When Social Media Went Mainstream…

Originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia

I suppose in a way this may be the indication of spending too much time in Social Media. And yet, had you been in my place, would you not react in the same way to the letters “RSS”?

In the first week of December I went to Birmingham, and one my destinations was the Birmingham Musem and Art Gallery that houses the works of some leading Pre-Raphaelites. Taught by experience, I asked about the photography. Yes, I had to fill out the form again, but this time the rules were set out in more detail, although once more there is a clause or two that may potentially be difficult to interpret even for the staff themselves:

1. Any copyrights (including publication rights) created in the photographic materials produced under the conditions stated below are reassigned to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

2. Any photography is for personal reference only. No permission for any reproduction rights of any kind is granted or may be assumed. Permission for reproduction rights should be applied for, in writing, to the Picture Library. Each case will be evaluated independently.

3. Any work, which is protected by the artists’ copyright, may not be photographed without the permission of the copyright holder.

4. Any works on loan, including temporary exhibitions, may not be photographed.

5. Flash photography is permitted unless otherwise specified.

6. The use of professional photographic equipment is prohibited. Tripods and monopods may not be used under any circumstances.

7. Video cameras or camcorders may not be used under any circumstances. Filming is prohibited.

Fair enough, reading these rules may put an intrepid visitor off taking pictures in the gallery altogether. However, the first two points just further reinforce what I have highlighted in the previous post on the question of reproduction. The problem is seemingly not only about a picture’s commercial use, but about the multiplicity of such uses. Naturally, if the photo is included in a book, it will be reproduced as many time as the book. For this, it is essential to apply for a permission to a museum.

Regarding the 3rd point, my feeling is that this needs to be discussed with the copyright holder before their work actually gets to be displayed. This is something that many professional artists’ and photographers’ websites tend to lose the sight of. By creating a website and making it public, they by default agree that this information can be shared. It is the same as with the printed word: if it was printed, you cannot stop people from quoting it. This is not to say that their work can be reproduced for commercial purposes by other people, but this should mean that a blogger may wish to not only write about them and give a link to their website, but also to include an image in the post, to illustrate why it would be good to visit the website at all.

Likewise, when an artist is displaying their work at the museum or gallery where photography is generally permitted, they have to be aware that a visitor can upload a taken photo online. It makes every sense to restrict this, on the one hand; but, on the other hand, the world has grown bigger with the Internet, and this potentially means that artists, especially young, may find it more and more difficult to compete with other artists and to assert themselves in the world. Social Media tools, and particularly photosharing, will facilitate this to an extent.

With loaned works and temporary exhibitions, I feel the galleries would need to spare some resources to clearly display the permission signs in such spaces of the gallery. As more and more often galleries intercept the regular display with a temporary exhibition, it is difficult for a visitor to understand where a photography permission ends and where it resumes again.

Regarding the specialist photography permission, this is a good point and the one that I think can be reinforced to avoid the taken photos being reproduced to a commercial end. This is how the Brooklyn Museum defines their stance on photography in the gallery:

Photography and videography are allowed in the Museum so long as the images are taken using existing light only (no flash) and are for personal, non-commercial use. Photography and videography are often restricted in special exhibition galleries.

Add to this also that many paintings are displayed under the glass, hence the photographic image of a painting in the gallery space can be far from ideal for reproduction.

A different take on photography and videography in the museum comes from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. As you need to purchase tickets to view the collection, you can also purchase a permission to make photos or videos in the museum. The website explains that there are warning pictograms in the halls where it is not permitted to take photos or to use flash. I did use this permission once myself in 2002, and this was great to show the museum to my parents who happened to have never visited the Hermitage.

The question rises, of course: why would I film, and not buy a video cassette or a DVD? Well, we all count our pennies, and on my memory even 6 years ago it was cheaper to pay for a photography pass rather than to buy a DVD set. I have been taking a notice of what people photograph and film, and I have never seen any of them making a complete record of the collection. If any of the readers have been to the Hermitage, they vividly imagine the sheer grandeur of the place: you would not know what to photograph because there is too much to see, and all too splendid! They say it takes 5 hours to quickly run through the entire Hermitage (i.e. only stopping at a few paintings), so imagine the weight of this on your photo- or videocamera. But what the Hermitage achieving with this is very valuable. On the one hand, they allow people to create a personal record of a visit to this art depository, a historic monument, and one of the most beautiful sights in the world altogether. On the other hand, by asking for a small fee for a photography permit they also bring in money to the museum.

