Ok so it took me a LONNGGGG time to figure out what my final wikipedia article would be on. Originally I signed up to edit Facebook, Bondi Beach, Tap dance and the Red Sox and then I started to realize that I knew very little if anything about any one of those topics, except tap dancing. Therefore, I changed all of my article topics to edit but the one on tap dance. My final line-up of articles is Medfield, MA, tap dance, Sunsilk, and finally Dunkin Donuts. Once again I hope this is alright. I have been thinking and thinking of a final topic to edit and then finally today I decided on the Dunkin' Donuts chain as I passed by their store today on Main Street. The Wiki article on the store is detailed, but it is lacking some criticial information and som eof the information that it does have is very out of date. This being said, it seems like the perfect article to edit.
The first thing I did was I noticed that the headquarter information only stated the town and state and no tthe rest of the address which was listed on their website. therefore, I went ahead and added the street name and number and then then phone number of the headquarters as well. As you can see from the history, it took me quite a few trys to get the ifnromation alligned properly!!
The next thing I did was I updated the number of Dunkin' Donuts stores there are and changed the sentence to read, "serving 2.7 million customers per day at over 7,000 stores globally which includes approximately 5,300 Dunkin' Donuts locations in 34 states". I also took out the link proceeding this sentence because it directed the reader to a website with franchise information that does not coincide with the actual Dunkin' Donuts website, which I believe is the most reliable source of information on the topic.
The final edit I made this time around was I updated the sales revenue figure listed to the right. THe number is from way back in 2004 and there is no doubt that this figure has changed since then. I found a more current figure on the Dunkin' Donuts website and substituted it in on the wiki article. Current sales (as of August 2006) are up to around $4.7 billion world-wide... Wow!
And also, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Using shopping Bots
In class a few weeks ago, Professor Brown began talking about the issue of price and how it relates to internet technology. One of the main qualities he mentioned was the conecpt of price transparency, which is the use of search and shopping bots to compare prices on the internet. This feature of the internet came in very handy for me just this past weekened...
I went home this past weekend to Massachusetts for the first time since Christmas break and because it had been so long, I had not seen my parents for my birthday. While home I got to pick out my birthday gift, which was a new digital camera. Unfortunately for me, I know very little about cameras and what I want from them and there are hundreds to choose from. I was overwhelmed. Luckily, we had just recently discuessed this topic in class.
Knowing that there was such a thing as a price comparison bot on the internet, I got online and began searching. I came across the website www.bizrate.com where they specialize in comparing prices and other features of numerous different products, including digital cameras (they even have their own specific website for the digital camera comparissions). Although my dad helped me pick out the best qualities to look for in a camera on the website, it still helped to narrow down my choices. The website made it possible for me to sort cameras by price, resolution, brand name, type of camera, and many other features.
At the end of the search session I came up with one camera that both me and my parents liked, which was the Cannon Powershot SD800 IS and I love it. The bottom line is that I went on to this website with no idea as to what camera I was looking for and by the time I got off-line I not only had an idea, I knew the exact camera I wanted and the best locations to buy it (which is another feature of the website). There is no doubt that going to this website assisted me in my camera purchasing process. Plus, using the bizrate website probably saved my hours and hours of going to various stores and looking through the cameras they have, and to top it off the service was free!
In class we also discuessed how many websites are blocking these search bots from crawling their website, which to me makes absolutly no sense. While I was on the bizrate page I was looking for a camera, but I was also looking at who had the best prices. If a retailers page is blocked then their price will not be listed and then people will not buy from them. To me it just makes sense to let all search engines crawl your webpage to help get your name out there. There could have been a website out there that was selling my camera for less than I found but chose not to participate in bizrates search results and because of this, they lost my business. In general, I feel that these search bots are extremely helpful through their easy of usem, the large ammounts of information they contain, and their time saving qualities. For a website to not participate is just stupid, just as it is stupid for someone to not use one when making their next big purchase.
stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
I went home this past weekend to Massachusetts for the first time since Christmas break and because it had been so long, I had not seen my parents for my birthday. While home I got to pick out my birthday gift, which was a new digital camera. Unfortunately for me, I know very little about cameras and what I want from them and there are hundreds to choose from. I was overwhelmed. Luckily, we had just recently discuessed this topic in class.
