Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Marc van Bree, Guest Post: Social media, money and the mission statement

Submitted by Marc van Bree, editor of Dutch Perspective

During last week’s League of American Orchestras conference, I was following the session on social networking on Twitter. Mark Pemberton, who tweets @aborchestras, asked where the “business” is in social media. In a blog post on the League’s conference blog, he wrote:

I found today’s Social Networking session interesting up to a point. But Russell Jones was spot on in his cry of “what about the dollars?” The speakers kept talking about the “new business model.” But Facebook and Twitter have no business model! They have no means of generating income.

Here is an excerpt of what I commented on his post:

Social networking is not “a business model.” Social networking is a tactic or tool in your strategy. Most managers will want to see dollars coming in from social networking in the short term. But that is exactly the wrong approach. Social media is not a short term solution. To think so is short-sighted.

Going into social media with the objective to sell tickets is, in my opinion, wrong as well.

There is a lot of pressure in marketing and public relations departments of orchestras to sell tickets. Fewer subscriptions bought and more single tickets to sell means more and harder selling. It’s not surprising that a lot of managers look at social media as an addition to their marketing and sales efforts.

In these departments, it might almost seem that selling tickets is the organization’s mission statement. I was glad to see another post on the League’s conference blog. Alan Jordan posted the following:

A constituency session comment re-iterated a line shared with me a long time ago from a concert hall manager in Concord, NH who passed away from cancer a few years back: the official moniker for 501(c)3s is not “non-profit,” but “not for profit.” For profit firms are obligated to their shareholders to produce results. We are obligated to the public to produce results, and those results are not necessarily—and most beneficially—financial ones.

In my comment to Mark Pemberton, I continued:

Although nonprofits need to make money to operate, they are not here for profits. Social networking/media can help you in your core mission: bringing art and music to people. It can extend the life of a performance and engage and build communities. And that’s a goal or objective too.

Beth Kanter writes about return on investment on the NTEN blog and hits the nail on its head:

If you approach ROI as a financial analysis only, you’re missing the point. An ROI process focuses on identifying and unpacking the benefits of efficiency and effectiveness and how these support your organization’s mission.

Well, what is your organization’s mission exactly? Let’s look at some of the mission statements from orchestras around the country:

New York
To maintain and foster an interest in the enjoyment of music and musical affairs, and to inculcate in its members in the community of New York city and the nation at large, an interest in symphony music and in order to foster such interest and the appreciation of music, among other things to cause the performance of symphonic and other musical performances in the concert and other halls, over the radio, television, by phonographic recordings, and in any other manner now known or hereafter to be.

Chicago
The central mission of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is to present classical music through the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to Chicago, national and international audiences.

London
The LSO’s mission is to give the finest performances of music and make them available to the greatest number of people.

These statements speak of bringing art to communities and audiences the world over. While ticket sales and revenue are important for the financial stability of the organization, the statements do not mention financials.

Clearly, the New York Philharmonic’s statement was written decades ago—yet still pertinent—and I particularly like “in any other manner now known or hereafter to be.” Let’s add the Internet to the list.

Alexandra Samuel has an interesting article at the Harvard Business blog on why nonprofits are so good at social media. Although the article should have been more appropriately named why nonprofits are uniquely primed to be good at social media—because not many are so good—she does bring up a couple of excellent points. Alexandra writes that “in the nonprofit sector, relationships have always been the key currency.” How can social media build upon those relationships? She outlines five points, three of which I thought particularly noteworthy:

Engage your audience by speaking to their core concerns: What do your customers care about most, and how can you speak to those concerns?

Offer a mix of tangible and social benefits: What tangible benefits can you offer that will encourage their participation?

Innovate within the bounds of your core mission: What value or services do you offer that could be delivered through a social network or online community?

In the SWOT analysis found in my Orchestras and New Media e-book, I look at some of the market opportunities best suited to company strengths and capabilities: maintain strong relationships with patrons; extend the life of a performance; and open the door to other geographic and demographic markets. (Read the e-book for particular examples.)

Sure, it is okay to think about monetizing these market opportunities to strengthen your financial base, but more importantly, you should start thinking about how they can help your organization’s core mission of providing classical music to audiences in your community and around the world.

That’s your first order of business. Heck, that’s why you’re in business.

Above photo credit: amandabhslater by CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

This article was originally posted on Dutch Perspective at http://mcmvanbree.com/dutchperspective/archives/200906_id361.htm by Marc van Bree:

Dutch native Marc van Bree is a public relations practitioner in Chicago with more than 5 years of experience communicating—on and offline—in the nonprofit environment.  Find him on Twitter @mcmvanbree

The Crumbling of Nonprofit Arts Organizations: What models will rise from the ashes?

As someone who spent half her career working for and with arts organizations this news makes me sad:

A report yesterday from the USAToday that quotes Bob Lynch, the President of Americans for the Arts estimating that 10,000 arts organizations will close this year, 10% of the total number.

The article includes a link to a google map where you can look at the economic impact in each state. With unemployment and cutback, for many a trip to the art museum can appear to be a luxury.  In response, arts organizations are cutting staff, trimming budgets, canceling shows, shortening seasons or closing their doors.

Allison Fine has a post reflecting on the state of the newspaper and nonprofit arts industry called "Greatest Loss of 2009: Social Capital"

Yesterday, my friend Katya Andresen, the magnificent brains behind Katya’as Nonprofit Marketing Blog and the book Robin Hood Marketing, posed this question to me on Twitter:  @Afine one in ten arts orgs are on the brink of collapse but movie attendance up - is this a marketing problem?

Allison suggests in her post that there is definitely a business model problem.  If you were to pay for the full cost of a ticket to attend a symphony concert, you'd be paying several hundred dollars given that it is impossible to make a ticket affordable without some subsidy (donations or government grants).   Allison says that arts organizations need a new organizational model:

The problem of trying to figure out a new business model for arts organizations is much more difficult. This is due in part because the cost of delivering the product is largely fixed; there is no way around the fact that orchestras need violinists and cellists. Many arts organizations that face the prospect that there may not be enough patrons to support their efforts — ever.  It may be that performing arts organizations cover larger regions. For instance, perhaps Hartford, CT cannot sustain a symphony orchestra, but lower New England may be able to. Or that the orchestras get smaller, or that the players aren’t full-time professionals.

Brian Reich, in the comments, suggests that while said, it is a market correction.

In reality, however, there are far too many arts organizations (and nonprofits generally), and some shrinking of that marketplace should be welcomed.  Arts organizations who are struggling to gain audience are not demonstrating their value (and I would argue in many cases are not in fact offering something all that valuable, when you consider how many other groups are doing the same thing, or something very similar).

Allison says the loss of arts organizations will create enormous, possibly permanent loss of social capital for local communities.

We are losing the institutional memories of institutions that are in the business of connecting individuals to one another, to their communities, to beautiful and inspiring stories and works of arts.

But what I don’t know is if or how social media can make up this loss, it may simply be that this is one casualty of the Connected Age. One thing we can do is to insist that the growth of social capital be a part of the discussion and implementation of new models for news and arts organizations.

Making money isn’t the only measure of success for news and arts organizations in the future; reconnecting citizens locally to one another; regenerating the social fabric is just as important and necessary to the success of these efforts.

Maybe arts organizations need to be doing "Social Capital Impact" studies along with other forms of advocacy?  

What do you think?  What is the summary of the discussion going on arts organizations blogs?