It looks like more and more art depositories are beginning to ask visitors to fill in a photography permission form. I do think that this is likely to be requested in a smaller gallery rather than in a big one. Imagine the huge queue of tourists at the British Museum, all filling out permission forms… As I stated before, I do not see any problem with restricting photography at the special exhibitions, and then there is a tricky situation with the works of art by contemporary artists, as not only is there a “regular” sort of copyright which we all acquire by virtue of producing a work of art, but there is also a 70-years copyright restriction. On the other hand, those works of art can often be found online anyway, so the first question is whether the artist and the art depository by restricting the permission actually end up pushing away the benefits of being directly credited in the image?

Another problem is how to define the concept of “reproduction”. Indeed, if I take a photo of a painting (sculpture, photograph by the like of Man Ray, etc), I am effectively “reproducing” it. Yet again, there are so many reproductions of these works of art on the Internet, and services like AllPosters.com not only provide links to a large number of online images, they also produce quality prints. I never ordered any posters from the mentioned site or others, but it would certainly be interesting to leverage the number of prints bought by those who visited, say, the National Gallery shop online or in person, and the number of prints bought through a poster-making website.

I must admit I never looked into the relationship between AllPosters.com and any of the art depositories, whose works they print: perhaps, there is a sale commission agreement, or some such. Whatever is the answer, this is clearly the case of an image being reproduced for commercial purposes. How is this different from uploading a photo to a blog or to Flickr? As far as Flickr goes, this is currently a non-commercial service, so “reproducing” an image there should not be constituted as a commercial move.

Uploading a photo to a blog can be more complicated to an extent, if the publisher uses AdSense. My personal view, however, going off the fact that many of the images are available online via different resources, is that if the publisher intends to earn their income by “reproducing” the works of art on their blog, there is little need for them to visit a museum and twist the brains over photography permission. They can find very many images on the web, or they can scan “reproductions” from a book.

Two things may be kept in mind. First, art depositories need to assume that people who do fill out a photography permission form may be intending to upload photos to the web: this constitutes the “personal use” for them. This intention cannot be denied simply because photosharing services are one of the most powerful communicative tools online at the moment, and it would be a pity to see the depository restricting this. Rather, a depository should have the means to see where people upload photos taken in the depository, and how these are being used. The question of an image credit is usually not disputed by the online community, but there is nothing wrong about reinforcing it.

And the second thing is that an art depository that asks for a permission form to be filled in, can in fact include in it a question about how the visitor is planning on using the photo. Better yet, visitors can be asked to apply for a permission online, and if they are an online publisher (i.e. blogger or website owner), the depository will be able to evaluate the resource prior to giving a consent to photography. Needless to say, such requirement would have to be very clearly displayed on the website or in the gallery.

I posted recently about the Social Media Cafe in Manchester, and by the look of it one of the members is about to start a blog. From where I and a few pals stand, things looks bright for Social Media and its use in Manchester, as elsewhere. But there are yet too many hurdles to overcome. Whilst my journalist friends are looking at the use of Social Media tools in the traditional media, I decided to narrate the two experiences I have recently had in dealing with an art depository and a fashion network’s event. In the light of this experience, Manchester has got a lot to improve.

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It’s been twice in the space of November that I had to deal with the rather suspicious attitude to Social Media, and blogging in particular. First, I went to one of Manchester’s major museums where it turned out that I needed to fill out a photography permission form. I know the collection well: I have been visiting the museum since 2002; a lot of paintings displayed there are in the “knowledge minimum” for the History of Art, which I do know well, being an historian; and, most importantly, I can access many, if not all of them, online, either via the gallery’s website or via several online museums.

The pictures I wanted to take were therefore not “for personal study purposes”: for those purposes I can browse the images online, or read a specialist monograph. I wanted to take the photos of paintings as they are in the gallery space, in frames, among other works, possibly with the visitors standing in front of them. The photos would be uploaded to Flickr and used on my Arts and Culture blog, to tell my visitors about the collection.

Some of you may already be asking themselves: who would need that, if the gallery has got a website? This is a good question. My answer is: the gallery’s website does not provide a feel of the collection. I see my duty as a blogger to tell precisely about this side of the museum, rather than some well-known facts, and for that I need pictures of the gallery space. As a visitor, I am empowered by a few means to make the gallery collection appear more vibrant and appealing to prospective visitors – and I don’t ask to be paid for it.

Update: I have been given a permission to use the photographs after I showed which ones I was going to use. I was also explained the problems the depository encounters even when trying to produce the photographic images on display for their own purposes. There are still many things that the museum can do to improve their interaction with Social Media, and their use of up-to-date means of online communication on the website is one of the things that are begging to be changed.

