For centuries, museums have been places folks go to see important stuff. (Museums are full of stuff.) That stuff has always been carefully chosen by experts – folks with information – in the museum. (Museums are also full of experts.) Digital technology has made information readily available to folks outside of museums. Now, not only can folks see stuff online, but they also consider themselves experts. What’s a museum to do? I went to Baltimore to talk with Dr. Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum and the museum’s manager of … [Read more...]
Building a New American Theater of the Commons
In "Building a New American Theater of the Commons," Polly Carl and Vijay Matthew of The American Voices New Play Institute discuss the need to approach theater as a "We" rather than a "Me." They cite the ideas behind the regional theater movement of the 1960s: "...that cultural institutions like theaters, museums, and symphonies are a value proposition and compose the life-blood of any city along with libraries, schools, hospitals and public works. It was born out of the same collaborative impulse that is required in making a great play—a … [Read more...]
OpenIDEO – Home
IDEO, as you may know (including those of you who have studied the organization in one of our seminars) is one of the world's top product design firms. OpenIDEO is their open innovation site where they use crowdsourcing to develop ideas for addressing social issues. The site is interesting in its own right, but I wanted to highlight it because it is such an interesting example of an organization finding a way to embody in technology the thing that is unique about them, and use technology to extend that experience to a much larger audience. … [Read more...]
Disrupting College
Clay Christensen and his team at Innosight Institute apply Christensen's model of disruptive innovation to higher education. It is a compelling presentation of the systematic barriers that keep the higher education sector from meeting its mission, the role that online learning technology and new providers are playing in changing the sector, and the way the business models of established institutions stop them from responding effectively. So why do we care in the arts and culture sector? I see powerful similarities between the structural issues … [Read more...]
Disrupting Philanthropy 2.0
An overview of how technology is being used in philanthropy. The foundation activities are pretty well known. However, there are good examples of where experimentation is happening, and interesting activities happening outside established institutions. The effect of technology on philanthropy comes across as marginal today, but the tech trends & experiments point to what we can expect in 3-5 years, when the experiments become mainstream and the underlying tech is mature and "dull." Disrupting Philanthropy 2.0. … [Read more...]
Monitor: The net generation, unplugged | The Economist
An interesting article challenging the oft-received wisdom that millenials/gen y need to learn in a fundamentally different manner than their predecessors: "...there may be 'as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations.' ” Monitor: The net generation, unplugged | The Economist. … [Read more...]