Arts Summit 2008: The Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations - Reflections

I just got back from doing a plenary session at the Arts Summit organized by the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations.  It's gathering of arts leader from throughout New York State.   I spoke about social media and future leadership in the arts - and also did a workshop.   I had the pleasure of sharing the podium with Susan Chun who spoke about the Steve project.  (Since we shared my laptop, she kindly gave me permission to upload her slides)

I have a long history with the arts community in New York.  For 12 years, I worked on arts and technology projects with the New York Foundation for the Arts, beginning with its Arts Wire program in 1992.   I've worked with Judith Weiner at the Alliance in many different capacities since 1994 - I built their first web site. I was a circuit rider for their Rurals Program where I drove all over New York state working with Rural Arts administrators - teaching them anything and everything from how to set up an excel spreadsheet to using email to powerpoint - to plugging in modems.  (I don't crawl under desks anymore, I'm too old).   As Phil Morris noted in his blog, it feels like home to be with this crowd.)

It was great to see many familiar faces - many folks who I haven't seen in at least five years, including Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, an artist and the director of the Arts Council in Queens,  Andrew Salgado who runs Reader's Theatre Workshop, Phil Morris (the visionary behind Proctor's Theatre where the conference took place), Martha Strodel, Rural Arts Director, Robert Zuckerman from NYSCA, Elaine Giguere,  Anne Ackerson, Caroline Thompson, Kay Stamer, Judith Levine, and many others.  Some of my creative work in technology training was done during my decade plus two years working with the New York Arts community.  Many, many memories ..

The plenary and workshop took place in the black box theatre with a huge projection screen.  See the photos here.   I took a few minutes to check out the gorgeous mainstage theatre, a historic theater renovated to perfect. 

 

 

There was some excellent questions during the plenary from this very smart crowd.   One that stuck with me was: "I'm an older babyboomer.  I'm comfortable with computers and the Internet.  But, I just haven't paid much attention to the Web 2.0 stuff.   I realize that I should get my hands on it to understand it better - so I can manage my staff better. My head is spinning (in a good way) but where and how should I get started. "

I have to caution people that when I share the results of my experiments and learnings - that it is a culmination of 6 plus years of daily exploration of Web 2.0.    That's not where I began my learning journey.  I tell folks that my recent experiences are like playing a Paganini Violin piece.  But, I started with Twinkle, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Suziki lessons 5-6 years ago. 

When my son, Harry, was three years old.  He used to watch the Mark Morris and Yo Yo Ma Failing Down Stairs dance video. He really wanted to play the cello.  So, we rented a 1/10 size cello and started on some lessons.  He sawed, sawed away at all.  But after a week, he said, "I don't want to play the cello anymore!"  I asked him why. "Because it doesn't sound like Yo Yo Ma!"  I had to explain to him that Yo Yo Ma didn't sound that way after he had played for week either - and that it takes practice.

So back to the question ... I offered some places to start and told her to live in that one thing for a couple of months.  Once you master it, take on the next thing.  I suggested a sequence of steps.

I had planned to do the social media game workshop, but after using a spectragraph to see if we had newcomers to social media and hear their burning questions, I decided to do some q/a and show them some basic getting started steps.  (Similar to what I've done here - except adding a live Twitter demo)

One of the most important things you need to do as a trainer - is to listen and adjust on the spot.  You have to be willing to toss out the lesson plan too -- ramp up or ramp down - and watch out if you're speaking in jargon.   I've been keeping an inner ear for that and when I spew jargon - I mock myself in front of the group and translate.  It gets a good laugh.

You can find the slides and resources at my Arts and Social Media wiki. 

My Day at the Powerhouse Museum

 

During my time in Sydney,  I spent a day with meeting with the staff at the Powerhouse Museum and Seb Chan who writes the Museum's blog, Fresh + New(er) and who I have had many virtual conversations with via our blogs but have not met face-to-face.   I got to meet the entire web team who I interviewed using QIK (see above), got a whirlwind tour of the museum (the Lost in Space Robot is in their collection!) and have an informal workshop with members of the marketing staff and curators.  Seb Chan has a good write up here.

The Powerhouse has done ground breaking in integrating social media into their communications and web strategies (most recently they've joined the Flickr Commons) but are also in the process of embracing the groundswell concept and making social media part of their organizational culture.   The afternoon workshop was another opportunity for education and discussion about social media and the museum's mission as well as a great example of how you create social change behind the firewall. 

I also met and interviewed Dr. Lynda Kelly, Head of Research, Australian Museum who shared some of her recent research on museum participation and online social activities.  She took excellent notes about our session and blogged it here.

My flickr photos are here

 

Social Media Time Investment = You put in is what you get out? The Time Scale

From Museum2.0 Blog, Nina Simon

Nina Simon has an excellent post looking at time investment and types of projects.  There are three approaches:

• Participant:  1-5 Hours per week (See 10 Web2.0 things you can do in ten minutes to be a better nonprofit - suggested by nptechers)
• Content Creator:  5-10 Hours per week
• Community Organizer: 10-20 hours per week

But as Alison K notes in an article she wrote about social media and nonprofits, you get out what you put in.

Arts 2.0: Examples of Arts Organizations Social Media Strategies

| View | Upload your own

The above slide show was created based on all the information I gathered from my network below.

 

I'm prepping for a workshop on Social Media and wanted do a round up of recent compelling examples of arts organizations using social media strategies and tools.   I've covered arts organizations and social media here and there over the past three years and last winter co-wrote a cover story article with Rebecca Krause-Hardie for ArtsReach.   So, thought I'd take an opportunity to query my network via Twitter and Facebook and see what's new.   

I was particularly interested in examples using blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, and Facebook.

Everyone is a Curator

One of the best projects that illustrates the basic idea of Web2.0 - listening and conversation and stakeholders creating their own experience with your organization - comes from the Brooklyn Museum of Art. They're now running a compelling experiment in crowd-sourced exhibition creation and curation via the photography exhibition Click.

Here's how Nina Simon described it on her insightful post analyzing the tactics used.

1. The Museum solicited photographs from artists via an open call on their website, Facebook group, Flickr groups, and outreach to Brooklyn-based arts organizations.

2. On the web, anyone can evaluate the photographs in terms of aesthetic quality and relevance to the exhibition theme. All evaluations are private; all artists are unnamed. It's very easy to sign up and judge... and you can do so now by registering here.

3. The photographs will be installed in a physical exhibition running for six weeks this summer. The art will be displayed in order of the average juried scores. Visitors will be able to see how different subgroups (including art experts) ranked and responded to the art. The exhibition will coincide with programs about art theory, online communities, and crowd theory, providing a forum for public evaluation and discussion about the process.

Nina observes that the following makes this project really special:

• It is 100% community-based
• The internal team is led by a non-curator.
• They kept the interface simple
• They make it easy to evangelize
• They are sensitive to the artists who are being judged.
• They ask judges to self-define their art knowledge.

But as Nina notes, they are doing research from this experiment about the role of independence and influence in a participatory experience.  Note that this is a research/learning approach that is key to success of Web2.0 projects.

More at TechCrunch and Technology in the Arts Blog.

Another theme of web2.o is Transparency - and the best example of that is what the Indianapolis Art Museum has done with its pubic metrics on its web site.

Blogs

Elizabeth Perry, an artist in Pittsburgh and pioneer of "sketch blogging" reported that local arts organizations have been good at integrating social media without having to create or maintain anything new.  "They have begun inviting local bloggers as press to openings and events - usually they get in touch with Mike Woycheck or Cynthia Closkey, two of the co-founders of Pittsburgh Bloggers, who then re-blog the invitation and spread it via Facebook or their own Twitter streams. Lindsay Patross runs the blog, and people get hold of her, too.

