My weblog neighbor Drew McManus has been doing some heavy surfing lately, reviewing and rating 70 orchestra web sites in his First Annual Adaptistration Web Site Review.
At the top of the list was the Chicago Symphony site, followed closely by the National Symphony (see the full rankings here).
As an annoying academic, I’m always as interested in the criteria of measurement as much as the results, and Drew’s criteria seem fairly straight-forward, listing access to a performance schedule first, followed by access to tickets, orchestra information, donation options, and content/navigation. His measures clearly carry the bias of an aficionado, placing more emphasis on artist and repertoire than the bulk of orchestra patrons might. It would be interesting to take Drew’s top 10 sites and submit them to a stress-test by a full range of potential audience members (from the expert to the drag-along spouse) to see who actually rose to the top.
The real success of a web site lies not in how it connects to those already connected (except to get them to buy more, give more, want more), but how it prepares and connects the slightly less inclined. To that end, I love Drew’s links to the sites worthy of special recognition for one feature or another. These (especially Oregon and their on-line musician roster) are working extra hard to leverage on-line communications to connect.
