Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

For 1stfans, we are attempting to go as paperless as possible and this has been an interesting challenge for us. The first major shift is that we’ve ditched the customary palm cards and, instead, are using these shirts from Reactee (above). Reactee shirts are powered by TextMarks and are designed to text you back, so rather than us handing out all the paper, people can txt for more information and get it right on their phone. These shirts have the added benefit that we can use them over and over again at every event, so you’ll see the entire Membership staff (and a few of the Tech staff) wearing them at Target First Saturdays.

The next thing we had to think about was signing up 1stfans on-site and keeping that line moving as quickly as possible. We needed an electronic solution that would be both small (the membership desk has limited space) and cheap, so we settled on using Netbooks or, more specifically, Asus eeePCs running Linux. The Netbooks will be using the Firefox browser pointing directly to our e-forms site which is powered by Wufoo (something we just started using and highly recommend). There is one potential pitfall with these—they have the smallest keyboards you’ve ever seen. I’m very curious to see how these work in practice—typing even a limited amount of information (name, phone number, e-mail) could be difficult, so we will have to see what comes of this. Another thought we had was to utilize Safari on the iPod touch via wifi, but that keyboard seemed like it might be even more problematic if we really wanted to keep the line moving at a quick pace.

Full disclosure, there are some exceptions to the paperless rule. First Saturdays are often crowded and when you have this many people in the lobby you’ve just got to have some directional signage to help people find you and stanchion signs are the only way we have to do that, but we will be recycling them as we go along. Also, we are prepared with backup paper forms in case those Netbooks turn out to be problematic, but you’ll be happy to know we’ve maximized the paper with more than one form per page and have utilized both the front and the back of the sheet. As I write this, I can’t help but think of Francesca who had to deal with distributing all those Click! cards, so F., I dedicate this post to you!

With the New Year almost here, I’d like to give you a quick preview of what will be coming to the blog in the next few months. Richard and Mary will be off to Egypt soon, so the Dig Diary will be starting up again (yay!) in January. For all the art lovers who have been bored stiff by the recent slew of Technology and Membership posts, we are working to publish more about art and conservation (double yay and whew!) on the way soon. We appreciate your hanging in there, and here’s to even more stimulating and varied content in the New Year! Have a Happy New Year, everyone and we hope to see you Saturday!

In the same spirit that we asked Swoon to launch 1stfans in person (that is to say, with the Museum’s existing community in mind), we are delighted to announce that An Xiao is going to be the first artist on the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. We’ve known An for a while and were ecstatic when she decided to submit a proposal for the 1stfans Twitter. Many of our community may already know An because her work was in the top 25% of Click! and perhaps you’ve seen her blog or her Twitter feed (both of which Shelley and I follow). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention her work is part of the Micro-Macro exhibition in NYC running through the end of this year, so hurry, go quick. But none of these reasons are why she was selected (lest you think that we are granting anyone favors). An’s proposal for using the Twitter Art Feed simply blew us away and when we forwarded it to curators Eugenie Tsai, Patrick Amsellem, and Lauren Ross, they were equally enamored. Since I’m not a curator, I’ll spare you my analysis and simply share with you how An will be using the Twitter Art Feed in her own words:

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In January 2006, Western Union put to rest the telegram, the groundbreaking new technology that allowed nearly-instant intercontinental communication and enjoyed almost two centuries of communications usage. Two months later, a new medium emerged, similar in many ways: Twitter. In a world of email, AIM and cell phones, it made barely a blip, but its importance is quickly becoming clear.

I propose using the 1stfans feed to tweet in Morse code. As writer Nicholas Carr noted, the parallels are apparent–speed, brevity, and a need for acronyms–, but the purposes are almost entirely separate. Whereas telegrams were used for business and important personal communication, tweets generally act as wide broadcasts and rarely contain substantive information per se, which emails and blogs are better suited for. In other words, telegrams conveyed news of deaths, deals and diplomacy; tweets convey breakfast habits.

Through tweeting Morse code, I aim to explore instant communication’s new direction by recalling its history. Rather than important issues, I will communicate daily minutiae, such as “Brushing my teeth” and “Tired. Need coffee.” Such usage of telegraph technology would have been inconceivable in its heyday. In so doing, I want to encourage 1stfans viewers to examine the evolution of instant communication and what purpose, exactly, is served by sharing such minor details of one’s life.

