See you soon!

It's hard to believe it's the Monday before the conference! The programming is set, the program book is done, the rooms and equipment are reserved, the party planning is down to the nuts and bolts of setup and installation...

Now all we need is you! I'm so excited for Friday and the chance to welcome all of you to our first Technology in the Arts conference. We've got a deliciously wide spectrum of organizatoins attending including theaters, ballets, museums, arts service orgs, arts agencies, universities, arts funders...

There will be about 120 of us representing 75 organizations, which will make for a nice, intimate atmosphere, ideal for in-depth dialogue, brainstorming and relationship building. We'll be in Hamburg Hall (home of CAMT) on the CMU campus, with shuttles running us where we need to go throughout the event.

Also, the committee for our closing party has truly outdone themselves, and all indicators point to a fun, art-filled conference-closing camt@ten.

As always, if you have any last-minute questions or concerns, feel free to contact us!

Acquity Joins the Technology in the Arts Lineup!

A huge thank you and a warm welcome are extended to Technology in the Art's newest sponsor, the Acquity Group. Rick Nash, Managing Director of the Kansas City branch, will join us in Pittsburgh October 20-21. Acquity Group is a leading provider of business and technology solutions designed to optimize business performance. For more information, visit them at www.acquitygroup.com or in person at Technology in the Arts!

Wiki what?

Wiki is a new term for me, and the following article was very helpful in providing insight to one of many mysterious internet terms: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71733-0.html?tw=wn_culture_3

If you, too, have not yet decoded this and other internet terms, join us in Pittsburgh this Fall! Erika Block will present the session, "Demystifying Technology Buzz Words", on Saturday, October 21 at 4PM on the Carnegie Mellon University campus.

Please continue to visit our Web site, www.TechnologyInTheArts.org to view the updated schedule of events and speakers.

Tessitura to exhibit at Technology in the Arts

Thank you Tessitura Software for reserving a table in the Exhibitor's Fair. Tessitura offers a variety of services and software specifically tailored to the needs of performing arts organizations. Please visit their website or better yet, visit them in person October 20-21 at Technology in the Arts! We still have room available for organizations and business to showcase products and services. If you have a product you want to share, go to the Exhibitor section of the Web site or contact us for more information.

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What a Line-Up!

CAMT is honored to have two very engaging and accomplished keynote speakers scheduled for the Technology in the Arts Conference. Faith Ringgold is a celebrated African-American artist and author whose work is featured in the permanent collections of some of the world's foremost museums, including the Guggenheim and the Met. Read more about Ms. Ringgold on her personal Web site.

Donald Marinelli is a professor with Carnegie Mellon's drama department and a major proponent of the linkage of technology and the arts. Read more about Mr. Marinelli on CMU's Entertainment Technology Center staff page.

Visit Artsplash at the Exhibitors Fair!

A huge "thank you" goes out to the folks at Artsplash for reserving a table at Technology in the Arts. Artsplash is a web-based curriculum tool for teachers and students supported by the Graduate School of Education at Portland State. Please take a minute to browse their excellent Web site!

Let us not forget the artists...

As we concentrate on the many ways arts managers are using technology innovatively, we should not ignore the fact that artists are also taking advantage of technology. A recent 'Wired' article features the Edgetone Music Summit, a four-day San Fransisco Bay event dedicated to experimental sound.

This might be my inner old man talking, but I'm wondering if a lot of technology-based "music" isn't just noise.

Read the full 'Wired' article.

Thank you, Pair Networks and N-TEN

I am pleased to announce that Pair Networks has joined the PA Council of the Arts as a sponsor of Technology in the Arts, and that N-TEN will have a table at the conference.

Pair Networks is a Web hosting firm based in Pittsburgh that houses thousands of Web sites from all over the world. We are delighted to be included amongst the prestigious Web sites and organizations sponsored by Pair.

