With both pride and trepidation, Orchestras Canada is introducing a new website today.

I am proud, because I
• love the clean new look, which complements the new logo developed for Orchestras Canada by designer Blair Francey of bfdesign.com;
• am excited about our ability to update the site regularly, all by ourselves – and what this means for our ability to keep both the content and the look current and interesting;
• believe that we responded to the observations of site users by completely re-organizing the presentation of information resources on our site. I think that our users will now be able to find what they’re looking for without spending several hours searching (or calling me to ask – piteously – just where we’ve hidden whatever it was – not that I ever mind talking to any of you…);
• like the integration with social media such as Twitter (follow us @OrchCanada), Facebook (are you a fan yet? 508 other people are), and YouTube (not yet functional, but soon…);
• am looking forward to enriching the site over time with yet more content and user-friendly features. As the web evolves, so will our site – and the pace of change is stimulating!

At the same time, I’m nervous. It’s a big job, we’re a small organization, and there are bound to be a few glitches we didn’t catch in the development process. Naturally, this worries me: I’m a perpetually disappointed perfectionist and a bit of a control freak (possibly a legacy of my time as a not-very-good clarinet player). The idea of releasing something into the world that retains some element of experimentation is scary. But there is nothing on our new site that cannot be changed, updated, evolved, adapted or improved: and I hardly need to remind myself that it doesn’t get much better than that.

Former OC employee Stéphanie Lavoie deserves major credit for the ideas, energy, enthusiasm and vision that brought this website to life. Stéphanie’s stay at OC was short, but she saw very quickly the role that the web and social media could and should play in extending our work and our vision, and she has dedicated a significant amount of time to bringing this site about. Thank you! I’d also like to thank Kari Hueber (our Humber College arts management intern from January to April 2009) who did a lot of the initial spade-work on member surveying and resource-organizing, and Alix Haywood (our Summer Experience Program worker), who has worked tirelessly on sourcing, sorting, organizing and posting resources and links on the site.

I invite you to check out our site and to let us know what you think. Thank you!