Exhibiting Online with Open Source Software

Has your organization been giving some thought to creating online components for its upcoming exhibitions? The demand for having exhibition-related content available online is not only increasing, it has grown into an expectation. Web publishing can be a costly process for many arts organizations, especially if a web developer and designer is required for each exhibition.  A more cost-friendly alternative is to consider using open-source, publishing software for creating collections and exhibitions online. Here are two currently available, free downloadable options designed specifically with cultural institutions in mind:

Omeka – Launched this past year, Omeka was designed by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Omeka features a variety of themes and plugins while offering a management system similar to that of the blogging site Wordpress. Here is a great video tour of the software.

Collective Access – Also utilizing a management system similar to many blogging platforms, Collective Access was developed by software firm Whirl-i-Gig in 2007. Click here to demo the software.

Both sites offer links to exhibition sites built with their software, which are worth checking out to see what’s possible using these open source systems.

So what is open-source software, anyway? A software is considered open source when the firm who created the software makes the source code available to the public and opts out of certain other copyrights that are normally reserved.  This means that any user can alter, customize and develop for that software as they sit fit to meet their project’s needs. An important thing to keep in mind is that in the tradition of open source software, the user must share this new, modified code with the public as well.

Before your organization goes forward with publishing an exhibition or collection online with this kind of software, there are some questions you should consider:

What is the user experience like?

No two web publishing software systems are exactly alike, so make sure to take a detailed tour before committing to one.  A clean and simple user interface will drastically shorten training time for your staff and save a lot of future headaches if you pursue more complex projects. Omeka and Collective Access are both strong examples since each offers a blog-like user-interface specifically designed with cultural institutions in mind.

Omeka offers services that cover a wide range of needs for cultural institutions

An example of how Collective Access allows you to build relationships between items in your online collection.

How much storage will you need?

What kind of content and media will your project involve? What kind of storage and back-up will be needed? Remember that server space is essential, whether it’s your organization’s internal server, a web-hosting service’s server, or buying some space from a server provider online. In addition to their software, Omeka offers a web-hosting service with different plans priced according to number of sites and the amount of storage needed.

How easy is it to customize?

This goes back to the importance of taking a detailed demo of the software. Many of the platforms have multiple themes available to make the task of designing your organization’s site a lot easier. However, you should test the platform to determine how difficult it will be to change those themes and customize them to fit your organization’s unique brand image without requiring the help of a web designer.

What kind of support is there for the software?

When an open source software is downloaded and installed on your server, all of the support and maintenance responsibilities for that software rests with your organization. A server provider will be able to fix bugs and issues specific to your server, but maintaining the software is up to you. Omeka and Collective access offer extensive documentation and guides as well as online forums, but support and troubleshooting are left to you. This is one of the advantages to Omeka’s hosted option; they will provide service support for both server and software issues.

How is the software upgraded?

When the system you use comes out with a new version, who installs the upgrade? How easily can an upgrade in the software be installed and configured? With both Omeka and Collective Access, the users have to manually perform the upgrades, but extensive documentation and guides are provided. This is another benefit of a hosted service option like Omeka.net; they will install and configure software upgrades for you.

So while these open-source, publishing software systems are free, there are some costs to consider.  Be sure to do your research in order to determine if these open source tools will meet your budgetary and technical constraints for experimenting with online collections and exhibitions.

NAMP 2010 - Day Two - Recap Discussions

David, Corwin and Amelia report out on Day Two of the 2010 National Arts Marketing Project Conference. Items discussed: disembodied panelists, Vimeo analytics, the Audience Engagement Platform, the value of quantifying intrinsic impact, and more.

Arts & Technology Round-up

Happy Friday everyone! Here are some interesting happenings in arts and technology to round out your week:

• Magic Fiddle app turns your iPad into a violin.
• A team of conservators digitally recreate a missing part of Brömserhof Museum's 16th century mural.
• Integrating technology into the theatrical performance.
• Check out this Museum of Soviet Arcade Games outside of Moscow.
• Artist Mark Bradford and the J. Paul Getty Museum offer online art classes with Open Studio.
• Google and the Gagosian invest in art startup Art.sy.
• Digital projection mapping: turning building facades into canvasses.

Enjoy the weekend!

Fair Use of Dance-Related Materials: A Discussion

In response to CAMT's "Social Media, Video Footage and the Law" white paper, Lisa Niedermeyer from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival contacted us with a related video about fair use as it relates to dance-related materials. As the white paper mentions, fair use can be a nebulous concept as far as what, how, and how much copyrighted material can be legally used. The video is a more detailed discussion of The Dance Heritage Coalition's published statement "Best Practices in Fair Use of Dance-Related Materials". It features curators, archivists, documentary filmmakers, librarians and other collectors of dance-related materials discussing what they currently regard as reasonable application of the Copyright Act's fair use doctrine.

An Easier Way to Text-to-Pay

Recently, Obopay Inc., an online mobile payment company, and Benevity Social Ventures Inc., a company focusing on the social practices and giving habits of corporate America, partnered to create a new text-to-donate platform for non-profits.  This new easy-to-setup, easy-to-manage platform takes away many of the problems that have been associated with text-to-give in the past.

The new platform:

• Is FREE for all registered organizations with active 501(c)3 status
• Takes less than 24 hours to setup
• Pays organizations within 30 days
• E-mails tax receipts to donors immediately

Prior to this texting platform, setting up a text-to-give campaign took months and the providers that were available focused mainly on larger high profile clients (the Obama campaign and the Haitian relief effort are just two examples). Payment often took 60-90 days and there were a multitude of fees and charges associated with the products.

In an earlier post, I discussed the merits and benefits of micro-donation campaigns and ways they can best be implemented. Unfortunately, I did not have many suggestions on available products at that time. Many local non-profits and arts organizations simply did not have the budgets or profile to take on such campaigns.

This new text-to-give platform (which currently has no specific name) allows for easy setup and processing of text-to-give donations. A non-profit organization goes to the Obopay website, registers for a key word and the Benevity Corporation, in partnership with the American Endowment Foundation (AEF), creates the account and sets up the service on behalf of the non-profit. No extra work, no forms, no hassle.