Knowing that there was such a thing as a price comparison bot on the internet, I got online and began searching. I came across the website www.bizrate.com where they specialize in comparing prices and other features of numerous different products, including digital cameras (they even have their own specific website for the digital camera comparissions). Although my dad helped me pick out the best qualities to look for in a camera on the website, it still helped to narrow down my choices. The website made it possible for me to sort cameras by price, resolution, brand name, type of camera, and many other features.
At the end of the search session I came up with one camera that both me and my parents liked, which was the Cannon Powershot SD800 IS and I love it. The bottom line is that I went on to this website with no idea as to what camera I was looking for and by the time I got off-line I not only had an idea, I knew the exact camera I wanted and the best locations to buy it (which is another feature of the website). There is no doubt that going to this website assisted me in my camera purchasing process. Plus, using the bizrate website probably saved my hours and hours of going to various stores and looking through the cameras they have, and to top it off the service was free!
In class we also discuessed how many websites are blocking these search bots from crawling their website, which to me makes absolutly no sense. While I was on the bizrate page I was looking for a camera, but I was also looking at who had the best prices. If a retailers page is blocked then their price will not be listed and then people will not buy from them. To me it just makes sense to let all search engines crawl your webpage to help get your name out there. There could have been a website out there that was selling my camera for less than I found but chose not to participate in bizrates search results and because of this, they lost my business. In general, I feel that these search bots are extremely helpful through their easy of usem, the large ammounts of information they contain, and their time saving qualities. For a website to not participate is just stupid, just as it is stupid for someone to not use one when making their next big purchase.
stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Second Sunsilk Edit
Going along with my original plan, this second edit was supposed to be about Sunsilk's old marketing strategy or campaign, which it is. To do this, I decided to continue on from where I left off, pushing the original content further down the page. I feel that this is alright to do since the information that was originally ther is pretty bad and not very informative at all... I created a new sub section of the article titled "old campaign" where I discussed the image of the brand, where their marketing focus has been in the past, and the reasons for why the brand felt they needed a marketing campaign makeover. Here is what I wrote:
"In previous years, Sunsilk has focused much of their marketing attention on gaining international presence. To do this, they targeted different market segments or coutries with specialized products designed to address hair "issues" of each culture. Because of their high interest abroad, Sunsilk's United States advertising declined dramatically. Becasue of this, many years went by that contained little to no advertising of Sunsilk products, which caused them to be viewed as an band targeted towards older women. Of course this was not Sunsilk's intention; however, it was inevitable. Becasue of the brand loyalty from an older audience towards Sunsilk products combined with almost a generation of non-use Sunsilk found it very difficult to gain market share and attract a younger audience.
A new campaign needed to be launched to gain popularity amongst the younger public (see below). To do this, a younger product also needed to be developed. Sunsilk decided that in addition to segmenting the market country to country, they should also segment by hair type in each market. This showed the company's drive to be a competitive brand in an era where customization is key. Their new products focused on hair color, texture, feeling, dryness, etc. After creating the product Sunsilk was able to create their new marketing campaign and strategy, Get Hairapy, to help them make a bold entrance into the 20-year old and up market."
I realize that this is very long, but I had a lot to say. Once again, for this post I really had to do very little research as I had already done it for my presentation in a different class. Although this was a considerably long post, my last one for Sunsilk will probably the longest, most in-depth addition to the article simply because I have the most information on their new and current campaign.
It was interesting to see that since my last post over a week ago not one single person has added or changed anything else on the article. I guess this goes to show that not too many people really care about the product or brand. Even so, I suppose that popularity is not the point of this assignement. Rather, I am adding this information to make the article more meaniful and useful to others in the future.
