Philanthropy 2.0: DonorsChoose.org

If Web 2.0 is about collaboration through online tools and and "the market as a conversation", then DonorsChoose.org is a shining example of Philanthropy 2.0. This innovative website connects public schools in need of resources with donors, who can fund any of the educational projects posted online. Requests for classroom range from pencils and paper to digital cameras and computers, and potential donors can search for projects by the school's geographic location, subject area, keyword, or amount of the funding request. In an age of charitable and corporate accounting scandals, the transparency of DonorsChoose.org is refreshing. After a proposal has been fully funded by one or more donors, the organization purchases the necessary items and ships them directly to the school. Donors then receive thank-you notes from students and teachers as well as an expenditure report so donors know their tax-deductible gifts were spent as intended.

But if 100% of the contribution goes directly to classroom materials, who funds the overhead expenses of DonorsChoose.org? According to a recent Slate.com article, 93% of donors elect to add 15% to their donation to cover operating expenses.

To date, DonorsChoose.org has raised more than $12 Million for students across the country, and has funded 3000 proposals for art and music classrooms. A quick search for the keyword "technology" in "art and music" subjects yielded 233 open proposals, including "Writing Pictorial Instructions For The Technology Center". In this proposal, a high school teacher requests funds for the materials needed for her students to create a manual for the school's technology center. The students will write a description of a task's step-by-step process, take a photograph of each step, and develop a PowerPoint presentation of the task for the teacher. The Technology teachers will use the work instructions to help teach new procedures to technology students.

With many grassroots arts organizations also struggling to purchase materials for administration, education, and community outreach, there is a clear need for a similar service to connect these organizations with potential donors. And indeed it may not be far behind. DonorsChoose.org has already inspired spin-off websites in China to find donors for small rural schools. Can arts managers work together to form a similar philanthropic network for the arts community?

CAMT in style at the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference

CAMT was in full attendence at NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference this year in Washington, DC, from April 4-6. Brad flew out early to attend the Day of Service on Wednesday. He helped an organization learn how to record and post a podcast.

Emily and I flew into DC together late Wednesday night and strategized our session attendence. The conference came at an integral time when Emily and I are looking for jobs, so we focused our networking opportunities to certain session tracks. She mostly attended Web 2.0 and communication sessions, while I focused on consulting and project management ones.

Some of the highlights of the sessions I attended:

Bill Strathmann's session, "The ROI Question: Demonstrating the value of technology to your organization," was particularly informative. He presented some nice models and diagrams of how to demonstrate your IT value to your funders or CEO in a clear and concise way. I'll definitely be looking to the complimentary thumbdrive that NTEN gave away to access that Power Point presentation.

The rule of managing expectations was re-enforced in a casual and anecdotal setting at the "Contracting with Consultants: How to engineer a better working relationship." Eric Leland and session attendees shared their expertise and stories about the consulting relationship.

CAMT had a prime spot in the grand hallway to the conference's main ballroom at the Innovation Plaza. Brad and I demonstrated CAMT's new CueRate tool, a visual art panel review management system, to conference passerbys. I also had the chance to talk to professionals who were interested in presenting at Technology in the Arts 2007.

The conference finale came when Grassroots.org awarded CAMT a one foot tall glittery tree statuette and $1000 for CueRate, one of the top 6 innovative tools recognized for the Techie Award of the Year. Cary pleased the audience and placated the time-laden MC with a quick victory pose.

Photos and the award video will be up soon on Flickr and YouTube, respectively.�

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)

Aspiration 2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit in Review

If you can imagine the geekiness that drives the creation of such innovative projects as Drupal, combined with the passion that is dedicated to seeing nonprofits successfully serve their constituents, you would be witnessing a typical attendee at this Summit. The energy present in Oakland that week was amazing. I walked into the Summit a day late during the skill-sharing session. Rather wide-eyed at how I was supposed to enter into the space, a nearby participant approached and welcomed me to sit down and chat until the session was over. This incident wasn't particular either; many individuals were very friendly, thus making the experience all the more rich.