When using this service:

• Tax receipts are provided directly to the donor from Benevity via e-mail
• Donations are received by the non-profit every 30 days
• A 7% processing fee is collected from the donation by Benevity and AEF to process the transactions
• The non-profit only receives 93% of the total donated amount
• 100% of the donation is tax deductable (Benevity & AEF are also non-profits)

Overall, this simplistic process combines Obopay’s easy text-to-pay platform with Benevity’s non-profit database and backend billing system, allowing for an easy-to-setup, easy-to-manage platform. A patron texts the organization's keyword to a short code (usually 5 numbers long) and immediately receives an SMS text in response. Potential donors are then prompted to enter a phone number and pin code to donate or they can use the mobile donation website which, on average, takes less than 90 seconds to complete.

Future expansion of this service will include corporate matching and a customizable database with a recommendation function. Benevity already has all registered US non-profits in their searchable database. Soon, the non-profits themselves will be able to be personalize their profiles, and a recommendation function for donors will be added.

Donors prefer push button solutions, mobile applications and ease of use. This new text-to-give solution by Benevity and Obopay opens the doors for arts organizations and other non-profits to provide cutting edge solutions to this problem.

Arts organizations across the country should be looking at this as a huge opportunity to expand micro-donation campaigns and reach new audiences. Patrons are most likely to give directly after or during an experience involving a non-profit. This quick and easy solution for instant giving provides a way for people to support organizations they care about while the experience is still fresh in their minds. Both companies recommend event based marketing for text-to-give donation campaigns.

Arts organizations should advertise how to donate via SMS text during intermissions, around galleries or surrounding specific events. It is a quick way for people to show their support and generally has little effect on their other giving habits. More importantly, the platform can provide a  new revenue stream that opens up giving to a wider range of people and secures multiple gifts from long time donors.

Social Media Spotlight: The Guggenheim and YouTube Play

Welcome to the third installment of the Social Media Spotlight, our monthly feature focusing on arts organizations’ social media strategies.

This month’s spotlight is the Guggenheim Museum’s strategy with YouTube Play, the recently debuted biennial celebrating creative talent in the realm of online video. The response leading up to Youtube play was massive, with over 23,000 video submissions and over 46,000 subscribers to the YouTube Play channel. The channel, to date, has been viewed over 23 million times. 25 videos were selected by an esteemed jury and celebrated on October 21^st with an event at the Guggenheim in New York that was live streamed worldwide.

I recently had a chance to chat with Associate Curator Hanne Mugaas about YouTube Play:

Where did the idea originate for the Guggenheim to team up with a social media site like YouTube?

The Guggenheim had already collaborated with Google on Design It: A Shelter Competition, where on the occasion of the exhibitions Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward and Learning By Doing, the Guggenheim and Google SketchUp invited amateur and professional designers from around the world to submit a 3-D shelter for any location in the world using Google SketchUp and Google Earth. Ideas for new collaborations originated from this project, and a celebration of online video became the next step.

Instead of using their existing YouTube channel, the Guggenheim decided to create an entirely new channel for YouTube Play. What drove that decision? Did it have a positive effect on your original channel?

Since the project is a collaboration between YouTube and the Guggenheim, we wanted a channel for Play content exclusively. The fact that it is a biennial (the project will continue every second year) is another reason why we wanted a separate platform. The project has certainly had a positive effect on the Guggenheim YouTube channel, and it has made it possible for us to reach new audiences.

Since its creation last May, the YouTube Play channel has gained over 46,000 subscribers. How did the Guggenheim cultivate such a large number of fans?

The project is unique in its global scope, which has generated extensive interest. We got 23,358 submissions, which is unheard of in a traditional art context. The pairing of YouTube and Guggenheim made people curious about the outcome. Most importantly, the shortlist and the top 25 videos have a diverse range of high quality works; videos that make you want to spend time on and revisit the channel.

In addition to YouTube, the Guggenheim also has a major presence on other social networks and social media sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, & Flickr. What roles did these other sites play in your social media strategy with YouTube Play? Did the fact that YouTube Play culminated with a specific event affect your overall social media strategy?

The social media sites were important in getting the word out, and to drive submissions. We also started a blog, The Take, which contextualizes the project through writing by art, film, and Internet experts. We did frequent YouTube Play updates on Facebook and Twitter to keep people informed about the progression of the project. These were certainly important tools for the event, especially to make people aware of the live stream, and the external projections on the Guggenheim building in New York.

Speaking of events, the Guggenheim took full advantage of YouTube's new streaming service to live stream the YouTube Play event from the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.  How was your experience with streaming video?

The live stream was a very important element given the global scope of the biennial; this way, anyone anywhere could watch the event live. It was a successful experience for us, and the feedback has been very good.

What advice would you give to other, smaller arts organizations that want to experiment with live streaming their own events?

Streaming video is a great way to make your content available to a global audience, either it’s an event, a panel or a talk. To watch a live stream is special, and as a cultural producer, it is a great asset to know that people around the globe are watching.

Thanks again to Hanne Mugaas and the Guggenheim Museum. Visit the YouTube Play channel to check out the 25 selected videos from the exhibition and view selected clips from the live streamed event.

Is your organization doing exciting work in social media? Leave us a comment and let us know. We may feature you in an upcoming spotlight!

Internet Revived the Music Video Star

On August 1, 1981, America was introduced to the cultural phenomenon of Music Television. The television network revolutionized the world of music programming and would forever change the landscape of the music industry. In addition to promoting music through traditional radio, live performances and albums, musicians began to utilize the medium of television to promote their singles. Independent and underground musicians also took advantage of this new technology by shooting lower budget videos to distribute on local cable access shows that were similar to MTV. The cultural innovation of music videos has since evolved along with the rest of the music industry. One of the most interesting trends is the advent of interactive music videos on the internet. An increasing number of artists and arts organizations have begun examining the ways in which they can engage and connect with potential audience members and fans online. The dynamic, fast-paced nature of smart phones, social media and other technology has prompted this shift to interactivity and collaboration.

Here's a look at three of the most innovative videos on the web.

1:Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown”

One of the most ambitious projects comes from the indie rock band sensation, Arcade Fire. The band designed a video that uses Google Chrome, Google Maps and HTML5 standard to immerse users into a unique, interactive experience. The music video (designed to work best with the Google Chrome browser) prompts users to enter the street address of their childhood homes and creates a custom video based on images taken from Google Maps’ Street View of your childhood home.

Wilderness Downtown Screenshot

Director, Chris Milk (who just produced another collaborative video for Johnny Cash's final studio recording ), has also worked on videos for Kanye West and Gnarls Barkley and is at the forefront of this revolution in music video production.

