Rebecca Krause-Hardie: Web/Tech

Web/Tech

February 29, 2008

Museum and Web Conference MW2008

I recently found out about the Museum and Web Conference April 9-12 in Montreal from Shelly Bernstein.

Its produced by Archives & Museum Informatics which is a partnership of David Bearman and Jennifer Trant.

What's so interesting is that this has been around for quite some time, and I, being mostly hiding out in the orchestra world only just discovered it. It sounds like a great conference! Maybe I can go. We have a lot to learn from the Museum World!

Anyway, what got my attention, is this page..
which lists all these entries for their best of the web competition. I've already written about a couple of these sites, and they're really good. I think I have my blogging homework cut out for me....

January 14, 2008

Social Media Study Group!?!

Last week I was speaking with Beth Dunn, Communications Director of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod about social media. We were very excited about the idea of working together to explore and share our learnings about how cultural groups are using social media effectively.

It occurred to us that there were a number of people interested in this topic and we could create a central place for discussion and sharing.

So the idea of a group blog emerged. Beth Kanter suggested looking at tools like Tumblr that easily consolidates RSS feeds (or other content) into a single platform.

So I’d love to get a sense of how much this idea appeals to others and who might be interested in sharing their blog posts and thoughts.

Do you have another idea about how we might approach this idea?

Please post a comment and let me know!

Posted at 06:25 PM in museum, opera, orchestra, performing arts, Social Networking, Theatre, web 2.0, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

December 05, 2007

Brooklyn Museum Builds Community

Shelly Bernstein, Manager of Information Systems at the Brooklyn Museum shared some of her insights and approaches to the social network world with me recently. (Thank you to Elena Park at the Met for pointing me here!!)

Some of the key ideas that surfaced are:

Web communities are about communities (not necessarily marketing opportunities)
Be creative and flexible and …
Find the right activity for the right community
Street ‘credibility’ - walking the talk
Work and develop your social web presence organically
Finish what you start – (or don’t start)
Align your activities with your mission

Here’s how they’ve been doing this.

Web Communities are Communities
In 2006 the museum began to look around the web trying to understand what ‘community’ meant in that medium. Because the Museum’s institutional mission is centered around ‘the visitor experience and community,’ this was a key issue. They found that these communities on the web were ‘real’ communities like MySpace , Friendster, and Flickr. Says Bernstein,

“We thought that just like how we extend ourselves in our own backyard, we should do that online as well. We started to participate in the communities and the first thing that became clear is that these are real communities, and not necessarily marketing opportunities. For example, when we’re on Flickr, we answer questions, make sure comments get to the right people, and try to upload interesting content that people care about and really want to see.”

Be creative and flexible and … Just Do It
Since there was a freeze on the current site spending at the time, they looked at what could be done elsewhere that would be dynamic and interesting. They looked at each community and tried to understand what that community was about and what would be the right thing to do for that community.

FLICKR - Find the right activity for the right community

In summer of 2006 the Brooklyn Museum did a show on Graffiti.

“We had a canvas show of graffiti canvasses from our collection.” Continues Bernstein, “When it was installed, a blank wall was put up in the middle of the gallery where people could tag the wall. The changing nature of it was the very nature of graffiti - it would get covered over and covered over because there was so much traffic. Weekly we took pictures of this ever-changing wall and posted it to Flickr.

At the same time, we did an ‘interactive’ where people could take photos of graffiti in Brooklyn and post them on our Flickr profile. People were seeing the real theme that was happening in the street, and at the same time seeing the theme that was happening in the gallery, in addition to the works of art that were in the show.”

Another neat tool was an online drawing application to make virtual graffiti.

That is such a great example of what web 2.0 really means: participatory culture!

Later when they did a Ron Mueck exhibit this last fall, they took behind the scenes photos of Mueck loading in the art. It was hughly popular on Flickr. It goes back to the concept of posting content that people find interesting and engaging, rather then strict marketing.

“Similarly when we started our blog,” says Shelley, “the initial blogs were just a way to put up our postcards. When we really started to blog we turned around and said that wasn’t really interesting. We began to open up the internal process of the museum and provide content that people care about.”