Samuel Morse, in his first telegraph, asked, “What hath God wrought?” His invention changed the world, especially with its influence on politics and business. What have Twitter, and other microblogging media, wrought upon the way we connect with others? What doors have they opened in the realm of personal and business relationships, and how have they expanded our sense of identity?

You may have read about the departure of George Oates in the media, but if not check out Seb’s blog post on the subject for starters. The thing that I worried about most with George’s absence was the idea that our cheerleader—the person who had a very personal connection to each Commons Institution, the one who spread her enthusiasm for our collections to the Flickr crowd—was suddenly gone and how does a gaping hole like that get filled? Well, I learned something very valuable. When community is strong, shifts can take place that fill the gap and in this instance, that’s exactly what happened.

To my relief, a few days after we found out about George, I came in to work one morning to a message in the Brooklyn Museum’s Flickr inbox. I won’t quote the whole thing here, but BigBean sent a lovely note asking us to join a group - “I was very surprised to find that there was not one single flickr group devoted to the Commons! In true flickr tradition, I decided to start one. On flickr, groups is where it’s at!”

Boom! In the simplest way, using Flickr’s existing structure, suddenly we have a fantastic group run by some really committed admins and the participation that is going on there is as rich as it gets and it’s only been two days. This new group provides a direct link to the people within the Flickr community who really love The Commons and this was something we had been missing. Previously, we could make one-on-one connections, but the group allows for much greater interaction among all participants.

As most of you know, we’ve got a set of challenges we have to think about as we move forward in The Commons and, now, the feedback from this group will help us greatly. To say we are looking forward to following and participating in this group is, well, a bit of an understatement.

Looking for something fun? How about this thread where Brenda Anderson is curating mail delivery across Commons collections? Awesome.

Though the launching of 1stfans is being done mostly online, one of the critical goals of the group is to get people to come and enjoy the Museum in person more often. 1stfans is different from of our other Membership categories in many ways, but one way in which it is similar is that Members receive special benefits when they show up to the Museum. Since 1stfans is launching in person at Target First Saturday on January 3, 2009, we wanted to be sure that 1stfans had something really, exceptionally cool to do that night. I think you’ll agree that getting Swoon’s studio to do a print exclusively for 1stfans Members live that night is a good way to kick things off.

Pictured above, four of the designs that Swoon’s studio will be bringing with them to Target First Saturday on January 3rd, 2009. Prints will be made live that evening for all 1stfans members!

Swoon appealed to us as an artist for many reasons. We knew we wanted to do something with an artist that fit at least one, and preferably all, of the following criteria: an artist in the Museum’s collection, someone with a connection to Brooklyn or our Museum community, and whose work has a strong following one of the social networking websites we are using. In addition to being an artist that Shelley and I both admire, Swoon fits those criteria. Her installation piece, on view in 2006 and early 2007, was a huge hit with visitors. Her work literally covers the streets of Brooklyn and the rest of NYC, and prompts art enthusiasts to spend their weekends keeping their eyes peeled. The icing on the cake was her incredible presence on Flickr (18,000 images and growing), a testament to her following and to Flickr’s utility as an art resource. With all of this in mind, we nervously approached Swoon with our idea and asked her if she’d be willing to help us out. To our incredible delight (there may have been some high-fiving involved), she said yes! And that’s how we arrived at the Swoon interactive printing event for 1stfans on Saturday, January 3rd. We should fully disclose that Swoon herself is NOT going to be here. She is traveling (far) outside of NYC, but has dutifully overseen the production of the screens you see above and she will be dispatching four of her studio assistants to do the actual printing.

Swoon’s work uses a lot of found materials and she is encouraging people to bring their own paper for their print. I may spend hours looking for the perfect piece of paper for my print, but I’m enough of a realist to realize that not every 1stfan Member will do the same. That’s where Materials for the Arts comes in. In the video below, you can watch me and Shelley take a field trip to Materials For the Arts, which is a non-profit organization, partially funded by the city, that gives away recycled supplies to other non-profit arts and education organizations. Materials for the Arts is based in Long Island City, Queens, and we had quite a trip to and from their warehouse in Shelley’s bug. There, we were able to pick up a wide variety of materials on which 1stfans get their Swoon print. Carpet and fabric samples, framing materials, poster board, all kinds of paper, signs, you name it. We’re not sure if the print will turn out well on everything we picked up, but at least we have plenty of stuff to work with!

