provide these great workshops and taster sessions to York’s thriving media community. 

Just incase you wanted to know some of the facts behind the project, 120 people came to the workshops (including TV broadcasting, film-editing, blogging, social networking and more), and the figures that came out from our research post-project far exceeded our original expectations and goals for the project. You can see above within the sample interviews and footage that the people who got involved really shared something with the mentors that were on hand, and because of this they were able to greatly advance their skills, indulge their interests and expand on their personal experiences. 

It was particularly positive for us because we got to work with so many fantastic people from a variety of backgrounds and with many different skill-sets. The majority of sign-ups for the workshops were in their 50s closely followed by people aged between 30 and 40. This surprised us a lot but made us realise just how much value this project could have to people already in business and not just people starting out or looking to learn new skills when they leave education. 

Other useful figures include the ratio of people who took part who were employed to those unemployed. It’s interesting to observe that the majority of people (39 per cent) were already employed in comparison to the 30 per cent of people who were unemployed and 24 per cent of those were retired. This again illustrates that the people coming in to the Explore Media workshops were not only looking to gain skills that would help them get work, but also that job-holders were engaging with the project to advance their personal and professional profile.   

In terms of location, while most of the participants came from our home area of Acomb and also the Fulford and Osbaldwick areas,  people came from all around the city to participate in the workshops – it was very humbling and we even managed to squeeze a few more people in to the workshops when they were browsing in the libraries and took an interest in our work. 

We are very proud of all we have achieved and we hope that those who came to take part in the workshops enjoyed them just as much as we enjoyed delivering them. 

Thanks, 

Kind regards and best wishes, 

Dom Smith and the Explore Media team. 

See you in May at the new Explore central library!  

That’s all for now then, we will keep you posted on more information as we get it. Explore‘s mentors will be working with KhaoZ Media so feel free to keep in touch with them via their official website.

Inspired by possibly one of the most inspiring tracks from the last decade (Flobots – ‘Handlebars‘) our blog is brought to you by a team in very good spirits.

We have been discussing the future and evolution of KhaoZ Media and what will be happening with its members who are also part of the Explore Media project. Explore recently finished (there are sad faces all around here!) and now the group is waiting to move into the central library with all of our fantastic equipment and share and support the community.

Incase anyone needs the difference between KhaoZ and Explore clarifying – KhaoZ is a group of people interested in the media, it’s produced by volunteers for volunteers. Explore on the other hand, sees KhaoZ Media mentors working as volunteers to teach the community classes in websites, film-editing, blogging, broadcasting and more.

With regard to the future of KhaoZ, now that the mentors have finished their work in the community (for now!) it’s full speed ahead for KhaoZ Media and we have a number of different projects in the works for the coming months – one is coming up very soon with KhaoZ volunteers Emma and Liam heading off to Germany today (April 11, 2010) to take part in an international media conference.

In our meeting this past Thursday, to discuss the work Explore mentors had done on the project and how we can move it forward in the future.  

We came up with the following positives:

- We received a great reaction from the community

- We established that members of the community want more workshops from Explore Media

- We have people who are now interested in volunteering with KhaoZ Media

- We found out that mentors can interact well with members of the community of a wide age-range.

- We have a legacy because many people have now set-up websites and blogs following the workshops.

- We have constantly updated our members with blogs and photos via the Ning.

We came up with the following negatives

- We need more time to prepare in future

- We need a clearer set of rules

- We need to have more time than the established one hour 45 minutes to deal with more topics during lesson time.

Following this discussion we are now looking for people that would like to be case studies so that we can get more comments on ways to improve the Explore workshops in the future – we want you! Get in touch at: contact@khaozmedia.org.uk and let us know more about what you thought, and what you’d like to see!

Keep in touch with us via Twitter and Facebook.

Dom Smith and the Explore Media team.

However, I was unable to join the other K-Krew on the night, as I was taking part in an open evening showcasing the potential – and the fun – of using a studio radio kit.

