Archives for 2006

I'm off the weblogging habit for the next few weeks to refuel and decompress. I wish any who read this post have a joyous and safe holiday season. In fact, I wish the same for those who don't read this post, I just don't wish it quite as much. See you in the new year! … [Read more...]

Thomas Friedman writes in the New York Times that the American public education system is preparing students for a world that's fading fast, or long gone. Paraphrasing Marc Tucker from the National Center on Education and the Economy, Friedman suggests that an increasingly global and integrated world economy will make traditional ways of learning and doing less and less competitive: That means...revamping an education system designed in the 1900s for people to do ''routine work'' and refocusing it on producing people who can imagine things … [Read more...]

The issue of health insurance is a complex one for any independent artist, small collective, or cultural nonprofit. It's certainly not a challenge unique to the arts (any small business or independent contractor is faced with similar strains). But the issue can be particularly problematic for creative professionals, who often do dangerous or physically demanding work, or do that work in less than healthy environments. In response, the Future of Music Coalition has assembled a handy set of articles and links in their Health Insurance Navigation … [Read more...]

Marketing Pilgrim has a useful overview of how companies can and should listen in on conversation about them on-line. As more and more conversations by real consumers are being posted, there are more and more ways for you to learn from your audiences, or the people that might be your audience if you listened. The post offers a bevy of specific suggestions, among them: Create custom RSS feeds based on keyword searches: Feedster.com, Technorati.com, IceRocket.com, Google.com/blogsearch, Blogpulse.com, MSN Spaces, Yahoo! News, Google News, MSN … [Read more...]

Trendwatching.com has an interesting briefing on what they're calling Generation C(ash), a new phase in the life of Generation C(ontent). The first wave saw an increasing number of consumers taking on creative roles in their interaction with brands and services -- posting photos and videos, remixing media, blogging product reviews, even rewriting software. The next phase seems to involve actual compensation for this work -- in cash or credits. In essense, the creative consumer is slowly expecting to get paid for their input. Says … [Read more...]

A friend and colleague was honored last week with a Governor's Award in Support of the Arts (in Wisconsin). Lynne Watrous Eich is certainly deserving of the award, after three decades of thoughtful, innovative, and responsive service to Dane County, Wisconsin, as Director of the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission. Because this was the first year an administrator had received such an award (previously reserved for philanthropists and arts organizations), Lynne took the opportunity to express to the convened donors and dignitaries what … [Read more...]

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has always explored the boundary between artist and audience, between professional and amateur (it's right there in their public description of themselves). So, it's fascinating to watch them experiment with an even more public way of doing their creative work. The Funny Uncles weblog is an on-going public discussion leading up to and following the premiere of a new work (you can see a video of Saturday's premiere on the Kennedy Center's website). The weblog hosts thoughts, comments, video, and still images from the … [Read more...]

Anshe Chung has all the elements of a good prospect for your nonprofit board -- she's a millionaire, a real estate mogul, and an innovative entrepreneur with an eye for design and aesthetic value. While it's true that she's not technically a real person, but an avatar...an on-line character in the virtual world of Second Life...her influence, and her money, is real. … [Read more...]

Jeff Brooks of Donor Power Blog has a thoughtful post on the tension between the actual work of a nonprofit, and the perceptions or messages that attract contributed income. His case in point is ''Old Man Eating,'' a perennial fundraising photo archetype used among urban rescue missions. ''Old Man Eating,'' or OME as Brooks and his colleagues call the class of images, is extraordinarily effective in eliciting passion and contributions. It makes for a successful campaign. The problem is, Brooks suggests, that OME is not particularly … [Read more...]

Social networking technology is vastly changing the face and nature of the web, and how individuals use it. Massively popular user-driven sites like MySpace or Flickr or YouTube enable users to share their voice and vision with a wider world -- in photos, in videos, in text, in network connections, in playlists of favorite music. Now, sites like Dandelife are adding the variable of time to the mix, allowing users to build a graphic timeline of their life, complete with essential events and stories from birth to school to love to travel to loss. … [Read more...]