And of course, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
"In previous years, Sunsilk has focused much of their marketing attention on gaining international presence. To do this, they targeted different market segments or coutries with specialized products designed to address hair "issues" of each culture. Because of their high interest abroad, Sunsilk's United States advertising declined dramatically. Becasue of this, many years went by that contained little to no advertising of Sunsilk products, which caused them to be viewed as an band targeted towards older women. Of course this was not Sunsilk's intention; however, it was inevitable. Becasue of the brand loyalty from an older audience towards Sunsilk products combined with almost a generation of non-use Sunsilk found it very difficult to gain market share and attract a younger audience.
A new campaign needed to be launched to gain popularity amongst the younger public (see below). To do this, a younger product also needed to be developed. Sunsilk decided that in addition to segmenting the market country to country, they should also segment by hair type in each market. This showed the company's drive to be a competitive brand in an era where customization is key. Their new products focused on hair color, texture, feeling, dryness, etc. After creating the product Sunsilk was able to create their new marketing campaign and strategy, Get Hairapy, to help them make a bold entrance into the 20-year old and up market."
I realize that this is very long, but I had a lot to say. Once again, for this post I really had to do very little research as I had already done it for my presentation in a different class. Although this was a considerably long post, my last one for Sunsilk will probably the longest, most in-depth addition to the article simply because I have the most information on their new and current campaign.
It was interesting to see that since my last post over a week ago not one single person has added or changed anything else on the article. I guess this goes to show that not too many people really care about the product or brand. Even so, I suppose that popularity is not the point of this assignement. Rather, I am adding this information to make the article more meaniful and useful to others in the future.
And of course, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Friday, April 20, 2007
Last tap dance edit, wooo
Ok, so while I was searching the internet for information to add to the tap dance wikipedia article I came across a website where the information on it looked extremely familiar... Then when I went onto the wiki article I realized that it was word for word the same! Here I was thinking that someone did such a thorough job adding information to the article when all they really did was copy and past someone else's work. Not only this, but they did not cite the webpage that they got the information from anywhere on the wiki page. That's just not fair to the person who wrote everything in the first place. So, my edits this time around consisted of me adding two external links to the article, one of them to the National Tap Ensemble, because that is a very informative website with a lot of information about tap dance, and the other link is to the webpage that the entire wiki article is copied from. I figured it would only be fair to give the original writer some credit. I realized that anyone can add anything they want to an article, that is what makes it a "wiki". However, there is still the issue of plagarism, which can be very serious and in this situation since it is literally word for word I really felt it was necessary to cite where the information came from.
In addition to the two external link I also looked up the definition of tap dance in the Encyclopedia Britannica and added that to the introductory section of the article. I did this because I felt that it would be important to have a general definition of the term rather than only having ones made up my random individuals that could potentially be very biased. What I added was this: "The Encyclopedia Britannica definition for tap dance is: A style of American theatrical dance using precise rhythmical patterns of foot movement and audible foot tapping. It is derived from the traditional clog dance of northern England, the jigs and reels of Ireland and Scotland, and the rhythmic foot stamping of African dances. Popular in 19th-century minstrel shows, versions such as "buck-and-wing" (danced vigorously in wooden-soled shoes) and "soft-shoe" (danced smoothly in soft-soled shoes) developed as separate techniques; by 1925 they had merged, and metal taps were attached to shoe heels and toes to produce a more pronounced sound. The dance was also popular in variety shows and early musicals." Nothing major, just a very informative little addition to the article.
After this post I am now officially done with wiki edits on tap dancing. Horray. Even though I love the topic, it does become difficult to come up with new information to add after a while. I still have two more other article to add my two cents to so look for that in the near future!
