Many of you may remember ArtShare, the Brooklyn Museum’s Facebook application. ArtShare had good intentions and was an effort to be inclusive to many different types of users: institutions could use it to share works in their collection on Facebook profiles and pages; artists could upload and share their own work; and art lovers could install the app and customize their profiles with the works they liked the most.  The app worked pretty well during early days, but we quickly found that Facebook’s changes often came without much warning and every time Facebook would change their API, we’d have to drop everything to fix the app.  API changes were one thing, but Facebook soon started changing profile layouts and with those shifts in design we saw the Facebook community moving away from app usage.  It has become clear that keeping up with Facebook’s shifting priorities is too difficult with our limited staffing and with fewer people using the application we are pulling the plug.

I wish we could easily pull the plug on more than just ArtShare, but Facebook does not make things easy.  We’ve got a legacy Brooklyn Museum group—a holdover from the days before pages—that should ideally be deleted, but guess what?  In order to delete a Facebook group, you have to delete every member from the group before the group can be deleted.  Did you catch that?? There are more than a thousand people in this group and deleting them all before we can retire the group is simply not a practical use of time. Until Facebook has a better solution for deletion, we’ve had to resort to changing the group to a hidden status and posting a note to redirect current members to the Museum’s Facebook page.  This is a heck of a messy way to deal with a problem that should have an easy fix.

After five years, we are finally pulling the plug on the Myspace profile.  We’ve muddled over this one for quite some time and most people will wonder why we bothered to keep this at all because “everyone has moved to Facebook,”  but things are more nuanced than that. As a community-minded organization we are very conscious of the work Danah Boyd has done on Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and Myspace. While this article was written in 2007, many of the issues it brings up are still true today and given the diversity of our audience and a mission that holds accessibility paramount, cutting and running from Myspace never seemed like a sound idea.  Because we had started to see less usage, we got a little closer to shutting down the profile last year, but ended up needing a more active presence there when Myspace Music became a sponsor for Who Shot Rock—that was enough to stop deletion in its tracks. At this point, however, it’s become more difficult to maintain the profile—we are so inundated with spam on the site that sorting through what might be legit posts is too arduous.  With lower usage overall combined with higher difficulty to manage the platform, it is now time to go.

Generally, you’ll see us continue to jump into social platforms as we see our audience gathering there.  We feel it’s important to have a presence where people are knowing they may not come directly to www.brooklynmuseum.org, but as with any technology we will watch the landscape and adjust as we go along.  As audience moves from one platform to another or as platforms modify beyond recognition, we’ll change with them and that can mean making difficult and carefully studied decisions about when to stay and when to go.

We designed our system to accept tags from users who might not want an account and that’s been both valuable and a bit of trouble.  On one hand, the 7,657 tags by anonymous contribution are nothing to sneeze at, but we’ve had to keep a close eye on those submissions and have deleted roughly 6% of them due to complete inaccuracy.  We could eliminate the capability to add tags anonymously, but 94% of those contributions are of great value and, more importantly we want our online collection to be welcoming to anyone with or without an account.  That said, there are plenty of people testing us just for fun and when the tags “how long will it take you to delete this tag” and “are you going to block me” showed up on the scene, there was only so long it was going to take an overworked Technology department to do something about it.  We knew the Brooklyn Museum Posse would have a lot to do with the solution.

The hunt for the Governor gang of bushrangers. A posse of mounted police, aboriginal trackers and district volunteers. Jimmy & Joe Governor were sighted at Stewarts Brook on 12 September 1900 – Stewarts Brook, NSW / by A C Jackson (via State Library of New South Wales on the Flickr Commons).

Today we are introducing a new game called Freeze Tag! which puts control of the tags back into the hands of our most valued community members.  If you are a member of our Posse, you can delete tags from object pages−this is new, previously we were not allowing tag deletion except by system admins. For any tag that is deleted, it takes another two pairs of Posse eyes to “agree” within Freeze Tag! before that tag’s fate is sealed.  On the other hand, if three Posse members within the game think the tag should be saved, it will be restored.  After a short stint on the live site, all tags created anonymously will automatically be “challenged” and moved into the game for vetting by Posse.  Freeze Tag! is designed with all that great Wisdom of Crowds mentality−influence is minimized by each Posse member coming to their own decision independently, then we aggregate into a collective decision to determine if a tag should stay or go.  After all, why should one person decide the worth of a tag, when a collective decision may be more accurate?  It will be interesting to see the results of this and we’ll report back as we see what happens.

To start Freeze Tag! off with a bang, we’ve populated it with all the anonymous tags to date and, in addition, thrown in all those auto-generated tags that need a bit of human review.  This may sound complicated, but I think when you play Freeze Tag!, you’ll agree that all the complicated goings on behind-the-scenes is bundled up in a pretty simple package that, we hope, is fun to play.  No spoilers or anything, but be on the lookout for cameos from our own on-site security posse.

