The explosion of social networking sites into the public consciousness and the corresponding user-content-creation phenomenon convinced the editors at TIME that you are the Person of the Year.
Click here for the article.
Art on the Web and Other News
I read an interesting article on CNN.com today, and I wanted to pass it along. The piece examines STUART, a site for art students to hock their creative wares. Also, check out our latest podcast, which features part one of our interview with Microsoft's Ian Lindsay. He was very engaging and a very good sport.
Oh... and Happy Holidays!
Call for Papers for Journal of IT in Social Change -- deadline: tomorrow
Please see the posting below for a call for papers relating to innovative uses of technology in the non-profit sector. I encourage you to participate if you have relevant research! * * * * * * *
Organizations in the nonprofit and voluntary sector have recognized that information technologies are a vital part of their effective mission achievement. While a large and growing body of practical knowledge already exists, practitioners, managers, and policy makers still lack systematic scholarly research about how information technologies are changing the nonprofit sector and the organizations within it.
NTEN and Nonprofit Online News are seeking research papers for a panel and a publication. The panel will be held at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, in Washington DC April 4-6, 2007 and will focus on "The State of the Art in Nonprofit Technology." We will publish papers in the inaugural issues of "The Journal of Information Technology in Social Change." We are seeking rigorously designed research that explores all facets of ICT implementation, use, and innovation in nonprofit and grassroots organizations and sectors. We are interested in research that engages with these and similar themes:
- Technology adoption in the voluntary sector
- The relationship between open ICT ecosystems and civil society
- Issues around the use of technology platforms, e.g., free/open source software and proprietary systems
- How nonprofits and grassroots organizations use information technologies
- Organizational change and technology implementation
- The unique technological needs of nonprofit and grassroots organizations
- The role of technology in promoting social change
We are taking a multidisciplinary approach. Original papers and proposals are sought from researchers in all relevant subject areas. Proposals submitted should address facets of nonprofit technology, broadly construed.
Complete papers are strongly encouraged and will be given priority over abstracts or proposals. Two to three page proposals that include a summary of research findings and methods used will also be considered.
Send submissions including the author's contact information, position, and affiliation as PDF, RTF, or DOC files to research@nten.org.
Timeline:
- Deadline for Submissions (complete papers preferred): December 15, 2006
- Author notification (and editorial requests) by: February 15, 2007
- Complete Papers Due: March 10, 2007
- Journal Publication Date: April 5, 2007
- Conference: April 4-6, 2007
Partners:
- NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network
- Nonprofit Online News
- Michael Gilbert, Co-Editor
- Katrin Verclas, Co-Editor
- Paul-Brian McInerney, Co Editor
Stay Tuned...
After all the audio interviews from the 2006 Technology in the Arts conference have been published, CAMT will continue its podcast as a series of arts/technology discussions and interviews. Jason Hansen, Carnegie Mellon IT professor and a former CAMT developer, will join me as co-host, and we plan to speak with artists, arts managers and tech professionals from all over the country about their work and interesting trends in the field. Today we discussed Windows Vista, Microsoft's new operating system set for consumer release next month, with MS account technology specialist Ian Lindsay. Lindsay explained what organizations interested in upgrading to Vista should know and how much they should expect to spend.
Our two-part interview with Lindsay will be released to our podcast feed in a couple weeks. For now, enjoy our most recent podcast update, featuring my interviews with state arts agency representatives Philip Horn (PA Council on the Arts) and Carla Dunlap (MD State Arts Council).
If you have any questions or interesting technology updates, please submit them to podcast@technologyinthearts.org.
Social Networking Technology and Arts Organizations
Recently in the Artful Manager blog, Andrew Taylor discussed how social networking technology evident in popular user-driven sites (MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Dandelife, etc.) is rapidly changing the nature of the web and how we use it by enabling individuals to share their voice, vision and story with the wider world. For many months now, I have been ruminating over how to (a) strategically integrate the use of social networking technology into my programs and services, and (b) convince my organization's leaders that we need to move in this direction.