Electronic Comment Book in the Gallery - Street ‘credibility’ - walking the talk

The idea of community has its roots in their gallery. For a long time they have had “Community Voice Labels.” They would get quotes from visitors from the community, and these would be put on the wall, next to the official label. It has a physical presence. Now they have an electronic comment book both in the gallery and online at the same time.

“‘Street cred’ … it’s not marketing, it’s community. It’s making that commitment, and if you make that commitment your audience, I hope will see it. And then you get credibility and they care. We see it in our testimonials.”
Comments

Statistics for sites like Flikr and YouTube show that fewer then 1% actually participates in adding content. The rest are just looking. The participation is building. Bernstein says that, “We’re half way into the show and already have 300 comments. We’re building an audience. If you look at some of our older shows, we had fewer comments. This looks good to us.”

Finish what you start – (or don’t start)

“It’s a sizable commitment. If people are going to do this it’s a real commitment, and once you’ve jumped in, you have to keep on going. You have to have the time and commitment to do this right, otherwise, don’t do it at all.”

Bernstein notes, “Someone contacts us and says ‘We want to do a Myspace page just for this show.’ I ask them ‘Why? You spend this effort to build an audience and then just leave them.’ It makes no sense.”

It’s a community effort within the museum to build and maintain their social and web activities. Much of the Flickr content is provided by the education department, interns, and other staff, though all is updated by the IT department. The blog is different because there are many authors and its a direct publish - it doesn’t go through the Editorial, or Public Information Departments, but trust that the authors will follow the policies that have been set up. For projects that are directly related to exhibitions, the curators, the interpretive materials manager, and education are all involved.

ArtShare on FaceBook -Work and develop your social web presence organically

The Brooklyn Museum just developed a new application for FaceBook called ArtShare. This seemed like the right thing to do to engage with their community on this social site. ArtShare allows people to take the art they like and put it on their profile. The application is open and other Museums are using it to add art from their collections. In fact artists are encouraged to upload their own work too.

“The ideas often come up organically, we look at the exhibition schedule and talk about what might be appropriate. We have a conversation (internally), and then maybe come back to it a week or two later. The FaceBook idea came up really quickly, and we decided to do it. Almost all these things happen pretty fast and pretty organically. And I hope that that also comes across because it’s something that we try to do really hard here.”

VIDEO COMPETITON on YouTube - Align your activities with your mission
“…Dedicated to the primacy of the visitor experience…”

As with the other social networking sites, the team asked “What was the right kind of thing for YouTube?” “You have to define what the community is interested in and do that as opposed to constantly pushing your own stuff,” says Shelley. While they do have their own content there, they feel it’s really also about what other people produce. “Its funny,” says Shelley, “when you look at the videos that were part of the competition, they have way more hits than anything we put on YouTube.”

Bernstein is doing a great job on the transparency side too. Here are some pointers on the lessons learned from their video competition.

And let me know if you are doing something interesting and I'll write about it here!

Posted at 08:51 PM in Brooklyn Museum, FaceBook, Flickr, museum, Social Networking, Video, web 2.0, Web/Tech, YouTube | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 04, 2007

Pittsburgh Symphony - Build on Institutional Strengths

Psologo

Like most performing arts groups, budgets are tight at the Pittsburgh Symphony, so projects that can be done by volunteers, or as part of someone’s day to day job, or require limited funds, have been the primary focus. This is not to say the senior staff is not interested in social networking tools. Larry Tamburri, the PSO President, is strongly in favor of exploring activities like blogging. A number of basic projects have been undertaken including podcasts, blogs, MySpace Page, video posts to YouTube, as well as some more unique projects like web talk shows, and blog fests.

Lauver_robert A strong team atmosphere as well as some key volunteers has been crucial. Says Jeff Tsai, Director of Corporate Support & Special Projects, “A wonderful resource in the orchestra is horn player Bob Lauer. He’s accustomed to bringing a camcorder into places we go or when interesting things are going on.

"For instance we recently played Messiaen's Turangalîla featuring the weird and wonderful instrument, the Ondes Martenot. Bob filmed this whole behind-the-scenes video for YouTube, with a good portion of the brass section and the Ondes Martenot player talking about what it is, and how it works.

