Drop Serious Knowledge

First off, many thanks to David Dombrosky and the fantastic crew at CAMT for inviting me to guest blog on Technology in the Arts. What a luxury to share my thoughts with you! Lately, I've been thinking about individual artists and how they're often the first to step forward and serve the community of artists. This, of course, is not a new phenomenon, but I've recently seen some compelling projects, some web-based, others enabled by technology, that deserve highlighting. This will be my focus through the end of February.

Artist Steve Lambert

Here's a cool lead off project. On January 26, 2008, visual artist Steve Lambert (b. 1976, Los Angeles) initiated the first Art WikiMarathon. His goal was to "drop serious knowledge in Wikipedia about art", including information on artists, exhibitions, organizations, etc. For eight straight hours, volunteer collaborators from around the globe sat at their laptops and collectively fed their knowledge into this public resource. More than 90 new entries were posted. Some personal favorites among the new additions include Karen Finley, Paul McCarthy, and John McCracken.

This is a great start, but just the beginning. There are thousands of other artists, especially living ones, that still need to be added. I encourage each of you to continue what Lambert started and add just one more artist to Wikipedia. Who do you find most compelling? I wrote my graduate thesis in art history on painter Alfred Jensen (b. 1903, Guatemala; d. 1981, New Jersey) and his work has captivated me for more than a decade. I just did a search for him on Wikipedia and guess what? He's not in there. And I'm going to get on it asap. We only have two choices here: either drop serious knowledge, or serious knowledge will be dropped.

Let me know if you add anybody to Wikipedia.

A Couple Monday Morning Offerings...

I stumbled upon a couple of online offerings I thought were worth a mention. One is a very inclusive Web hosting package and the other is a large file sharing tool. Happy Monday! Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting

I am very impressed with the Yahoo! small business $11.95 per month Web hosting package. Understandably, some arts organizations can't afford $144 per year for Web hosting, but this might be a nice solution for those groups with at least a minimal budget.

What is most impressive about the Yahoo! hosting package is the "bang for your buck" factor, to be quite cliché. The list of included features is quite impressive and includes:

• Unlimited server space
• Unlimited email storage
• Support for FrontPage and Dreamweaver
• PHP for enhanced Web site functionality
• MySQL with unlimited databases
• WordPress and Movable Type blog tools
• 1,000 email addresses
• Web statistics tracking
• 24-hour toll-free phone support
• 99.9% uptime
• Site backups in multiple geographic locations

Another feature that seems to be appealing for those with little Web design experience is the package's site creation tool, which is an online Web site builder that basically walks you through the process of setting up a new site. For those in the know or that already have a site, Yahoo! provides FTP tools so you can build a more complex site or move your existing pages.

I'm certainly not trying to be a salesman for Yahoo!, but I thought it was worthwhile to mention this Web hosting package, as I get questions all the time about affordable hosting solutions that offer advanced features.

Of course, for those organizations with little or no budget for Web hosting, the Center for Arts Management and Technology still offers free Web hosting. No PHP or nifty blogging tools with our package, but it's free and very reliable.

Pando - Large File Sharing

Many arts organizations - especially museums and galleries - need to send large image, video and audio files. Pando lets you send files via IM, email or the Web up to 1 GB for free and up to 3 GB with its Pro account that runs only $24.95 per year.

This is a pretty good deal when compared to the more popular YouSendIt.com's 2 GB plan that costs $109.99 per year.

Pando requires both the sender and receiver to download the free Pando tool, but it's a quick and easy download and installation process. The send/receive process is also quite simple, and the Pando software offers a user-friendly layout. For those who get stuck sending or receiving, Pando.com offers fairly thorough documentation on using its software.

JotYou!

JotYou is a site that allows you to send SMS text messages to mobile phones, but with a twist. You can set up the message delivery so that it only delivers when people are in a specific geographical area and you can adjust the send time and expiration time of the message. So, your recipients only get the message if they are in the area you have selected within the specified time frame. If they arrive too late or if they do not move within the location radius, they never get the text message.