Similar strategy to what the San Francisco Symphony did with its blogger outreach event.   ASOL gives a write up and some pointers for holding your own blogger outreach event.

What Should Artists and Arts Organization’s Blog about?  An excellent question posed by Beth Dunn of Small Dots.

Most people are fascinated by the interior life of artists. Many people are turned on by the chance to peek backstage at a theater. Almost everyone I know thinks they can curate an art exhibit. Are they right?

Artists: Write about your favorite kind of paintbrushes. Write about where you go shopping for paintbrushes. Write about how hard it is to find decent studio space. Write about why you ditched that banker job to see if you could make it selling art. Write about your crippling self-doubt and fears of failure. Write the truth. Not the press release.

Arts Organizations: Write about your insides — what goes on inside a theater, a museum, a historical home? Not the tedious soap opera that will get you fired if you share - the cool stuff we’re all dying to know! Where do your staff come from? What brought them here? How much fun did you have striking the set over the weekend? Can I help next time?

Artist Blogs

For individual artists, a blog can also help sell or promote their work.  Here's some artists personal blogs that support their gallery sites where they sell their work -- A Planet Named Janet,  Self VS Self, PaMdora's Box and Jen Lemen

Arts Organizations

Let's look at individual blogs.  Here was have the professional development or career blog like Museum2.0, and Im in Ur Museum Blogz that is written by an individual, not as part of the organization.  The content is focused on the professional area of expertise.   Blog helps deepened expertise.   Many early adopters in nonprofits got started this way - outside of the firewall.

Fresh + new(er) is an institutional blog from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney Australia written by staff member Seb Chan.   Interesting that this blog has evolved into one that serves the sector of museum professionals.  (see for example the post about blogging policy).

The Academy of Vocal Arts has a blog written by Daniel Pantano.  According to Maryanne Devine, the staff member to go to for all the AVA gossip. "The writing is in his own voice, personal and authentic, and he's giving the patrons exactly what they crave: who won which competition, who just got engaged, where alums are singing, backstage snapshots. He doesn't get much in the way of comments, but when he misses a few days, he gets lots of complaints.   

Musematic is a group blog of museum technology professionals.  The description: "Rants and raves on the latest trends in the world of museum informatics and technology. An intrepid cast of experts from the Museum Computer Network and AAM's Media & Technology Committee share their insights, observations and tricks of the trade."

The Walker Blog was one of the first arts institution blogs.  The idea was to give an inside view of the inner workings of the Walker.  Different departments or individuals came on gradually.  (I wrote about this blog back in 2005)

The Brooklyn Museum's blog is another one that takes a group approach, also focuses a peak behind the scenes. As does Indianapolis Museum of Art blog.

Tate's Mobile Blog is collecting audience input on the new building design at the Tate - via mobile phones to blog - or mob blogging.   

Over the next six months we’ll be inviting all kinds of people, including designers, artists, young people, families, students and Tate staff, to share their ideas. Why not send us your own photos and join the discussion here at The Great Tate Mod Blog?

Finally, Rebecca Krause Hardie has some notes from a blogging workshop given at the Museums and the Web Conference earlier this month

Flickr

The Academy of Vocal Arts uses a flickr account to document organizational events/galas/benefits - good way to get started. Arts Northfield has well organized collections and sets of all organizational activities.

Brooklyn Museum of Art has a very active and successful group  - notice the  lively discussion board.  MOMA has a group for its graffiti project.

This example of using Flickr for exhibitions - both in Flickr and on the web site. The American Image: The Photographs of John Collier Jr. online exhibit developed by the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico and Ideum.

Here's the description of how they used flickr for the exhibition.

In designing and developing The American Image: The Photographs of John Collier Jr. website with The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology we’ve found ourselves spending a lot of time in Flickr. The Collection of photographs found on the site are pulled in from Flickr using a Flash-base mashup. The Shooting ScriptColonizing Social Spaces, looked more broadly at the benefits and drawbacks of museums utilzing social networking sites. In this post, I’m going to look exclusively at Flickr and our experience with the American Image site. activity works in similar way: pulling out John Collier Jr’s images as well as those of other Flickr members. An earlier post, Colonizing Social Spaces, looked more broadly at the benefits and drawbacks of museums utilzing social networking sites. In this post, I’m going to look exclusively at Flickr and our experience with the American Image site.

I interviewed Jim Spadaccini and he told me that initially more people had viewed the photos in flickr versus the exhibition web site.   He also mentioned that the commenting on the photos was fascinating and that they even got an email from someone who knew the Gagnon's family that the name was not correct! Read more of Jim Spadaccini's reflections

Finally the Library of Congress community tagging pilot project on flickr. (Launched in Jan. (follow up here)

A pilot project the Library of Congress is undertaking with Flickr, the enormously popular photo-sharing site that has been a Web 2.0 innovator. If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity. In many senses, we are looking to enhance our metadata (one of those Web 2.0 buzzwords that 90 percent of our readers could probably explain better than me).

The project is beginning somewhat modestly, but we hope to learn a lot from it. Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.

 

Nina Simon has a good piece on why museums should use flickr.

Facebook

Individual profiles, groups, fan pages and applications.  There are many museum professionals active on Facebook - step one is to create an individual profile and then go find your colleagues. The group Museum Professionals Unite Across Facebook has about 2,000 members and 89 discussion threads, so there's definitely lots of places to talk shop on Facebook with peer professionals.    There are a number of museums with official group and fan pages, like this one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

As Nina Simon points out, Brooklyn Museum of Art is the gold standard of Art Museums using social media and its projects on Facebook are no exception. (Be sure to check out Nina's Museum2.0 Blog for lots of great posts.

Brooklyn Museum of Art developed a Facebook application called Art Share.  It lets Facebook users share works art from Museums around the world on their profile.  Artists can upload and share their own work using this application.  Participating institutions include the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Brooklyn Museum, Canada Agriculture Museum, Corning Museum of Glass, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Powerhouse Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, V&A, Walker Art Center, Walters Art Museum.

The application launched in November according to this progress report the usage stats as of February were:

• 1000 people using ArtShare on Facebook.
• 174 artists are using ArtShare to share their own works.
• Institutions have uploaded 438 works from their collections and artists have uploaded 754.

Some more on the metrics from the progress report:

On Facebook,  the highest traffic comes from browsing profiles, so exposure to the images may be significantly higher. For instance, if each ArtShare user has 20 friends, a lot more people could be seeing the images from ArtShare being shuffled on that profile. In a nut shell, 1000 people may have installed it, but a lot more may be seeing it and while this is not the kind of traffic we can measure, it is interesting to think about.

I wanted to take a quick look at what the performing arts scene was like on Facebook. 

Doing a quick search on the word "symphony" on Facebook turned up more than 500 individuals.  A few of these are Symphony orchestras using their individual profiles (incorrectly and a violation of the TOS) for an organizational presence.   (There are quite a few individuals with the last or first name symphony.)

There were about 70 Fan Pages that turned up including a number of youth and college symphonies.   A couple of major symphony orchestras, like the Chicago Symphony with 1336 fans and the Boston Symphony. The fan pages are like mini-web pages with the ability to add applications.   The features on their Fan Pages include music player (filled with symphony selections), albums, photos, events, and videos.  There is also a discussion board and the ability to post notes.  The Boston Symphony has been doing ticket giveaway promotions.

While I focused on Facebook for social networking examples, there are examples on MySpace.  Even found an artist social network that is called Dripbook.