We hope to see you on January 3, and if you have any questions please e-mail me here.

You may have seen Carol Vogel’s article in the New York Times about the exciting news concerning the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection, and our collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but if you haven’t, please have a look.

Charles James (American, born England, 1906-1978). Dress, Evening, 1952. Silk. Gift of Mrs. R. A. Bernatschke.

I am taking questions about this collaboration this week via our blog. However, I am also on vacation, away from the Museum, with a slow dial-up connection. So please bear with me, as I try to respond as soon as I can.

One of the things we are really excited about with the launch of 1stfans is giving these new members something they can really get into. Each month this will include a new event in-person at each Target First Saturday and a new event online via the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed.

Originally, we were thinking about using Twitter as a way to connect with 1stfans and send updates, but it just seemed lame. We couldn’t imagine tweeting about the same old stuff and, hey, we already do that on the Brooklyn Museum Twitter feed, so why in the world would we do it twice? When you follow someone on Twitter, it’s often because they have really interesting things to say, so if we were going to utilize Twitter, we wanted to offer a benefit of membership that 1stfans might really dig and find worthwhile enough to follow.

With that, here comes the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. Each month, Will and I will be working with Eugenie Tsai to feature the work of a contemporary artist on the feed and the content of each month’s tweets will be up to the artist who is featured. We are intrigued to discover how each artist will work with Twitter, so it should be a new surprise for all of us every month.

In addition to artists that we invite to work with our feed, we will also be selecting artists from an open call. If you are an artist who’s just as fascinated with Twitter as we are, submit your idea and you might get featured for 1stfans to see. Interested? You can enter the open call by filling out this form. We look forward to seeing your ideas.

Will is going to announce the first featured artist in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

It’s funny, if you know me, I’m sure you can imagine that I would have had a total fit if someone came into my office pitching an “web 2.0″ membership (yes, yes, go ahead and LOL at the thought of my reaction), but when Will came in for our meeting he wasn’t pitching an online membership or a tech/electronic/web2 membership—he was pitching something personal. Rooted in visitors coming to Target First Saturday, many of whom live right down the street and come every month, his aim was to make personal connections with this group and create a package that would encourage them to get on the membership escalator sooner by combining a low cost to entry with a very personal interaction.

It was this idea of personal interaction that piqued my interest. Whenever I speak at conferences, one of the first things I try and get across is Social Media…or Web 2.0…or [insert whatever you want to call it here] is not about technology, marketing, or PR—it’s about people. When we establish a presence on social media site for the Museum our goals are simple: put a personal face on the institution and make personal connections with our visitors. This extension to communities on the web is just one part of a larger mission-driven synergy that begins with making these same connections within our building, in nearby communities and, now, with 1stfans.

Given that the crowd at Target First Saturday tends to be connected via the web, we started to discuss ways to utilize the social web to get to know and communicate with this new group. Rather than relying on the standard e-mail newsletter (which is more of a standard push relationship), why not reach out and go directly to these new members in places where they happen to be and deliver updates tailored to their own preferences. Just as important as delivering content is the idea that this is a social exchange, where we can better get to know the 1stfans at the same time.

We are calling 1stfans a “socially-networked membership.” To us, that encompasses the in-person, social aspects of the events planned for this group at every Target First Saturday and the way we intend to socialize with these new members on the web. At the end of the day, I think we will have done our jobs well if 1stfans get to know our Membership team, just like many of our current followers on the social networks have come to know me.

A little later today, I’ll be posting about the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed and look for posts from Will about Swoon and a few other things in the coming weeks. If you signed up this morning and have not heard from us, we are just starting to catch up and you’ll be hearing from us very soon.

Update - in case you missed them, check out Will and me introducing 1stfans in a couple of infomercial-style videos! part 1: hello and part 2: the launch now up on YouTube

Working in Membership means my job is to get people excited about and involved with the Museum. In that way, my job is just as much community-builder as it is fundraiser. Though our Membership base is sizable and diverse, I’ve always felt that there is a large group of Brooklyn Museum visitors that would like to be more involved with the Museum but do not view the traditional Membership structure and benefits as appealing. I wouldn’t be following the Museum’s mission if I didn’t make an effort to reach out to this group. The bottom-line part of my job (monthly income goals, budget projections, cost/benefit analysis) is important, but not as important—or as fun, I might add—as growing our Museum community and making personal connections with our Members. It is with the Museum’s community in mind that we are pleased to introduce a new Membership program at the Brooklyn Museum: 1stfans.