Hey, did you hear about stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
In addition to the two external link I also looked up the definition of tap dance in the Encyclopedia Britannica and added that to the introductory section of the article. I did this because I felt that it would be important to have a general definition of the term rather than only having ones made up my random individuals that could potentially be very biased. What I added was this: "The Encyclopedia Britannica definition for tap dance is: A style of American theatrical dance using precise rhythmical patterns of foot movement and audible foot tapping. It is derived from the traditional clog dance of northern England, the jigs and reels of Ireland and Scotland, and the rhythmic foot stamping of African dances. Popular in 19th-century minstrel shows, versions such as "buck-and-wing" (danced vigorously in wooden-soled shoes) and "soft-shoe" (danced smoothly in soft-soled shoes) developed as separate techniques; by 1925 they had merged, and metal taps were attached to shoe heels and toes to produce a more pronounced sound. The dance was also popular in variety shows and early musicals." Nothing major, just a very informative little addition to the article.
After this post I am now officially done with wiki edits on tap dancing. Horray. Even though I love the topic, it does become difficult to come up with new information to add after a while. I still have two more other article to add my two cents to so look for that in the near future!
Hey, did you hear about stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Monday, April 16, 2007
Sunsilk Wiki Edit
Ok, so instead of editing one of my original wikipedia article choices, I decided to switch over to the article about Sunsilk haircare prodcuts (I hope this is ok!). The reason why I chose this topic was becasue I had to give a speech on Sunsilk in one of my other marketing classes: BUAD471 Advertising Management. Although the purpose of the presentation was to discuss the marketing strategies of your choice product, mine of course being Sunsilk, and to go into depth on the formation of, the values, and the vision of the company and how their advertisements relate. I realize that wikipedia is not always the best source of information for research because anyone can add any information they want, like this class for example. However, for many students, myself included, wikipedia provides a great starting point for more research and can provide great background information on whatever you are searching. Therefor, I can say that when it came time to put my presentation together the first place I looked was wikipedia, and to my surprise, the article was completely lacking. Overall, the article had roungly three sentences and none of them were very good.
My plan for this article is to first add some background information about the sunsilk company and products, then to discuss their previous campaigns run in the past and then to go into depth on their new and current campaigns designed to revamp the company image. Therefor, following this rough outline, my first Sunsilk Wikipedia edit was focused on providing a little background information. Although my contribution is small, it already more than doubled the size of the article! Here is waht I added:
"It was launched in 1954 in the United Kingdom and by 1959 it was available in 18 different countries world-wide. Currently, Sunsilk products are being marketed in over 50 countries throughout Asia, Latin America, The Middle East and North Africa. The Sunsilk brand is intended to demonstrate a perceptive and sympathetic understanding of women, communicate the idea of capturing the “emotional drama” in a girl’s life, and to provide a source of expert beauty care for women."
In addition to this I also added a link to their new webpage for their new campaigns in case someone is to come to the article in search of more information.
The choice to edit this article was an easy one as I already have a collection of information and research done on the topic neatly organized in a powerpoint file on my computer. Over the course of editing this article I will slowly add the information I have that I feel is important for readers coming to the Sunsilk wikipedia article. Even if my edits are not the best they are certainly a hell of a lot better than what was there to start with!
Oh, and I forgot to mention stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
My plan for this article is to first add some background information about the sunsilk company and products, then to discuss their previous campaigns run in the past and then to go into depth on their new and current campaigns designed to revamp the company image. Therefor, following this rough outline, my first Sunsilk Wikipedia edit was focused on providing a little background information. Although my contribution is small, it already more than doubled the size of the article! Here is waht I added:
"It was launched in 1954 in the United Kingdom and by 1959 it was available in 18 different countries world-wide. Currently, Sunsilk products are being marketed in over 50 countries throughout Asia, Latin America, The Middle East and North Africa. The Sunsilk brand is intended to demonstrate a perceptive and sympathetic understanding of women, communicate the idea of capturing the “emotional drama” in a girl’s life, and to provide a source of expert beauty care for women."