The Summit had the perfect balance of application and theory sessions. I walked out of there learning about new technologies and how to use them, in addition to being aware of current policy and field issues. I was however, wishing that more people who served the arts were present.

Here are some highlights of a few of the sessions I sat in on. You may visit the Aspiration Summit wiki to gain insight as to how all the sessions went.

Case Study: Benetech's Miradi Project

Kevin Smith was very generous with his knowledge- catching me up with concepts of Agile Development and the process of specification gathering in this case. This information was woven into the narrative of how the Miradi Project came to be. After getting the meat of this session, I hopped over to Where are the Biggest Tool Gaps - a practice not so common in this type of small setting, admittedly. :) I came into the tail end of Laura Quinn's colloborative session that tried to pinpoint exactly where some of our energies might be spent to build a more cohesive and exhaustive link among the available technology tools.

Next Steps in Breaking the Integration Deadlock

Tate Hausman, from DotOrganize, along with Holly Ross from NTEN, set out to begin some formalized steps towards addresssing Open API issues. The session began by presenting the various definitions of what Integration could look like, and ended by discussing the many facets involved with resolving the scope of issues. Look forward to a potential API gathering- from NTEN or DotOrganize- to address integration issues!

Software Project Management Mind Meld

This session was particularly relevant to me as I see myself fulfilling a similar capacity in my next job. Jeremy Wallace, of the Fund for the City of New York, moderated a session where a room full of project managers discussed the benefits and drawbacks of various project managent tools: bug trackers, general project management, time tracking, collaborative editing and discussion. Some beneficial themes that also arose were: managing client's expectations, dealing with scope changes and various methods for distilling the requirements gathering process.

Exploring Opportunites for Collaborative Development

Laura Quinn and Jeremy Wallace led this session of mixed developers and administrators. Issues such as intellectual property rights, licensing, branding, buy-in and follow-through, and sharing development practices all arose as common barriers to the collaboration process. This session was hearty and intense. I suggest you review the wiki notes.

Smelling the AJAX Koolaid

I didn't know what AJAX was when I showed up to this session and my brain was satiated with resolution upon leaving. Evan Henshaw-Plath presented the history of AJAX, how websites use it, what the features look like, and the benefits and negatives. I also learned about the code libraries that support AJAX development, ways of using the DOM to create a separate AJAX file from your html one, and how to troubleshoot new browsers. It was awesome, but admittedly, I will never put myself in the position of using it. Hey, but concepts are all I focus on anyways.

Upcoming Conference on Museums and the Web

From April 11 - 14, 2007, Archives & Museums Informatics is hosting a conference on Museums and the Web in San Francisco, California. Workshops focus on everything from content management and archiving to Second Life, social media, and museum mashups. Check it out!Š

Company proposes free nationwide broadband access

M2Z, an organization with a mission to provide 95% of the population with free access to broadband wireless internet connections, was featured in a cultural policy listserv to which I subscribe. The article, originally printed in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, examines the pros and cons of allowing one company to undertake this endeavor. Please click the link below to read the full article:

http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_7086.shtml

If this initiative were to become a reality, I envision enormous impact on how the majority of the population receives information. If Americans are increasingly utilizing web based tools to stay informed, the amount of internet users could skyrocket. The only question I have, though, is how many people will actually get to use the service? One would speculate that this service assumes most of the population owns a computer.

MySpace as an Arts Space

Today's issue of The New York Times features "MyTheater, Seeking Friends," an article by Steven McElroy highlighting how various arts organizations are using the social networking site MySpace as a platform for marketing and promoting to younger audiences. For early adopters of technology, using MySpace as a promotional platform for the arts may seem like a "no-brainer," but for many others in field, the why's and how's of adding their organizations to MySpace are not readily apparent. I remember speaking with the director of a university's performing arts series at a recent conference. She told me that she had yet to find a successful tool for promoting her series to the university's students. I asked her if she had considered setting up a profile for the series on MySpace and using that as a platform for promotions geared toward the student and local Gen Y demographic. She admitted that the thought had not crossed her mind - even though she knew that a great number of the students at her university spent time on MySpace.

With a user base of 55 million and 28.4 percent of users under the age of 34, it is more difficult to find a reason NOT to use MySpace to reach out to new or younger audience members.

