| | Member Spotlight: Clive
Member name: Clive
Real name: Clive Ritchie
Homepage: www.planc.co.uk / www.planc.at
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Instrument: Piano, Bass
How and when did you get started with music?
My parents bought a piano when I was about 7 and I took lessons, on and off, into my teens. I wasn't motivated nor mature enough to really carry it through though - I just played by ear and didn't pay much attention to the theory my teachers were trying to get across. My last teacher accepted that things weren't going anywhere fast and just showed me how to play a few jazz tunes and, with him on bass, we'd just play for 30 mins each week which was really great.
I also got my own bass guitar a couple of years ago which I really enjoy playing, but also for personal enjoyment/relaxation rather than with any serious goals in sight.
How did you come across iBreatheMusic.com?
I had just started a job at a London based internet company in 1999 and was looking for a place to stay in the same area. I saw an ad for a room, phoned, got this friendly Austrian sounding guy (Guni) and went to check it out.
After he showed me around we got chatting. I told him I had just got a job with this company, he said 'Oh, are you the new designer guy?!'. As it turned out he worked in the internet cafe part of the same company, I was at the HQ just down the road. I moved in, we became friends and started making websites for people that came into the internet cafe under the name of 'Plan C' (Plan A and B didn't work out..).
I got involved with Guitar4u towards the end and we used to spend many after hours sessions in the internet cafe planning iBreatheMusic (and playing Quake) which took shape about 10 months after that.
What are you up to at the moment?
I work from home. I spend most of the day online with Guni working on iBreatheMusic and a few other web projects through our company.
For iBreatheMusic I'm usually busy with behind the scenes stuff like proofing new articles/the pulse before they go live, helping Guni with new features where I can, forum moderation and other more medial admin tasks. I'm also responsible for the visual aspects of the site whereas Guni comes from the code angle.
Apart from iBreathe, I'll be moving to New Zealand early next year and am currently busy with the paperwork.
Where do you think iBreatheMusic can be improved and what do you see ahead:
I think doing away with 'learn' and 'play' was a great move. The new article navigation also makes things a lot clearer. Now that these have been resolved, I think the site is generally on track.
From a design perspective I'm looking forward to branding the new forum software to the iBreathe look-and-feel and making the site look more integrated than it is now.
Looking ahead...
When we first started working on iBreatheMusic we thought the forums would just be an extension to the articles. We also thought that we were creating an 'online campus' offering accredited online courses. But a lot has changed since then, the forums have turned out to be the heart and soul of the site, which we're delighted about.
I'd like to see the site expand upon the articles + forums, incorporating useful interactive online learning tools, a more comprehensive reviews section and perhaps even online courses/tests somewhere along the line in the future.
Although iBreatheMusic has been growing steadily, we'll still need more active members before we can think about things like organising 'real life' workshops. I think our biggest challenge in the next few months will be maintaining the quality of the forums as more people take part.
This whole 'online community' thing has also really turned into something beyond what I expected. Apart from the day to day forum discussions (perfect pitch with your vacuum cleaner, russian translated pickup lines, and some other music related stuff in between) it feels like something quite powerful is brewing... the way members give such warm welcomes to new members, pull together to steer the forums out of trouble, help mould the site by actively giving input into things like article categorisation/ forum restructuring / helping to write forum rules etc. and then more recently, raising funds to help a fellow member get back online... This is the good stuff and makes me really optimistic for the months ahead.
Do you have any interests (apart from iBreathe of course!)?
Apart from Design / website building, I enjoy camping out in the country, climbing mountains, snow skiing (I'm hoping to visit Guni in Austria for some serious alpine skiing + schnapps soon), windsurfing, frisbee on the beach, beer and hanging out with friends. I'm also fascinated by anything to do with space.
I used to love my multiplayer net game sessions too, although this was a sacrifice I had to make moving back to Cape Town because even with broadband, South Africa's connection to the rest of the world leaves a lot to be desired.
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