WEB TALK SHOWS

“Bob’s also been involved with our web talk shows. We use a technology called ‘Talkshoe’, developed by a former Pittsburgh Symphony Board member, which allows people to host web-based talk shows. After a recent concert, the horn section remained on stage and hosted the show. People could call in, email or use a ‘chat’ function to pose their questions. At the end of the show, an MP3 of the event provided a ready-made podcast. The Talkshoe model also includes a revenue sharing feature that generates ad income for the host, based on traffic to the site.”

BLOGS and VIDEO INTERVIEWS

“We also have four blog hosts for our site. When we originally started our work, we wanted it to be a little different - not just having voices from within the orchestra, but invite outside opinion. The original purpose was to drive more web traffic, and therefore more foot traffic to the symphony. We had this naive idea that the involvement of volunteer writers would somehow duplicate the role of newspapers - magically at 1:00 am after a concert, blogs would appear about the concert, people would flood the site to read and comment, and ticket sales would soar. In reality, blog posts are often a week or more after an event, too late to drive traffic. If one takes away the ‘volunteer’ aspect it derails the purpose of having the blog. In the abstract we hope that the audience wants to read everything, but ultimately it’s the author’s individual voices that are interesting, not the organization.

Other projects have included hosting “blog fests” where members of the local blogging community are invited to come to concerts and then write about them on their blogs. IT Manager, Kevin DeLuca created short videos of upcoming events featuring musicians in the orchestra. For example, Principal Bassoonist, Nancy Goeres talks about the special role the bassoon plays in the Rite of Spring, both the genuine excitement, and real fear, around the unusual solos.

BUILDING LOYALTY

While there is not “risk capital” available for more extensive social networking activities at this time, there do seem to be some openings falling into place within the framework of their overall institutional goals. One of these goals is to build loyalty and create value through life long relationships (from the point of first contact, to their bequest). Key elements include: combining all the institutional relationships with a given household into one unit, building commitment, and creating easy and intuitive ways to connect with the symphony.

Social networking activities could be a perfect fit.

Posted at 07:24 PM in Music, orchestra, performing arts, Social Networking, TalkShoe, web 2.0, Web/Tech, Weblogs, YouTube | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 10, 2007

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA – Always keep your core values in focus

As I listen to Elena Park, Assistant Manager for Editorial & Creative Content at the Metropolitan Opera, talk about what is currently going on at the Met, I can’t help but think of Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, and his idea that everyone should get on the bus and go in the same direction, with Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs).

Whether it is Web 2.0, wig design or Playbill content, everything at the Met (and they really mean everything) comes back to core guiding principles. Says Park,

“Our thinking about the web ties in with the overall philosophy of the Met under the leadership of Peter Gelb. Peter wants to take away the veil of formality that envelops the Met. It’s really about access and opening up this place, which has so many stories and so much behind-the-scenes drama.”

Gelb has made a huge commitment to opening up the Met to a broader public, and to sharing its great stories and music, without compromising artistic content.

This is an adjustment for some, and it requires an understanding on the part of the artists and directors to open up and reveal what is happening before opening night or dress rehearsals.

Ms. Park notes, however, that both cast and crew have “been game,” explaining how they used a sports model for their radio and HD broadcasts:

“We’re interviewing them live during intermission. It’s a new experience and it’s very exciting. We don’t always know what is going to happen. This new approach is very much in keeping with Peter’s background as a producer for the Met in the 80’s. People are excited, and they are responding. One of the most memorable experiences was giving away 3000 tickets for our first Open House. People were walking around backstage, and there was such a thrill generated internally by seeing all the people that wanted to come to the Met.”

This energy translates into people buying more tickets, and the Met reaching a broader audience. After 5 years of steadily declining ticket sales, this year the Met box office was up 7%.

At the Met, everything is rolled out from a central governing approach. When they think about questions like: “How do we use Web 2.0? How do we take advantage of all the technology available to us to have a social conversation and link people?” they are also asking, “What does a live HD transmission mean in terms of stage lighting, or more generally giving people access?”

The Met’s website was revamped last year. The first phase of this project was to convert the site from a purely ticketing and sales oriented vehicle to an editorial destination. The site is rich with editorial and media content, including multi-media interviews with artists and directors, in-depth articles, video and audio clips, blog posts with insider perspectives on upcoming productions, as well as links to their “Live in HD” broadcast series and Sirius Radio Channel.