For more behind-the-scenes information on the shoot, check out Creativity Online's  article.

2. Andy Grammer’s “Keep Your Head Up”

Choose Your Own Adventure...

A slight variation on this theme comes from pop artist, Andy Grammer. The video for Grammer's song 'Keep Your Head Up' is a real life example of a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' story and users can choose what actions they want Andy to take in the video. In November, the most popular choices will be compiled into one video  and the result will be uploaded to Vevo.

While shooting the video scenes for each choice did not require any specialized equipment,  the process of stringing the different choices today required some cutting edge technology. So cutting edge, in fact, that Grammer's label has taken an equity stake in the company that developed it, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.

Watch (and interact) with the full video, here.

3. The Cold War Kids’ “I’ve Seen Enough”

'I've Seen Enough' was directed by Sam Jones, who also directed a documentary about the band, Wilco. The video, developed in Flash 10, was nicely compressed to cut down on loading times. The interactive bars at the top allow users to mix and match different styles of the same song, from reggae to acoustic. Users can also click on individual band members to mute or unmute them.

Interactive Videos and the Arts...

While some of the technology utilized in the above experiments can be classified as cutting edge, artists and arts organizations shouldn't be deterred from dabbling in creating their own interactive video experiments. One of the most popular ways musicians have interacted with fans is by streaming concerts, informal jam sessions and interviews online via Ustream. Once logged into Ustream, users can interact with the artist and other fans in real-time. Musicians have also encouraged fans to create slideshows set to their music and upload them to sites like YouTube and Vimeo. As open source software and user collaboration becomes more popular, there's no doubt that more and more artists will be producing this type of content.

What you need to know about viral video and the law

Technology in the Arts has just released a publication reviewing legal issues surrounding using video footage online. (Access the PDF publication here.) Whether you are in marketing, development, education or operations, chances are that you will encounter some kind of contract or legal issue involving performance footage, either online or offline.  This white paper serves as a survey of current industry trends and practices, as well as a guide to those exploring the ever-changing landscape of online media and the intellectual property and union issues associated with it. While nothing can replace the advice of a good lawyer on legal issues, this guide can alert you to potential problems while you are planning online media campaigns involving performance footage.

Do you have a story about issues you've had distributing performance footage online? Please share below.

Why the Arts Matter - Video Contest Winner

Earlier this year, Americans for the Arts launched an online video contest to encourage U.S. residents over the age of 13 to answer the question, "Why do the arts matter to you?" Congratulations to all of the winners!

Grand Prize Winner - Starting Artists, Inc. Over 18 Winner - Student Advocates for the Arts Under 18 Winner - Linzy Paige

Focus on the data: LSO's Digital Season Brochure

A page from the 10/11 LSO brochure. Click image to see the whole brochure.

Last year I wrote about the London Symphony Orchestra’s digital season brochure. As technology and environmental concerns cause more printed pieces to go online, the arts industry will see more season brochures go digital. According to a recent Technology in the Arts poll, 56% of arts organizations already have their season brochure online in some form (PDF or interactive).

Last season was the first that they made the brochure, launching it in February of 2009 with their season announcement. Based on its success, they have released another brochure this year with plans to distribute it more widely. Today I have a follow-up with Digital Marketing Manager Jo Johnson about the success of last year’s brochure.

The marketing team at the London Symphony Orchestra chose to make last year’s season brochure after deciding to plan the online and offline elements of our season campaign together.  Jo said, “we had produced films to illustrate the season's themes, but it was a few months after the season had first gone on sale, and so felt rather like an afterthought. Also we had decided that we were going to put our season on sale online before we opened to telephone booking, so turning to online channels (email, web and social networks) to send info out to the bookers felt natural. A digital brochure was the obvious choice.”

The first page of the brochure created by Ceros includes an instruction window for newcomers.

For newcomers to the digital brochure, it may be hard to know where to get the technology to make the brochure, as well as how much lead time to allow for it. This year symphony again used interactive publication platform Ceros to create their season brochure, complete with audio and video. Other platforms that were suggested in our poll included Issuu and Yudu.

According to Jo, after the art and copy was approved for the print brochure, the digital brochure only took about two additional weeks. “[The print version] needs to be made suitable for online readers (adding some buttons, changing some bits of text to make it obvious that their links, making the images 16:9 ratio so that you can embed a video over it). That's about a week. Then because I don't have Flash skills, the digital brochure company did all the Flash work for me. They were pretty quick, but leave time for changes, testing and sign off. That was about another week.”

Jo found that the brochure was driving traffic primarily to concert pages (where tickets can be purchased). “The top 20 clicked links are all to concerts, with the season opening concert on 20 September being the most clicked.” Using Google Analytics, Jo determined that roughly 1 in 5 viewers played a video, and viewing figures correspond to page numbers (i.e. the least viewed video is last in the brochure). Viewers stayed on the digital season brochure an average of about four minutes.  Overall, the 2009/10 digital brochure was viewed 10,870 times. Based on the data she pulled she concluded that the amount of revenue directly from the brochure covered its costs, but that the brochure “played a more of a role in decision making than direct purchasing." She said:

On the financial side, I could see purchases made on our website that had come directly from the digital brochure. Added up, the income was just over the figure it cost to make the brochure. But as with all marketing, I'm also interested in the purchases that were made as a result of someone having the digital brochure, but not directly. At the LSO we talk about multi-channel marketing and CRM, whereby we allow the customer to make his own decision on which method to use to make the final purchase. So although the brochure had embedded links back to the LSO website where tickets can be bought, a customer may have browsed the brochure, seen a concert they like, gone away to chat to a friend about going together, made a decision a week later, and then gone back directly to the website to make the purchase, or called the box office on the phone. In this case I would not have seen the income from his ticket in the analysis I did on the brochure; and this is what I meant when I said 'It's likely it plays more of a role in decision making than direct purchasing.'

When taking on these technological innovations, it’s difficult to know how to measure success. As Jo said in our conversation, “This is the challenge marketers face every day--how to track customers as they hop through our available channels.” Your outreach program or social media site may have paid for itself in tickets, but how do we measure things like brand recognition? Social marketing experts like Charlene Li and David Berkowitz have come out with suggestions, some of which go beyond mere revenue. Jo saw two huge benefits to producing the brochure, beyond its break-even point.