Twitter

Twittours has a list of museums using Twitter.  Looks like most are just learning how to use twitter and mostly tweeting about content on their sites.  Using it like a newswire similar to New York Times Arts Section

Brooklyn Museum of Art is using twitter - mostly to point to blog content or web site content.   Tate is also twitter, but hasn't really engaged yet  - probably in the Twitter is the dumbest thing I've ever seen stage?    But as the Field Museum notes on its MySpace page status - still trying to figure it out. 

Heard on Twitter a mobile poetry project on Twitter is in the works.  (Poets.Org is already mobile)

Still more arts organizations on twitter found at TwitTours - this post about  Alliance for Historic Hillsborough - tweeting about bites of information about its programs.

Beth Dunn has a great post on artists and twitter.  It points over the Cycling Artist's post about the benefit and value of Twitter for artists.

YouTube

Anaheim Ballet has a YouTube Channel with over 130,000 channel views.   Perhaps due to their MySpace presence? Another good example is Youth Speaks.

Thanks everyone for the leads .. any other comments or suggestions - leave them in the comments.  Now, off to finish the workshop curriculum ...

Better Blog Museum Metrics

Seb Chan

I just discovered that one of my blog colleagues in Australia, Seb Chan,  is writing about a topic of mutual interest - social media metrics (my blog ramblings here and my wiki/presentations here).  I am also prepping a panel on the topic for NTC (more about that later)  Seb Chan is focusing specifically on blog metrics for museums.

He is suggesting two metrics for museums (which are also recommended by the others talking about this topic in other disciplines):

In our paper Jim and I avoided site traffic and instead proposed that two better measures of success for museum blogs were citations/linkbacks and user comments. These captured the ‘interactivity’, the multidirectional communication, that most museums set up blogs to encourage and explore.

He thinks that Avanish Kaushik's model is particularly well-suited for museum blogs.  I am wondering about the "ripple index" as described by Kaushik:

Ok so you are talking, people are listening, and lo and behold they are talking to you on your blog as well. Hurray!!

But in a world of networks and connections what is your impact beyond your immediate blog?

A key validating factor for a blog, any blog, is that other people talk about what you are writing about. They reference back to you (with nice words or scathing critiques!). They link to you.

I call these Citations. People talk about you, discuss you point, throw up on you, praise you. Citations.

To measure Citations I use Technorati rank.

It Technorati the best measurement tool for measuring ripples or "influence"?  KD Paine notes why measuring blog influence isn't so easy with a pointer to Brendon Cooper titled "Which Metric is the Most Important" that discusses looks at different method to measure influence in the blogosphere.  (He is the originator of the PR Power Index) Take it all with a grain of salt.

Another explanation of influence can be seen in this illustration of ripples,  I came across this visual a few months back from David Armano.   

Ripples of Influence

Seb, I have a few questions .. Where is the paper you refer to located?  Is it here? It's on my reading list.

For your metrics/measurement for the new blog, what will that look like?  Do you have plan or logic model to share?

What is your impression of the flickr stats feature?

In your institution, what are some of the attitudes about evaluation metrics that you need to change or challenge when thinking about a social media measurement plan?  What easily connects to your existing practice of metrics/measurement for the Museum Web and what does not?

ArtsReach Cover Story: Social Media for Arts Organizations

My Flickr Stream

A few months ago, Rebecca Krause-Hardie and I co-wrote an article for ArtsReach Magazine about how arts organizations are mixing in social media strategies.  You can find a copy of the article here.  If you are interested in learning about how arts organizations are using the social web, read Becky's blog! 

Cyberinfrastructure: What is it? What does it mean?

Back in the early 1990s, I was "hoisting" web pages onto the Internet with a colleague David Green who worked at the New York Foundation for the Arts on the Arts Wire project.  David (and Arts Wire) is long gone, but recently David contacted me to tell me of a new collection of essays he has edited on "cyberinfrastructure"

We all remember how the First Wave of the Internet hit: the first time we used a web-browser, the first time we ventured forth with our (or our institution's) first website, the first time we started using web-based resources. Now a Second Wave is about to hit: Cyberinfrastructure. This unwieldy new word connotes the combination of a whole new generation of computing power, massive online data resources and new capabilities for online working collaboration with peers. The National Science Foundation is convinced cyberinfrastructure will transform the conduct of the sciences and that other academic disciplines will soon follow. The director of the NSF has gone so far as to say that it will "usher in a technological age that dwarfs everything we have yet experienced in its sheer scope and power."

I've just guest-edited a "special issue" of an online journal/site, Academic Commons, on the topic of Cyberinfrastructure and the Liberal Arts and I thought you might be interested in either the subject as a whole or one part of it - the future of scholarship, how disciplines might be changing, how the role of campus museums might change quite radically, and so on. 

The table of contents can be found here.

Indianapolis Museum of Art: Transparency

This came the "dashboard" for the Indianapolis Museum of Art , an ongoing effort to measure various aspects of the Museum's performance.  According to the web site, the goal is to seek to quantify and report out on areas of activity of general interest to museum studies specialists, colleagues, and patrons.

The Web section offers a sampling of numbers only data.    What is interesting is how the web metrics include a mix of traditional web analytics and social media metrics, in this case number of friends on myspace (454) and views (see above) on its youtube channel.  What it doesn't show me is any trends over time or analysis based on gathering data from several types of resources.  I would like to see some context.

The dashboard is one feature in he Indianapolis Museum of Art's new Website which launched in September with lots of social media features.  According to a blog post at the site, at least one staff person thinks the dashboard is cool:

For more than 5 years, I didn't think another dashboard could rival my Passat's for coolness. And while it may not be exactly the same thing, I think the IMA's new dashboard might just do it. So what's so cool about our dashboard? We're really the first museum in the world to use technology like this. The public now has access to statistics about attendance, the art collection and even our budget. For instance, folks can check to see how much we have spent so far this year and how it relates to what we projected in our 2007 budget. Visitors can also check to see how many people have visited Roman Art from the Louvre or shopped in the IMA Shop. For better or for worse, the IMA's dashboard let's you see the IMA from the inside.

Jim Spadaccini from Ideum Blog notes that dashboards are not new, in fact, there's a book about Dashboard Design. However, "This a great example of a museum presenting basic information about the institution in a dynamic and unconventional way."

There is some question as to who would be interested in this type of information - a somewhat out of context random set of numbers.  More commentary here.  What do you think?

UPDATE:   The Giving Blog writes about the Dashboard here

Greetings from Chicago and the Museum Computer Network Conference

I'm here in Chicago for a very brief trip on a panel about metrics and measurement for museums called "New Spaces, New Measures."   My slides and resources are here.

I came across two more excellent resources on this evolving topic of social media metrics and wanted to quickly summarize before I add to the link list in the wiki.

The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority by Michael Jensen published in the Chronicle in June, 2007 describes how scholarly authority is being influenced by Web 2.0.   He points out, "While those trends are enabled by digital technology, I'm not concerned with technology per se — I learned years ago that technology doesn't drive change as much as our cultural response to technology does."   He talks about the cultural shift from information scarcity to abundance.  He suggests this list of metrics:

• Prestige of the publisher (if any).
• Prestige of peer prereviewers (if any).
• Prestige of commenters and other participants.
• Percentage of a document quoted in other documents.
• Raw links to the document.
• Valued links, in which the values of the linker and all his or her other links are also considered.
• Obvious attention: discussions in blogspace, comments in posts, reclarification, and continued discussion.
• Nature of the language in comments: positive, negative, interconnective, expanded, clarified, reinterpreted.
• Quality of the context: What else is on the site that holds the document, and what's its authority status?
• Percentage of phrases that are valued by a disciplinary community.
• Quality of author's institutional affiliation(s).
• Significance of author's other work.
• Amount of author's participation in other valued projects, as commenter, editor, etc.
• Reference network: the significance rating of all the texts the author has touched, viewed, read.
• Length of time a document has existed.
• Inclusion of a document in lists of "best of," in syllabi, indexes, and other human-selected distillations.
• Types of tags assigned to it, the terms used, the authority of the taggers, the authority of the tagging system.