Rock on, Posse—thank you for all your incredible work to date and we hope you continue to have fun with us as we move forward with our collection online!

Installation view, courtesy Mattress Factory.

Every day, as Mary was reading the day’s news via various news sites on the internet, she would select a political figure to draw on a tabloid sized sheet of paper. Each day, she would scan the drawing, send to the MF where they would print and hang it in the gallery in a calendar style format on the walls. I spent a long time pouring over the walls of the exhibition space and left wanting to follow this project day-by-day, but knew that I wouldn’t be able to.

When Will and I first conceptualized the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed, this project of Mary’s was one of the first works that came to my mind. Could we figure out a way to bring this project into the feed and tweet each day with a link to the drawing? I knew that the MF show was closing in mid-January and wondered if a continuation could take place online for the 1stfans, so a quick call to Jeffrey at MF was in order and the next day I was e-mailing Mary (thanks, Jeff).

Mary Temple has been working on this series since 2007 and drawings are archived in stacks by month in flat files that reside in her Brooklyn studio.

This has been an incredibly fun collaboration for us on many levels. In reaching out to the artist, it was our chance to work with the MF and they’ve also given us some video footage of the process that will be up soon. For Mary, we developed a way to display the drawings in calendar-format, so the virtual presentation will mirror the layout in the gallery with an added Twitter twist. 1stfans will be able to follow day-by-day, then everyone will be able to see the work in our own galleries because we will be installing the work for one night only at the March 7th Target First Saturday. You can follow along by joining 1stfans and we hope to see you there!

I’ll leave you reading Mary’s own narrative about the work:

Mary Temple
Currency
2007-present

On September 24, 2007 the president of Iran spoke at Columbia University amid protests and much controversy. I found the event, coverage and images of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad compelling and made some drawings of him from various Web–based news sources. The drawings piqued my interest in him as a character—I wanted to know more about his history as well as Iran’s past. Drawing him expanded my thinking about world events. I’ve continued to make a drawing of a world leader every day since then. My goal in the beginning was simply to concentrate on one event each day—to try to grasp a minuscule portion of the barrage of information that surrounds each of us in a 24-hour news cycle. As the research and drawings accumulated, I found that the news events marked my own personal history as well as delineating a (biased) global event time line. In order to underscore that relationship, and the diaristic nature of the undertaking, I hung the drawings in a calendar format—7 day (columns) across, and 5 to 6 week (rows) down. I placed the drawings on the page according to my own feelings of optimism or pessimism regarding the day’s event, the higher on the page the greater my hope for world harmony.

Each evening I select a story and the character (a world leader), draw a portrait in pen and ink on a tabloid size sheet of paper, and record the event with an image caption at the bottom of the page. The drawing is then scanned and emailed to a museum. Every morning the museum staff receives my email scan, prints the portrait on a similar tabloid size sheet of handmade paper and hangs it in a gallery next to the previous day’s drawings in the calendar grid. Entire calendar years accumulate in this way.

The title, of the piece, Currency, most obviously references my desire and attempt to keep current of world events, to try to understand some of what is happening in the world. It also refers to something that fascinates me about an industry that trades in a product that is only valuable until the moment it is heard, at which time it instantly loses its value. Yesterday’s news is an artifact which no longer has currency or power as a trade worthy item. The title Currency also refers to the scale of the portraits themselves, which might evoke a bank note or dollar bill portrait, the image of power and money entwined.

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

My own personal props have to go out to Victor over at MoMA, who wins the gold star for bending over backwards to figure out the best way they could participate and still ensure everything falls into the public domain. Victor, that’s dedication! CJN212, thanks for the legwork over there. I have to say from an organizer standpoint, I couldn’t be more thrilled about how many institutions took the leap work with us on what will hopefully become a massive cross-institution community collaboration!

Not so super-secret meetup for the Wikipedia NYC Chapter. Topic of discussion? You guessed it: Wikipedia Loves Art. Wiki peeps and guests including Denise and Hazel from the MET, Victor from MoMA and moi. Check out that awesome ceiling w/ globe lights at Columbia University.

In the next week, we’ve got a lot of work to do to get scavenger hunt lists published and many of us are making final preparations for meetups. All details, including the lists will be published to the Wikipedia Loves Art Flickr group, so keep an eye on things over there (and congrats to us for creating what might be the longest Flickr group description…ever). There’s even a discussion getting started about the best way to shoot in museums to avoid glare off cases while working with no flash, no tripod restrictions.

Now that we have institutions, we need photographers! Please help us spread the word. Remember, because of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s offer, there’s a way you can participate from almost anywhere in the United States even if your local museum is not on the participant list. Good luck everyone, we are looking forward to seeing your shots!

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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?

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

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.

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 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

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.