After looking at the demo video for JotYou, I got to thinking that this service might actually be useful to arts organizations. I'm not going to go into the pros, cons, and etiquette of using mobile messaging as a marketing tool, since that's a whole other can of worms. But, for the sake of argument...

Let's say your organization sponsors a gallery or art crawl through your downtown cultural district. You could have people sign up beforehand to be part of the Art Crawl Mobile Messaging Tour, which would message the guests, as they navigate the streets, with tips about things to see, directions to get there, and maybe even clues that would lead them to Art Crawl Mobile Messaging Tour exclusive content (like free cups of hot chocolate and coffee).  How cool is that?

I have not actually tried JotYou, so I don't know how reliable the service is or how accurate its geographical-based messaging is, but I think that the potential for creating value-added experiences for willing participants could be interesting enough to start experimenting with JotYou.

When href="Links, Links, and More Links"

I stumbled on a great collection of links of artist using technology, hosted by the San Francisco State's Conceptual Information Arts (CIA) program.  There's over 4,000 links to artists whose arts melds with disciplines as various as computer media, robotics, virtual reality, and even microbiology. However, after clicking around and encountering some broken links, I started to wonder, "How the heck do they keep track of so many links?  How does anyone who has an extensive list of external links avoid frustrating, broken links?"  After some searching, I found something interesting.  And free.  And simple.

There's an add-on for the FireFox browser called LinkChecker that you can use to verify the links on any Web page you browse to.  Links are highlighted different colors based on status (green is a valid link, red is a broken link, yellow is a link with an error, and gray is a link that times out before responding).  I installed this add-on and put the page of links at the SFS CIA program to the test.

For the 4,238 links on the page, LinkChecker took about an hour to go through them all, but I just minimized the page and let it run in the background.  Once it was done, I knew that I could click with confidence.  This is a great tool for the end user, especially someone doing research (on artists using technology, perhaps?).  Run the LinkChecker, go have a cup of cocoa, and come back and know exactly which links are valid. 

From a site manager's perspective, the add-on is helpful as well.  You can test your own site's link pages, see what links are broken, and then clean up your code to remove them.  The main downside of this add-on is that it is completely manual.  The link checking isn't done automatically or at a regularly scheduled time, and LinkChecker only flags a link as broken (placing the burden of maintenance on the site manager).

I would bet good money that there are link validation software and monitoring services out there that are more robust than LinkChecker, but I've never used or investigated them.  Still, LinkChecker is simple, free, and a great resource to have when dealing with loads of links.

Anyone out there struggling to keep their collection of links clean and tidy?  Know of any other tools or resources to verify links?  Want me to do a little more digging on this subject?  Give us some comments!

Related Links: W3.org Link Checker - http://validator.w3.org/checklink FireFox Add-Ons - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Convert PDFs to Word Documents

If you're like me, you cry when you watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Wait, that's not what I meant. Bus driver... Move that bus!

I meant... If you're like me, it's often frustrating to try and edit a PDF document. The file type was created to facilitate the sharing of documents without causing formatting issues, and PDF editing has always been difficult for users.

Now, thanks to www.hellopdf.com, you can simply convert your PDFs into Word documents for free.

I've not yet used the tool, so I'm skeptical about its ability to carry my PDF formatting into the Word document without some corruption. I'd love to get some comments from those of you who try this tool.

Can You Ever Have Too Much Redundancy?

SanDisk has created a flash drive for the forgetful, careless, or paranoid:  the 4GB Cruzer^® Titanium Plus, a USB flash drive that automatically copies the drive's contents to an online account every time you plug it into a internet-connected computer. Scenario 1 - You delete an important file from the drive and need to recover it, pronto.  You easily access your online account, which also has 4GB worth of file space.  Your account stores files that you delete from your drive for 30 days provided the total size of the currently backed up drive files and the previously deleted files do not exceed 4GB.