He also notes that change will be slow:

Many of the values of scholarship are not well served yet by the Web: contemplation, abstract synthesis, construction of argument. Traditional models of authority will probably hold sway in the scholarly arena for 10 to 15 years, while we work out the ways in which scholarly engagement and significance can be measured in new kinds of participatory spaces.

Via RSA Networks blog

Kami Hulse, who gave a small taste of her presentation on relational objectives has shared her presentation notes and slides on a post with the title "Let's Talk About The Bottom Line and Dreaded ROI"  I used a similar title in the presentation I gave at Podcamp last week called "Let's Talk About Social Media Metrics, Measurement, and ROI."  Geoff Livingston has started a conversation meme here.
Be sure to check out Kami's links on measurement.

 

 

I look for patterns

Flickr photo from AussieGal

The how do you write meme is swirling through the edtech community and now Vicky Davis, Cool Cat Teacher Blog, has tagged me ... (calling me a pro -- but honestly in comparison to Vicky's work, I feel like more a Sunday afternoon painter.)

Vicky has written a brilliant post answering the question "How do you write for your blog?" using the metaphor of an orchestra conductor and virtuoso orchestra musicians making music together.

In yet another example of the connectedness of the Web2.0, another person Vicki tagged was Doug Johnson, author of the Indispensable Teacher's Guide To Computer Skills published in 1999.  I've never met Doug face-to-face, but I sure know and admire his work.  I modified his "Mankato Scale" into a nonprofit tech skills assessment for a technology planning curriculum for arts organizations for NYFA back in 2000.  I shared this on a listserv with some nonprofit technology geeks (aka circuit riders) and one of them told me that his father worked at the same school as Doug in Minnesota.  I think I gushed about how much I learned from his work.  Several weeks later, I received an autographed copy of Doug's book in the snail mail!

Since my formal education is in music (studied flute), I'm going to riff on Vicky's ideas because they reasonate with me.   Vicky says that writing a blog, like music, is more than a single solitary note, but a composition.  True.   But in music school, I did spend a lot of time alone in a practice room honing my technical skills (chops).  Yet, etudes did excitment as much as playing chamber music  with other people.  And, of course, having an audience always added a little bit of energy too.

For me, writing a blog is balancing between  "wood shedding" alone and thinking/writing outloud with others.  That marvelous patch work quilt of different and connected s in the blogosphere that influences your thinking, your writing, and sometimes your practice.

I've written about my blogging workflow before, but I'd like to share my creative process.

1.  I wait for the butterflies to flutter out of  my RSS Reader

Flickr photo by Markopolos - CC "BY" license

I've written a lot about how my RSS reader is an information coping tool.  It is also becomes my muse and a key source of inspiration.  My reader has lots of blogs feeds, comment feeds, tag feeds, search feeds, and more.  I read for patterns and wait for what Will Richardson called the butterflies to flutter.

I’m reading and two or three pieces of content flow up from my network that begin to click together in my brain like magnets, making connections. And at that moment, my mind starts writing, composing a post that it needs to make sense of the ideas, the patterns that seem to be emerging. I’ve come to rely on the blogging to cement together the pieces and make them more of a whole, one that I know is never fully complete, and never will be.

And, like Will, observes, blogging allows you to sew those butterflies into a beautiful patchwork quilt.

2.  Can I connect that pattern to  a picture? And, how does the picture  morph and change that pattern/idea?

Flickr photo by Markopolos - CC "by" License

None of us possess all the of the nine multiple intelligences -- but if we are self-aware we know which ones we can use to enhance our writing process.   My strong modalities are a visual and naturalistic intelligences.  Once the pattern starts to emerge, I immediately translate the pattern into a visual.  I often use flickr as a pre-writing tool, often searching by tag clusters to think through the idea.  It may not lead to any actual writing, but it helps trigger my creative thought process which connects to my writing.  Writing is thinking ...

3.   Can I connect the pattern or picture with my own experience, a story, or annecdote ?    Does it make me think of a person?

A page from my son's Kindergarten writing journal that says "That's me catching butterflies."  He was describing this activity.

I'm also trying to think about what connections from my own experience might come to bear to help understand what I'm writing about.  Or, I start to think of people that I've connected with about this topic. That's where that the open source thinking or the connected conversations start to happen.

4. What have I learned about the topic?

Flickr photo from Markopolos

And, then it is time to step back and reflect on what learning has taken place.  It is the stepping away, the 500 ft. view, the letting the post marinate .... I feel constant tension in my blogging life between the need to get things done and the need to capture learning.  If I don't take the time to reflect, I get cranky.  I get overwhelmed my information.  Digesting is important.  So is distance.

Opening the Kimono

I've opened the Kimono to my creative process.  And, now I'm hoping that others in the nonprofit tech community will share too.  I was inspired by Marshall Kirkpatrick's sharing of his "work flow" and Andy Carvin's thoughtful post about his writing process.   Take this further into the nonprofit tech space.   Alan Benamer,  Katya Andresen,  Laura Quinn, Holly Ross, Nedra Weinreich, Gavin Claburgh,  Michelle Murrain, Michele Martin, Marnie Webb, Allison Fine and Lucy Bernholtz.

UPDATE: SLAP my wrists.  I've been so Americentric in my tagging of others .. I apologize.   So, here goes a shout out to all the rest of continents .... to spread this meme globally ..

David Wilcox, Miles Maier, Steve Bridger,  Ricardo C, Bev Traynor, Mike Seyfang, Joitske Hulsebosch, Nick Noakes, Tharum,  Jinja, and  Ore

The Painting Journalist: Witness To Peace

I've had the great pleasure to meet many kindred spirits and interesting people via my blog who I did not know offline or may have never connected. 

One such person I've met is Ashely Cecil, a self-described "painting journalist" who describes the world with a paintbrush (and a scanner and a blog.)  I think of her work as a mashup between an extremely talented court room artist, journalist, social activist and philanthropist.

A few recent posts that I have enjoyed include her sketch and report about the grant preparation session held by a local foundation and her post/portrait of Braveheart, a dog available for adoption from the Human Society.  (I'm a dog person, so this one got my attention -- a portion of the portrait fee will be donated to the Humane Society, the dog might get a new home, and you can watch a time lapse video of her painting the portrait.

Ashely Cecil is fundraising on her blog for her upcoming to visit Venezuela this February with Witness for Peace where art will meet social activism.  She hopes to do the following:

• Meeting with labor organizers, scholars, professionals, business people, representatives of the media and activists to discuss the economic, social and political issues confronting Venezuelan society.
• Learning about grassroots resistance to unjust and devastating global economic trends.
• Discussing alternatives to current US policies and ways to advocate for more just policies towards Venezuela.

Here's the description from her blog:

The images I will gather from this trip will certainly yield excellent material for my paintings. I will be creating watercolors while I’m away and posting them (as well as my commentary) whenever an internet cafe is available.
So, here I am just one month from my departure, and $2,000 needs to be raised. I’ve added the badge above to the sidebar so my readers can contribute with donations.   If you’re not one to give without receiving, I am pre-selling paintings that will come as a result of this trip. 6″ x 9″ watercolors are $70, and 8″ x 10″ oils on canvas are $220. I encourage you to support my efforts in raising awareness about these issues and the organizations that are working to resolve them by clicking on the donation badge..."

