Case study of The Arts Catalyst's use of cloudware from 2010 to 2014, presented at IT4Arts workshop 'Trends that will Change the Arts' 6 Nov 2014, London

1. A Cloud Spotter’s Companion
to Contemporary Art
IT4Arts, ‘Digital Trends that will change
the arts’, 6/11/14
Jo Fells
Head of Marketing
& PR

2. Case study from the
contemporary art world
 Cloud storage
 Cloudware
 Not-for-profit deals
 Freemium products
 Managed data
 Flexible
 Save money
 Extend our reach

3. Simon Faithfull, Escape Vehicle No 6, takes off from Farnborough

4. Simon Faithfull, Escape Vehicle No 6, stills from the onboard livestream video

5. Getting launched
Website and email hosting
 Analytics for reporting to funders
 Email marketing software
 Video hosting

6. Why we reached for the
cloud?
 Small team
 Dispersed locations
 DIY
 No server
 Software variations
 Scale of activity

7. Organisational needs
 Google Docs - real time document
sharing, editing and tracking Apple/PC
and different software editions overcome
 Google Calendar – keep track of who is
where and meeting requests
 Picasa – access image files from home
 Google Site – intranet type interfact to
help colleagues find key files quickly

8. Google Apps
for Not-for-Profits
 Drive
 Albums
 G-mail
 Hangouts
 Google+
 Contacts
 Manage data
storage and sharing
 Flexible, configured
locally
 Mobile access
 Save money
 Extend our reach

9. Google drive work offline and synchronised online, real time sharing

10. Google Album – perfect remote working, sharing with partners and journalists

11. Downloadable images with full details

12. Saves time when all colleagues can access shared resources

13. Reaching arts audiences

14. Our website is the hub of our digital universe – driving visitors to it and directing them from it

15. Camilla Spotasi, Yellow Vanishing Point, Great Glen Artists’ Airshow, 2010

16. Eventbrite.com – link with Paypal, useful features like reminders, waiting lists, refunds, data collection,

17. LabEasy, DIY bio workshops with MadLab – bookings when capacity is
limited

18. Bambuser.com – livestream when events oversubscribed and when venue has poor access

19. YouTube playlists legacy, and wider access for those unable to attend due to physical, geographic or time-based limitations

20. YouTube stats

21. Spreading the word
 Arts Media Contacts – database
 Press Association – Listoria uploads
 Facebook events
 Twitter conversations

22. Posting events on third party facebook thematic or geographical groups

23. Online magazine This is Colossal over 140,000 loads of the video – a useful metric for PR effort

24. Storify.com

25. Simon Failthful, Escape Vehicle No 6 - upload, tag and monitor videos of past projects to give them visibility and longevity.

26. Tomas Saraceno, Poetic Cosmos of the Breath, Artists Airshow, 2007

27. Freemium
 Apps and games
 Evernote, Linked-In and Skype
 Sometimes confused with ‘try before you
buy’ free trial period cloudware
 Business model on offering basic product
for free, but higher ‘value’
product/services at a price that reflects
their value to users

28. Freemium Services
 iContact
 SurveyMonkey
 Twitonomy
Premium
 VimeoPlus
 Skype conference
 Google Apps NFP

29. Drawbacks?
 Know when to bump up to premium tier
 Remember to drop down and save
 Public visibility
 Data security

30. Arts specific cloudware
Give & Gain, sharing resources:
 CultureHive.co.uk - case studies
 a-m-a.co.uk/CulturePro - professional
development
 AudienceFinder.org - audience
development toolkit

31. Audience Spectrum arts
audiences segmentation
 Metroculturals
 Commuterland
Culturebuffs
 Experience Seekers
 Dormitory
Dependables
 Trips and Treats
 Home and Heritage
 Up our Street
 Facebook Families
 Kaleidoscope
Creativity
 Heydays

32. Audience mapping – here for free, but an more detailed report is available at a small fee.

33. Cloud spotting
Business necessity is the driver for my
experimentation with cloudware
 Extensive toolkit
 Shoestring budget

34. Plucked from the clouds
Business essentials
 PayPal
 TT exchange
 FAX –> e-mail
 Slideshare
 Wetransfer
 Liveplan
 Tweetdeck
 Buffer
Productivity tools
 Soundflower
 QR code generator
 Convert web to PDF
 Case convert
 Sharethis
 Wordle
 Visual thesaurus

35. Visualthesaurus.com

36. Cloud solutions
 Instantly, globally accessible
 User feedback and reviews
 Easy to access analytics
 Try before you buy
 Discounts for registered charities
 No pricey annual contracts
 Toggle premium services on/off

37. www.artscatalyst.org - in beta

38. Future cloudspotting …
 24/7, global access
 Portability, mobile, responsive
 Flexible capacity – scale up or down
 No lengthy contracts
 Compatibility between products
 Big questions about security,
resilience, sustainability

39. Thank you for listening
Jo.Fells@ArtsCatalyst.org or jo@jofells.com
www.artscatalyst.org
Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Moon Goose Colony, 2011