Myself, along with colleagues Kirsty-Lou Watson and Dave Johnson, were on hand to help nine eager participants get to grips with writing and recording their own broadcast.  We did this by splitting the assembled group into pairs – Dave keenly teamed up with one of the MsOTP – and with the help of newspapers and laptops, encouraged them to put together a short script based on a news story, a round-up of sport news and a weather forecast.  One of each pair pre-recorded this part of the task before the other person tried their hand at operating the studio desk “live”.

We weren’t exactly transmitting on the actual airwaves, but that didn’t seem to shatter the confidence of those who spoke their parts and cued tracks on the computer’s Audio Wall with precision and clarity.  I hope those who came along to the workshop who expressed a keen desire to get a taste of radio broadcasting were fulfilled; the atmosphere before, during and after the evening’s task certainly suggested a relaxed, informal and pleasurable vibe – even if we stumbled on past half past eight, 45 minutes over our schedule, so everyone could get their turn!

The evening brought the end to my experience in co-hosting this series of Explore Media workshops, and if there’s one thing I’ve discovered these past few months, it’s the insatiable interest out there in learning and acquiring media production skills.  While some workshops attracted larger gatherings than others, each one saw a spread of ages and backgrounds from those involved.  The Explore sessions have not just been about me sharing my practical skills with other people – but they have been about trying new approaches with new equipment, working with similar-minded people on subjects we share a common interest in, and, most of all, a means to me to learn and understand the current and potential use of community media to examine, represent and display what happens at grass-roots level; you could say a proper exchange of creativity.

I sincerely hope when the new Explore York Central opens in the immediate future I get the opportunity to take part in workshops like these again, either as an active participant or an enthused mentor – and from conversations I’ve had with other participants in the Explore Media workshops, I am not the only one with that aspiration.

Colm

P.S. I apologise for not being able to bring you any photographs from the Explore Radio Broadcasting session – perhaps the best way to find out what they’re like is to book your place on the next one – details shall, of course, be published on this very site when they are arranged and confirmed!

We spent a full day at Acomb Explore, preparing to shoot an “as live” broadcast with a dedicated team of adults with learning difficulties. It was an amazing opportunity for us to grow and develop our skills and work with some very talented people who have a real passion for media. On that note,  we haven’t really had the chance to work with another group who have similar interests and goals so far as Explore Media – in that respect, it was a very positive move for us.

There were a number of great highlights throughout the day, not least the viewing of the Accessible Arts and Media film about Brunswick Organic Nurseries in York – this documentary provided us with an informative glimpse into a great organisation – you can check out that video here.

Another great moment was seeing members of the group conduct and be interviewed talking about their work on the aforementioned Brunswick film and then following that, the best things about being a part of Accessible Arts and Media while others operated the cameras and vision mixer.

You can listen to an audio interview conducted by Mike Leigh Cooper with Accessible Arts members Colin and Phil by scrolling down the NING page to music and clicking on the first interview.

Because of our great relationship with the members, we will most certainly be working with the AAM group more in the future – their passion and dedication is nothing short of inspirational.

For more information on Accessible Arts and Media visit their official website.

Dom Smith and the Explore Media team.

This is our last roadshow, sadly, but you can still come and see our specific worshops on blogging, social networking and TV/Radio Broadcasting.

For the listings of what we’re doing and where we are doing it, check the official NING website.

We’ve dealt with a variety of people from different ages, professions and backgrounds today – we’ve got our funky film studio set up and we’re filming our live broadcast, along with a vision mixer and one or two computers for blogging and website tutorials. It’s a pretty compact space but it’s good to work with. A highlight for me personally has been presenting a chat with Helen Whitehead and Tricia Raxworthy about reading groups in York – it was lovely.

As always, you can follow and find us on Twitter and Facebook or come and see us at one of our awesome roadshows.

All the best and keep in touch.