The very fact that we had produced one at all gave the LSO a huge amount of coverage. It was passed around as a 'novelty' item, which people enjoyed looking at, turning the pages, watching the videos, just to see what it did. This is the same kind of benefit as social media brings an organization--people talking about your group. They might be on the other side of the world, they might not come and buy a ticket, but the fact that you have come to their attention is almost as valuable as a ticket sale - in our case it may eventually assist in ticket sales when we go on tour, or on sales of our CDs (our own label). Unfortunately, the "buzz" isn't really trackable in any meaningful sense, other than clicks and views and Retweets. But it still counts.

Lastly, the digital brochure brought a small environmental benefit. We reduced the number of brochures we printed, since we sent it out to people on our database that had email addresses instead of the print in the post. We also used the digital brochure in the information we emailed out to journalists at the season launch, instead of posting them one. Our Managing Director likes to email the digital brochure to prospective festivals and venues abroad as our "flagship" publications, thus saving more paper and postage. I'm sure the effects are negligible in the bigger picture, but any boost to our green credentials helps!

So, is investing time and money worth it for your company? Here are Jo’s thoughts:

Probably the most useful thing I can offer is some thoughts into whether others should follow suit and produce a digital brochure. Here's some:

• A digital brochure should never replace your printed one, but should be complementary to it. A good marketing campaign should have all the online and offline elements planned in together at the same time.
• Personally I think the key to it is to have good content which makes it worthwhile - video content is the obvious one. There are plenty of free options for making a digital brochure out of your PDF, but mostly these don't offer the rich media content like embedded videos and soundclips.
• Make sure you have the mechanisms and a plan in place to market the digital brochure - which can only really be done online. Social networks are ideal, but don't ignore your own website! There's no point in having one if you don't market it - people will not stumble upon it randomly.
• Ideally the digital brochure should be designed with online usage in mind - and possibly independently from the print version. We weren't able to do this wholesale though because of the cost of the designers! We chose the route of adapting the printed version.

Firing Up Museums With Sparks! Ignition Grants

From digital archiving techniques to mobile websites, museums around the country are finding news ways to innovate in our current and rapidly changing information age. There is now an emphasis on experimentation and testing the boundaries of what traditionally defines a museum. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has initiated a new grant program with this emphasis in mind and is seeking proposals for the current fiscal year. The Sparks! Ignition grants can be up to $25,000, are available for a period of up to one year, and have no matching requirements. Yes, you read that correctly. No matching requirements.

The Sparks! Ignition program is intended for all eligible institutions that want to utilize innovative methods to address some of the current problems that museums and libraries in the U.S. are experiencing. For more information about the application and to find out if your institution meets the criteria for eligibility, visit the IMLS website .

On November 3^rd, IMLS staff will be offering a webinar explaining the purpose of the grants, articulating the application process, and answering questions. Your organization will have to move quickly though, the application deadline for all Sparks! grants is November 15^th, 2010.

Future Focus: The Public Art Archive

Sharing information and digital media about public art has never been an easy task for arts administrators. The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) seeks to change that when they launch the Public Art Archive - an online, searchable database for public art in the United States. A tool for both arts administrators and the general public, WESTAF’s vision is for the Archive to serve as an easy to use, central source of information about public art. I recently had a chance to speak with the creators of the Public Art Archive and take a guided tour through the site.

The Public Art Archive has a straightforward, user-friendly interface.  Entry to the Archive takes place through a simple search bar on the front page, powered by Solr, an open-source search platform from by the Apache Lucene project.  You may already be familiar with Solr, as it is the search engine used by both Etsy.com and FoodNetwork.com.

Solr allows you to refine simple searches on the Archive through multiple filters with a variety of search criteria such as artist, location, materials, collections and even nicknames. The search criteria and vocabulary for the site was built from the same standards as those used by reference websites like ARTstor and the digital library projects at Harvard.

Once they’ve found the artwork they are searching for, users are presented with a variety of information and media about the work. In addition to the artwork’s basic info, users can view pictures and video, download PDFs about the artwork, and listen to audio describing the piece.

While the capability for all this content is built in, individual administrators must submit all information and media for each artwork. The Archive has no limit on the amount of content that can be submitted for each work and submission of the content is free. At a minimum, the site requires a full description for each work, as well as its location, and one high quality image.

To enable use of the Archive when an individual is physically in front of a work of public art,  the Archive will be accessible from any web-enabled mobile device. No specific apps will be required, users just plug the main url for the Archive into their phone's web browser to access the full functionality of the site.

The Public Art Archive will also be fully integrated with Google Maps.  By clicking the site’s “Map This” icon, users will be able to view exactly where the artworks are located and build custom maps of artworks that can be shared with others or saved for later use.   Administrators can use the mapping function to create custom maps for use in tours of their collection, maintenance tasks, and advocacy initiatives.

The ability for organizations to create personalized pages so they can maintain their identity will be added as the Archive progresses. WESTAF also plans to have licenses available to give organizations access to the more administrative functions of the Archive.

The Public Art Archive will be launching in the near future, but until then visit westaf.org to check out some of WESTAF's other projects that offer technological solutions for arts administrators.

Social Media Spotlight: New York Theatre Network

Welcome to the second installment of the Social Media Spotlight, our monthly feature focusing on arts organizations’ social media strategies.

The global trend of participation in social networks and social media is one to which arts managers have been paying a great deal of attention. With over 500 million active Facebook users, 55 million tweets being sent per day and over 133 million active bloggers in the United States alone, arts organizations and arts managers are growing increasingly interested in identifying ways to engage their audiences and connect to new audiences via social media.

One of the more recent example of the intersection of social media and audience development is the creation of the New York Theatre Network (NYTN). Launched on September 28, NYTN seeks to be “your hub for what’s happening on New York City Stages”. The network focuses specifically on theatre events in New York City, and while any theatre fan can check out the latest happenings, only member theatres are able to upload content about their organization onto the website.

NYTN is unique in that it was designed to be an interactive social network as opposed to a static directory and listing of information. Its Facebook Connect feature enables users to find out what their friends are ‘liking’,  ‘attending’ and/or ‘recommending’ and also allows users to make their own recommendations.

Theatres are also encouraged to interact with audiences as they are able to upload YouTube videos, their Twitter stream, blog posts and an event calendar onto their pages. A gracious sponsorship from Flip Video’s Spotlight For Good Program made it possible for member theatres to record video and upload this content onto their page.

