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THIS IS CROSSPOSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of ribs on the barbie on Flickr. A couple of folks made positive comments, so I thought I'd post the recipie I use.



Pot of cold water
4 pounds of beef ribs, cut into 3-5 inch pieces
1 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
pepper to taste
1 onion
1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/3 cup of Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of vinegar
1/2 cup of green chili
4 cloves garlic run through garlic press
soaked alder wood

Soak alder wood for at least a half hour.

Beef, water and onions in heavy stock pot. Bring to boil and simmer 2 1/2 hours until tender.

Combine remaining ingredients and place in a heavy Zip Lock bag. Add ribs and put into fridge. Kneed bag every 15 minutes for 1 hour.

Place soaked alder wood in bottom of grill.

Place ribs on a medium heated grill, baste and grill until crispy.

THIS IS CROSSPOSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0

I took this picture a few days ago during our snow storm. I enjoyed the colours that were being brought out by the wet on these steps along with the rust stains that were moving over the concrete.

THIS IS CROSS POSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0

As I find music videos on Revver that I like, I will add them to the collection that is being fed into this page. I've set the collection up on Imagespace--Arts and Web 2.0as a "Page", so one can access it from the left hand navigation.

THIS IS CROSSPOSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0




Tom has released a video on Revver. This is theatrical, fun, and whimsical in a very dark way--what's with the emus Tom???

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Beth asked what my take on non-profit use of Flickr might be.

My focus is currently arts non-profits, so my response will be coloured a little.

Flickr's groups and tags make it a powerful tool for non-profits--actually any group that wants to engage in viral marketing. The potential ephemeral/throw away nature of flickr groups is such that it can feed an event. That doesn't mean to say that all flickr groups have limited life, but it does mean you can purposefully set up a situation in which the posting life is limited. You might set up an event around a group.

For example, lets say your organization has promoted a concert with several different acts. You could set up a flickr group, apply a few good tags to that group and offer everyone who walks through the door a slip of paper with that information and encourage posting to that group. Very quickly you could have a significant archive of the event--with deeper roots than if you had hired a professional photographer.

Similarly one could set up a virtual event whereby you ask a dozen people to take similar pictures across the country and post them to Flickr. Using a Flickr widget, that content could be embedded in your Website dynamically. This could be used for nation wide fund raising.

Either of these things can be done manually, but Flickr makes them nearly painless to aggregate and disseminate.

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Yesterday afternoon it began snowing in Metro-Denver. Just a wisp. Not much accumulation. By the evening there was about an inch or so. Today we kept getting snow--so there are about 4 inches. However, in the midst of all of it we are being told that the temperature will plummet.

It will be -2 F or roughly -19 C tonight. BRRRRR! Needless to say, the Napoleon is well stocked up and burning away.

I am reeling at today's news from Canada. In a vote of 266 to 16, in the House of Commons, a motion passed to recognize the Quebecois as a nation.

This is going to open one maelstrom in Canadian Politics--watch out Supreme Court. You have some interesting cases coming.

CBC Coverage

THIS IS CROSS POSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0

I’ve started playing with Flickr Groups. Groups are kind of like sets—the difference being a group is a set with many participants. Groups allow common tagging and a common place to post images that you have in your main photostream and in your sets. Groups are another way to cross post your content. They allow for forum-like discussions and comments.

I’ve created a few groups (LOTS of sets) and joined a few. What I noticed immediately was that my views increased pretty significantly in a short period of time. I think I will start listing my web address as a keyword on every image that I post and see if that starts an increase in traffic to this blog.

If you are a Flickr user, drop me a note with your Flickr ID. I’ll add you as a contact. Mine is saunderm.rm.

THIS HAS BEEN CROSSPOSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0

Most arts organizations are non-profits with limited resources. Some are public agencies like city or state run organizations—often low on the funding totem pole. What this means is that resources deployed carefully with little risk. Thoughtful dissemination of money, people, time are essential to protect any non-profit’s investments. While this behaviour can protect what an agency has, it does not encourage risky behaviour.

Ironically the agencies that can most use Web 2.0 are those least capable of deploying such systems.

Web 2.0 is in its infancy. The tools have consistently become better and better over the last three years. To best utilize the tools, you are best off using a variety of different tools as you can embed assets from one set of tools into another through the use of widgets. Widgets allow a user to generate a little chunk of code that can be placed on a page, in a block, on a blog, in a wiki that embed content onto that page.

The challenge of using widgets lies in the intimidation factor. To use them, you need to be confident enough to place code in locations that may or may not take it well. Several weeks ago, I placed code for a “tag cloud” on this blog. The widget was incompatible and it brought the site down leaving an unsettling php error.

This problem took using PHPMyAdmin to find the snippet of code in the database and manual removal of that code. Most agencies lack persons that are able to deal with this kind of issue. If it happens once, the intimidation factor increases further dissuading the average non-profit from wanting to invest the time.

Lastly, most non-profits won’t see the potential value of making use of Web 2.0 tools immediately. The benefits can be subtle. This means that an agency on it’s own needs to accept that any research that they do may not bear any fruit.

Between the intimidation and the potential of no return on the investment it is hardly surprising that the non-profit community has not embraced the tools.

For Web 2.0 to become common in the arts community, the tools must become slick and foolproof. The tools will need to be easy and simple. Cutting and pasting simply won’t do. Give it a few years and we will continue to see the tools become increasingly simple and complex at the same time.

Currently Web 2.0 remains the demesnes of the geeky and of zealots. Many start to use the tools, few embrace them.

THIS IS CROSSPOSTED FROM IMAGESPACE--ARTS AND WEB 2.0



The image above was taken while I was walking around this aftenoon close to the Olentangy River right by a cemetary. I thought the image was pretty striking.

I'm in Columbus Ohio to work with the Ohio Arts Council tomorrow. The Arts Council is a long time CultureGrants(tm) Online customer and have recently had WESTAF add ZAPP(tm)/CaFE(tm) image upload features to the grant system we license to them. I am here to help them install syncing software to the Roku HD1000 image servers that they own and train them to use the Rokus and the changes that have been made to the software as a whole.