McElroy's article mentions how musicians and comics have been using MySpace as a promotional tool for quite awhile now. I would also add the independent film community to that list. My organization recently established a MySpace page for our independent filmmakers tour because of the enormous presence of independent filmmakers and film lovers on MySpace as demonstrated by the MySpace Film area. By joining this community, we have been able to promote our calls for entries to indie filmmakers around the world AND notify film lovers of our touring program - all in four weeks.

Next week, IMAGE Film & Video Center here in Atlanta is hosting a "Pimp My Space" workshop to teach local filmmakers (and folks like me) how to get the most out of your MySpace presence. I wonder if they are going to have a session like that at the National Arts Marketing Project conference in November? They should!

When I think about the organized areas of MySpace for film, music and comedy, I think wouldn't it be great if there were areas of MySpace set aside for dance, literature, visual art and other art forms?

• Places where both emerging and established artists could promote their work - tours, performances, readings, publications, exhibits, etc. Maybe a fledgling modern dance group like Ash Contemporary Dance could become the Dane Cook of the dance world and play to audiences of thousands. (For those who don't know, Dane Cook became a stadium-selling touring comedian by developing a base audience on MySpace.)
• Places where arts organizations could find hip "friends" to invite to their events and venues. (Did I mention that Dane Cook currently has 1.8 million "friends" on MySpace?)

Don't get me wrong. MySpace is not a marketing panacea for cultivating the next generation of arts enthusiasts - but it sure could be useful!

Technology in the Service of Art

Lately I’ve been experimenting with Ableton’s Live software, which allows me to create interesting arrangements, construct new pieces from scratch, and generally play with music. Live lets me lay down every single layer within a track… by myself… fast… with thousands of different sounds at my disposal. It’s fantastic. Best of all, the anal retentive freak in me is able to go back and revise music I record to make sure that in the “saved” version of the piece, I hit the note smack dab at the beginning of the third thirty-second of the beat, rather than the hairs-breadth off that I actually played. Far from weaning me off traditional music making, Live has deepened my respect and love for the craft of artistry. I find that when I’m fiddling around with the digital manifestation of the music, trying to bring down the volume on the pedal point tones, or simply arrange the notes into a harmonic minor scale with just the mouse, I’m incredibly impatient with a task that should just HAPPEN under my finger tips.

Don’t get me wrong. Technology is wonderful. With Photoshop I can manipulate my images without investing in a full dark-room setup. With Illustrator I can create versatile graphics that can be used just about anywhere. With Live I can be an entire orchestra without leaving my home. And technology is especially wonderful when it enhances rather than detracts from art. When it allows me to do things that aren’t otherwise feasible. When it lets me experience things I can’t normally access.

Like the use of technology in Lois Greenfield and the Australian Dance Theater’s new performance, Held. For this work, Greenfield photographs the dancers mid-movement and the images are instantly projected onto a screen. This is a perfect exemplification of the Technology in the Service of Art principle. Greenfield notes in the Telegraph that in these images “you are seeing something you couldn't without the benefit of the photograph. I capture 1/2,000th of a second and our brains can't register that. But we can see it on a picture."

Held uses technology to intensify our ability to cherish and appreciate the craft of the artists. It’s a beautiful marriage of media because it respects the strengths and limitations of every component involved, from the camera to the artists to the audience.

Creating your Nonprofit Tech Community

I'm rounding out my last semester at Carnegie Mellon and the job search has begun.  Instead of sifting through my Career Services email blasts, looking specifically for techy type positions within the nonprofit community, I have staked out a few organizations where I can build a network. Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders    I literally began my career in arts administation with the Emerging Leaders Listserv.  While working part-time at the City of Ventura Cultural Affairs Division, I was granted an organizational membership.  I posed questions about the field, participated in lively discussions revolving around my peer group's issues, found answers to my graduate program concerns and actually made contacts with Carnegie Mellon's Master of Arts Management alums.  Student membership is only $25! 