In addition to this I also added a link to their new webpage for their new campaigns in case someone is to come to the article in search of more information.
The choice to edit this article was an easy one as I already have a collection of information and research done on the topic neatly organized in a powerpoint file on my computer. Over the course of editing this article I will slowly add the information I have that I feel is important for readers coming to the Sunsilk wikipedia article. Even if my edits are not the best they are certainly a hell of a lot better than what was there to start with!
Oh, and I forgot to mention stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Friday, April 13, 2007
Google Launches Voice-Based Local Search Experiment
Based on the ClickZ article "Google Launches Voice-Based Local Search Experimets" posted on April 10, 2007 Google has recently launched a new service called Google Voice Local Search that allows its users to call up a 1-800 number sponsored by Google to get information about business listings. Although this is only an experiment as of right now the program proves to have great potential in the market. The phone number, 1-800-GOOG-411, will be accessible to anyone, although right now it is only in its experimental phase and may not work, and the caller can say either the business name or category to locate its information. Unfortunately, this program is not yet available to access information for local/residential listings but perhaps in the future this feature will be incorporated into the program.
Reviewers of this service are assuming that by providing the voice search service Google is showing interest in investing in voice interface systems to be used with mobile phones. Essentially, they are creating their own version of a 4-1-1. This is huge for Google.
There is no denying that the Google corporation already has a positive connotation to its name by their users and the general public. Anything Google touches seems to turn to gold (except for a few lawsuits), why should this new program be any different? I have heard many people, myself included, state how much they dislike the way 4-1-1 has turned out. Calling the number to gain information is a genius idea, however, often times getting the information you want can become close to impossible. Usually, when I want to find a phone number or directions to a business or residential location I type the name into Google. Then, Google does its magic and pops out an address, phone number and even the possibility of getting directions all with one click, it just makes sense to add the phone dimension to their program. I am sure that I am not the only person who uses Google’s services as location search and I am also sure that I am not the only person who has been satisfied with my results. This satisfaction only makes me assume that if I were to call and use Google’s phone directory service I would also be presented with an equally satisfied outcome of locating/attaining company information.
Overall, I feel that this is a very smart decision for Google to make. With their past history of success and their widespread fan base their 4-1-1 Google Voice Local Search tool should be a huge success. Hopefully their introductory version makes it big so that they can expand to cover residential locations as well. And if their success is so huge, who’s to say that they can’t take over as the number one phone directory service?
Google's explaination of this new service can be found here.
stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Reviewers of this service are assuming that by providing the voice search service Google is showing interest in investing in voice interface systems to be used with mobile phones. Essentially, they are creating their own version of a 4-1-1. This is huge for Google.
There is no denying that the Google corporation already has a positive connotation to its name by their users and the general public. Anything Google touches seems to turn to gold (except for a few lawsuits), why should this new program be any different? I have heard many people, myself included, state how much they dislike the way 4-1-1 has turned out. Calling the number to gain information is a genius idea, however, often times getting the information you want can become close to impossible. Usually, when I want to find a phone number or directions to a business or residential location I type the name into Google. Then, Google does its magic and pops out an address, phone number and even the possibility of getting directions all with one click, it just makes sense to add the phone dimension to their program. I am sure that I am not the only person who uses Google’s services as location search and I am also sure that I am not the only person who has been satisfied with my results. This satisfaction only makes me assume that if I were to call and use Google’s phone directory service I would also be presented with an equally satisfied outcome of locating/attaining company information.
Overall, I feel that this is a very smart decision for Google to make. With their past history of success and their widespread fan base their 4-1-1 Google Voice Local Search tool should be a huge success. Hopefully their introductory version makes it big so that they can expand to cover residential locations as well. And if their success is so huge, who’s to say that they can’t take over as the number one phone directory service?