What is 1stfans? a 1stfans Membership is an interactive relationship with the Museum that will happen in the building and online. We call it a “socially networked” Museum Membership, but what does that mean? The word has two meanings, which is why we picked it: it means developing face-to-face relationship with Museum staff and other Museum Members (literal social networking), and a strong, exclusive online relationship through social networking sites (you know them as Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter).

What do 1stfans get? Firstly (pun intended), exclusive events at monthly Target First Saturdays, where you’ll be able to interact with other 1stfans, Museum staff, and contemporary artists. Oh, and you can skip the ticket line for movies, which is pretty sweet. Secondly (no pun there), we will send updates to 1stfans via Facebook, Flickr, or e-newsletter, whichever you prefer. These will tell you what’s going on at 1stfans events, give you behind-the-scenes insight from Museum staff, and provide you with links to other cool stuff going on in the art world. Finally, 1stfans will be the only ones with access to the Museum’s new Twitter Art Feed, an extremely awesome way of engaging contemporary artists that Shelley will describe in greater detail on this blog soon. All of this for a tax-deductible $20 per-year. Not bad, right?

Who is 1stfans for? You, for one. With 1stfans, people who enjoy the Museum on-site and online now have an appealing (and did I mention inexpensive?) way to join the Museum as Members. If you come to our monthly First Saturdays and want a way to learn more about the Museum while interacting with Museum staff and making new friends, then you’ll enjoy 1stfans. If you like the Museum and have an account on Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter, 1stfans is also for you. Not only will we keep you updated via those sites, but we’ll also provide you with cool content and give you a shoutout when you post your own cool stuff.

An installation piece by Swoon in the Brooklyn Museum’s collection. Photograph by Sam Horine via Flickr. All Rights Reserved.

1stfans will launch formally at the January Target First Saturday on Saturday, January 3 with help from the artist Swoon (18,000+ Flickr pics here). Swoon’s studio has very generously agreed to do a live printing event for 1stfans Members, so anyone who signs up for 1stfans between now and January 3 can come with their own piece of paper and walk out with a Swoon print. Stay tuned to this blog for details, which will be coming soon.

The artist for the Twitter Art Feed will be announced in the middle of each month for the following month, so keep a close eye on this blog in the next two weeks for the announcement of the January artist. If you’re a fan of contemporary art, you won’t be disappointed….

If you have any questions about 1stfans, please e-mail me.

One of the interesting things about The Commons is anyone can do it, which is pretty cool. Often, I think, larger institutions have an advantage over the smaller ones in that they get to put personnel behind coding projects to get their materials out the door. For a smaller institution, the coding barrier can be a difficult one—it makes projects expensive and often not doable. Here at Brooklyn, we fall somewhere in between—we are lucky to have a talented team of developers on staff, but it’s never enough for all the projects we’d like to do or to keep up with the demands of our existing infrastructure. As readers of this blog (or if you’ve ever seen me speak at conferences) already know, we will often try and find a Scrappy-Doo solution to get us through, which allows us to experiment before committing resources to major project or, sometimes, the scrappy solution enables us to do a project that we could otherwise never commit staff time to.

The Commons can help smaller institutions by eliminating the coding barrier. Flickr already has ways to upload and change data in batch and there’s a strong community of developers coding Grease Monkey scripts to help add functionality where Flickr stops—thank you Flickr, for a rockin’ API. While some members of The Commons created their own batch upload tools to draw directly from their internal systems, Brooklyn just used existing tools (Flickr’s Uploadr and Organizr paired with Steev’s GM scripts) and this worked well for us without the need of another big project, but it didn’t eliminate issues of workload—it just transferred them to another area. (more…)

This is part two in what I think will eventually be a three part series (sorry, Tyler, I realize you are the king of the three part-er, but this requires some room). In the last post on the subject, I was exploring some of the confusion generated from our rights statement. For this post, I’ll be discussing how differences in content can shift the balance in unexpected ways. (more…)