Technology in the Arts Conference    My experience coordinating this conference and working for CAMT confirmed the possibility of fusing my creative interests with my technology skills.  If you want to meet anyone who is anyone in the arts sector and is a tech-enthusiast, this is the place to be.  Be prepared to meet E.D.'s, practitioners, and innovators alike.  The packed programming schedule is hands-on and relevant.�

NTEN Affinity Groups    I have just become a member so my involvement thus far is somewhat limited. (I made my profile.)  However, I have surveyed the participation in the groups and it seems like there are both opportunities for employment and networking, not to mention practical tech advice and interesting discussion.

A good strategy of building upon these communities is looking at their partners or affiliates.  Go to any of these websites, including TechSoup or NPower.  Look at the Board Members and their employers.  Look at their sponsors, exhibitors and partners.  TechSoup even has a TechFinder where you can locate services.  Find out who is offering those services.  And then go to those websites, become a member or part of their community, and/or look for job openings.

I have also recently found this Yahoo Group: Nonprofit Tech Jobs.  A brave soul manages this list voluntarily.  Bless her heart and the amount of crap she must receive in the form of inappropriate job requests and favors.  Just check out the slew of advisory messages you'll receive from her after signing up.

And lastly, don't forget trusty nonprofit job searching websites like Idealist, Craigslist, NonprofitOyster, and ExecSearches.

If you want art field jobs, just contact me as I have a huge list of web portals where opportunities abound.�

TitA 2006: In Review

Check out our expanded Technology in the Arts 2006 In Review page, where you can view conference photos on Flickr, read our press coverage in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and download summary reports for conference session evaluations. While you're reflecting on TitA 2006, please consider taking a brief survey to help us better understand what you would like to learn, share and experience this year at TitA 2007 (October 19 - 20). The survey will remain open until Friday, March 2 at 11:59 PM, Pacific.

Pittsburgh Bloggers unite!

On Sunday, February 18, the Pittsburgh Symphony will host a "Blogfest Extra" concert - a two-part community outreach event. The afternoon's concert will include traditional works from Mahler and Beethoven as well as a new work, Rainbow Body by Christopher Theofanidis. The work's title is derived from a Buddhist idea that when an enlightened being dies, his or her body doesn't decay, but instead is absorbed back into the universe as energy and light. As a spectacular display of technology-enhanced art, the PSO will perform Rainbow Body along with projected images of dying stars taken by the Hubble Telescope. Following the concert, the PSO will host a blogging reception, during which "blogging after the concert is strongly encouraged!"

The PSO recently established its own pair of blogs, one featuring staff contributors and the "internal perspective" and the other featuring community members, composers and volunteers who provide the "external perspective". The PSO blog has come a long way since its founding last fall, and now even includes a few video blog posts. It's clear that the blog has become an internal priority, and I hope the Symphony's artistic team will continue to create innovative events like this one.

Are you accurately profiled on the Internet?

Recently, I was doing some research on a local emerging leader who I am nominating for an award. In my Internet search, I stumbled across a professional profile for her on an interesting site called ZoomInfo. According to their website, " ZoomInfo is a unique summarization search engine that finds, understands and saves useful information about people on the Web. The patented search technology continually scans millions of corporate Web sites, press releases, electronic news services, SEC filings and other online sources. Then, it intelligently compiles a concise summary about a specific individual or company." Of course, I had to search for myself - just to see what it would pull up. I was surprised to find seven listings for David Dombrosky. (Obviously, my name is not quite as singular as I thought it was.) Once I selected the profile I recognized to be my own, it was interesting to see both what was present in my profile and what was missing from it. While not everything was accurately described in my profile, the disparate pieces were pointing to the correct person - which is fascinating in and of itself. How did this site know to add these pieces of information to MY profile versus the other six guys listed in the search?

ZoomInfo gathers and conveys its information using proprietary Natural Language Selection, Artificial Intelligence Algorithms and Information Integration logic:

"Using Natural Language Extraction tools, our computers are able to read English sentences ("Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer with...") and understand what they mean. ZoomInfo then extracts relevant pieces of information about people, such as the companies they work for and their job titles.

Artificial Intelligence Algorithms allow our computers to analyze a Web site and extract information based on an understanding of how the Web site is constructed. ZoomInfo can deduce that a specific paragraph describes a company, or that a specific address contains the location of a company headquarters.

