Introducing Spotlight Blogger - Matthew Deleget

While I know how much you love reading posts from the Technology in the Arts team, we decided to expand and deepen the dialogue around technology and the arts by inviting colleagues from the arts administration field to share their technology-related thoughts, tips, and discoveries as spotlight bloggers. To kick things off, we are delighted to introduce this month's spotlight blogger -- Matthew Deleget. In his capacity as the Managing Officer of the Information and Research Department at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Matthew oversees all of NYFA's information programs, including the NYFA Web site, online classified listings, online artist gallery, biweekly arts magazine, and NYFA Source - the nation's most comprehensive database of programs for artists.

You may remember Matthew from the session he presented at the 2006 Technology in the Arts Conference on "Redefining an Artist Community via the Web," where he discussed MINUS SPACE, an online curatorial/critical project he co-founded with Rossana Martinez to present reductive, concept-based art by international artists.

In addition to his work as an arts administrator, Matthew is a working visual artist who has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters as well as the Brooklyn Arts Council. In 2004, he was elected to membership with the American Abstract Artists, and in 2005, to the Artists Advisory Committee of the Marie Walsh Sharp Art Foundation. His work has been reviewed in Flash Art Magazine, Artnet Magazine, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Basler Zeitung, and New York Arts Magazine. His work is included in the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, Fidelity Investments, Brown Rudnick and Pratt Institute, and others.

Please, join us in welcoming Matthew to the Technology in the Arts blog!

Hodgepodge - CTC Vista, Mobile Giving, and Net Neutrality

CTC Vista - The deadline for non-profit organizations to apply for the CTC Vista Project is February 22, 2008.  Essentially, this program places IT savvy Americorps*VISTA members in non-profits around the country to help with their technology planning and needs.  I've had the pleasure of talking to and working with one such VISTA member, Morgan Sully, who is currently contributing his talents to the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC). Mobile Giving - the Mobile Giving Foundation is working with major cell phone carriers in the US to make donations collected by SMS text messaging more feasible and profitable for non-profits.  Read more here. I think larger arts organizations, who might have the resources to mount and support a successful mobile giving campaign, may want to keep an eye on this.

Net Neutrality - Comcast has admitted to purposefully slowing down internet traffic on its network.  For those of you not familiar with net neutrality, you can visit Save the Internet.com or check out the Wikipedia article.  The FCC's investigation into Comcast's network practices is ongoing.

The Digital Museum - A New Book and Upcoming Webinar Series

Recently, the American Association of Museums published The Digital Museum: A Think Guide, in which twenty-five leading thinkers in the fields of technology and museums explore the impact of new technology on all aspects of museum operations, from interpretation to conservation. Topics range from the use of handheld devices, websites and digital games to open source technology and real-time learning. Beginning on Tuesday, February 12, AAM will launch "The Digital Museum: Transforming the Future Now" - a four-part series of monthly webinars further exploring areas identified in the publication and facilitated by leading practioners in the field. According to AAM, "The Digital Museum webinar series will help you explore how recent innovations in technology are transforming museum operations of every kind, from exhibitions and content delivery to education, audience evaluation, and institutional planning."

For more information on each webinar and to register for the series

2008 AAM MUSE Awards - Applications due Jan. 11th

The American Association of Museums (AAM) Media and Technology Committee is accepting online applications for the 2008 AAM MUSE Awards until Friday, January 11, 2008. The cost is $25 per entry. The 2007 Muse Awards competition received nearly 200 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Entries included audio, cell phone and interactive handheld tours, interactive kiosks and multimedia installations, podcasts, blogs, games, websites, online collection and image databases, videos and e-mail marketing campaigns. This year AAM is expecting another exciting round of projects that reflect innovation in the museum media community.

Entry categories include:

• Audio and Visual Tours
• Extended Experience
• Games
• Interactive Kiosks
• Interpretive Interactive Installations
• Multimedia Installations
• Online Presence
• PR and Development
• Teaching and Outreach
• Video

MUSE award winners demonstrate outstanding achievement in the following areas:

1. Success in meeting the stated educational goals
2. Visual design
3. Production quality
4. Functionality
5. Appropriate use of technology
6. Overall appeal

Click here for more information and to apply online.

