The Network Jamming team were invited to do a presentation of jam2jam as part of the Digital Arts Playground sessions at the anual conference of the International Society for Technology in Education in Denver, Colorado. Andrew Brown did a presentation via skype at the conference on June 29 and locally the participants had a cluster of computers to jam with. The presentation was organised by Bill Bauer, and so a shout out to him for his interest and assistance.

We will have interactive demos on Tuesday 29th June 2010. Those currently scheduled are:
Tuesday 29th June, 10:00 Wacom Tablets (Stuart Kaiser)
Tuesday, 29th June 11:00, Frames (Lindie Kolk, Tech4Learning)
Tuesday, 29th June 1:00, Pixie (Lindie Kolk, Tech4Learning)
Tuesday, 29th June 2:00 HyperStudio (Roger Wagner)
Tuesday, 29th June 3:00 Jam2Jam (Skyped from Australia, Bill Bauer)
Tuesday,29th June 3:30 ArtRage (Uwe Maurer)

Free school holidays activity. Sessions for young people 4-8 years old & 9-12 years old. Book now Tues 29 &  Wed 30 June 2 sessions 11- 11-30  & 1- 1-30.

Join the jam this school Holidays @ Videotage Hong Kong

jam2jam xo breaks the 10,000 download barrier in 2 months. http://tinyurl.com/3a4j9cf Congratulations to Thorin Kerr for putting smiles on the faces of children all over the world.

Reviews: Jam2Jam does many of things that make the XO such a powerful learning device - rather than being built around students doing their own thing, its centred on group sharing. I've found that quite apart from the music side of things, its great just for teaching students co-operation and listening skills. The included sounds/samples are a bit limited and electronic, but good enough to allow the virtual 'bands' to get going.Rated 4 out of 5 stars by jnxyz on May 24, 2010

The network jamming project creates new instruments for collaborative media performance. Network Jamming allows people to play music and do video remixing together in a local setting or over the internet. The project explores ways to enhance learning and community by designing interactive creative activities based on collaborative and generative digital technologies.

Five new generative media software products have been developed using user led design principles that can increase access to real-time creative interaction for novice users such as children and people with disabilities. The project has developed a theory of meaningful engagement with music making and published 22 refereed publications. Trial sites are currently operating in the USA, UK, Hong Kong New Zealand and Europe. For further information please see: http://www.jam2jam.com/

The Network Jamming Team would like to thank ACID for its support over the past four years that has ensured the incredible success of this project. We thank the Apple University Consortium (AUC) for grant support and generous support for public trials over the past ten years. Sincere thanks to Greg Dodge and Ellaways Music and Creactives for advice and support for public trials. A huge thank you to the enthusiastic young people and innovative teachers and researchers around the world who have helped us develop jam2jam.

Download Pro Audio Asia article here: Network Jamming

Alex Ruthmann Demos Mixdex Lite on Apple iPad.

Thorin Kerr trials jam2jam for OLPC XO using Sugar on a stick which is a way of placing the sugar OS on Apple Macs and PC's in this brief demo he tests jam2jam running on an early notepad computer and runs through a number of jam2jam styles. It should be noted that network and photo/webcam functions failed to work but the solo music making activity  functioned. This is an unedited video of different styles to test the function and document the process.

Jam2jam_XO for OLPC 2031 downloads and top download for Sugar Labs for this week. Congratulations to the development team and particularly Thorin Kerr who did innovative work in making this happen.

Jam2jam_XO  has 1000 downloads in its first week, and is currently listed in the “Top Downloads” for Media Creation activities on Sugar Labs, the official OLPC software site. 

Congratulations to ACID developer Thorin Kerr who has made a version of jam2jam for OLPC that is an exciting contribution to music on the machine. OLPC Australia will be trying the new music software in classrooms with children in remote communities. Teachers and musicians will be developing Recipes for jamming and style/scenes for music learning and for use in other subjects where collaborative music making can contribute to making the learning experiences fun and engaging. See more info and download a copy for your XO by clicking this link.

Thorin has also tested jam2jam XO on Sugar on a stick using PC and Apple machines. The only downside of this format is the OS does not permit camera functions.

About Jam2Jam XO

Jam2jam software makes the OLPC XO laptop into a musical instrument. With Jam2jam XO, players can create and perform music and present images either on their own or synchronised with others, over the mesh network. In a Jam2Jam XO band each user plays a different part, either bass, drums, guitar, or keyboards.

Jam2Jam XO uses generative technologies so users can make choices about the musical activity in real time and influence changes in the music by moving a part icon up and down to alter the music in various ways. With Jam2jam XO you can be playing in a band within minutes and learn about musical concepts through playing collaboratively with others.

Algorithms are Thoughts, Chainsaws are Tools from Stephen Ramsay on Vimeo.

Andrew Sorensen's Live coding with Impromptu is critiqued by Stephen Ramsay