2.5.07

May 7th begins Beta Phase 1!!!

It's been quite awhile since my last blog post. Bill and I have been working extremely hard on ourtbeat and it has taken away from my time to tend to this blog as much as I would have liked to. I'm sure many of you are waiting for some updates on ourtbeat. The most important update would be the new launch date for beta phase one: May 7th. We made this change because we want to ensure to all of our beta testers that they receive a top notch experience from day one! Bill, our web developer, has implemented quite a few innovative tools for everyone to test out and proudly display their art with. He and I are immensely excited to get all sorts of feedback from our beta group on everything that is ourtbeat!

Beta will take place in 3 phases. Phase 1 will be a private beta for a little over 100 beta testers. For phase 2, we will invite our other 500 beta testers in. Finally, for phase 3 (7.7.07) we will launch public beta! One of the things that makes ourtbeat beta different than many other beta groups is that we are bringing everyone in to do more than just search for bugs. Members of the ourtbeat beta group get to check out the site from the ground up as we build it. Each member will have their pick of ways to contact Bill and I with any ourtbeat thoughts, concerns, expectations, etc. Ourtbeat is a community built by artists for artists. Bill and I are only 2 artists. For us to truly accomplish this goal, we need everyone in our beta group to express their needs from our site so that we can work together to build a strong and successful artistic community!

The best comparison I can provide is this: Everyone at one point has had to write a story, essay, or report in their life. Upon finishing the first draft, they usually show it to someone else who finds any spelling or grammar errors. This is how beta groups usually work; testers get to check out the first draft and find any mistakes, developers listen, then they continue to work on the final draft. Well, at ourtbeat, beta phase 1 starts with the first draft only about 30% complete. At phase 2, we'll be 60% complete. When we go public beta, we'll be 90% complete. At each of these stages in our story, rather than just asking people to find spelling or grammatical errors, we'll be asking them to add a sentence (or even a paragraph) here and there. All suggestions will be considered and the necessities of highest demand will definitely be met. Because of this, I am excited to show our beta group what Bill and I have come up with so far, but I am even more excited to see what sentences they will add to feed the pulse of our story.

Coming up with a suggestion is as simple as answering this question: What makes your ourtbeat?

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