Advice for the arts from the social web

Once upon a time, before my current birth as part of the NESTA Connect team, I spent a year on secondment to the third phase of  Mission Models Money.  MMM is a ground-breaking initiative in arts & cultural sector which looks to ensure that the not-for-profit organisations that are so central to ensuring a thriving UK arts sector are nimble and articulate enought to respond to the changing environment they find themselves in – be that in regards to funding, technology, audiences or business models.

And to mark this week's launch of MMM's very exciting fourth phase, entitled Designing for Transition, I have written a short essay on the opportunity that the social web points to for arts & cultural organisations.

Today's web is really radically different to that of
even just three or four years ago. What we have seen is that the web's
centre of gravity has shifted from being a source of broadcast
information to a platform for dynamic conversations. This essay
explores how this new social culture of the web is changing our
behaviours and our expectations and considers how, by paying fresh
attention to the three qualities of participation, conversation and
collaboration, arts and cultural organisations can harness its
potential.