N-TEN is a service organization for the non-profit technology field. In addition to their fabulous annual conference, they offer seminars, webinars, online affinity groups and more. Another N-TEN connection with Technology in the Arts: executive director Katrin Verclas will be speaking at the conference on Beth Kanter’s panel about IT resources for small non-profit arts organizations.

We are very appreciative of the generous support of these organizations. Thank you.

What is Web 2.0 anyway?

The concept of “Web 2.0” has been touted as the “solution” to any number of non-profit management issues. Though the term has been used to mean a wide range of things, in general, it’s the idea that the Web is no longer about one-way information flow, but a dynamic portal where users contribute, comment on, revise and maintain data contained on Web sites. Think of the difference between the Encyclopedia Britannica Online (first generation Web site) and Wikipedia (Web 2.0).

TechSoup, through its NetSquared project, is categorizing the tools most commonly associated with Web 2.0 (blogs, RSS feeds, wikis) as the “social web” because of their ability to affect social change. Although I wasn’t able to attend, I heard wonderful things about the conference they held in May -- we had a MAM grad student who came back revitalized and excited by the possibilities for of Web 2.0 for the arts sector.

As John Falk and Beverly Sheppard point out in their excellent new book, Thriving in the Knowledge Age, the dawning of the “Knowledge Age” has resulted in increased public interest in museums and other cultural institutions. The book points to the new challenge for cultural institutions: can we adapt to this new landscape and become “bottom-up” entities?

The Web is a good place to start.

How do we “customize” arts experiences so that users feel the same kind of buy-in as they do with their other leisure activities? NFL.com has a “My Team” section on its front page that I can customize, when I browse over to Fandango.com I see “Cary’s Favorites” on the right side of the screen, and Amazon has been giving me recommendations for years.

How do we reach the people who truly care about our missions? Google has based its business model on only advertising to people who have indicated interest in a product or topic while MySpace links bands with their fans in a very personal way.

Blogging allows us to communicate frequently and informally with our constituents; creating an “Audience Reviews” section on our Web site allows our visitors to have a voice; hosting discussion forums lets us tap into what’s top of mind for our members.

What works for one organization may not work for another – we all have different audiences who will each have a unique response to an initiative.

One final word… It’s important to carefully consider the time commitments involved in starting any Web 2.0 initiative. Planning new online initiatives should be done just as strategically as for “bricks and mortar” programs.

We’d love to hear about how your organization feels about Web 2.0… Please comment.

You don't have to be a dancer to attend their conference...

I recently attended the Dance/USA National Round Table in Portland, OR, and thought I'd share a few things from the event... First, I am scared to try and move in any way that might be considered "graceful."

On my second day at the conference, I decided to check out one of the "Get up and Move!" morning warm-up sessions.

"Heck," I thought, "They can't be doing much more than stretching at this ungodly hour."

When I peeked in the session room, it looked like the cast of Cirque du Soleil warming up for a show. This was nothing like my high school P.E. stretch-out activities.

I walked past the session room and got a donut instead.

Speaking of Cirque du Soleil, please check out their Web site for an example of how extreme site design can be a hassle for visitors.

While it's important for arts organizations to offer aesthetically pleasing and stimulating Web experiences, it is equally important to offer alternative sites for users with older computers. If you're going to include fancy Web elements, such as Flash animation, on your site, be sure to offer a non-Flash version as well. Otherwise, you could be shutting out a large portion of your audience.

By the way, the clown that greets you on the Cirque du Soleil front page is absolutely terrifying:

"Mommy, I don't want to go into that Web site. Please don't make me go."

It was also confirmed during my time in Portland that technology is unavoidable. Many of the discussions at the Dance/USA conference revolved around technology. Dance company administrators seem to be very interested in how their organizations can begin using MySpace, YouTube and other popular Internet tools to increase audience and potential audience awareness.

YouTube works especially well for arts groups with visually gripping programming. The site is a free service that allows you to upload and share videos. Click here to visit the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) Web site and read about some documentary filmmakers that are using YouTube to share their work about the rebuilding of New Orleans.