I’ve often expressed my admiration for the TED conference keynotes — 20-minute nuggets of insight, humor, provocation, and revelation by really smart and engaging people. A perfect fit for my bus ride home. So, I’m thrilled that the ground rules behind those great presentations are available on-line. Tim Longhurst (via Garr Reynolds) offers a transcription […]
Archives for 2009
Operas captured in 140 characters (or less)
After diving into Twitter last month, one of my happiest discoveries was #operaplot, a competition (launched by this brilliant individual) to summarize opera plots within the confines of Twitter’s 140-character limit — massive, epic narratives constrained to absurdly small dimensions. The contest had basic rules, fabulous prizes donated by web-eager opera companies around the world, […]
On Facebook and mortality
NPR had a fascinating segment on the challenge of on-line identities when the originator dies. Who owns your Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile, your Google mail account, your Twitter feed, your Flickr photos, your YouTube videos, and all the other remnants of your virtual life when your actual life has ended? I’m honestly not sure […]
Assessing Lincoln Center
Anthony Tommasini offers a 50-year assessment of Lincoln Center in the New York Times that’s worth a read, especially if your town is planning a major multi-venue cultural facility. Although, Tommasini may have missed the recent and continuing developments across the country built upon its model: Yet if a sprawling performing-arts complex like Lincoln Center […]
Business planning meets mixed-media
Business planning books are generally linear things, stepping you through the motions of starting or extending a business from insight to implementation. But we all know that reality is not like that, particularly in artistic enterprise. When artists and creative individuals consider starting their own business or profit-generating activity, vision, business, purpose, life, passion, and […]
The urge to merge
In a tight economy, there has been increasing chatter about the potential for mergers in the nonprofit world. The social service sector has seen a slew of them. But the arts have seemed more talk than action. While not specifically promoting merger, the Lodestar Foundation recently encouraged collaboration more broadly through their Collaboration Prize (winners […]
Does this make me a twitterer or just a twit?
I decided to finally dive into Twitter this past month, since it seemed to be getting serious traction as a tool. You can follow me if you like. I was wary of the step, as I couldn’t identify a tangible benefit to knowing short bursts of facts about strangers — buying coffee, eating pickles, tweeting […]
Nonprofit economics
I’m attending a Nonprofit Economic Summit for Dane County, Wisconsin, this morning, co-sponsored by our county’s United Way. Lots of experts — including state, county, and Madison city officials — exploring the economy and the unique need and role for nonprofits. The sessions have been front-loaded with bleak information, as you might expect, tracing the […]
Credit where credit is due
Over in his Diacritical blog, Doug McLennan reminds us to continually reconsider the ways we recognize the many people who support our arts organizations — not just the ones who do so through contributions. Says he: Who’s the more valuable member of your community? The person who gives you money but otherwise doesn’t have much […]
Glocalizing Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids, MI, may not be New York or Los Angeles, but it’s attempting to top both through its new ArtPrize competition. Announced last week, ArtPrize boasts the “world’s largest prize” for the arts, which will be selected by public vote. The competition is the initiative of Rick DeVos, a dot-com entrepreneur, and underwritten by […]