A key part of the Met’s new strategy is forging links with contemporary culture. Park says that “cultural conversation pieces” that appear on the website or in Met publications will help people find points of access to opera and to the Met.

“

People might not be thinking about going to the Met website, but find their way there through these [other] links and connections… Much of our content appeals both to the connoisseur as well as to people that might come across it inadvertently. That might be the interview with Academy Award–winning filmmaker Anthony Minghella in his role as director of the new production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, or the challenges Anna Netrebko faced in performing the ‘mad scene’ in I Puritani.”

The Metropolitan Opera’s web traffic has increased over 37% from a year ago, and online sales have gone up over 25% in the same time period, so it’s clear that they are meeting with some success. But meeting the challenges of accessing a broader audience through the Met is a constant process.

As Park notes:

“What we’re working on now is the next phase of our web presence. We‘re thinking about how it can be more interactive, have a greater sense of community, and link the international network of opera lovers together. We have extensive media agreements that allow us tremendous flexibility to utilize our huge archives of video and audio footage.
Things we need to be focusing on – whether that’s making the Met’s MySpace site a cool destination, or creating more forums for conversations and discussions – are all about creating this sense of community.”

One of the things that is challenging not only for the Met, but for any arts organization, is acquiring and responding to audience feedback. If you have an open forum where people are talking about performances or repertoire, you want it to be free flowing. At the same time, particularly with opera, people have very strong and sometimes over-the-top opinions. The Brooklyn Museum, Park says, was able to create an open forum and in so doing, earned praise from audiences and industry insiders alike. Guided by the understanding that is important to invite conversation that is entertaining as well as enlightening, the Met is garnering similar praise.

This holistic approach, Park says, is a reflection of the Met’s “core values.” Park believes that an important part of this new strategy is their web presence, saying,

“Our web strategy reflects our identity. When things are considered more holistically, the results in the long term will be better. If an idea is great, it will work on every level – whether that be artistic, fundraising or marketing. If we try something new – like HD – and people respond, then funding falls into place. If the product is compelling and the buzz is really good, and if you are able to talk about it in every single form in which you are communicating with the public, then you’ve met your goal: a positive audience response. At the end of the day, if you give people captivating images and fascinating stories, then naturally they will be interested in buying tickets.”

Posted at 12:19 PM in metropolitan opera, Music, opera, performing arts, Social Networking, web 2.0, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 18, 2007

American Symphony Orchestra League Joins Web 2.0

Last week the American Symphony Orchestra League, (League) announced that it was beginning an online conversation around Engaging Audiences. This is in preparation for the League's conference June 20-23.

During the conference, the main Plenary session will be devoted to an interactive discusion with Bill Ivey.

Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life is the soon-to-be released book co-edited by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper. It forges a new framework for understanding the momentous changes in America's cultural life; challenging old ways of thinking, raising probing questions, and uncovering deep and important currents in how Americans engage with arts and culture.

Leading up to the conference Arts Journal, is hosting a blog with a conversation around the question:

The ways in which people are accessing and interacting with art are changing. Suddenly the traditional rules don't seem to apply and people are demanding different things from artists and arts instututions. So what do these changes mean and how do the traditional arts adapt to them.

About a dozen folks have been invited to seed a conversation and engage others in the dialogue. This dialogue is planned to continue during the actual session, with web access and Q&A online during the session. It should be a lively (and hopefully not to distracting) time!

This is a very positive action by the League and hopefully will encourage others to participate, not only in the dialogue but also in the online world.

This is the 2nd of the blog efforts of the League; Henry Fogel, President of the League, has been occasionally writing a column in Arts Journal for about 6 months or so called On The Record.

Its great to see the League getting involved in the online dialogues and discussions. I'm looking forward to seeing that become a multi directional conversation.

Posted at 01:11 PM in Music, orchestra, performing arts, web 2.0, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 05, 2007

Performing Arts & Web 2.0 Basics Preamble

Why Performing Arts and Web 2.0? I'll get to that, but probably not this post.

First the confessions - I am a luddite... I don’t hate looms, but I do hate technology, mostly because it doesn't do what it says, it isn't intuitive, and often has a high learning curve. (I now have a MAC and that helps!) For me there were 2 moments which where transformational for me in this regard.... that is, when I switched from loving technology to despising it.

In the early 80's I was working for Somerset Wine Company as an accountant (self-taught of course - but with a great mentor - Percy). I was a wiz at reconciling the books - a task no other in the company was able to do... The computer system was card driven... All these big stacks of 2 x 8 cards that were fed into the big thing – God forbid they get dropped and out of order! We got our first desk-top - it had one drive that had 16K. Later we got one with 2 drives: One drive for the program file and the other for our data. Way cool! Multiplan was the best thing ever! (Yikes - I didn’t realize it was from Microsoft til just this moment…. )

We got DBase. Whoohoo! What an amazing program. I spent months learning it and becoming a master. Then.... Transformation One: Then dBaseII came out, and there was not one little tiny itsy bitty thing that was the same about it. In other words it felt like all those months I had spent, while useful in learning basics of databases, had to be thrown out, and I had to start over again from scratch. That was painful.

We learned Multiplan, then LOTUS! Boy was that great.... I learned macros and all sorts of nifty stuff. It was all so new and exciting! I moved to another company, and then they didn't have Lotus. Well I did, but everyone else had Excel. While I retained all my basic spreadsheet wisdom, gone were all the macros, and other neat deep down stuff.

It was so frustrating to spend time learning and mastering something, only to have it disappear and be replaced by the next greatest thing. Discerning minds had to make decisions.

What was my goal? Keeping up with being the best at all the latest technology... or was it something else? Something else was the goal.

At the time, technology was just a tool for me. As Orchestra Manager of the Detroit Symphony, I was working on budget forecasts at a time when the dollars out far exceeded the dollars in. “How were we going to survive this week” was the burning issue. No time for trying to re-create that macro in Excel.

So I became technology stupid. Stuff needed to work within say 5 minutes… 20 max. Otherwise, call in the husband. Go out for an Americano. I could no longer afford to invest in becoming the expert at stuff that was not core to the mission.

Fast Forward. My Job has become helping performing arts use technology effectively. Now I know a little about a very lot. I’ve extended my 20 minutes max rule from time to time, and have taken to heart Beth Kanter’s technostress coping strategies.

The point of all this, is that we have to always keep in mind the goal, and see how the technology can help us not consume us. When is it for us to be strategic, and do the big picture thing, and when do we hire a hand to help with the nitty gritty. What is quite wonderful is seeing the great and helpful teammates and colleagues sharing their wisdom and resources on the web. We’ll be counting on them as we move forward into building our Web 2.0 Strategy Plan!

Posted at 01:45 PM in orchestra, performing arts, web 2.0, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 15, 2007

Arts and Web 2.0

Okay, so the topic is community building in the arts field.

A few arts groups are starting to use web 2.0 tools as part of their internet and electronic presence. This is good. I visited a few sites that have what I'd call progressive staff and leaders. To me this translates into openess to experiment and reach out in new ways. Today here's a little about the Detroit Symphony.

At the Detroit Symphony, they've added a bunch of web 2.0 features over the last few months. These include a My Space page with lots of activity and over 1000 friends! Thats cool. Content includes several engaging music clips, animated photos of DSO musicians, the hall, and upcoming events. The upcoming events can be added to your myspace calendar and of course includes links to buy tickets. Don't miss the Video Games LIVE on Jul 8

There are just a couple of Podcasts. The page is nicely set up with lots of helpful links for every kind of rss feed you can think of as well as an intro page about what those feeders do and how to use them. (I've now added a feed to my Google Reader.) Their blog is current and informational, though not real personal (yet?) Its well laid out, and has nice graphics. (Branford is coming on Thursday.)

And Click and Give. Most arts groups have donation pages deep down in the inner workings of their site. This quick link on the home page goes directly to a Groudspring Donation Page. I hope that's working out well - its a good idea. (I've just been hearing some grumblings about Groundspring today.)

Well that's the short story. Back soon with some insights about their strategies and plans.

Posted at 09:00 PM in Music, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rebecca Krause-Hardie

Social Media, Web 2.0 and the Arts
A Place for Exploring and Discussion
Inside Views of Arts Organizations that are using these Tools Effectively