NYTN is the result of a cooperative effort between The Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York and theatre industry website Theater Mania.  A.R.T. New York Executive Director Virginia Louloudes was inspired by a keynote speech delivered by Diane Ragsdale of the Andrew Mellon Foundation two years ago in which she addressed the decline in arts participation and examined possible solutions for this dilemma. One suggestion was for arts organizations to consider becoming “arts concierges” and help consumers find shows and performances based on their individual tastes.

Louloudes saw an opportunity to create a site that would serve as a “one stop shop” for theatre fans,  encourage a new level of interaction between theatres and audiences, and introduce fans to new theatres and upcoming shows they may not have been aware of.  The project was an extensive one and called for outside funding, workshops with member theatres, and a partnership with Theater Mania for technological support. While such an ambitious project may not be feasible for all arts organizations, Louloudes hopes that the creation of NYTN will encourage arts managers to develop their own social media strategies, especially since most platforms are free.

Those interested in further reading on NYTN's marketing efforts should also consult the following blog articles from Devon Smith, who served as project manager for NYTN and frequently blogs about social media:

Advertising ROI: a case for Facebook Ads

New York Theatre Network: it's launch day!

The Handheld Guide: Experimenting with Mobile Technology in Museums

There has been a lot of buzz lately about mobile technology with the release of mobile apps by some major museums like MoMA, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. Reviews have been mixed, but the discussion about the way mobile technology should be used in museums has definitely picked up speed.

The popular view of mobile technology seems to be focused (a little too much?) on one main format - having a downloadable, mobile application. While developing your own app can be a good way to deliver content to your visitors, it is definitely not the only approach. I decided to take a look at four different ways that some museums have been experimenting and implementing mobile tech in their institutions.

The TAP home screen and numeric input screen. via the Indianapolis Museum of Art blog

Providing not just an app, but also the device itself - TAP at The Indianapolis Museum of Art

The IMA wanted to include all their visitors in their mobile tech program, not just those who own a smartphone. So they took the extra step of providing gallery goers with an iPod Touch for the duration of their visit. By placing the device in the visitor’s hands, everyone has access to the digital content the IMA provides and no user is alienated for not owning or having an incorrect mobile device.

The iPods cost five dollars to rent and only contain the TAP app and an instructional video on how to use both the iPod and the app in tandem with the galleries. The app works on a numeric input system, a 3-digit code is associated with every piece in the tour that presents users with different content such as video interviews with artists, text files, pictures, and audio files explaining the artwork.

By sticking to one type of device, the IMA was able to tailor the user experience exactly the way they wanted, which was their main goal for developing a mobile program. This approach circumvents the need for an app store and allows for all content to be controlled in-house. The content management system is the same one used for their website and allows IMA to instantly edit and update their content without needing to go through a third-party developer.  The devices also have built-in polls and can provide both museum staff and TAP users with the real-time results.

Visit the IMA’s blog to check out the development process of the Tap Program and some of their ideas about developing a successful mobile standard for museums.

Integrating mobile websites and mobile apps: The Brooklyn Museum

A mobile website is the mobile-friendly version of an organization’s existing website. In a recent post, we examined the differences between mobile websites and mobile applications.

The Brooklyn Museum has developed a mobile website that is accessible from any web-enabled mobile device. In addition to sharing information about the institution, users are encouraged to get involved by recommending pieces of art work and apply descriptive tags through the Brknlynmuse and Gallery tag! features of the mobile website.

Brooklyn Museum's main website (left) and their mobile site (right). Via the Brooklyn Museum blog

To create a more accessible experience for those with more app-friendly devices, Brooklyn Museum also created downloadable apps for both iPhone and Android that simply wrap the current mobile website. The same functionality and features of the mobile site are there, the apps just act as a different port of entry. This has proven to be a more sustainable approach to their mobile strategy than building each app up from scratch.

You can find more info on Brooklyn Museum’s blog for their approach to their mobile website and their mobile applications.

Connecting to content with QR codes: The Mattress Factory

The Mattress Factory, an installation art museum in Pittsburgh, has been experimenting with implementing QR codes in their exhibits in an effort to reduce the number of brochures in their museum as part of a green initiative.  QR stands for “Quick Response”, connecting users to content within seconds of scanning the code with your phone. A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that is readable by mobile devices with 3G access, a built-in camera and a barcode reading app.

A developer is not required to create QR codes; and with this method, a museum can start immediately experimenting with mobile technology.

QR code placement in the Mattress Factory's exhibition space. via the Mattress Factory blog.

The codes are free to generate and contain text information. Once you generate a code online, it can be printed out and placed next to the piece in your collection. For more media based content such as pictures, audio and video, the content must be uploaded to sites like YouTube or Flickr. The QR code will link users directly to that content.

More info on the Mattress Factory’s use of QR codes can be found on the Mattress Factory blog.

Taking advantage of an existing app: Augmented Reality with the Andy Warhol Museum

Augmented Reality (AR) refers to using a mobile device to view digital images overlaid onto real locations.  AR apps use a smartphone’s built-in camera and GPS to identify where the user is and overlays the content for that location.

Warhol, Warhol, Everywhere! A typical street view using the Andy Warhol layer. Via the Andy Warhol Museum.

The Andy Warhol Museum’s AR layer places images of Andy Warhol’s face over real-world locations in Pittsburgh and New York that were historically relevant to his life. Touching each icon provides users with pictures of artwork and/or content associated with each location and the way it played a part in Warhol’s career.  The Andy Warhol AR project is not an app itself, but a filter layer that is installed on an existing AR app called Layar, available for Android devices and iPhones.

You can find some more info on the Andy Warhol AR project here and how to create your own AR layers here.

So where does your organization weigh in? We would love to see some your opinions in the comments section of what you feel are some of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. What would most influence your organization’s approach to mobile technology?

Related Posts: Museums and the Web 2011: Thomas's Recap The State of the Mobile: The 2011 Museum & Mobile Survey

Online Video: We All Want The Same Thing

This post also appears as part of the Arts Marketing Blog Salon hosted by Americans for the Arts.

The world of arts management is changing, as all industries are changing, with the proliferation of technology. Especially with the increasing popularity of online media, we as arts managers have had to reconsider the way we see our performances. Is online video footage merely a vessel for our product? Or is it, in fact, our product? Or, can it also be a means to an end?