I know many artists are finding ways to utilize this technology as a tool for furthering their artistic endeavors. Comedian Dane Cook has used his MySpace network to catapult himself into the national spotlight as today's top-selling comedian on tour; Boston painter Jeff Hayes produces a successful painting-a-day blog to sell his work on a daily basis; hundreds of filmmakers post their trailers and short films on YouTube to promote awareness and generate buzz for their work.
So what can social networking technology do for arts organizations?
- Given the current trend in the field for arts organizations to market the "artistic experience" coupled with contemporary audiences' desire for greater interactivity, social networking technology has great potential to assist arts organizations in deepening their audience's experience by providing more avenues for engaging with the art, the artists, the organization, and each other. For example, check out Chicago Classical Music (CCM). Founded by nine classical music organizations, CCM launched in March 2006 as a six-month pilot program under the auspices of the Arts & Business Council of Chicago. This online community is dedicated to connecting its 11 current membership organizations with classical music enthusiasts through a blog, interactive forums, a chat room, a ticket swap feature, an events calendar, and more.
- Due to the "tell your friends, who will tell their friends, etc." nature of this technology, another benefit for arts organizations is the viral expansion of their reach and awareness. Earlier this fall, I started a weblog for our Southern Circuit - Tour of Independent Filmmakers program wherein touring filmmakers post about their experiences on the road in the South. Even in its nascent phase, the blog has been viewed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America; thereby providing our program with a reach and awareness we could never afford to garner through another channel.
- A third potential function for social network technology is to galvanize a virtual community around a mission, goal or issue to spur positive change in the real world. Take a look at how the New Orleans Video Access Center has been using YouTube to answer the question "Why should New Orleans be rebuilt?"
These are just a few ways in which these sites and online services can benefit arts organizations. With every passing day, further innovative uses are realized. So why stay behind the curve? What could social networking technology do for your organization?
Making art from the internet
I recently had the opportunity to attend one of the Artist Lecture Series here at CMU hosted by the College of Fine Arts. Because they joined forces with the Human Computer Interaction Institute, a lot of the guest speakers were amazingly innovative technology artists. Martin Wattenberg, who leads the Visual Communication Lab at IBM Research, creates visualizations based on content from the internet and other data sources. Check out some of his research projects. I also came across an interesting article today that strikes me as really relevant- especially as I sift through the hordes of spam I receive everyday. Alex Dragulescu, an alumnus of UC San Diego, develops algorithms to process his spam emails to create botanical and architectural looking digital structures. He likens his process to a contemporary version of found art.
Sexiest Geeks of 2006
I just wanted to remind everyone to enter your nominations for the sexiest geeks of 2006. Any one of us here at CAMT would make an excellent choice. ;) Just kidding. We aren't that conceited... and our humility is a large part of our sex appeal.
Pittsburgh Podcamp: Nov. 10-12
If you caught the podcasting bug at our conference last month, join Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Three Rivers Film Festival this weekend for an "un-conference" and participate workshops on blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks and new media monetization. In addition to the broad range of sessions, the schedule includes several social events, including a networking event at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh on Friday night, and a Saturday night dinner at Bossa Nova. If you can't make it to Pittsburgh this weekend, check out upcoming podcamps planned for Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto, and New York.
Interpreting Culture, Part 2
As the shelf life of “new” continues to be defined by smaller and smaller time increments, how do we as arts administrators help artists to do their jobs – ask the timeless questions – in a timely fashion? I’m a big fan of John Seabrook’s 2001 book NoBrow: the Culture of Marketing and the Marketing of Culture, a series of essays that illustrate how these two phenomena work in contemporary American society. In one essay, Seabrook compares his own life to that of his father’s, noting the evolution of high-brow/low-brow distinctions are made through clothes: his father had a suit for every occasion, whereas “a Chemical Brothers T-shirt will get me further in many places than my father’s suit.”