Dom Smith and Explore Media

Earlier, we completed our live broadcast, and it went down very well – we’ve had some great people get involved today, a former BBC broadcast editor (Edward Croot) joined us to talk about his films and experiences within the media. Our interview with Mr Croot will be up soon on the KhaoZ Media YouTube. As stated, we also had some other professionals and young people of all ages come with an interest and the aim to expand on their media skills. Emma Hart, KhaoZ Media‘s video and editing volunteer said: “I really liked working on vision mixing and I had a go at that today – it was great fun and I really want to get more involved in that – it was a definite highlight for me personally.”

People definitely benefited from today, I think that quite a few came with goals and definitely took something away and learned new skills.”

We’ve had some very positive feedback with many praising the group’s personal nature and one-on-one approach.  On that note, we have secured bookings for a number of the workshops coming up in the next few weeks. Maureen Dow who represents Friends of York Theatre Royal will be back for the Explore Websites workshop on March 3. You can see her below getting involved with Explore Media – she’s set up a Twitter for her group.

There will be more updates like this every week and videos from today’s event online soon. We would like to thank everyone for getting involved and coming to see us.

We’ll see you next week. Keep checking back via our Twitter and NING for more.

Dom and the Explore Media team

So, in the first of many check out my interview with Darren Taylor of Rock Sound (in association with SPHEREmag.co.uk)…

Rock Sound is one of the UK’s leading alternative music publications catering for a variety of genres including rock, metal, electronica and indie music. Darren Taylor joined the publication in 1999 as deputy editor and co-founded the UK-version of the magazine with publisher Patrick Napier and within a year became the editor. Over the last decade, the magazine has gone from strength-to-strength thanks to a core team of creative individuals with a passion for all things that rock. Recently, for the first of many “industry-related” articles to come on SPHERE, we had the chance to speak with Darren and get his thoughts on the music industry, journalism and getting noticed…

“The music industry is a beast“

DS] Darren, can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in the industry and what the process was like for you starting out?

DT] I can’t remember the exact year but when I started out in the music industry I lived up in Stoke-On-Trent and I applied for a job with a company who had a division that put together compilation CDs and so that was my first job in music. I applied for that, got the job and worked there for about a year before they closed down the department. Fortunately, they had a position open in London so I took it because I wanted to get out of Stoke, they gave me a week and I just moved. I then started working for this company in London. I went on to work for a number of different record companies and I think my last job before this was working with Cooking Vinyl. Then, through a contact at the Italian Rock Sound [the publication was originally French-owned and they had publications in Italy, Spain and France] my name was put forward to help launch the magazine in the UK. I met up with the publisher Patrick [Napier] and we spoke with the French guys who talked to us about what they wanted to do and achieve. It really was like being thrown in at the deep end because I’d never worked on a magazine before. I got a guy called William Luff involved, he became the editor and to start with I was the ‘second in command’ and it was literally a case of us saying, ‘Right, we’ve got to do this magazine‘ and, we did.

DS] What would be your advice to another journalist, or someone who wants to get into the industry on the best ways to go about getting involved in music?

DT] I think that studying a journalism degree certainly helps and gives you a good grounding. I never actually did that and I do know several other people who didn’t go down that route and I think at the end of the day, if you are a good writer that will come across to the editor or whoever it is that you are sending your work to. It’s also about having interesting and unique questions when you are speaking with bands to get the best out of them and not asking the same standard questions about their new album that 20 other people will ask – it’s about putting a bit of thought and research into it and coming out with a really good piece of copy about the artist because some of them can be a bit dull. You need to make sure that you can get the best interview out of them.

DS] Flipping the coin a little now, what about for bands – what’s the best way for them to get exposure in your experience?

DT] With Rock Sound, we get sent so much material by bands every month – from those that are signed to major labels, bands that are signed to independent labels and bands that just submit it themselves – we always try to listen to as much as we possibly can. When we come across something that we like, we will feature the band. We’ve always championed ‘the underground’ and independent sounds so if we do find a band, and they’re unsigned, I love the fact that we can give them some exposure, whether that be an interview in the magazine, a demo review or even putting them on the Rock Sound CD.