Many see social media and its democratization of internet content as the tool that will restore relevance to the arts, which critics claim is no longer present.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen changes in the social media landscape that make the issues surrounding performance footage all the more relevant. Twitter is adding video embedding capability. YouTube will soon be able to handle streaming video for content partners. These are signals of a trend that is already in progress—a movement of online video footage becoming not only accepted, but commonplace. Like it or not, online video is here to stay.

It was for this reason that I assembled a panel of experts on the rise of streaming video, and its interaction with our union relationships to speak at the NAMP Conference this November. It will be an opportunity to talk about the challenges that we face, as an industry, when it comes to video footage.

As an employee of an arts service organization and an arts management student at Carnegie Mellon, I’m in a unique position to examine performance footage in social media. Instead of having a vested interest in what would be best financially for a given organization, I can look at what is best for the arts industry as a whole and where the industry stands on these issues.

Over the past year, I’ve been looking at intellectual property issues as they pertain to performance footage. This research will culminate in an upcoming white paper for the Center for Arts Management and Technology. I’ve talked to unions, I’ve talked to organizations, and I’ve talked to artists. It’s fascinating to listen to their positions and how they perceive “the other side.”

Artists sometimes view online distribution of performance footage as a sort of Pandora’s Box: releasing their performance footage means relinquishing control of it and monetization of the content. They see organizations as trying to take advantage of their skills, or reducing the value of their work. Although they understand that organizations are struggling, they are struggling, too.

Organizations, on the other hand, are struggling with the realities of the economic downturn, as well as a decrease in newspaper circulation and in the general effectiveness of advertising in traditional media. They see new media as a lifeline, and take it on in order to secure their organization’s future. Some perceive that artists don’t equate saving the organization with saving the artform and the artist’s own career. This assumption leaves them puzzled and unsure how to proceed.

Although these positions seem diametrically opposed, both artists and organizations have common interests. In choosing and chatting with my panelists, who come from all different disciplines and affiliations, it seemed like there might be some fundamental conflicts between them. However, during our first conference call, I was amazed at how willing we were to listen and how much we genuinely wanted to understand each other’s viewpoints.

More often than not, I’ve found that we are all striving for the same thing—increased attendance, our own ensured success, and in turn, a bright future for the arts in America—we sometimes just have different ways of going about it.

Where we are different, we are the same

This post also appears as part of the Arts Marketing Blog Salon hosted by Americans for the Arts.

Silos belong on farms, not in arts organizations.

As a writer for the Technology in the Arts blog, I am constantly thinking about which topics will appeal to which artistic disciplines, which specialty, which skill level… and on and on. But the more I have to think about the segmentation of the arts management audience, the more I realize how broad many of the issues we discuss are.

A few months ago, I interviewed Alan Cooke of the e-fundraising company Convio, and we talked at length about the problem of organizational silos. In arts organizations, as in any company, conflicts often arise between different departments and may develop into an “us against them” mentality. As arts organizations become more prevalent in the social media space, it becomes easier to see which organizations have truly good internal communication between marketing, communications, box office and development departments.

We also tend to think that orchestra problems are unique to orchestras, theatre problems unique to theatres, and so on. For example, a few months ago I was at an opera conference listening to a presenter from another artistic discipline, when a colleague leaned over and whispered, “Ok, but what does this have to do with opera?” Unsure how to respond, I sort of nodded in agreement, but later, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. True, it didn’t have much to do with opera, but, I would argue, the point of the conference was to learn new things, not to be told about things we already know.

Working in the non-profit world, we usually don’t pay attention to discussions and proposed solutions going on in the corporate world.  We don’t think that their solutions will work for us. I’m in a class right now entitled Social Media Analytics, where the students are split up into teams and assigned a major corporation as a client. At first, I expected that the corporations would have a pretty good handle on their social media presence, in terms of who they were reaching, who they were converting and how they were making money from their social media sites. What I found, however, was that the for-profit companies involved in the project are asking a lot of the same questions that I see posted by non-profit arts companies all the time. How do we track audience engagement? How do we convert brand awareness to sales?

Technology, especially social media, is an industry in high flux. It’s easy to think that there’s someone out there with all of the answers, but the truth is we’ve only begun to understand, let alone master the seismic shift in online behavior and the potential of these new tools. We still struggle to find tools that will accurately “read” sentiment from user comments and accurately extract what people are really saying about our brand. We question whether our tracking of sales due to social media is accurate. We wonder how much effort, which platforms, and which campaigns are really worth our time.

One of the things I am looking forward to most at the NAMP Conference is getting this broad perspective across artistic disciplines. Learning from each other is one of the most important things we can do, and I’m looking forward to seeing how arts marketing, as a specialty, has developed in the past year.

Online Group Discounts and the Arts

Online collective buying platforms Groupon and Living Social have taken the Internet and local markets by storm. Each day both companies feature deals on a wide variety of products and services across the country that consumers can opt-in to purchase. These daily deals are exclusive to certain areas and are not available in some local markets. Since both companies publicize their daily discounts and offers via extensive email lists, loyal Twitter followers, mobile phone apps and Facebook pages, there is an unprecedented opportunity for local businesses to reach and engage new audiences. Groupon and Living Social have made quite an impact in the arts and cultural sector, as a wide array of organizations across the country have run online discount campaigns. Chicago’s prestigious Joffrey Ballet, Arlington Arts Center, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Port Discovery Children’s Museum in Baltimore and the Pittsburgh CLO are only a few examples of such organizations.

The rising popularity of Groupon and Living Social among arts and cultural organizations raises a number of questions about incorporating these services into arts marketing strategies.  While bloggers Chad Bauman and Drew McManus have both explored some of the benefits and drawbacks of using online discount services, I decided to pose a few questions to cultural organizations who have used these services.

• Can this service be useful for reaching new audience members?
• If so, how can organizations efficiently track these new customers?
• What if current subscribers and regular audience members decide to take advantage of these lower ticket prices?
• Or what if current subscribers resent that others purchased their subscriptions at a substantial discount?
• Could online discounting actually backfire and decrease revenue?

Most of the arts and cultural organizations I approached with these questions evaluated their online discount campaigns to be successful.  None reported a significant loss in revenue and most reported that the majority of their Groupon & Living Social customers were entirely new to their organizations.  Those that had a positive outcome tended to carefully track customers by collecting their information during the ticket redemption process and entering this information into their database.