One implication of Seabrook’s message is that in order to communicate effectively in a time when identity is defined by taste, arts organizations must realize that an artist’s message will be read in the specific context of a highly customized, consumption-driven life. People filter “high art” messages through the same lens they use to see billboards, print advertising, television commercials, product placements, movie trailers, product jingles…
What tools can we use to deliver artists’ content quickly and effectively? What role do we play in making sure their voices are heard clearly, and on time (particularly on a day like today)? How do we “buy in” to all the exciting two-way communication technology tools available to us now without “selling out”?
Windows Vista: What does it mean for arts organizations?
Microsoft will soon be releasing the latest version of its operating system, Windows Vista. Microsoft's marketing campaign touts that Vista, being released to the company's business customers on November 30 and everyone else in January, will help users be "connected, clear and confident." The "connected" part of this campaign refers to the ease of connecting to people and information, and the "clear" part is meant to infer that the product's user interface will be straightforward and simple to grasp.
However, it's the "confident" part that most people are interested in, because past versions of Windows have had numerous security flaws. Vista is supposed to feature more advanced methods of detecting and preventing spyware and other electronic threats to your computer. We'll see...
The Technology in the Arts podcast (new episode available now!) will feature interviews from the 2006 TitA conference for the next several weeks, but one of our first non-conference podcasts will examine what Windows Vista will mean for arts organizations: How much will it cost? Will my current computers run Vista? What do I need to know to upgrade?
Digital Time Capsule
On October 10, Yahoo! launched the Yahoo! Time Capsule project, a brainchild of the artist Jonathan Harris. For 30 days, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio files, and drawings to this innovative digital anthropology project. On November 8, the collected files will be entrusted to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in Washington D.C., and the data will be preserved as historical artifacts.
The time capsule is organized around ten themes: Love, Sorrow, Anger, Faith, Beauty, Fun, Past, Hope, Now, and You, each of which was chosen to encourage a broad range of submissions. In addition to creating a historical record, the time capsule's design is intended to foster online community building. Users can submit original content, view other submissions, and engage in conversation about submissions with other users.
Harris's recent work has focused on the exploration of humans through the artifacts they leave behind on the Web. His background as an artist/techie/anthropologist makes him an ideal candidate to mold the project's creative vision.
As he wrote in his artist's statement, " . . . the Yahoo! Time Capsule sets out to collect a portrait of the world – a single global image composed of millions of individual contributions. This time capsule is defined not by the few items a curator decides to include, but by the items submitted by every human on earth who wishes to participate. We hope to reach a truly global expression of life on earth – nuanced, diverse, beautiful and ugly, thrilling and terrifying, touching and rude, serious and absurd, frank, honest, human. The Time Capsule itself is realized digitally so that the maximum number of people can have access . . .
The aesthetic of the Time Capsule is that of a ball of thread, spinning like a globe, its shifting surface entirely composed of words and pictures submitted by people around the world. The thread ball concept relates to threads of memory and threads of time, where threads are taken to be any continuous and self-consistent narrative strand. When the Time Capsule opens, it displays the 100 most recent contributions, which form the spinning globe. The ten themes orbit the globe in a pinwheel pattern. At any moment, any individual tile can be clicked, causing the globe to fall away and the selected tile to expand, revealing detailed information about the tile and the person who created it. Using a search interface, viewers can specify the population they wish to see, exploring such demographics as “men in their 20s from New York City”, and “Iraqi women who submitted drawings in response to the question: What do you love?”. There are an infinite number of ways to slice the data, and each resulting slice then becomes its own thread, which can be browsed independently, tile by tile, like a filmstrip."
With only 6 days, 8 hours and counting, there's not much time for procrastinating. Go and contribute now.
Attack of the Pod People
As I mentioned during Attack of the Pod People, the session Jerry Coltin and I presented during the Technology in the Arts conference, I love to hear myself speak... even if other people don't. Our first podcast episode, which features my interviews with Jason Hansen and Jerry Coltin, is now live in the Podcast category and available at our Feedburner site.
Also, please check out some great photos from the conference, taken by Pittsburgh photographer Suellen Fitzsimmons, at our Flickr site.
