(Introductory Post) I got those "Low tech profession in a high tech world blues"

So..here's another techie blog. Wonderful, right? Well, maybe you'll find something here that'll be useful to you. Whether you're in the arts and entertainment industries or not, you may find something here that you can use in your own work and play. If you do, drop me a note, or please post a comment on the blog.

Dragonfly Technologies is dedicated to serving the arts and entertainment—actors, authors, screenwriters, comedians, musicians of all sorts, dancers, general performers and all those who help the artists "get to the gig". The accountants, attorneys, personal assistants, managers, agents, and occasionally housekeepers of the creators and performers are a central part of making sure that the artist gets to the gig, and has more gigs to get to after the current one's over.

Performance and creative artistry are, at their core, very low tech. A standup comic uses his or her brain, body, and possibly a microphone, to evoke involuntary physical responses from another human being. Hopefully that involuntary physical response is laughter. All the comic really needs (unless that comic is Carrot Top or Gallagher) is their mind and their body to do their job. Richard Pryor did standup comedy from a wheelchair during his last years living with Multiple Sclerosis. Jonathan Katz still does great standup, as well as many other really funny things, and he too has MS. (More on Jonathan later).

Shakespeare wrote Hamlet without the aid of Final Draft. Actors were asking "To be, or not to be?" long before there were blowdryers, house lights, or instant-drying nail polish. Mozart wrote 41 symphonies without Finale. Does that mean we should all be luddites, and use only our raw talent to bring new creative works into the world? Of course not!

Johnny Carson said that the definition of an optimist is "an accordionist with a beeper". Today we might substitute cell-phone or Blackberry for "beeper", but you get the idea. In today's world, comedians have Blackberries. Every so often I receive last-minute instructions / requests for website updates for the headliner comics, or high-profile authors we serve. Those requests are usually along the lines of "It's 12:45. I'm going to be on CNBC at 2PM. Please make sure we put up A, B, C, and my whole January calendar on the site by 1:45.".

Although we have a great staff for that kind of thing, pulling off that kind of last minute update isn't always easy. But the instant communication became possible when the creative folks and his/her team use the right tools to collaborate on getting to the gig, and parlaying the current gig into the next one, the bigger one, the one that'll allow their agent to get a better computer.

We're there to make sure the creative artist has all the best technology tools to aid them in their process; that they use those tools as efficiently as possible; and that they get to the gig, publicize the current and upcoming ones, and can continue unencumbered in creating things that make the world better.

So..bottom line: Creative arts which are low tech can benefit from high tech tools to do low tech things. Those who assist performers, artists or writers should definitely make the best use possible of the tech tools, so that the creative artist can be left alone to do their thing. Lawyers, accountants, agents, managers, personal assistants, website developers and computer techs for the artist, should all be using the best tools possible to collaborate better toward serving the creative professional, and helping them to bring joy to the world.