DS] Rock’s musical landscape is always changing and so you’re never short of bands to cover. So, what’s the biggest challenge that faces you as the editor of Rock Sound now?

DT] I think the biggest challenge right now with the emergence of the internet, is trying to expand the brand into different media. It is a magazine first, but really now we focus on Rock Sound as a brand and we reach people through various different channels, so whether that’s through the website, the magazine or through our Facebook and Twitter, there’s various different ways that people can consume the brand and find out about new music. I think that is the biggest challenge really for everybody in publishing – how do you maintain the brand? What works best online, what is best for the magazine and how do you break it up?

DS] You’ve managed to create some Rock Sound sponsored tours and make the crossover into live events – how much do you enjoy that side of things?

DT] We’ve sponsored a lot of tours and there’s no financial gain in doing that for us. From my point of view, with the tours that we put our name to – these are just bands that we are trying to help out and bands that I think deserve to be heard. As a music fan myself, I just want people to go and see these acts. There’s nothing worse than when you promote a tour and ten people show up because you want 5,000 people there to see the bands because they are incredible. But, these things take time and on a band’s second or third tour more people will start showing up but if we keep hammering on about them, eventually someone might listen. There are lots of bands that we’ve championed in the past that nobody else has like Aereogramme and Isis, but we’ve stuck to our guns and we will continue to.

Eventually, I’d like to be involved in bigger tours and maybe even do a Rock Sound arena tour and maybe in the future that’s something we can achieve. We’ve certainly done some bigger tours in the past with bands like The Bronx, Fu**ed Up and Rolo Tomassi but of course, I want to make it bigger and I am always working towards that by expanding the name of the magazine – I still think there are a lot of people who don’t know Rock Sound yet and haven’t come across it, so that’s always a challenge as well.

DS] Obviously our remit is specific to northern bands and creative people – many bands come to us and say there is no hope for any success unless they move their whole operation down south – what are your thoughts on this?

DT] I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think, if a band is good then word will always get around. People will travel outside of London to see bands and we certainly review bands from all around the country. If they’re good at what they do, and they keep plugging away and writing songs then people will find out about them. It might be instantaneous or it might take ten years. I mean, bands like Enter Shikari were plugging away for years on the underground scene by playing and touring constantly – eventually people started picking up on them because they had a massive work ethic and were playing everywhere doing 200 gigs a year. Eventually a label got wind of them and now, their first record has sold over 100,000 copies. It can happen. Unfortunately, not every band is going to make it, because there are so many bands out there but you really should stick at it, if you believe in what you are doing then just keep going.

DS] In your career so far, how has your attitude toward the media industry changed?

DT] It’s hard because the music industry is quite a beast – it has its upsides and its downsides. There is a lot of red tape that we have to deal with sometimes just to get a band featured, or to get a band on the CD if people are willing to let us. The whole red tape side of things I really could be doing without. I love finding a band, being able to write about them and putting them on our CD just so people can hear them. When it comes to the bigger bands, you really have to jump through more hoops to try and get stuff for your magazine or your website – that side of it really does my head in.

DS] How do you think the internet has improved exposure for bands?

DT] The internet has certainly been an invaluable tool for bands to help themselves. Ten years ago, there wasn’t a MySpace or anything like that. Now, bands can do a lot more to promote their sound and actually release their own records which they couldn’t do ten-years-ago. In this day and age, you can start letting fans know what you are doing and you’ve got that direct interaction which really is the best thing in the world. When you play a show, you can get a mailing list together and build up your fanbase and then from there you can begin pressing your own records or even digitally distributing them yourself, directly to the fans and cutting out the middleman. I think that’s one massive change which has happened since I have been working with Rock Sound – now you don’t have to have a record deal, because once you get to a certain level record companies will spot the fact that you’re selling 2,000 records yourself and they’ll want to take you on. For a record company, it’s a risk and a gamble because they’ve got to invest time and money and they want to sell some records. Unfortunately, record sales are not the greatest in the world right now because a lot of people are downloading music illegally which doesn’t really help the band, though it is a catch-22 situation because if you go to a show and buy a t-shirt which you can’t download, then the band will get the money from that. The problem is, there’s not going to be that much more investment in bands because people aren’t buying the records that labels are putting out.

