Get digital!

Here are links to PDF versions of presentations from the day. Hover over the logo to see the name of the presentation and then double click the icon to be taken to a screen where you will have the option to open or download the file.

Delegates who were at the conference will know that Stuart Bruce's presentation was generally live despite a few technical hitches. He has produced a four page list of arts related blogs on del.icio.us which you can access by clicking here.

We're pleased to say that the first podcast from last week's conference is now available for you to listen to.

With a running length of about 17 minutes this podcast provides an overview of the conference and includes interviews with our speakers and delegates who attended on the day.

All you have to do to listen is click here. In a minute or so a small player will appear and the recording will begin to play. You can pause or stop the recording at your leisure using the controls.

Individual, in depth podcasts on each of our speakers presentations will be added very soon. In the meantime enjoy listening to Get digital podcast one!

The Get digital! podcast is currently in production however as so much material was recorded it's been decided to make it available in a number of broadcasts.

These will include a conference overview as well as individual casts on each presentation.

Links should be available on this blog no later than next Friday. Thanks for your patience.

A number of you have asked how you could get copies of the IT and Digital Content Audit report that was available in hard copy on the day.

Click here to visit the Arts Council England website's North West page where you can download the document.

Neil Morrin
Arts Council England North West

Digital cameras have revolutionised the immediacy and ease of photography and blogs are a great place to display images of your productions, exhibitions or events.

The blog package I'm using here came with 1000MB of storage space which can be used to upload documents of all kinds. The most memory intensive files tend to be photographs and therefore you really need to you use your storage well. Depending on the number of megapixels on your camera and the settings you use, a single high resolution photograph can often be many megabites in size.

You can upload the original photo into your blog's media store and then use the resize function to reduce the picture width to an acceptable size for your page. I find this often leaves the image slightly fuzzy but more importantly the original photo is still eating up your memory allowance.

By far the best option where possible is to resize your image in a photo editing package before upolading it to your blog. I use Photoshop but virtually all digital cameras come with some form of editing software which will allow you to reduce the size of your image without losing the quality of your picture.

Ian Jackson talked about the template he uses for the artinliverpool blog and the fact that he has two side columns around a central double sized column he uses for his posts. This blog is slightly different in that it has been set up with one side column on the right and therefore, a larger posting area.

Through trial and error on our blog eventualities which uses the same template I worked out the optimum width for a single image would be 500 pixels. I often use two pictures side by side and for your guidance the ratios for a portrait shot are therefore 180 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, and a landscape shot is 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high. Or you could use two portrait or landscape photos each resized to 250 pixels in width.

At standard screen resolution of 72dpi a colour photo resized to the pixel ratios above will still be sharp and clear but will only create a file size of about 100k or less, substantially less than your original.

Blogs or weblogs are easily updatable websites which can be quickly set up at little or no cost via sites such as www.blog.co.uk, www.blogger.com or www.typepad.com. They provide one very major advantage over a standard website in that they are designed to encourage conversation with simple to use post publishing and the ability to allow your audience to instantly respond.

It’s estimated that there are now over 80 million blogs in existence worldwide with content ranging from all manner of niche interests and personal musings to influential professional interest sites which attract substantial and ever growing audiences.

Blogs at their best share ideas and information and create genuine dialogue. They’ve also provided the platform for the rise of citizen journalism which is having a significant impact on our mainstream media.

There is considerable scope for business use too and many companies and organisations are investigating or already using the opportunities blogs provide to communicate with their target audiences, employees and the public.

The blog you're reading now was created using www.blog.co.uk because I'm used to the set up features as we already host our event management blog eventualities with them.

I'd suggest you visit a number of blog provider sites before making your choice however they do all offer very similar services. You can create a basic blog for free with all the sites listed above although you'll find many of the options are limited.

For a small annual fee (£28 in the case of this blog) you can access considerably greater functionality and simple to use tools to allow you to build your site exactly how you want.

You can choose from a variety of layout templates from which you can customise everything from the number of columns to text sizes and colours.

Your organisation's logo can be incorporated into your header and you can lay out your blog in corporate or complimentary colours. For ideas on the design of your blog check out other blogs to see what you do and don't like. Google's great for this because if you click on more on their front page it takes you to this option page which includes a blog search. Enter your organisation's name and see what people might already be saying about you!

As for content, the possibilities are endless. From a marketing point of view it's a great way to let readers know about forthcoming productions and exhibitions.

You could also invite visitors opinions and seek feedback on your venue and it's programme of events.

I'm sure you'll all find plenty to talk about but why not use the opportunity to provide other kinds of insight into the day to day running of your venue or organisation. You could feature interviews with artists, performers or your own colleagues on the vital roles they play in making everything happen.

Blogs are also a very visual medium and it's easy to upload digital photos to support your text. With a little more technological know how you could even add short videos and podcasts too.

You can set up your blog to have a number of co-writers if you wish and you can also moderate the posts and comments so you receive an e-mail allowing you to approve all items before they're added to the site.

I hope this has been a useful overview and as you can probably guess I'm definitely a fan of the medium! If you have any questions please feel free to ask by adding a comment.