Houston is a truly "wired" city, and its creative community in particular is making the most out of the Internet to foster projects, support fellow artists, and spread the good word about our culture and history.

With this in mind, let me introduce to you three Houstonians who all share a passion for interconnectivity and the arts. They are writer and puppeteer Robin Babb, jazz vocalist Kimberly Crowder and classical pianist Jade Simmons. Each utilize social media, including Facebook, Twitter and blogs, to bring attention to their own work as well as the work of fellow Houston-based musicians, writers and artists.

They wear several hats, define themselves through a variety of business ventures and creative pursuits, and as a trio, are a testament to the breadth of Houston’s culture.

Babb, in addition to maintaining her own blog, is the content manager for Do713, office manager and “creator of awesomeness” at Culture Pilot, and a freelance contributor to Space City Rock. She writes about and interviews local rock musicians as well as those on the fringes of that genre. A recent video interview with singer and one-man band Benjamin Wesley is a great example of her unassuming yet perceptive style that provokes revealing responses from her subjects.

Babb is also a member of the Paedarchy Puppets who premiered The Mania of Bonaparte: A One-Sided Epistolary Romance at the 2011 Bobbindoctrin Annual Puppet Festival.

Crowder describes her blog as a document of a “jazz music artist trying to find her way.” She puts her formidable business and marketing skills to use at her gig in public relations for Whole Foods Houston while gigging, in the other sense of the word, as a singer at venues like King Biscuit and Fedora.

She is also a member of the advisory board for Da Camera of Houston. She blogs and tweets about her experiences, the good, the bad, and the awkward, in a personable and appealing voice, and even takes time to profile and review concerts by local and nationally known musicians.

Simmons is a force of nature. As a solo and concerto pianist, she’s played in countless alternative spaces and concert halls across the United States. She is a strong advocate of new music, premiering, recording and promoting new works for piano, including 21st century repertoire by composers Tania Léon and Daniel Bernard Roumain.

She goes even further in her advocacy of contemporary artists with her online venture Emerge Already! providing practical tools and motivational advice for musicians at any stage of a career. She shares on and offstage experiences on the Emerge Already! blog and a Livestream show airing every Thursday during the month of May

Using Facebook, Twitter, and my reserved table at Antidote Coffee, I was able to ask each of these creative women about their sources for inspiration, favorite online tools for work, and feelings, be they positive or negative, regarding social media.

Inspiration

Babb is inspired by her circle friends who are making “original and interesting work,” including musician and visual artist Will Schorre and the members of the aforementioned Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre. She also admires the late great journalist Molly Ivins for her “brutally” honest and “very Texan” writing.

Crowder says her father, a trombonist, helped to cultivate her love for jazz and music in general. Her current tastes are eclectic, and include singers Anita O’Day, Donny Hathaway and Alison Kraus. She also sings the praises of local pianist and educator Paul English who has guided her in her studies of the art of singing jazz.

Crowder says: “I think as an artist, inspiration can come from just about anything … a scenario on television, a sun shower, a remark made by a friend … I could be sitting at my desk at work and have to grab my phone because a melody and bass line come to me out of nowhere. Pretty cool stuff!”

Inspirational sources for Simmons are similarly varied and include visual artist Wassily Kandinsky who is the subject of her music and visual art concert “Scriabin and Kandinsky: Hearing Color, Seeing Sound.” Simmons also cites the work of painter Jill Moser whose work was on display in Wade Wilson Art when Simmons presented her 2010 Impulse Artist Series concerts. Simmons calls herself “a Rachmaninoff junkie,” says if she could clone herself, “the other me would be Missy Elliott,” and longs to somehow in a performance channel the spirit of Kurt Cobain.

An app a day

Babb describes herself as a “registered addict to any and every Google product,” including Google Docs which allows her to access, edit and save documents online, and not worry about having to work on a variety of different computers. On her iPhone she utilizes GroupMe to connect and coordinate with teams like Culture Pilot. The iPhone’s “Recorder” app allows her to record her interviews and edit and email the sound files.

Crowder uses Cotweet and Facebook for work as well as a FlipCam for YouTube videos. She blogs using WordPress, but may switch to Squarespace soon.

Simmons acknowledges Hootsuite is her husband.

“They shut down last week and it was a sorely unproductive day for me social-media wise.” she says. “It meant I actually had to go practice piano …”

(Writer’s note: I am quite sure Jade loves her metronome and scales.) Perhaps the most useful “app” for Simmons is actually the humanoid run Rosebrook Classical who provide social media management for classical musicians. Rosebrook’s David Weuste helps Simmons to manage Emerge Already’s blog, website and Livestream show.

Positives…

Sharing on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, blogging on your blog ... what is the point of it all? Do creative and career opportunities come your way as a result of an active online presence?

Babb says: “… being active in social media has made me aware of just how small the world is, and how easy it is to get in touch with people, and potentially work with them. With that kind of instant connection to everyone in the arts community in Houston, I'm constantly surrounded by inspiration and opportunity. Knowing that I can cast out a project idea and am almost guaranteed to find some potential collaborators is a wonderful thing.”

Crowder points to fellow musician who is using crowd sourcing to fund his recording project: “I just paid a small amount to help back a guy's album in NYC that I met on Facebook. Even though I was already familiar with his work, after keeping up with him on FB, I like what he stands for. I wouldn't have supported if I hadn't connected with him that way.”

Simmons concurs with a all of the above: “I'm teaming up for future projects with artists that I'm philosophically on the same page with, but would have never known they'd existed without social media. Social media helps me find my audience and my artist crew. Then I take them with me out of cyberspace into the actual concert hall.”

… and Negatives

All three describe the Internet is incredibly distracting, but say they are always working to make it a “worthwhile distraction” that, in Simmons’ words, “… will bear fruit, will matter for me and hopefully for other artists.”

Distracting and potentially dangerous. You don’t always know exactly who, as Crowder says, “is on the other side of the computer.”

Crowder and Simmons agree that certain precautions are necessary for anyone managing any kind of online presence. Tweeting or indicating otherwise exactly where you are at a given moment can invite unwanted attention. As savvy as some people are with all of this, there is a whole generation of young folks walking blindly into the world of “sharing” without realizing that anything you post online has the potential to be viewed by the general public. And this doesn’t always work to one’s advantage.

As Simmons wisely points out with regard to tweets and Facebook shares: “People talk so freely, they forget who is reading. Presenters, other artists, potential managers all look pretty closely at what you're saying flippantly …” Your casual comments might be interpreted as an indication of your character and professionalism.