DS] You seem to have a strong  bond with the other Rock Sound staff – is that something you have found wherever you have been in your career?

DT] Over the years at Rock Sound the team has changed – people have come and gone. It’s a small team, there’s five of us in the office and we don’t always agree on the music we like, or they don’t always agree with the music that I like, which obviously means that they are wrong [laughs]. It’s good to have that interaction as a small team – you can brainstorm ideas and throw concepts around for interviews and photoshoots so, it’s a great way of working. I think that if we were in an office with a hundred people then that would be completely different.

DS] Can you tell us about your first interview and how you have progressed since then?

DT] Well, because of my record company background, one of my main roles when I joined the magazine was actually putting together the CD that came with it every month. When I started doing that, after about two days I realised that there would be a lot more to do. My very first interview, if I remember rightly was with a band called Dark Star – it was a phone interview with the singer, and I remember being so nervous, but I got through it. I wrote the article and I was really pleased with it, and so was the editor at the time. From there it was just like, ‘This is how it’s going to be‘. I taught myself how to interview and write by reading a lot of articles and interviews so that I knew how to conform to a magazine’s style.

DS] What has been your defining moment as the editor of Rock Sound?

DT] There are a lot of things that I look back on that I am really very happy about and proud of. Back in the early days Rock Sound championed the Hydra Head label back in the early days, and Isis were a part of that. To see them playing the UK for the first time in London when they played the Mean Fiddler venue and pretty much nearly sold it out – it was a Rock Sound tour and we had a massive logo up above the stage. I was just stood there with all of these people around me who had come to see this band that really, only we had been writing about – I was just thinking, ‘This is awesome‘. There are some other bands that we’ve got over as well, we did a tour with 5ive [from Boston, not the boyband], and a band called Knut from Switzerland, both had never been over before – we set up a tour for them with a few independent promoters and we became really involved in it, just so that we could make it happen for them. It’s like I said, there is no financial gain in it for us, and we just wanted people to see these bands.

We got another band over called Circle Takes The Square who are from Savannah in Georgia. Again, that was me just asking them if they wanted to come over and a friend of mine called Shaun (who is now in Lovvers and was in The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg) helped book a tour for them and drove them around while they played some shows together. At the time, Circle Takes The Square meant nothing to a lot of people and when they played a show in Nottingham and their PA broke there was 200 kids in attendance singing all of the words to their songs – it’s little things like that, and seeing bands like Aereogramme for the first time in London in front of five people and then just speaking with them, being able to write about them and from then on being able to give them our Album Of The Month. There are loads of little things I look back on with fond memories. That still happens now where I can just go to a gig randomly and be blown away by a band and then just think, ‘Wow, I am in a position where I can do something about this‘.

DS] What is the song or album that inspires you the most when you are sad?

DT] There’s a song by this band called Milligram and it’s called ‘Let’s Pretend We Don’t Know Each Other‘ – it’s about two-and-a-half minutes long and it is awesome. They’ve broken up now but they were an incredible band – I can put that song on a lot and it just fires me up.

DS] What about when you are angry?

DT] If I am angry, I probably wouldn’t put any music on! [laughs] I think that if I had to pick though it would be the album ‘Remission‘ by Mastadon.

DS] And, when you are happy?

DT] For that, I’ll go with This Will Destroy You and their album, ‘Young Mountain‘ – it’s sombre and mellow in places but it really is a great record and it cheers me up.

DS] Do you have an album that soundtracks your life?

DT] That’s probably ‘Oceanic‘ by Isis because that’s a record I can still go back to and get as much enjoyment out of it as I did when I first heard it – it covers all bases.

DS] Another random question now – in an ideal world if you could set an interview for a Rock Sound feature anywhere, and take three people to this setting to interview – who would you pick and where would you go?