Remember, if you support her trip with a pre-purchase of a painting, a portion of the proceeds goes to support organizations working to resolve these social issues.

Large Scale Art Event in Second Life on Feb. 11-13th - Call for Entries

In cooperation with Amoration AMO Studios, NMC Campus is hosting a large scale art event February 11-13, 2007.  Here's the email announcement from Alan Levine:

The NMConnect Visual Symposium will be the largest collaborative art event ever created in Second Life! Connect the Dots with hundreds of artists as we Illuminate and innovate together to weave new networks. Structures of artistic expression in every medium will be linked and combined to tell new stories on how we bond within our shared new worlds.  This will take place over multiple sims on some of NMC's new land.

There will be art on display, performances, discussion forums, guest speakers, and others modes of activity over the three days. Information on the event will be announced via the NMC Campus Observer (http://www.nmc.org/sl/) and posted to our Campus Wiki Guide (http://www.nmc.org/campus/NMConnect).

The schedule is still developing, but there is a call for Second Life Artists that will be open form now until the end of January. Interested artists should review the call and then enter their submissions via the web form at http://www.nmc.org/sl/nmconnect.php

Download NMConnectCallforArtists.pdf

Thoughts on Widgets and Community Building

From Mathew's flickr stream

I've known Matthew Saunders, an arts tech colleague, for many years.  He works for an arts agency and we've set on grant evaluation panels for arts and technology projects.  I remember having dinner with him and a colleague from the NEA about  4 years ago and I was bragging about having TiVo.  Matthew one-upped me big time: He told me he hooked up his local area network at home so he could access his TiVo remotely via the Internet and configure it to record programs.

I was delighted to discover his newly redesigned drupal blog and all the widgets he has installed.   He also wrote an excellent response to my query, "What do you think about widgets?"  I have to quote a few points here:

The Web’s holy grail has always been the creating of community. For the most part, it takes a group of zealots to create community on the Web.

Any time you have folks that are passionate about something, you will see community build around that thing/topic.  . . . Asking whether widgets will foster community is a tricky question. The predisposition for community will exist whether widgets are used or now. What a widget will do is make it easier for that community to embed interesting rich content into sites. This in turn attracts others to come participate.

I'd also add this it goes beyond embedding rich media content.  I think that widgets can facilitate social networking connections (check out the mybloglog widget on my sidebar) and enhanced the interaction or conversation already taking place on the blog.

He also relates my question to the arts sector specifically with the following points:

The arts are in a unique position to leverage these video, audio, and photo sites. The arts are all about sharing content. It makes sense for our art institutions to take advantage. Will they? It remains to be seen but I believe that in order for these organizations to remain relevant with today’s consumers, they are going to need to. Gen X and Y EXPECT interactivity. If you come to them with static sites, you’ve lost them right away.

This really speaks to participation in the arts and the shift in the way participation manifests itself. I believe that the industry needs to re-frame how participation is defined and work to be relevant in today’s consumers’ minds.

What is Indie?

Via an email from my friend Jay Moonah (AKA Uncle Seth) fo the Online Music Marketing comes a pointer to a film focused on the independent music business in Canada and U.S.   As an independent consultant (for the past 20 years),  I can relate to some of the ideas mentioned. 

Here's what Jay had to say:

Dave Cool (yes, that IS his real name) from Montreal has produced a great film called "What Is Indie?"   I think it's extraordinarily insightful look into the concept of what being "independent" is really all about, and a amazingly well-done documentary in general, particularly since it is Dave's first movie!

Faith Ringgold: 30 Years of Art-Making and Activism and Video Clip on Women Artists

Click here to listen to a very brief interview

Over the weekend, I attended the Technology in the Arts Conference in Pittsburgh where artist and activist Faith Ringgold was one of the keynote speakers.  Her talk was called "More than 30 Years in ArtMaking."   I had a chance to do a quick video interview with her about her thoughts on women artists.

It was a survey lecture, beginning with her work in the sixities and first-hand accounts of the civil rights movement in her "American People Series"  right up to her current work.  Her talk was inspiring and often humorous, sharing her stories to illustrate her life's work as an artist, activist, author, teacher, and parent.   

She spoke about advocating for women artists in the 1970's and the artistic works that emerged from that activism, like the one below, titled For the Woman's House.  She noted, "In the 60's, it was about answering the question "What is black art?"   In the 70s, what is women's art?  Why are women so important in visual art?"  (Listen to the interview for the answer to those questions)



My favorite group of paintings were the ones she did in Europe copying the masters and integrating African American history, culture, and icons.  She shared how in art school she had to copy the European masters and wasn't introduced to black artists.   When she had opportunity to travel to Europe for an extended visit, she decided to visit the places where the masters worked and the masterpieces and record her versions incorporating black artists.   They are brilliant!

• Dancing at the Louvre
• The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles
• The Moroccan Holiday

As she took us through a timeline of her work, she pointed out how she experimented with different mediums and genres and even invented a few.  She has created "quilts" on canvas and  evolved this technique into a story quilt, where she wrote the story in words she wanted to tell on the canvas so it couldn't be interpreted by someone else.   She has created sculpture, mosaics, paintings, stories, and children's stories and coloring books.

The coloring book, How the People Became Color Blind, was a series of sketches and a children's story that teachers have used all over the country.    This story is about being color blind, or free of color prejudice-- one of the most difficult things to achieve in our society.  At the end, the book asks readers: How do you deal with this problem in your life? Could you write a story?  Could you draw a picture? What do you think of How the People Became Color Blind?

She shared some of her paintings, inspired by seeing the different work that children all over the world has done and read from the story.  (I captured some of this on video and in my raw notes in an earlier raw notes post.)  You can order a copy of the book and paintings on CD from Faith Ringgold's site.

She made a few jokes about missing her slide projector and having to use powerpoint and a MacIntosh, but I was impressed that a woman in her 70's was so comfortable with the technology.  She mentioned at the end she was interested in creating video games for girls and based on what I heard and saw during the keynote, I hope she pursues that interest.

There's a growing number of artists, like Mary Flanagan who is on the board of Games for Change, interested in games.  According to Benjamin Stokes, co-founder of Game sfor Change, the NSF has funded several game projects aimed at girls.  There are also some women organized commercial developers and a few blogs covering the topic, like Game Girl Advance, particularly Brenda Laurel who is covered in some detail here.

Faith Ringgold: More than

Faith Ringgold gave an inspiring and humorous lecture shared many human stories that illustrate her life's work as an artist, activist, author, teacher and parent through the evolution of a body of work that contains more than 100 paintings. I was struck by a project on her web site, a coloring book for kids about being color blind.   I did an interview with her where she explains the project and I captured a short clip of her reading the story as part of the lecture. Visit her site:

http://www.faithringgold.com
Flickr photo set has more of her images.

I took notes in a very strane way because I was learning how to use my new camera and the presentation was very visual.  So, I took down quotes that caught my attention and tried to link to the photos she was describing.   I was taking photos of powerpoint slides projected on the screen and do not so the work justice.  Go to her web site, go to the Guggenheim Museum where her work is displayed.  See her work live and in person.

Can't make art by anyone else's rules - flag

Power isn't something that people give you, you take it for yourself - black power stamp

Black is beautiful.  I changed my pallette.  I started using a black canvas.   Wanted you to be able to read it.  There's more to than "just a flag."  Read the words in the flag.

Musuems buy paintings and don't sell right away because if they buy early - make money.
The United States of Attica - she gave away for college kids to raise money.  Today they are worth a lot of money. 

In the 70's added sculpture.   You have to do different types of work.  Each type of work, brings a different audience.

In 1980, if painted on canvas and didn't stretch it, it became a quilt.   I could handle them.  I didn't need three guys and a truck.   I could do it myself.  Phillip Morris bought the collection of works.  First exhibiton of quilts.  What makes your work different?  What have you come up with that is new?

In the 60's, the question was what is black art?  In the 70s, what is women's art?  Why are women so important in visual art?   12 different artists - the collection was smart as hell.  They bought the works for $2,000 each - we want our quilts back.

A retrospective can be a funeral for the artists - you show your work and you don't know where to go.  I showed a quilt that was a storybook.  I thought it would be a book.   Tell stories from the images.   I wrote the story because I didn't want people to figure it out and I wasn't gonna be there to tell them.  Someone called it a "story quilt" and I was off and running.

1986 was my first autobiography quilt.  Declaration to loose 100 pounds.  I lost 80.

Sonny Rollins = Sonny's quilt.  She grew up with him.   Would play his music in his closet so he wouldn't disturb neighbors.  He was her inspiration.   He was on the edge blowing his horn - it was like women who need the fortitude to succeed.

Women on the Bridge - Did six in that series.  In 1988 - about the 30's because no ac.  Go on the roof to be cool.  Adults would tell stories and we would listen.  Play cards.  That what the quilt is about.  Asked her to donate to the Guggenheim Museum.   She didn't think the museum would accept it.  They did.  It gets loans out a lot.  On the walls of Guggenheim Museum, it is the most frequently requested work in their collection to loan to other institutions.   They've never given her a show!   They are so busy loaning it out.

Tar Beach - children's book.  It was about my life. 1991.  I had to write my story.  I started writing on my art.  They take a picture of the work, they take a photo of the words unedited.  Been writing my words since 1980, by 1991 - I got the book.  It takes a long time.  It takes a long time for everything.  It wasn't fast, but once it happens you forget how long it took.  When it doesn't happen, you don't forget.

To write and publish, you need a good editor and good agent.  They kept giving me suggestions.  I was inspired by the editors and the warm reception.   

You got to know what happened in order to know the future and where to go.  You don't want a future that inadvertantly repeat the past.  That's why she wrote about Harriet Tubman.  Kids aren't learning about slavery.

The hard part is the writing.  With kids books, you have to come to it and get it over.  Kids books read over and over again.  Bnjour Lonnie - only book out of print.

Subway Commisson - there's a lot of art in the subway.  It makes the subway look great.  Flying Home Series.  A lot of fun to do,  Will be there long after I'm gone and you too.  This was mosaic.  A great opportunity.

Copied European masterpieces in school.  Wasn't introduced to black artists.   Dancing at Louvre.  We were taught to copy them.  When I had an opportunity to go to Europe and stay for extended period of time.  I had a chance to do work.  I'm going to give back what I learned from masters.   A lot of black artists when to Europe in the 20's --- a visual artist like Josephine Baker.  She marries a french.  He dies. He leaves her everything.  An artist needs support.  I did 12 images

I went to Arles.  I looked at Van Gogh's yellow house.  I went to each place where I did the painting.  I went by Gertrude Stein's house.   She was a great art collector.  Lots of people like this series.  Cafe de Artistes -  made the painting.  Her husband left her the cafe - so it was a saloon that wasn't stuffy.

We came to America - not quite in this way.   They are on a slave ship and jump overboard.  The statue of liberty was originally was an African woman.  The sculptor copied the image from his mother.  In france, there are images of African woman.  The symbol of freedman.

Great great grandmother - Susie Shannon - been trying to tell her story.  Survived slavery and lived to over 100.

All moma's can't sing.  You can't kill people when they are singing.  You have to pay attention to that magic.

How the people became colorblind.   www.faithringgold.com

Interview with Donald Marinelli from CMU

 

Interview with Donald Marinelli - Parents and their kids - web2.0 advice

The keynote started off with a welcome from Cary Morrow and a brief awards ceremony.   Howard Wright and Phillip Horn received awards for their visionary efforts in forming CAMT, ArtsNet, and furthering the field of arts management and technology.

Wondeful quote from Dan Martin:

"Wouldn't it be great (1994), if applicants could submit their applications on a floppy disk."

The keynote speaker was Donald Marinelli, Ph.D,  and Executive Producer of the
Entertainment Technology Center at CMU.

It's obvious that his background was drama.  He gave an entertaining talk about how technology has made this generation very different, his center's work, and why it was important for arts people to get involved with technology.

Here's the main points:

New technologies have triggered a vertiable tectonic shift in global culture marked by:

1. Accelaration of generational change
2. Altered perception of time and plantary space
3. Desire for multiple points of view
4. Multi-sensorial state of being
5. Post literate experientially focused generation
6. Primacy of the marketplace and myriad other fundamental changes in societa comportment

He was hilarious .. so I took down some of the best jokes ..

"I have a work study student to turn on my computer.  The idea of founding something with technology was quite a leap for me.  If you approached me in 1981 when I first arrived and told me that I would head up technology center , I'd say pass the pipe."

"The technology has created a new generation that isn't like us - a new race of human beings that might not be humans."

"Digital natives, 21st Century Youth.  Warning they are not like us!  If you are in the business of education or arts, what degree do we know this future generation?  Do we know how much technology has transformed who they are?"

"This generation believes that Matrix was a documentary. Is their frame of reference to believe that Matrix is true. '

"The distinction between entertainment and education -- there isn't one.  He uses his drama background to teach.  It is about justifying your attention to me."

"You the students know more than I do the professor.   Until that confession is made we will be shackled by our ignorance and pride.  I say to my students, you know more about video than I do,  but  I know more about other things.  Education has to be a partnership. As an aging hippy, I like this."

"Have our brains changed or just our perception of time?  You can't do anything in seven minutes accept a little afternoon delight.  LIfe before the microwave.  Baked potatoes - don't have time.   Technology is enhancing this perception of lack of time."

"Kids don't find museums engaging.  We need to turn them into interactive educational centers they should be.  Why don't schools adopt musueums.  My dream is for first graders go out on strike.  With signs  that say "Hell no.  We won't just sit and listen.  We want to be interactive."

"I really don't know what I am doing and it feels great."

Technology in the Arts Conference:Funding Technology Projects

The session was called "Funding Technology Projects" and was moderated by Jeff Forster.  It includes two funders, Doreen E. Boyce from the Buhl Foundation and Christopher J.  Mackie from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.   I interviewed Christopher J. Mackie following the session.  Here's the first segment about how to keep up with learning about technology.

Some key points that resonated:

• Mackie spoke about the issue of nonprofits keeping up to speed in technology and how difficult it was.  He notes, "It isn't possible for one person to keep up. You need your peers.  You need a network.  Find your peers who are in a similar situation and it doesn't have to be another arts organization.  Find your peers and share knowledge."
• Be aware of vendor-driven solutions.  Get the vendors out of the picture and start with your strategic goals.
• We never bought you typewriters, so don't ask for computers.   What are you going to do with the technology?  The outcomes are important.
• Documentation of your project is important and get it disseminated so other people can benefit from your knowledge.
• What comes first, technology or change?  Chicken and egg.  Change for change sake is not good. You need educate people on your board/staff - there will be resistence. 
• Technology literacy is important --- and in order gain literacy you need get people to put fingers to keyboard.  They don't have to be experts, but comfortable.  It helps if there is a technology savvy person who can help in the crisis, but they must be someone who can speak to people in a engaging way about technology.
• Don't get captured by vendors. It is important that your needs don't get overlooked in the relationship.   That's why Open Source is a good way to go - you don't get locked in.
• Vendors are not evil.  Some of them are the best people we know - but it is about the relationship and your interests and needs first.
• Social costs of technology are vastly higher than the box.  The costs of training, replacement, keeping, staffing, etc.
• Business for Open source a.) Heiress or Patron  2.) Consortium.  Farmers Coop is the analogy

Jeff Forster mentioned that his survey of nonprofit technology benchmarks - comparable data from the last six years - the next segment comes out next week!

