The concept of a central reference point of European cross border cultural content came out of research carried out by the European Parliament due to the continuing proliferation of online and disparate, yet non-linked content, emerging in the nineties. The idea of a central cross border platform was circulated to the cultural sector and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), based in Amsterdam, took up the challenge. The ECF has a remit to advocate and support culture across wider Europe and so LabforCulture fits with the idea of providing information and opening up a digital public space for discourse on cross border cultural issues. Since 2006, LabforCulture has collated thousands of resources on the theme of cross border cultural content and also has built up features which add to the overall bank of content on the site. We regularly invite partners and contributors to give perspectives on issues affecting the sector, as well as producing content within the team and with our international and multi-lingual team of editors. Features include in-depth mapping of regions within Europe, examining various timely cultural topics in the ‘Research in focus’ and producing specific interactive projects. The recently published Research in focus feature is an example of this, with the first three interviews in the series ‘Cultural bloggers in Europe’, bringing together a diverse range of voices from the cultural blogging community.
Twitter anyone?
The question of how people are using technology and digital tools in the cultural sector is a key focus of LabforCulture and therefore we wanted to investigate what motivates these bloggers to give up their time and publish their opinions on cultural matters via blogs. Blogging has evolved significantly in the past ten years. The initial blog was commonly a personal, individual voice on a specific topic which has now moved into a wide variety of content and styles. Some blogs present themselves as still close to the original model of one person commenting and sharing a passion, however more and more, we are seeing a repository of content with articles, group blogs, blog roles and links to amplify the overall content message. Indeed many thought the blog would die as new technologies have emerged, but it seems we are keen to know who is doing what on a very regular basis, twitter anyone? Blogs also give the viewer/reader/commentator a variety of opportunities in the role they play, as you can edit, comment and observe, with the medium allowing for a real mix of media options, such as external links, videos, podcasts and photos. How delicious for us! Indeed successful blogs create a returning readership/community and can significantly add to the volume of traffic coming to the site. The latter point links also to the financing model of a blog, which is one of the questions presented in the interviews to the bloggers.
Why blogging?
LabforCulture asked Annette Wolfsberger, a producer, project manager and researcher in the fields of media arts, contemporary & popular culture, and currently a project manager at Virtueel Platform, (the Dutch sector institute for e-culture), to scour the European cultural blogging scene and report back. The interviews she carried out will be published over the next two months and will culminate in a downloadable publication on LabforCulture. The first three interviews posted on LabforCulture cover the following blogs: InterventTech.net, authored by Claire Welsby, based in London, who is a media producer for The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Curating.info, authored by Michelle Kasprazk, based in Edinburgh, who is a visual arts officer at the Scottish Arts Council and Kultura2.0, authored by Alek Tarkowski, based in Warsaw, who leads the Creative Commons project in Poland. In the interviews you can see several common threads emerging from the authors and I have looked specifically at three questions relating to their comments: why did they decide to start to blog; how does it affect their network and what kind of conclusions can be taken from their experiences and approach to blogging. Firstly, why do it? There seems to be three central shared responses to the initial and continuing motivation to contribute and lead a blog. For Tarkowski and Welsby the blog emerged – as the latter describes it ‘as a fall out project’ – created through being part of an event, or study programme that led to generating discourse on their subject focus. They also both say their blogs opened up content to diverse audiences not previously catered to. For example, regarding Tarkowski, he writes for a primarily Polish audience base as his blog is in Polish, on a subject not widely commented on in Poland. As for Welsby, she was interested in delivering content in a non-academic way that had been for the most part only available and aimed towards an academic audience. Kasprazk describes her arrival to blogging as something born out of starting off as an artist and turning to writing to satisfy her creative aims, especially after finishing her Masters in Visual and Media Arts in Montreal, again, a notion shared partly by Welsby. Secondly, what kind of impact does leading a blog have on their own network? The responses on this appear to be worded slightly differently to each other but I believe are reasonably similar. Of course, if they are providing a regular stream of content on a subject matter not available either anywhere else, or in a format (language, style and regularity etc) that is unprecedented, then the underlying impact must be respect from peers and the position of being a non-institutional authority on their subject focus. Kasprazk and Tarkowski could be widening their professional work profile by having a blog and they both link their jobs to their blogs but in differing ways. For Kasprazk she feeds her knowledge, partly derived from her job to her blog but can customize the content to her own style (like a personal branding) and she mentions she is ‘lucky to have great employers and friends’, whilst Tarkowski mentions his blog is ‘indirectly promoting Creative Commons’ but he does not write for his employers, namely PWA and Polityka. As expected, individual contact can also be the most important feedback for bloggers, and Kasprazk and Welsby describe cases of either profiling people’s work or meeting someone who has found work through their blogs, as a great satisfaction and network generator for them. Thirdly, a complete summary on the comments on their approach and knowledge around blogging would be too lengthy. I highly recommend you to go directly online and read their interviews however I will comment on a few remarks. They all have some knowledge on who reads their blog but surprisingly not in great detail. Kasprazk notes her readership is global, which she puts down to her own coverage of content, covering Canada and the UK, whereas Welsby notes her audience is predominantly from the UK. Tarkowski cites his return readership, (core audience) at 10% with the wider audience partly coming from linked pages to the blog. Interestingly, when examining their ‘policy’ on inviting expert guest bloggers to their blog and providing niche content, they all commented on the question of how to judge the common knowledge level of their readership. Balancing the content so it is mutually digestible for the various backgrounds of their community was a concern to them. The bloggers also mentioned their promotional activities. Tarkowski has had a radio slot which ‘was basically about the same thing as the blog’, as a parallel offline activity, which, (as LabforCulture has experienced), does generate new visitors to your site. Both Kasprazk and Welsby have explored online promotional methods such as MOO cards, Facebook and Google adverts and have seen an increase in traffic. The interviews with the cultural bloggers provide a revealing and new insight on online communication and self publishing. The bloggers are testing finance models, marketing schemes and managing unique product markets, in many cases as a 5 to 9er’s rather than a 9 to 5er’s. For this out of the ordinary research in an established and emerging scene go to www.labforculture.org and follow the continuing series, ‘Cultural blogging in Europe’ online.
Claire Welsby, InterventTech.net: ‘I think blogging is important if you’ve got something to say that isn’t being said.’
Alek Tarkowski, Kultura 2.0: ‘If there is discussion, it is almost always in the comments, and not between blogs.’
Michelle Kasprzak, Curating.info: ‘Blogging is an excellent way of establishing several streams of discourse. It’s not just about the art critic in the news-paper anymore.’
Auteur: Nicola Mullenger (nicola@labforculture.org) centres on devising strategical marketing and communication planning, policy development and event coordination LabforCulture
