Using a dedicated toolkit and the cloud to coordinate shared music representations

This paper describes the design and implementation of a toolkit for collaborative music making. The rationale for the toolkit stems from the commitment to considering music making as a representational practice that entails virtual work amongst distributed peers. Using a pictorial illustration of the toolkit, we discuss several application scenarios and highlight the innovative features of the approach. One key contribution of the toolkit is that it enables formation of online music ensembles capable of negotiating music making using computer-mediated boundary artifacts and generic cloud services.