What do you get when you cross a penchant for computer programming with a passion for The Grateful Dead? DeadStats.com, of course.
Inspired by the web community at phish.net, Josh Coats has compiled an extraordinary database of Grateful Dead set lists from the band’s thirty-plus year career of performing live shows. On DeadStats.com, users can easily search for different songs, venues, and set lists. With an account, you can easily track which shows you attended. The format is very user-friendly, allowing for easy access to an incredible wealth of information.
I had a chance to chat with Josh about DeadStats and his plans for future developments. Here’s what he had to say.
***
L4LM: Let’s start from the beginning. How did you conceive the idea for DeadStats.com?
Josh: In the past, Grateful Dead fans have had a lot of sources where they could get their information but in my opinion none of them have ever been complete. I used to use DeadBase.com, SetLists.net, DeadLists.com, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./gdead/setlists.html, and a few others, but I would consistantly find myself longing for simple features that were overlooked. Things as simple as being able to click on a song or venue anytime that it’s displayed on a page. A really important missing feature for me was the ability to use these sources from any device. Most of the time when I want to find something out about the boys, I’m out with friends and not sitting at a computer.
I’m obviously a big Grateful Dead fan but I’m also a huge Phish phan and Phish.net is the best band specific statistics and information site I’ve come across. It displays all the information that you would ever want and provides a place for the Phish community to live and grow. When I started out, my overall goal was to create a similar web application for the Grateful Dead community.
L4LM: How long did it take to develop the whole interface for the site? I assume inputting the entire archive of Grateful Dead shows must have been tedious.
Josh: Initial development time was around 3 months but this is just a side project so I could only work during my free nights and weekends. To collect the data, I started by writing some code that would look through my personal collection of Dead shows and grab as much data as it could. I’ve spent years collecting and organizing my collection so that actually took care of a large chunk of the shows. The rest of the data came from another script I wrote. This second script was designed to search Archive.org and many other sites and then combine the recovered data into a single database. After the script ran, I went through the database and fixed any incorrect data that immediately jumped out at me. The rest will be corrected by the community with the new user submitted correction features that will be rolling out in late April.
L4LM: Tell me more about these updates that you’re planning! Obviously, the fan community is an important aspect of Grateful Dead culture. Will that play a role in shaping the upcoming features on DeadStats.com?
Josh: My number one goal at this point is to add features that will allow the community to control the data and the direction of the site. First, I plan on having a simple corrections submission system. If you are logged in, you’ll see an area at the bottom of setlists where you can submit corrections. For now, this information will just come to me and I will make the final decision on what to change. Eventually, I want to set up a system so that users could submit complete alternative setlists and then the community could vote on which one they think is correct. After that I want to add features to allow users to contribute information about their personal experiences by uploading photos and submitting stories about specific shows. I’m open to suggestions so feel free to contact me via Twitter at @coffe4u or @DeadStats.
L4LM: Very cool. Do you have any plans to include set lists of present-day Grateful Dead-family shows (i.e. Furthur, RatDog, Phil & Friends, etc.) or other side projects?
Josh: Yes! I would really like to include all Grateful Dead side projects and offshoots. This is a really big deal for me because I’m only 30 and never had a chance to see the real Grateful Dead. I’ve already got a lot of the infrastructure for this built into the site, I just need to find the time to complete it and collect data. I will likely wait until after I release the other features that we’ve been talking about.
Another feature which I’m working on that is missing from other Grateful Dead sites is an API(Application Programming Interface). This will allow other applications to access the data that exist on DeadStats.com. The first thing I’m going to do with this is hook up the bot (CharlieMiller) that’s in the Grateful Dead Plug.dj room(http://plug.dj/the-grateful-dead/) so that when you are playing a song, it can provide you information about the show and/or the song.
L4LM: It seems like one of your main goals is to incorporate the Dead community as a means of communally improving the DeadStats database. How will you engage the public to entice their contributions?
Josh: I’m part of a pretty large community of fans outside of DeadStats.com already. I spend almost every work day hanging out in http://plug.dj/phish-and-other-jambands. Most of the people in there have been hanging out and listening to music together since the early days of turntable.fm. When that site closed down, we all moved to plug.dj and there I’ve gotten to know even more people including the regulars in the Grateful Dead room. The biggest source of public engagement will come from Twitter though. I’ve met a large group of really awesome people through the Twitter Phish Twibe(https://twitter.com/phishtwibe). One thing that has come out of all of these wonderful people getting together online is GDTLP(Grateful Dead The Listening Party). You can find us here: https://twitter.com/GDTLP. Everyday we pick a show and provide an Archive.org link and a download link. At 1EST we all press play and tweet to each other about the show and songs. These are the groups that I’m focused on engaging. I know that they are all active online users and very friendly people. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to help me make the information as good as it can be and get the word out to friends and family.
L4LM: Sounds like a really supportive community… exactly what the Grateful Dead were all about! Now, I know that a good portion of the L4LM readers are loyal Dead enthusiasts. What is the best way for someone who may be reading this interview to get involved with the web-based Dead community, and, more specifically, DeadStats?
Josh: If you are looking to listen to shows and talk, I would check out https://twitter.com/gdtlp or http://plug.dj/the-grateful-dead. If you want to get involved specifically with DeadStats.com create an account here: deadstats.com/register. I will be sending an email to all users when I roll out these new community features we’ve been talking about. Then anybody will be able to add their own stories, photos, and knowledge to the ongoing epic of the Grateful Dead.
L4LM: Thanks Josh! Best of luck with the website!
You heard it here first, L4LMers. Josh laid the roots, but now it’s up to everyone to help DeadStats.com grow!
-David Melamed (@DMelamz)