DT] I would set it in Hawaii because I’d like to go there as it would be somewhere sunny for a change! Who would I pick? Damien from Fu**ed Up, because I’d love to see him in his surfer shorts, maybe Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Hayley Williams from Paramore.

DS] For the people who want to get into writing who may be reading, what’s your key to success?

DT] It’s about passion and just knowing your subject. At the end of the day, passion will always come through in someone’s writing. Also, being able to string a sentence together and get your message across in a succinct way, depending on the word count. You really do need that passion and enthusiasm though, I mean we get a lot of people wanting to write for Rock Sound and unfortunately we can’t take everyone on. There’s only a certain amount of pages and bands that we can get into each issue – it’s tough because there’s a lot of people out there who really want to write, but if you want to do it then set up your own blog, or there are various other zines you can write for just get experience – just keep doing it, keep plugging away. Also, by all means, read other people’s work but try and find your own style.

For more information visit the magazine’s official website

I hope that was a worthy read – any comments feel free.

Best wishes,

Dom Smith

The first Explore Media roadshow took place this past Saturday, hosted by members of KhaoZ Media and various volunteers from the Acomb Explore Centre was absolutely fantastic. The response was particularly overwhelming in the film and television studio library room 1) where we had plenty of public interest.

Explore Media conducts an interview

Nick (vision mixing), John (camera operator), and various other volunteers worked closely with members of the public (and the centre’s charming ‘Knit and Natter‘ club club) to film a live broadcast made up of interviews about the community of York and the great opportunities on offer for people who want to get involved within media.

Nick on the vision mixer

In the ‘editing suite’ (library room 2), Mike and Emma were in charge of editing the footage together using our new equipment, and there was an opportunity for members of the public to come in and take part. Two new members of the group were particularly keen, Anthony and Helen, we salute you.

Anthony gets into editing with Helen and Emma

In the ‘online media hub’ (library room 3) myself (blogging and social networking) and Liam (webmaster) worked hard on ironing out any NING-related issues before offering tutorials to a couple who wanted support with music software on their computer, similarly, we were able to support a lady who wanted to learn about the pros and cons of using Facebook for personal contact and social networking.

Me talking about iTunes

It certainly was an eventful day for the group and we are now looking forward to the other taster workshops and roadshows we are operating in the coming weeks.

You can find our schedule on our website, and don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter. We very much look forward to working with, and getting to know you.

John shows some eager lads how to use the vision mixer

On a final note, I think that the event was a credit to a really great team at the Acomb centre and we must thank them for their support and hospitality.

Cheers! Until next time…

Dom and the team at Explore Media

Work That’s Been Done

- John Phillips has been made the Explore Media workshop coordinator

- Created a decent breakdown of who is doing what at the workshops and roadshows (with Helen Whitehead)

- Got final confirmation on flyer and poster designs

- Distributed Twitter and NING login details

- Press release and promo material distributed

- Give new volunteers Peter and Emma video training

- Group members have each prepared workshop and taster session material (blogging, podcasting, social networking, photo-editing, broadcasting, etc)

- Installed programs (Final Cut Pro, etc) on new computers

- Uploaded photos of #thefluff to Twitter and Facebook

- Compiled footage for showreel

- Completed the final… final NING background design

- Researched into other young social media groups – http://bit.ly/7Weo8N

—

Work That Needs To Be Done

- Need to know who to register the software we have to?

- Need to know how Dave Fleming would like to see the PBworks arranged and organised

- Need to do a dry run for the workshops

- Need to clarify “fair usage” terms for the computers

- Need to complete a map for the roadshow in illustrator

- Complete showreel

- Complete 90-second rundown

- Contact Kersten England

- Add FAQ’s to the NING

- Have a final sign-off for all of the content in preparation for the roadshow (January 30th, Acomb Explore)

Summary:

As stated, it’s been a positive week for the most part and the group are now well-placed to move forward and pass on their skills to the community during the workshops and roadshows.

There are no major issues to discuss at this time.

For more on the project, and constant updates visit:

website (NING), Facebook and Twitter.