Once ZoomInfo extracts requested data, Information Integration logic then sifts through and organizes the data. Biographies of people found on various Web pages are assembled into summaries, and inconsistencies in the information are interpreted and resolved."

As I said before, the technology is not perfect. In that early version of my profile, the program misinterpreted NEA to stand for National Education Association. It also failed to correctly "understand" the nuances of my work. For example, it listed in my Employment section, "Coordinator of Operation Homecoming - National Education Association." In actuality, I coordinated logistics for the Operation Homecoming project created by the National Endowment for the Arts. Close - but not quite the same thing. The problem is that anyone using this site to find individual profiles will most likely take the profile at face value. Thankfully, ZoomInfo allows you to update your professional profile - free of charge. Here's what an updated profile looks like.

To my mind, ZoomInfo has the potential to become an amazing research tool. Want to find out more about a potential donor or board member? What about a panelist or subject of an interview? What if you need to find information on someone you are nominating for a award, but you don't want to ruin the surprise by asking them for their resume? There are a number of wonderful uses for this information -- provided that more people go to the site to update their information!

Hopefully, we will see a major marketing push from this site and others like it to maximize the potential for utilizing this technology.

Will the real artifact please stand up?

Italian geophysicist Pietro Cosentino is on a mission to identify works of art through unique "sonic fingerprints". Cosentino began using sonic tomography to study art in 2005, and hopes his work can help to end Italy's ongoing problem with faked and stolen artwork. Based on the principle that every object emits a distinct vibration, Cosentino's process involves fitting a network of sensors to an artwork, then tapping the sensors with a small rubber hammer. Recorded vibrations are unique, and even allow an educated listener to distinguish between artworks made as part of a series. The noninvasive process takes several hours, and can be used on stone, wood and ceramics.

The sonic fingerprinting system, in the process of being patented, has only one significant drawback - like X-rays, the scans must be performed every few years to provide up-to-date information.

Read more at Wired.com.

Aspiration Nonprofit Software Development Summit

On Feb. 21-23, Aspiration will be holding its first "convening to bring together the range of developers, technologists, managers, eRiders, integrators, users and other practitioners who self-identify under the umbrella of 'nonprofit software development,'" in Oakland, CA. I will be attending on Thursday and Friday and hope to network with the many pioneers of this niche sector. It's a loosely organized event, but it aims to base its content on the following themes:

• Practices, Processes and Community will address concepts, themes and essential issues in the nonprofit software development realm.
• Software Engineering Topics and Trends will dive deep on a host of technical and strategic issues relevant to nonprofit software developers.
• Going Vertical: Application Focus Areas will explore specific “vertical” categories of nonprofit software.

Check out the website for more details, and I'll be sure to report on how my experience went.

�

Wikimania

Penguin publishers and De Montfort University recently launched the first wiki novel - an experimental project designed to see if "the wisdom of crowds" can apply to more artistic disciplines. Contributors to "A Million Penguins" will include Masters students in Creative Writing and New Media, who study writing in the evolving fields of online communities, blogs, and wikis. The project went live on February 1st, and the wiki has already seen a flurry of editing activity. The novel's current cast of characters includes a penguin "trying to save mankind from its own destruction" and the mysterious "Tango Prisoner".

The experimental novel will be online for at least six weeks, according to Penguin, who insists that this project is not a talent search for the publishing house. Even if fleshing out the character of the "Tango Prisoner" won't lead to your big break, writing in this new collaborative medium will certainly be a great challenge.

Attend an opera in New York for $5

All you have to do is accompany a teen, and buy your tickets online. Patron Technology recently featured High 5 Tickets to the Arts in their monthly newsletter as an e-marketing superstar. High 5 offers tickets to hundreds of performances and events in New York for the low price of $5 per ticket. In 2006, the New York non-profit conducted roughly 85% of ticket sales online with some tickets sold out in a matter of hours. High 5's idea of making arts more accessible to young audiences through inexpensive tickets has also spread to other cities including Columbus, OH, and Montreal. Cultivating younger audiences is a hot topic in my arts management program at the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, so I imagine it may also be of interest to you as arts managers in the field.

