- March 17th, 2008
- Filed under Current Events, New Media
Maybe…but this post is about free stuff on the web. The March 2008 issue of Wired featured the article, Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business written by Chris Anderson. It sat on my desk for a while, then moved to the little sitting area outside my desk, and got covered up by other magazines I also didn’t read…then Noelle sent an e-mail saying I should read it, so I did. If it weren’t for these nudges, I might never read anything! Anyway, it is a fascinating look at all things “free” on the web and what it means for companies and institutions that provide them. So what does it all mean?
The short version is that people like free stuff. A no-brainer right? But not only that, in the current world of Web 2.0, people expect it. Who would pay to read something they can Google and find for free elsewhere. YouTube certainly has offered up a whole bucket of free content and IMA has taken advantage by hopping on that bandwagon. We’ve also stepped up our efforts to offer you content on Flickr, Facebook, iTunes U and on www.imamuseum.org. In his article, Anderson sites a variety of examples of freebies you can collect on-line (and in real life). Get a free phone and pay for the service plan or a free Flickr account supported by the “Pro” services subscribed by a few. Whether the motivation is advertising, profit or spreading the mission-based word, free stuff ROCKS! So how can a museum harness the free-for-all?
For us, the most obvious answer is the stuff on our site. Maybe the most obvious, but not the most utilized. Why? Because we are still busy figuring out how to do get it all out there and what direction we should head in next. Like many museums, (companies and cultural institutions, too) we struggle with choosing the priority project(s) from the sea of possibilities given the limited resources a non-profit has to expend. That being said, we have quite a bit to get you started…
Did you know you can look up art objects owned by IMA and find pictures, and other info? How about Interact? Have you been there? If not, you should check it out. It is a clearinghouse for all the free stuff we have tossed out onto the internet just waiting for you to gobble it up. Sometimes the challenge is just getting the right stuff in the hands of the right people. Over the course of 2008 you will see a lot of initiatives from us to raise your awareness, give you cool things and develop amazing content. Or will you see them? We need to know in any event. Use this space well, to stroke our egos (though you’ll find we do plenty of that for each other), complain about what we don’t have or suggest the thing you have been dying to see.
So, seriously, you have to tell us. What awesome free thing do you want to find on our site? Or elsewhere? We won’t know unless you tell us! (Well, we might, but we want you to feel good about contributing.) Have at it!
