I assert that it has to do with how much you love technology. My life, for example, is steeped in it. I read art blogs, watch YouTube videos people send to me via e-mail and spend nearly every moment wired in to some form of technological interaction. So of course I think art, like everything else in my life is fair game for technological enhancement.

But I know there is another point of view. One that firmly holds art and its viewing in a quiet, pensive place, unfettered by the white noise the digital world can create.

The difference in these perspectives is often attributed to a generational misunderstanding, that somehow if you were born before the internet was commonplace then you have no hope of ever understanding it. But I think that is an unfair generalization. Perhaps there is some truth somewhere in that stereotype, but like all stereotypes, that logic is flawed.

Instead, I would assert that it has to do with experience, and the quality of those experiences. If you hate technology, could it be because you tried to use something, or find something and couldn’t? If you love it, isn’t it because it makes your life easier and gives you access to fabulous things?

So, with these extremes in mind, we set out to create digital content that allows people to passively consume or actively participate depending on their desires. So discover IMA on the internet if you haven’t already. You can find us…

• Posting images on Flickr. You can just look or get into it and join our groups and even add your own content.
• Creating videos and adding them to IMA’s YouTube channel. Feel free to watch, share and critique these.
• Writing this blog gives you an insider’s view of what happens at IMA. We always love seeing your comments here.
• Adding content to our iTunes U site. Download IMA audio and video to your iPod or iPhone.
• Developing new web stuff for IMA exhibitions and projects. We recently launched a site for To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum.

If you are reading this list and still wondering why we do it all, I will offer a couple of reasons. One of the key motivations for creating digital content is to allow IMA to compete in the global marketplace. Not entirely in the way a for-profit corporation might, but to help the museum raise its profile, giving attention to its projects, exhibitions and permanent collection.

Another great reason to utilize these technologies is to provide content in places where people are already participating. iTunes, YouTube, and Flickr have established global audiences, and by providing content on these sites, IMA can expand its reach to people who could never make it through the front door.

Perhaps the most compelling motivator for us is potential. Potential to create diverse audiences, and to serve audiences we don’t even know about yet. Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief for Wired magazine wrote an article called, The Long Tail, describing how the internet creates a never-before-seen possibility to direct content to increasingly smaller audiences for increasingly less expense. Since we can customize content in all of these places, we can meet the needs and desires of people who want to know about very specific things without it costing us any more to produce or maintain.

We also have the potential to provide an experience through photos, video or online activities that gives a new viewer his or her first glimpse into what the art world can offer. A simple Google search for a topic might lead someone to IMA’s website, or to one of IMA’s projects on another website, allowing us to be the ambassador of art-related content.

Lofty goals? You bethca. But why would we bother otherwise?

And for those who are more interested in the finite, quantifiable reasons, we consider those too. We track numbers and look for projects that increase viewership or interaction with our content. A recent example is a partnership we are working on to provide access to IMA-produced video in local schools, boosting our outreach to school-aged children and teachers, and consequently, providing an under-served audience with high-quality art content, for free.

So there is the last nugget. Free. Everyone loves free stuff. All of the things we do are free to those who use it. You can search on your computer at home and find us, or go to your public library and use their free internet to get our free stuff. No matter what, you can’t beat free!

Still not convinced it is all worth it? Feel free to tell us why! (And we would also love to hear from those of you who love it!)

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!

But here I am, typing my post from home while watching the latest re-run of Family Guy. Two of my fellow nuggeteers are also out of the office at the SXSW conference in Austin.

I hope we all get an update tomorrow from Daniel’s next post. By the way, have you noticed a pattern yet? We have taken to blogging more regularly so that all of our dedicated readers can wait excitedly for their favorite IMA author’s post.

Back to the business at hand…On a tip from Noelle, I am working up a post centered around an article in the most recent Wired magazine, but in my mini-vacay state-of-mind I would prefer to keep this one more casual. So look for that next week.

This week I am looking for some perspective and spending some time selfishly trying on shoes and other similarly indulgent endeavors like surfing the web.

Are you similarly looking to waste time or find yourself? Here are some websites that will help you on either journey:

BAPE – Getting in the mood for Breaking the Mode? When I think of Japanese fashion, I first think of street fashion. This site is one of my favorite surfing experiences and also features an awesome hip-hop influenced Japanese street design brand, A Bathing Ape. You have to download some stuff for the site to work, but you should. It’s worth it for the soundtrack alone.

http://cubo.cc/
This one is amazing. Recommended to me by my endlessly interesting boyfriend (that’s not sarcasm), it is fun and unique. Click on the link, give it a moment to load and then cursor around the screen. Not for those with slow internet connections. You can click the link for more info, but you won’t get any. You will get a whole new kind of crazy fun, though.

Maken Trance Project – This is my favorite JPOP song right now. I can listen to it over and over again in my car, singing all the parts I know and making stuff up for the parts I haven’t yet memorized. And the video is giggly and fun. This song make me want to create my own para para choreography. Maybe I can spend some of my vacation time working on that.

Kid Robot – Love contemporary art? Then you might like this…it might be too low-brow for you, but for me, well, it is just right. There is room in my life for admiring contemporary art that I can’t afford AND buying little toys that I can. Besides, if vinyl toys as art is wrong, then I just don’t want to be right. On a related note, the IMA store is starting to stock some of this stuff. You know the best way to encourage that? Buy some.

Hope you enjoy visiting some of these sites and find something new to obsess over. Until next week…