It would be interesting to evaluate the effectiveness of High 5's service. Will the teens snatching tickets up today be our loyal patrons and donors twenty or more years from now? Some of my classmates believe the best way to ensure a lifelong commitment to the arts is through arts education more so than just accessibility. I agree with them to some extent, since through my own experiences, I was exposed to the wonderful world of opera in Dallas through an education program focused on introducing new (and diverse) audiences to the art form. The combination of severely subsidized tickets and education sessions made the experience complete. I doubt I would have attended an opera out of my own volition if it weren't for the empowering educational experience I had through that program.

Is Art and Shopping the new Art and Entertainment?

In our Strategic Planning class last night, our professor and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Larry Tamburri, made mention of the current trend to link art with entertainment. On city websites and in tourist guides, "Arts & Entertainment" abounds- correlating performance and visual arts spaces with movies, bowling alleys and roller rinks. While these sectors, along with sports, are competitive for the use of our leisure time, one has to ponder whether the arts is becoming diluted or just marginalized by efficient marketing. This discussion, however, becomes completely moot as a whole new space and concept has presented itself in Winston-Salem, NC.

Wal-mArt

It's mildly disturbing and yet I can't help to acknowledge that it might just be another form of corporate sponsorship. There is also the chance that it was just a clause of the negotiation that allowed Wal-Mart to set up shop there.

A true test would be to see if the sculptures are "Public Art" or "Art in a Public Space." Without having a good picture to make reference, I would be really interested to see if Wal-Mart finally designed a building that reflected the community architecture, and by extension, contracted a sculpture that reflected its environs. �

Recent Articles Worth Reading

Here are just few articles I have come across lately that I think you might find interesting: Web Refocus - Jeremy O'Neal examines Web 2.0 and forecasts the role that media arts organizations will play in it - namely preserving and promoting the noncommercial space.

Welcome to Wi-Fi-Ville - Kristina Dell reports that more than 300 cities and communities nationwide plan to have wireless ventures in the next year. While we all want free Internet access, what are the contentious issues surrounding the offering of a low-cost or no-cost wi-fi municipal plan as a public service?

Can't Touch This - Welcome to the future of the human-computer interface. Jeff Han, a research scientist from NYU's Courant Institute, wowed the tech world with his touch-driven computer screen. Learn more about this amazing device and watch the demo video.

This last article comes from the current issue of Fast Company magazine. Another article in this issue that is not available on the web, "An Unlikely Story: Tech Where You Least Expect It," documents the success that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA has had with podcasting its classical music concert series. Check it out.

Press Releases and Web 2.0

Recently, Erika Block with www.blockwork.org steered me toward an article from Entrpreneur.com titled "PR Trends: A Press Release for Social Media," which discusses how the PR field is attempting to respond to the "social web" phenomenon by adapting the age-old press release to create a new template for social media containing the following items:

• A brief description of the news announcement
• Quotes from the CEO or other execs, customers and analysts, if applicable
• Photo/video attachments, or links to web pages that host these items
• Links inside the release copy to background information, and relevant links to other news stories or reference sources
• Digital tags (used to link to web tools such as Del.icio.us and Digg)
• RSS Feed links
• Links to podcasts and MP3 files, graphics and video

The article states that the social media release is primarily used by those in the tech industry, which makes sense as they are obviously early adapters to changes in technology. There is a lot of potential here for arts organizations dealing with any discipline. Are any of you using this new template for media releases? Have you seen an impact in the consumption of your press materials?

Click here for another take on press releases and web 2.0 from Ericka's blog.

The $150 Laptop

CNN.com recently featured a nice piece about EXTREMELY affordable laptops that will be made available to children in Libya, Thailand and other developing countries through the One Laptop Per Child program. The "XO" machine, which will run on a version of the Linux operating system, will cost about $150. They aren't incredibly powerful - they have a 512 megabyte flash drive in lieu of a traditional hard drive - but they will offer a leg up to children who otherwise wouldn't have access to technology.

Read the complete CNN.com article here.