A vision of our future
Conference presenter Erika Block shared this video during her session, which examines the future of media and information and a forecast of changes at Google, Amazon, and The New York Times.
How far we've come
Rob Brunskill (former CAMT Systems Administrator) sent me this video posted on YouTube -- it's a news report on computers from 1981... Amazing how prophetic much of it turned out to be, particularly an IBM spokesman who said that computers may turn into the "world's biggest backyard fence."
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!
Visualizing musical structure
Students of music theory may be familiar with the principles of "voice-leading", rules which govern the way in which notes move from one chord to the next. (The rules say the steps should be fairly small.) To help music students understand these concepts, Princeton professor Dmitiri Tymoczko recently developed ChordGeometries, software that generates a 3D musical map in real-time and illustrates how far a piece of music diverges from these rules. Tymoczko's accompanying paper, "The Geometry of Musical Chords," was published earlier this year in Science and explores voice-leading from the perspectives of both musicology and mathematics. To see the program in action, download one of three demonstration movies or the software itself, available for Mac OSX and Windows XP.
Starting a Podcast, Part 5
Now that I have some actual mp3 files from my interviews with CAMT staff - check them out and subscribe to the podcast - it's time to release them to the world. My first attempt to build a listenership - yes, that's a real word - is to use a site called Feedburner, which facilitates the distribution of blogs and podcasts.
First, I added to our blog site a "Podcast" category where my new CAMT mp3 files can live. It is important to add each podcast in its own post. Otherwise, a feed reader such as Feedburner or iTunes will only recognize the first audio file in the post and skip the rest.
Next, I registered for a free account on Feedburner. There are fee-based services, such as enhanced subscriber tracking, but I don't imagine this thing will take off fast enough for us to worry about that just yet. I'm charming, but I'm no Bill O'Reilly. (Disclaimer: The previously linked site is not my own, nor do I endorse it. I simply searched "Bill O'Reilly" and that is the funniest result.)
Once you sign up for a Feedburner account and enter the URL for your "Podcast" blog category, Feedburner will automatically create a page where visitors can either download your content or get your feed URL for use in their own podcast aggregators.
CAMT_Update Fall/Winter 2006-07
The Fall/Winter 2006-07 issue of CAMT_Update, the Center for Arts Management and Technology's newsletter, is available for free at http://artsnet.org/CAMT_Update-FallWinter0607.pdf. Check it out and let us know what you'd like to see in the next update!
Ladies and gentlemen, start your cellphones.
On Sunday, the Chicago Sinfonietta played a new work with unusual instrumentation: the world premiere of the Concertino for Cellular Phones and Symphony Orchestra. During the performance, audience members were signaled to active phones by the illumination of colored lights — red for the balcony, green for the orchestra seats. The Sinfonietta's Music Director, Paul Freeman, discussed the work in the context of music with random elements, including pieces by John Cage and Charles Ives. However, the October 1st premiere was highly organized; the orchestra provided directions via email and in the program, and the conductor held a practice session before the performance.
To get a flavor for the music, you can view the Chicago Sinfonietta's television commercial featuring the Concertino.
Starting a Podcast, Part 4
Yesterday I interviewed three of my fellow CAMT staffers: Guillermo Marinero (Senior Information Systems Specialist), Haebin Kim (Information Systems Specialist), and Melody Fleishauer (Systems Administrator). These interviews are roughly 5 minutes each and aren't thrilling, but you can hear a little about each of their backgrounds and how they became intrigued by technology. Listen to the interviews in our Podcast category.
Next week: I will discuss how to get these mp3 files out into the world as Podcasts.
EDIT: After publishing this post, I caught a mistake: I posted three mp3 files to one post. In order for a Podcast aggregator like iTunes to catch your audio files, it's important to post them as separate links. Since this blog is meant to be instructional, I thought I'd call myself out on this error publicly, so we can all learn from my mistake. I have added two more posts in the Podcasts category of this blog forHaebin and Melody, so iTunes will snag them for me. More on this next week...