Call for participation

Steve Bradley, one of our illustrious speakers at next week's conference, sends the following invitation: cell stitch an open participatory mobile media project by URBANtells

Call for cell phone based photographic and textural contributions. Create a series of photographs that best describe the place where you live, work and play. Take as many images as you like focusing on details that make the place you live perhaps unique, mundane, or like every other city in the U.S. Include one to twosentencenarratives along with your pictures and send them to: urbantells@wintermute.org

It takes anywhere up to 5 minutesfor the image to show up on the page, http://urbantells.net/cell-net/

Reload the page until the image appears within the grid.

speaking of tools

Here's a link to information about a giveaway by Members Only Software to one arts organization that will be selected on September 10.

CAMT Partners with Historic Pittsburgh Hotel

CAMT is proud to announce its Technology in the Arts conference partnership with the Omni William Penn Hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh. Located close to all conference activities, as well as a wide array of cultural and dining experiences, the Omni William Penn will be offering special rates to Technology in the Arts attendees. View more information about our partner hotel.

Nominations

There's still time to nominate someone (including yourself) for the 2007 ArtsTech Award... Click here to read about the award and the nomination process.

Ice Cream [remix]

With summer finally on its way, ice cream trucks around the country are revving their engines and turning up the loudspeaker. Tired of the familiar (annoying) theme songs, New Yorkers Jeffrey Lopez and Lauren Rosati decided holding an online remix competition to come up with a new tune. The winner of the Ice Cream Headache contest will have their new song played on a Mister Softee truck driving through New York's five boroughs during Memorial Day Weekend. The contest has already received more than 40 entries, including the quirky Balinese Softee by Nina Katchadourian (my personal favorite).

To enter the contest, e-mail your entry to info@suite405.com. But hurry before it melts -- all entries must be received by Friday, May 5th.

please consider voting for SITI's social web project by April 14th

I work for SITI Company (an ensemble theater company led by Anne Bogart) and with the help of Erika Block we are developing a project that uses social media to build, connect and strengthen our international community of students and audiences through the creation of SEE (SITI’s Extended Ensemble). Rooted in SITI's commitment to international collaboration and the fostering of young artists, SEE uses social media to connect a community of artists and audiences, using an ensemble theater context to bridge virtual and “real” worlds by developing an online tool that fosters collaboration. Erika describes it as, "exploring ways to turn online connections into face-to-face connections - a networking meeting, getting out the vote, getting audiences into theaters. And to turn face-to-face connections into online communities. Deepening the impact of a performance or a workshop by creating a space for dialogue, shared tips, questions and, ultimately, repeat attendance. This is the potential of these tools - a seamless loop of participation."

She also points out "The Howard Dean campaign and MoveOn are early examples. MySpace is tremendously effective for promoting music and spoken word concerts (and, increasingly, other events). Last year’s Los Angeles immigration protests by young people were organized online. Just the other day, Andrew Taylor wrote about Charles Leadbetter's new book We-Think, which suggests that our traditional view of how innovations enter the market -- special people in special places creating things that are pushed down the pipeline to passive and waiting consumers -- is no longer true, if it ever was. Rather, the traditional, corporate approach to creativity and innovation is decreasingly able to develop radical innovation, and spends much of its time stifling the innovation of talented and networked amateurs [and professionals, I'd add]."

One of the things that's most interesting about SEE is its potential to become a model for the performing arts field, encouraging peer-to-peer collaboration and invention.

SITI has submitted the proposal for support from the NetSquared community (division of Tech Soup), which was developed to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations. 20 projects will be chosen for support through a membership voting process, and anyone with an interest in this work can join NetSquared, for free. (Apart from the opportunity to vote, you can participate in a great conversation and draw on a growing resource base.)

We'd love for you to vote for SEE, and you can find the full project description here. The link to vote is here. (you'll have to register on the site)