There’s lots of focus in the entrepreneurship community about ”going to scale” or successfully growing a small business into a major player. Anyone who has experienced a rapidly growing organization has seen the tension — old methods and models fail to function at a certain volume of business, formerly tightknit organizational cultures fray at the […]
Archives for August 2006
An early holiday gift from the U.S. Census
It was Christmas in August for a select set of policy wonks, researchers, economists, and statisticians as the U.S. Census Bureau released its American Community Survey results a few weeks back. The data set provides 2005 demographic information for communities larger than 65,000, offering the first such updates for many since Census 2000. The less […]
It turns out EVERYBODY wants to be flexible
Management and marketing consulting firm AMS Planning & Research has a new on-line newsletter with knowledge nuggets mined from their work in the arts. Of particular interest in this article on the subtleties of single ticket and subscription buyers. The common wisdom about the two groups has been that single-ticket buyers value flexibility over all…willing […]
Keeping an eye on the kitty
While motivating, trusting, and supporting their dedicated staff is a primary issue for cultural managers, it’s also their duty to keep a close eye on the cash. The Orange County Performing Arts Center found this out the hard way this past spring as it discovered an employee had stolen $1.85 million from the coffers (more […]
Living a different life
I’ve mentioned the Beloit College Mindset List once before in this weblog (back in 2003). But since it’s become a ritual for me to read at the beginning of every school year, it warrants another mention. The mindset list describes the world as experienced by the incoming freshman class each year. It’s intended to remind […]
Better learning through comics
Learn the basics of intellectual property law without falling asleep. Bound by Law is a copyright tutorial in comic book form. A fun and informative read for anyone in the business of creative expression.
Batting 600
A quick glance at my weblog stats shows this to be my 600th post since I launched this effort in July 2003. I thought I’d mark the occassion by saying absolutely nothing of enduring value. Besides, our MBA orientation starts this morning, and my attention is necessarily directed toward a new batch of fabulous Arts […]
Pandora’s music box
I’ll admit a strange fascination with the “recommendation engines” scattered around the on-line world, that take lists of things you like (through purchase or claimed preference), and suggest things you’d probably also like. The bulk of these systems seem to use collaborative filtering software to match the patterns of your choices with a database of […]
The path to California’s $500 million for arts education
The Music for All blog tracks the efforts and political forces that led to California’s astounding public investment in K-12 arts education — including $105 million in annual block grants for arts and music education, and a one-time, $500 million capital allocation for the purchase of sports, arts, and music equipment. The new state budget […]
Help wanted
As I’ve mentioned before, I was recently elected president of the Association of Arts Administration Educators, an international membership organization of degree-granting programs in arts and cultural management, policy, and research. The association is now in the process of hiring its first-ever administrative director (part time), to support our members and advance our mission. I […]