Google's explaination of this new service can be found here.
stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Second tap dancing wiki edit
After waiting about a week to do my second edit on the wiki article about tap dance I realized that there had been many changes already made, mostly by one person. I supposed that after seeing my contribution this person felt it was necessary to add as much information as possible as well to make this article as great as it can be. Now that the history and characteristics of tap dance have been bulked up it was harder to find things to add, but luckily I did come up with something. The first edit that I did was in the first section of the aricle where I stated that if someone reading the aricle wanted more information there was a webpage they could access. the sentence I wrote is, "For more information visit the International Tap Association webpage" followed by a link to their webpage. I felt that although this website was listed in the reference section of the article, it may be important to list up front so that someone in a hurry for more information would not have to search through the entire article to find it.
The second edit that I did this time around is in the characterisitics of tap dance secion at the very bottom where it lists some common tap steps. Although the person who added these in did a good job of listing some of the most well known steps, they definitely left out some big ones. Therefore, I felt it was necessary to elaborate on their sentence by adding "cincinnati, the shim sham shimmy, and the paddle and roll" which are also some of the most famous dance steps and combinations known to almost all tappers. The very last edit that I did here was in the history section where the "most prominent tap dancers" are listed. Overall this list was very thorough but I felt that Shirley Temple was an important tap figure that needed to be added, so I did. I also made her name link to the Wikipedia article specifically about her.
What the other editor did to this page was excellent and I am glad that someone else took the time to contribute to this page other than myself. With the combination of our edits (even though mine are small) this wiki article will be great in no time. Also, it probably looks like I went in and deleted other people's edits and then just took them as my own, but what really happened was that I made all the edits without signing in! I know, you warned us about this!!! So what I did was I just deleted all of my edits, signed it and then re-edited the page. I hope this is ok!
Also, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
The second edit that I did this time around is in the characterisitics of tap dance secion at the very bottom where it lists some common tap steps. Although the person who added these in did a good job of listing some of the most well known steps, they definitely left out some big ones. Therefore, I felt it was necessary to elaborate on their sentence by adding "cincinnati, the shim sham shimmy, and the paddle and roll" which are also some of the most famous dance steps and combinations known to almost all tappers. The very last edit that I did here was in the history section where the "most prominent tap dancers" are listed. Overall this list was very thorough but I felt that Shirley Temple was an important tap figure that needed to be added, so I did. I also made her name link to the Wikipedia article specifically about her.
What the other editor did to this page was excellent and I am glad that someone else took the time to contribute to this page other than myself. With the combination of our edits (even though mine are small) this wiki article will be great in no time. Also, it probably looks like I went in and deleted other people's edits and then just took them as my own, but what really happened was that I made all the edits without signing in! I know, you warned us about this!!! So what I did was I just deleted all of my edits, signed it and then re-edited the page. I hope this is ok!
Also, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Sunday, April 8, 2007
final Medfield edit, finally!
Since I messed up earlier on the wiki edits, this is technically my fourth edit to the Medfield, MA article and I must admit that although I live in Medfield I have completely run out of information to ad. However, I did think of one thing to ad even though it is very minimal. In the education section all of the schools in the town are listed and which grades they provide education for. What it does not include is the location or address of any of these schools. I realize that if someone wanted this information all they would have to do is go to medfield.net to find it, but putting all the information in one centralized location makes accessing this info much easier. Also, at first I was not sure if was safe to put the school addresses on wikipedia, but then I just figured that the information was already on the internet and that adding it to the article would not hurt anyone. So yea, although this was my smallest addition to a wiki article yet, it still makes the article more informative, which is the overall goal of wikipedia. I have now finally completed all the edits necessary for one article, only three more to go!
also, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
also, stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
stiuqxela
As part of our class requirements, all students were asked to blog a certain keyword with a link to a totally unrelated website. This semester, the key word is stiuqxela and we are linking the word to www.packers.com, the official site of the Green Bay Packers football team. The goal of this experiment is to have the packers come up as a search result when stiuqxela is searched in google, yahoo and live. Also, on top of the packers web page coming up, each of our blogs should be a search result connected with stiuqxela, a made up word! There will be a prize for the student whose blog comes up as the highest ranked search result... let the competition begin! Also, stiuqxela.
stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela stiuqxela
Monday, April 2, 2007
Tap Dance Wiki Edit
First off, I want to say that I am sorry that I am two days off from writing a post every week. This was not done intentionally. What happened was that I was forced to go on spring break in Florida and party a lot. Therefore, I did not have access to a computer all week and so I could not blog, even though I truly wanted to... I hop the once a week rule can be bent a little just for spring break.