Mairin Petrone at the Pittsburgh Irish Festival reports that their recent Groupon campaign resulted in almost 700 people purchasing tickets for the festival.

The Pittsburgh Irish Festival initially decided to use Groupon because of the PR we would receive and because we love to get tickets sold before our festival even starts.  When approached by Groupon, it seemed like we would be silly not to take advantage of an e-blast that would go out to almost 100,000 people in and around the city of Pittsburgh and cost us next to nothing.  Our hope was that we would reach people who wouldn't have otherwise heard of the festival.  I would evaluate our Groupon campaign as successful.

Similarly, Pittsburgh CLO's Cindy Opatick had positive feedback on using Groupon.

Since the CLO Cabaret only seats 250, it is hard to get word of mouth going on a new show and a title that may not be familiar in the marketplace.  The Groupon offer has allowed us to get a larger audience in the first week of a show, which in turn helps with word of mouth for the run of the show.

Although most of the organizations I contacted reported using Groupon to run online discount campaigns, Living Social is proving more viable for organizations who want more flexibility in their marketing.  Here is a quick comparison of both platforms:

Demographic Category

Groupon

Living Social

Gender

77%    Female

60%     Female

Age

68%    18-34

36%     18-34

Education

50%    Bachelor’s Degree               30%     Graduate Degree

44%    Bachelor's Degree                15%    Graduate Degree

Income

29%    $100,000+                          19%    $70K-$99K                          21%    $50K-$69K

32%    $100,000+                          36%    $60K-$100K

Groupon

Living Social

Exclusivity Clause

:

Can’t run any other deal on similar websites (Living Social) for 90 days

No exclusivity  clause

:

Organizations are free to use other services while  running a Living Social Campaign

Can’t change the  fine print

:

Groupon employs a staff of 70 writers to create the text of all  its group deals.

More Flexibility with ad content

:

Living Social is generally more flexible about what organizations can include  in the fine print and ad content

Lower Revenue?

Since tickets are offered at a steep discount, it’s quite possible to lose  money from people who might have paid full price.

Lower Revenue?

Generally the same drawbacks as using Groupon. Living Social typically only  offers deals that are a minimum of 50% off the current price for a company’s  services or products

Costly to  Businesses?

Groupon takes a cut of all products or services sold  although there are no upfront costs associated with running a campaign

Costly to Businesses?

Living Social also  takes a percentage of all products or services sold. Also no upfront costs  associated with running a campaign. Businesses receive a pre-paid check for all  customers who bought 10 days after the promotion is finished

Even though both platforms have their drawbacks, there is overwhelming evidence to indicate both do a stellar job of reaching the ideal arts consumer demographic and compelling them to action.  Jack Fishman, President and CEO at San Antonio Symphony, points out that traditional advertising channels like newspaper and radio are not nearly as effective as they once were in reaching and compelling arts consumers to action.  In fact, 86% of Groupon's clients believe the service to be more effective than print advertising, while 94% evaluate it as more effective than broadcasting advertising.

Since online collective buying platforms are relative newcomers to the scene, it will be interesting to see if more arts and cultural organizations adopt these tools into their evolving marketing strategies and online mass discounts will contribute to sustainable audience growth over time.

YAP Tracker: Organizing the Uncertain World of Auditions

For most people in the Northern Hemisphere, summer ended last week. But for those who run artist training programs in the summer months, next summer has already begun. In case you are not in the artistic department of your org, newsflash: It’s audition season, folks!

Today I have an interview with Julie Baron, General Manager and one of the founders of YAP Tracker. For those readers not familiar with the field of opera, a "YAP" (Young Artist Program) is a training program for young singers, usually with a large opera company which hires the singers for the season and provides them with small roles in the opera, coachings with staff pianists, and the opportunity to perform in educational outreach programs. The singers have usually graduated fairly recently from a Masters or Artist Diploma program and are trying to launch their singing career.

Having left a career in technology solutions consulting and training to pursue her passion for the arts, Julie Baron earned her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in 2004. She enjoyed a career as a mezzo-soprano singing with many companies throughout the United States and abroad, but her unusual affinity for both technology and the arts ultimately guided her to create the popular website YAP Tracker.

YAP Tracker was created in 2005 and has quickly garnered tremendous acclaim for its comprehensive, worldwide list of opportunities and online application service. We've talked about online application and review tools in the past on the Technology in the Arts blog, but YAP Tracker is truly unique in its industry specificity and the fact that it provides organizational features for singers, teachers and company administrators alike.

"We’re so grateful for the support that we’ve gotten from both companies and singers alike and we hope to be around for many years to come to help people find auditions," Julie said. Julie is also a frequent guest speaker at schools, programs and conferences on the use of technology in the arts, including the 2010 Opera America Conference.

How did you come up with the idea for YAP Tracker?

The site began in 2005; I was singing with the Opera Colorado Outreach ensemble and I competed in a competition there locally, the Denver Lyric Opera Guild competition, and placed well. I was really excited about it and I wanted to find other opportunities to compete. I started looking and I couldn't believe how much was out there—so much that it was difficult to keep track. So, the site was designed with this in mind. It was originally designed for me actually to use and my friends were incredulous that such a thing existed and so I became willing to sell it to them. So, now we have about 8,000 members worldwide and we list 2,500 auditions a year. They come from everywhere—I think we even have some singers in Guam and Congo—places that I wouldn’t have even realized that there was a need for the service, but apparently there is.

What experiences that you’ve had personally as a singer informed how you created the interface and how you do business as a company? That’s an interesting question. My background is sort of unusual because I have both a technology and a musical background. Before I went back to school for singing, I actually worked as a technology solutions consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. It was important to me that the site be very user-friendly because generally the use of technology is frightening for everyone, so it was important for the site to be able to cater to every level of singer no matter what their technology background. I think that having a higher level of technology background was a good place to start from—to go from the ground up.