Scenario 2 - You lose the drive.  You have the option to password protect your files using a AES hardware data encryption feature on the drive.  Plus, the drive comes with two years free service with BoomerangIt, a lost-and-found mediator; you slap a sticker on the drive, and, if someone finds it, BoomerangIt facilitates its return (for a fee, of course).

Scenario 3 - You run over the drive with your Subaru. Again, you're covered.  The drive's gone, but your files are still online.

So, what's it going to cost you?  $60 for the drive and $30 a year (after a 6 month free trial) for the online service.  That's a fairly hefty price, at first glance, for a 4GB USB drive, but the peace of mind might be worth it. 

For more details and specs, check out SanDisk's press release.

Much Ado About File Formats

The web has been buzzing this week with discussion of an issue with Microsoft Office and older file formats. Here's the gist of the issue:

• When Microsoft came out with Office 2007, the new software blocked users from opening files created by older versions of Word, Excel and Power Point - mostly programs launched in 1995 and earlier. The change also kept users from opening some files made in Corel Corp.'s CorelDraw.
• In September of this past year, Microsoft released Office 2003 Service Pack 3 - a free package of updates and fixes which also blocks users from easily opening the older file formats.

So why would Microsoft make it difficult for Office users to open older Office file formats?

According to Microsoft, opening these files poses a security risk. Specifically, the code that reads these older file formats may open a PC to hacker attacks.

What should you do if you ever find yourself using Office 2007 or Office 2003 updated with Service Pack 3 and needing to open an older file format?

• You can create a trusted location and place the files there. This is documented in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922849. It's an easier process if you're running Office 2007 than if you're on Office 2003, but it is an option.
• You can change the default version that Office 2007 & 2003 will still open. Information on how to do this may be found here.

Granted, most of us are not regularly opening active files from 12 or more years ago.  The only files I still open that are so old are a series of poorly written poems from my undergraduate days.  Hmmmmm, maybe it's better if I don't open those after all....

Happy Holidays!

The Center for Arts Management and Technology would like to wish the Technology in the Arts community a very happy holiday week! Here's to a safe and prosperous 2008!

Check out someecards.com for hilarious electronic greetings.

Everything Old Is New Again

Greetings!  As Cary mentioned in a previous post, I accepted the Executive Director position with the Center for Arts Management and Technology; and after three weeks on the job, I couldn't be more thrilled.  I love the mission; the staff is fantastic; and the work environment has been wonderfully inviting.  There's just one thing...relearning Microsoft Office. I know that part of changing jobs involves learning new policies, procedures, systems, and (in this day and age) software; but this is Office I'm talking about here - the backbone of administration, right?  At my previous organization, I grew to be an "advanced" user with Office 2002.  I had a gold star and everything; but now, I have to learn Office 2007, and I'm right back in the novice seat.

Sure, I have transitioned between previous versions of Office, but this is different.  For example, they took away my trusty standard toolbar in Word - you know the one with File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Window and Help - and replaced it with a Fluent user interface featuring Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review and View. Okay, okay...maybe that's not such a big deal.

But what about this?  They changed the file extensions.  Now, when I send a MS Word document to a colleague, they receive a .docx file instead of a .doc file.  That's four letters instead of three.  What were they thinking?  Of course, I can save my files in an Office 2002-compatible format before sending them, and Microsoft does offer a series of converters allowing users of previous Office versions to open 2007 files.  

Hmmm, maybe this transition isn't going to be that difficult after all.

Click here for more information on the improvements built into Office 2007

Wired's Geekipedia: Technology Defined

Tired of being the only one in the room who doesn't know Ajax from crowdsourcing? Now if anyone ever confounds you with a technology concept or buzzword, you can simply nod your head as if you know what they're talking about, excuse yourself to the restroom, and look it up using Wired's Geekipedia.

New entries are added all the time, and you can even suggest entries.

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