Anyways, moving on. Instead of doing my last Medfield Wiki edit I decided to move on to the tap dancing article. I chose this article because tap dancing is a big part of my life, or at least it was until I came to college. Instead of participating in sports each season in middle and high school, I spent my after-school time in the dance studio practicing for various shows and competitions my team was competing in. This love for dancing started when I was 3 and my mother enrolled me in my first dance class to give herself some free time away from me. As the years went on I realized that this was something I loved, tap especially. By the time I was in middle school I was participating in tap competitions around the country, and I was pretty good too. One time my team got first place in an a capella tap competition where we had to rely on eachother for rhythm. I practiced every day after school just as any athlete would. Once I got to the University of Delaware I tried to keep up with training but unfortunately the stress of college got to me. I take the occasional class here at UD when I have time, and I have taught a few classes as well. Dancing was much too big a part of my life to give it up all together, but I'll have to wait until after school to take it up again.
So that's my history with tap dancing. Although I am no expert on the topic I do feel as though I know enough about it to contribute to the wikipedia article about tap. In my first edit I added a few sentences right to the beginning about National Tap Dance Day. I remember celebrating this day each year as a child with my tap company down the streets of Lexington, MA. The information I added is, "National Tap Dance Day is celebrated on May 25th of each year and was officially signed into law by President George Bush on November 7, 1989. The day of May 25th was chosen because it is the birthday of the famous tapper, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson."
I honestly do not know how people enthusiastic enough about tap dancing to write a wikipedia article about it would not know about National Tap Dance Day. Therefore, I felt as though it was completely necessary for me to add it into the article, even though I only touch on the topic. Perhaps I will dive deeper into the history behind the day in a later post...
Anyways, moving on. Instead of doing my last Medfield Wiki edit I decided to move on to the tap dancing article. I chose this article because tap dancing is a big part of my life, or at least it was until I came to college. Instead of participating in sports each season in middle and high school, I spent my after-school time in the dance studio practicing for various shows and competitions my team was competing in. This love for dancing started when I was 3 and my mother enrolled me in my first dance class to give herself some free time away from me. As the years went on I realized that this was something I loved, tap especially. By the time I was in middle school I was participating in tap competitions around the country, and I was pretty good too. One time my team got first place in an a capella tap competition where we had to rely on eachother for rhythm. I practiced every day after school just as any athlete would. Once I got to the University of Delaware I tried to keep up with training but unfortunately the stress of college got to me. I take the occasional class here at UD when I have time, and I have taught a few classes as well. Dancing was much too big a part of my life to give it up all together, but I'll have to wait until after school to take it up again.
So that's my history with tap dancing. Although I am no expert on the topic I do feel as though I know enough about it to contribute to the wikipedia article about tap. In my first edit I added a few sentences right to the beginning about National Tap Dance Day. I remember celebrating this day each year as a child with my tap company down the streets of Lexington, MA. The information I added is, "National Tap Dance Day is celebrated on May 25th of each year and was officially signed into law by President George Bush on November 7, 1989. The day of May 25th was chosen because it is the birthday of the famous tapper, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson."
I honestly do not know how people enthusiastic enough about tap dancing to write a wikipedia article about it would not know about National Tap Dance Day. Therefore, I felt as though it was completely necessary for me to add it into the article, even though I only touch on the topic. Perhaps I will dive deeper into the history behind the day in a later post...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