So, say I’m a singer and I’m looking for an audition. I find one that’s perfect for me, on YAP Tracker. Where do I go from there? Generally you start a few steps before that. When you subscribe to YAP Tracker, you receive alerts to let you know about new and interesting opportunities that are coming up. They’re interesting because the site is designed in such a way that you filter before you ever receive opportunities that you know will not be of interest to you. So, anything with a particular age limit, if you know that you’re not interested in doing competitions or auditioning in Europe, those opportunities are filtered out for you automatically. If you see something in the alerts that you do like, you go to the site, you click an icon to say "put this in my queue and remind me of all the important details about this opportunity." As the deadline approaches for that opportunity, you’ll receive additional alerts through the site and through our email alert system to let you know that things are coming up. Once you’ve actually sent your application, you click another icon to say “I’ve sent it; stop bothering me” and it goes into another queue. At that point, once you receive notification that you have an opportunity for an audition or that you don’t have an opportunity for an audition, you enter that information and that enters your audition queue. It sort of helps you through every step of the process to make sure that it’s on your mind, that you’re remembering the information that you sent in, and that you’re not surprised when the next date approaches.

You said that you had over 2500 listings. Do you cull the listings yourself or do organizations and competitions enter them or send them to you? Both—there are a lot of opportunities that I find and I contact the organization to let them know that we’ll post it or there are plenty of opportunities where the organization will write to us to say, "could you post this for me?" and they’ll send us the information. Then there are also organizations that have accounts with us and list the information themselves.

Auditioning can be an intimidating and exhausting process. How does YAP Tracker streamline that and take the mystery out of the audition process? Well, we can’t. It’s the one thing that we can’t do. We cannot make auditions themselves any easier for singers. It’s a difficult process, the preparation for auditioning. I will never regret that I’m not doing that anymore because that is the hardest thing that we, as singers, do. And singers do it forever, unless they’ve attained a certain level--which God love them, those who do. The one thing that we can do is make the rest of the process easier. One of the things that we say is “you sing well and we’ll take care of the rest.” We try to take the incredible ordeal out of keeping track of applications, which for many singers is a tremendous organizational feat. I remember when I was doing it myself before the existence of YAP Tracker, I would have this elaborate Excel spreadsheet to make sure that everything was lined up in date order so that I would send things in on time. Now we actually also offer an online application service, which some companies use, which makes the process even easier, so singers can apply to things with the click of a button. I think that if singer have confidence going into an audition knowing that they know what songs they’re going to sing, since they’ve kept that information in the site materials. They can refer to what they sang for that organization last year, because we never remove anything from the site. That’s the best we can do. Singers have to do the rest.

You said that you have artistic staff at opera companies using the program. Tell me a little more about that. Some organizations like to send us their audition information, but others prefer to list the information themselves. Companies can sign up for a free company account, which gives them access to list their opportunities. Other companies use the online application service, which is a fee-based option. Most companies still use a paper-based system; this is frustrating for singers in that it takes a long time to compile and combine and send it off. It can be very expensive to reproduce materials or FedEx, if you’re the type of person who does things at the last minute. They’re also a pain for organizations, when you’re dealing with 800 packets, as companies do, if there’s one headshot missing or if there’s a singer who’s missing a material, etc. A couple of years ago, we developed an online solution to help streamline the process, both for companies and singers alike. And the people who use it have been extremely positive about it, because it helps reduce their workload significantly.

What's one of the most popular features you would like to highlight? There’s so many good features—one of the most popular features that singers like is the section of the site geared towards accompanists, that allows for accompanists to indicate their availability to play for auditions. So, if you’re going to Cincinnati and you don’t happen to know anyone and you’re required to bring your own accompanist, there may actually be a pianist who’s indicated that they’re available to play, so that’s something that a lot of singers and accompanists are happy about. We also offer audition swapping functionality, which is great if you happen to not be available during the time that you’ve been given or if you’re a not a morning person and you’ve been given a 9:05 audition timeslot, there’s a place that you can go to change that. We also have a lot of new features that we’re looking forward to releasing soon, so I’m not going to talk about them until they’re ready, but we’re hopeful to have a new release on the site for 2011.

Streaming, streaming everywhere

Last week YouTube did a two-day test to preview streaming capability, a move that would place them directly in competition with streaming sites such as livestream, ustream, and justin.tv. Streaming capability was available to four select YouTube partners — Next New Networks, Howcast, Young Hollywood, and Rocketboom for two days. Like the existing streaming sites, YouTube will allow for real-time comments and, eventually, embedding in widgets and archiving old streams.

In all of YouTube’s communications , they only address giving this capability to their “content partners” anytime in the near future. YouTube content partners are people and companies that post regularly to the site and apply to YouTube in order to monetize their content with ads and rentals, obtain better quality for their uploads, and use YouTube’s Insight analytics tools. (Note: YouTube has a special program for non-profit partners. Check it out.)

Evan Rosenberg of Anaheim Ballet, a member of YouTube’s nonprofit program, produces the series “Anaheim Ballet: More Than Dance…” (See below for an excerpt.) He described the company’s hopes for its channel.

“YouTube has made it possible to not only showcase ourselves (Anaheim Ballet), but ballet in general to a global audience to the tune of over 24 million views. We look forward to using this additional tool (live streaming) in our continuing effort to spread the art of ballet across cultural, age, and economic boundaries.”

One of the videos on Anaheim Ballet's YouTube channel.

What are the implications for performing and performance arts organizations as streaming video becomes more and more ubiquitous? As a company or an artist, live performance is our product. Thus, we have faced issues with online video platforms since their rise in popularity:

We wonder if capturing that artistic product and distributing it online dilutes the aesthetic appeal.

We wonder if we should side with our artists and unions who deserve credit, payment, and a future in their industry, or with the insistent board member who says we must post video to capture the elusive younger market segment. We wonder if these interests are indeed in conflict.

We wonder if it cannibalizes box office revenues. And we wonder if we should give our audience members more credit; we know the difference between live performance and video, and so do they…right?

Online video is here to stay. This announcement is one more step in a long staircase of live streaming video becoming the norm. Fifteen years ago everyone had to have a website. Four years ago everyone had to have a Facebook page. Last year, everyone was going to mobile apps. With YouTube’s announcement, it’s easy to see performance footage moving from the movie theatre and the ballpark to laptops, phones, and iPads.

Speaking of new platforms for video, is everyone aware of the changes coming up for Twitter?

How do you share your season brochure with your website visitors?

Amelia is working on a follow-up to her article from last year on the London Symphony Orchestra's use of their interactive, online season brochure. While her follow-up will focus on the success and challenges that the LSO faced with this pursuit, we wanted to check in with our readers to see how you are sharing your season brochure information with your online visitors. Please, take a moment to respond to the following poll: