Social Media Video Content

We talk a lot about IT related things that we've read, seen, or heard about on here. This week, I am posting about something I have been working on in conjunction with the Pink Line Project and the Arlington Arts Center to promote an event that I'm involved with - Critique the Critics. The idea behind the videos was to get people participating in the event to talk about each other, which would ultimately create some rather amusing content that could be published on social media sites (and have it be interesting for people to watch). Personally, I am far more likely to watch a short video than read a paragraph of text on a site like Facebook - I am fairly certain that others feel the same way.

Check out a few examples below:

http://vimeo.com/23301564
http://vimeo.com/23407576
http://vimeo.com/22924853

Leaf-Snap

http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/computer-science-and-biology-come-together-make-tree-identification-snap

This article discusses LeafSnap, a new program that allows people to take a picture of a leaf or other plant object, and within minutes get detailed information about the plant they are looking at. Although not directly related to the arts, imagine what this kind of program could do FOR the arts. If someone could take a picture of a painting or sculpture and not only get info on that particular piece, but an artist bio, other famous/related works, and suggestions on what else to look at. I think that if hand held devices are here to stay (which I'm pretty sure they are) apps/programs like this could be really helpful for museums and art galleries.

T. White

Who's Next?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/arts/news/article.cfm?c_id=544&objectid=10722762

An online arts website has launched a 3D view of 18 galleries across Australasia. The website will incorporate social media and exhibit information as a way for visitors to view the galleries and make reviews. Also, visitors can browse, purchase, and auction off items from these featured galleries. A new home for contemporary and modern arts, visitors can use this one-stop-shop website to find their art needs. This could end up being a very profitable business venture for the website owners especially once they expand their network.

Side Note: It would interest me to find out why most of these new technologies are coming from places outside of the U.S.

Virtual Global Dance Program

http://www.telepresenceoptions.com/2011/04/cisco_national_dance_institute/

Cisco, National Dance Institute and Tata communications have teamed up to create a virtual dance program for children across the world. In an effort to increase its reach, the National Dance Institute will offer dance and music programs virtually to school children across the globe. This will be the world's first virtual global dance program. Read the article to find out exactly how the technology works.

It's good to see American organizations expanding the scope of their programming to go outside of its neighboring communities to try to accomplish global impact. If proven successful, this technology could be the gateway to sharing and blending artist ideas across international lines.

Analogue artists defying the digital age

While most artists embrace the new digital age, this article discusses the stories of four artists who prefer dusty vinyl records, vintage film cameras, rickety typewriters and antiquated recording equipment. "The work of these artists is born of a dissatisfaction with digital culture's obsession with the new, the next, the instant. It values the hand-made, the detailed and the patiently skilful over the instantly upgradeable and the disposable."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/apr/24/mavericks-defying-digital-age

Establishing Your Presence Online

We talk a lot about the importance of establishing a presence for our organizations online. We discuss tips and tricks to improve our marketing reach and the effectiveness of our communications by using various social media tools like Facebook and Twitter - we don't pay enough attention to location tracking social media, though. I have recently been reading a fair amount about the importance of considering the value of location based tools like Foursquare, Facebook Places, and Google Places. Tools like Foursquare are now implementing new technology that will create suggestions for users based on past check-ins of the user and their friends. For any of you that use Foursquare, you already know that businesses utilize all kinds of incentives to increase check-in activity on this online platform - discounts on services, free cocktails, raffle prizes, and many other enticing things. Given the powerful marketing opportunities available through tools like these, we should think about ways to further engage members of our audience that already use some of the location tracking social media tools. Check out more about this on Technology for the Arts:

http://www.technologyinthearts.org/?p=1859#more-1859

Networked Nonprofits

With the variety of social media available, we often forget that being connected to too many media outlets may not necessarily be a good thing, especially if each of those social networks are not being properly maintained. The following article stresses:
"Putting the Networked Nonprofit ideas into practice and using social media and other emerging technologies will only be success if nonprofits take small, incremental and strategic steps. In this model, there are four different levels of social media practice: Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly. One level is not better than another; it is just where the organization is at with respect to becoming a networked nonprofit and agile at using social media and other emerging technologies."

http://www.bethkanter.org/c-w-r-f/