Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Open Source and the Arts Community
I’ve been working in arts and culture in one fashion or another for my entire professional life in Canada and the United States. I’ve worked for experimental dance as a marketer/copy editor. I’ve been a historical interpreter for an antique fort made into a living museum. I’ve managed a book store. I’ve co-ordinated an arts festival focusing on Appalachian culture. I’ve worked as a lighting designer and technician for theatre houses. I’ve taught copyright law for artists as a continuing education trainer. For the last six years, I’ve worked as a the lead architect and strategist for a series of Web based initiatives for an arts service organization.
Arts organizations are continually looking for ways to save money. Conservation and stewardship of resources is a continual focus. This has caused some some cross sections the arts community to operate much like the open source software industry. It is common for different theatres, for example, to share costume stores, lighting instruments, and space. A dance company could work with an acting troupe.
One of the ways that we conserve resources where I work, is to produce software using open source platforms and tools that we then are able to market to other organizations. Products that we produce cross polinate allowing us to create new varieties of products which are better than the original parts. We work in legal partnerships, loose partnerships, and on our own depending on the needs of a given project. We recruit others in the industry to help us test and make proofs of concept, by bartering—you help us test and you can make use of the software for free for a certain period of time.
What’s of particular interest, at least to me, is that it seems that very few arts organizations are turning to the open source community to stretch resources. One argument seems to be that open source has no support. While it may be true that open source probably doesn’t have a toll free number, the community using that product often provides better support than a commercial venture. It may take a tiny bit more effort on the arts organization’s part, but I believe that the benefits are worth it.
Arts organizations are continually looking for ways to save money. Conservation and stewardship of resources is a continual focus. This has caused some some cross sections the arts community to operate much like the open source software industry. It is common for different theatres, for example, to share costume stores, lighting instruments, and space. A dance company could work with an acting troupe.
One of the ways that we conserve resources where I work, is to produce software using open source platforms and tools that we then are able to market to other organizations. Products that we produce cross polinate allowing us to create new varieties of products which are better than the original parts. We work in legal partnerships, loose partnerships, and on our own depending on the needs of a given project. We recruit others in the industry to help us test and make proofs of concept, by bartering—you help us test and you can make use of the software for free for a certain period of time.
What’s of particular interest, at least to me, is that it seems that very few arts organizations are turning to the open source community to stretch resources. One argument seems to be that open source has no support. While it may be true that open source probably doesn’t have a toll free number, the community using that product often provides better support than a commercial venture. It may take a tiny bit more effort on the arts organization’s part, but I believe that the benefits are worth it.
