{"id":641,"date":"2022-06-10T20:30:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T20:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dougturnbull.org\/?p=641"},"modified":"2022-06-13T16:34:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T16:34:27","slug":"launching-porchfest-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dougturnbull.org\/index.php\/2022\/06\/10\/launching-porchfest-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Launching Porchfest.live"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(tl;dr – Porchfest.live<\/a><\/strong> – your guide to an afternoon of local music.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Porchfest<\/a><\/strong> is a music event where local musicians volunteer to play music on their porches, front lawns, and driveways on a given afternoon. People then can meander around the neighborhood and enjoy a lazy afternoon of lovely music discovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lore says that the first Porchfest<\/a> started in Ithaca in 2007 when about 20 bands got together to play on the third Sunday afternoon in September. A dozen years later in 2019, the Ithaca Porchfest had over 180 bands playing over six one-hour sets within a one-mile radius. In addition, there are currently 168 annual Porchfest events<\/strong><\/a> in cities all around the United States, Canada, and Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our goal for the last two years has been to create a student-developed Porchfest app. Tomorrow, we will launch our first complete prototype at the 2022 Trumansburg Porchfest<\/strong><\/a> on June 11, 2022! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Long Pitch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For years, I have been pitching the idea of a Porchfest app as a project idea in my Advanced Web Programming course at Ithaca College. Over the years, a few student teams had picked up the idea and built prototypes of such an app for the course but the work had always been shelved after the semester was over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sean Blackford ’22 received a research award on behalf of the Porchfest.live<\/strong> team with Ithaca College President La Jerne Cornish and Provost Melanie Stein at the 2022 Whalen Symposium. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

However, in Fall 2019, Alex Python<\/strong> ’20 and Vera Crabtree<\/strong> ’22 started building a Porchfest app that had real potential in terms of backend functionality by the end of the semester. The following Fall, Sam Edelstein <\/strong>’22 and Aiden Glendon<\/strong> ’21 started their own version of the Porchfest app but instead focused more on user interface design. For Spring 21, I suggest that Vera, Sam, and Aiden join forces to build out their ideas into one Porchfest app as part of an Emerging Media junior project course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this past academic year, Vera and Sam wanted to continue to work on the Porchfest app for a senior capstone project. They invited Sean Blackford<\/strong> ’22 and Elias Platt<\/strong> ’22 to join the team. I was curious to see if this team of students could not only build<\/em> the app but also launch<\/em> the app at an actual Porchfest event. It might seem like a small distinction between “building an app” and “launching an app” but I have often found that this follows the 80\/20 rule: the last 20% takes 80% of the time. The team was successful a creating a functional prototype and won a research award at the 2022 Whalen Undergraduate Research Symposium<\/a> in April! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Vera, Sam, Sean and Elias graduate in mid-May a few weeks before our target launch day in early June. And while they left the app in good shape, additional on-the-ground testing revealed that there was a bit more work to be done. Luckily our new JimiLab summer crew consisting of April Trainor<\/strong> ’25, Emmett Barry<\/strong> ’23, Griffin Homan<\/strong> ’25, and D’Andre Walker ’25 <\/strong>(and assisted by Prof. John Barr<\/strong>) has had to step to finish the deal. Kate Miller<\/strong> ’24 and Jolie Elins<\/strong> ’22 have also stepped up to help with (gorgeous) branding, marketing, and user testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been a team effort involving 12 Ithaca College students and 2 professors over the past three years. I am excited about our launch tomorrow but still realize that this is really only one of many steps in our long process to one day produce a professional-grade Porchfest app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The App Concept<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One big problem with any Porchfest app is that Porchfest is all about serendipitous music discovery. The last thing we want to do is have festival-goers staring at their screens when they could be enjoying the experience of wandering around and discovering talented artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, the goal was to both make the app useful but also have it not be overly disruptive to the festival experience. The generic features currently include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n