Tagging in an Art Museum Context

The Art Museum Social Tagging Project is a group of art museums is looking at integrating folksonomies into the museum Web by developing a working prototype for tagging and term collection, and outlining directions for future development and research that could benefit the entire museum community.   

The project uses a tool named STEVE, an open-source tool for enabling social tagging of museum object images to create folksonomies.   I first heard about this project last November and thought I might check in on it.

A new proof of concept paper was just presented. 

Some notes:

Why social tagging could be useful in a museum context:

Museums want audiences to engage with their collections and ideas, but recognize that traditional methods of unidirectional on-line and in-gallery communications have limited access and dialog. Supporting social tagging of museum collections, and providing access based on the resulting folksonomy, opens museum collections to new interpretations that reflect visitors’ perspectives rather than institutional ones. This co-operation between museums and visitors bridges the gap between the professional language of the curator and the popular language of the museum visitor, and helps individuals see their personal meanings and perspectives in public collections.

This is the part of the paper that I found most interesting:

Museums want their communities to connect with their collections. Projects that explore this challenge, encourage users to interpret works of art by placing them in their personal narrative. Built on constructivist educational theory, that emphasizes personal meaning-making and a user-centered focus in the development on-line and in-gallery experiences, these projects strive to provide a unique and compelling engagement with works of art. S

ocial tagging appeals to museums because it embodies these self-directed learning philosophies: tagging is a dialog between the viewer and the work, and the viewerand the museum. A tag is a user’s assertion that a work of art is about something. Tagging offers a way for people to connect directly with works of art, to own them by labeling or naming them – one of the aspects of sensemaking.

Tagging also lets users assert personal perspectives and associations between objects. Small individual efforts aggregate into unique pathways through a complex context. Embracing these alternative perspectives is a significant departure for museums, reflecting a growing understanding of museums’ places in a diverse community, and a desire to enable social engagement.

Tagging in a museum context may differ from social bookmarking because of pre-existing types of social relationships. Tagging projects could help foster and maintain links with specialized groups like volunteers and docents, or support the work of teachers and students. Rather than being motivated by personal gain, a socialaltruism kicks in.  This is reflected in the way the Cleveland Museum of Art links to its on-line tagging tool: “Help others find this object”. 

Tagging is a personal investment in the museum’s collection. The visitor adds value for the museum, for themselves, and for other visitors by revealing distinct perspectives and communities. Museums can use analysis of tags to learn more about their visitors and to support their use of collections. We readily imagine tag-powered visualizations that exploit relationships between tags and existing museum documentation, or more ‘fun’ tools (like flickr Tag Fight. Sharing common tags, or pushing a “feed” of works of art based on tag subscriptions, could also facilitate the personal exploration of collections and offer more active connections between museums and users.

Blogging as professional development

Mark D. Wagner writes the Educational Technology and Life Blog - his tagline "Context-embedded, Inquiry-driven, and Socially-negotiated Learning."  Anyway, his blog was one of the first edtech blogs I started to follow and he emailed me recently to let me know he has a new domain and wordpress blog.

So, I popped over to land on a post about burn out ... and the lack of time.  I've been preparing a story about nonprofit blogging and professional development based on a colleague's experience in Cambodia for an upcoming NTC panel -- so I was stroke by his words:

"I feel as if half the learning I’ve done while in my phd program has
been facilitated by this blog. I certainly would not have connected
with the experts and practitioners that I have without it. But, on the
flip side… there are several hours each week (sometimes each day) that
I am spending on reading feeds and writing about them) that I could be
putting toward my phd, and this balance may need to shift back to the
phd for the next year."

It made me think about this post-it note that I photographed from a workshop ten years ago ... with art teachers on the issue of integrating digital tools into their instruction.    I used this technique called the "Wall of Reflection" and put up butcher block paper with the topics.   After we each section, I encouraged them to reflect on experience and share via post it notes.   The reflection question was about how the challenge of transfer - how will you take the skills you've learned today in powerpoint or photoshop or whatever the hell I was teaching and integrate them into your life.

I think about the issue of integrating blogging into my daily life .. and constant balancing act that Mark describes.  It's about balance.   Blogging for professional development - your own professional development can give you the time and space to reflect before and after experiences.  (As well as connect you to other practictioners and experts in your field.)

More Nonprofit Podcasts

Via the message forums on TechSoup

The Alzheimer Society of Ontario recently launched a podcast series called Talk for
Memories.  It features people with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers. The half-dozen podcasts were rolled out in January and February as part of the publicity for fundraising activites held in 46 communities across Ontario.   According to the post, the authors believes it was the first Canadian healthcare charity to offer a podcast.  Here's the link:  http://www.alzheimerontario.org/talkformemories to listen in on the series.

I must have miss this, but I also learned that Britt Bravo joined the ranks of nonprofit podcasters with her first podcast.  It is an interview with Ali Chagi-Starr, an arts activist with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights' Reclaim the Future Program.     In the TechSoup forum, Britt tells us about the free tool she used, gcast, to create her podcast.

A few days ago, I got an email from Seth Mazow with a question about how to record a SKYPE call.  I thought Marshall Kirkpatrick has recorded our interview via SKYPE, but just remembered that it was Corey from the 501C3Cast.  (Darn, maybe that AARP invitation in the mail wasn't a mistake!)

Marshall suggested:

Audio Hijack Pro (for MAC)

For Outlook users, Skylook.  It reportedly the best way to do it, records VOIP to MP3 and saves it in your Outlook account. 

Nancy White used AudioAcrobat to record our conference calls for the online facilitation workshop, but not sure if she used SKYPE.

I know that Nick Noakes records via SKYPE, but don't know what tools he uses ...

So, any recommendations out there?  The question is:  What is the best way to record an interview conducted via a SKYPE call?  What are some practices for editing?

Welcome to the Blogosphere: Julia Fabris McBride

A few years ago when I was working for the Online Arts Leadership project with the New York State Alliance for Arts Organizations and Cornell University,  I met Julia Fabris McBride. At the time, she was deputy director for programming at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation (IAAF).  She has since started her own consultanting company, Community Collaborations.

I have not heard from her in a while, but she just sent an email telling me aobut her new blog.  In March 2006 Julia and her husband, architect William A. McBride will make their long-anticipated move to Matfield Green, a town of 70 people in the heart of Flint Hills of Kansas.

Technorati Tags: arts, artsadministration, artsmanagement

New Museum Blog: Mode

Mode is a new                   space on the web dedicated to exploring museums, objects, design                   and exhibitions. A work in progress, it is intended that mode                   will act as a space for open dialogue, evolving at the hands                   of its authors and contributors.

How did I discover this new blog?   Well ....

Britt Bravo at Netsquared posted on the community blog about museums and podcasting.  I posted a pointer to some past posts I've done on the topic.  The author of mode left a comment and their url.   

So what are you waiting for - set up your community blog at netsquared.org and connect with nonprofits interested in the new web technology.

And in the spirit of full disclosure -- I recently did a small project for Netsquared, a Net Tuesday toolkit.  However, I would have posted this post even if I didn't do a paid project for Net2, only because participating in community sites like this is a great way to connect with others, build your own blog audience, and discover new blogs to read.

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech, art_museums, museums, podcasting