In hindsight, I should probably have written to the museum, explaining my intention. My only excuse is that this was the first time in England that I had to ask for a photography permission: I genuinely assumed that this would not be a problem as it has not been with very many other art collections and depositories where I have taken photos previously. I generally have no problem with photography not being allowed at the special exhibitions. But the collection in question is on a regular display.

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So, an art collection that does not deploy Social Media tools and is generally against the use thereof by others. But here we may be dealing with the case of “old-fashioned” thinking that can be pointed to a correction path by the overwhelming proof of the goodness of Social Media for museums. Another example of a very strange attitude to things comes from the fashion side. This post is only intended to highlight the problem, rather than to go into details. However, my recent experience of visiting a fashion networking event in Manchester has not left the most favourable impression. It was held in the network’s private club in Central Manchester, and the road to the hub of fashion could not be any more dangerous than the one down the abismally lit spiral staircase. Inside, however, I was greeted by a rather cold appreciation of Social Media: “huh, a blogger?” The network’s website is just as ‘private’ as their venue, and by the look of it does not aspire to become any more ’social’ in terms of the use of various SM tools.

This is the problem that I noticed across many fashion brands’ websites. Whilst I can see the necessity to restrict access to certain portions of the website, I honestly struggle to see how this necessity relates to images. The brands go the extra mile to ensure it is impossible to take a screen grab – but what they do not seem to realise is that one can use a regular camera to photograph the screen, if this is absolutely necessary. What happens next, is down to three questions: 1) will the user give a proper name to their picture (i.e. ‘paul-smith-pin-up-girls-cufflinks), in which case it is searchable, or leave it as something like ‘IMG_1234′, which really tells you nothing; 2) will the user credit the website for the use of the picture; and 3) will the brand know about this off-page activity. The answers to the first two questions are on the user’s conscience, but the third question is entirely upon the conscience of the brand.

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At the end of it all, the question I am asking myself, is: who is currently using Social Media in the UK? Naturally, people with the background in Media, Music and Marketing sectors have so far been the most outspoken supporters of this new means of communication and distribution of content – whilst the ‘Art’ and even Fashion industry lag significantly behind. But what really puzzles me is how the Social Media really is being perceived by these late adopters. The suspicion and a degree of arrogance that I noticed – and the fact that on many fashion brands’ websites there is no single bookmarking button (not even ’share this on Facebook’) – made me think that the Social Media folks are perhaps currently on the same bench, as once was the bourgeoisie class, snorted at by the old aristocracy. We know, of course, how the story went.

At the first Social Media Cafe in Manchester Julian Tait has kindly pointed me to the Map of Social Networks Popularity. I include the November image of the map, but if you click through to the page on Oxyweb’s blog, you’ll be able to browse maps since August 2008. The map uses the data from Alexa, and social networks in each country are ranked by traffic, not by membership – which I think is somewhat of a downside.

World Map of Social Networks, November 2008

vKontakte.ru

Odnoklassniki.ru

For instance, in Russia there are two main social networks – vKontakte.ru (the Russian Facebook) and odnoklassniki.ru (akin to Bebo, aimed primarily at people who went to school together). Each network boasts over 20 millions of users (most of which, I suppose, have profiles on both networks, as I do), with over 21mln at vKontakte and over 25mln at Odnoklassniki. Despite the difference in member numbers,  vKontakte attracts more traffic than Odnoklassniki, according to Oxyweb’s map. This may or may not be true, however the rumour has it that Odnoklassniki now requires you to pay to register on the website. A wide range of additional services is also available for a certain amount of money, which has recently dismayed quite a few LiveJournal bloggers. If anything, this may certainly draw people away from using the site, and then Oxyweb’s map will be correct for many months to come. Or it may not… we’ll have to wait and see.

In Ireland, apparently, Bebo is much more popular than Facebook. The latter really seems to have taken all over the world, which is not surprising given the fact that a bunch of volunteer translators has been employed to translate the service into different foreign languages. The same, incidentally, did vKontakte: the creators appealed to users to offer their suggestions on better translation of the website into Ukranian, Belarusian, and English. As a result, there are now users from many countries, including Mexica and India. Most of them are either foreign students in Russia or the Russian language aficionados from distant lands. Odnoklassniki currently has Russian and Ukranian versions.

As for me, I certainly use Facebook and vKontakte more often than Odnoklassniki. As far as the Russian networks go, this in part has to do with the fact that the majority of people with whom I communicate regularly are registereted at vKontakte, rather than at Odnoklassniki. In addition, the entire interface and the opportunities of the network are much wider at vKontakte: e.g. you cannot have Notes in Odnoklassniki, there is no status field, limited opportunities for listing links, and no option to create separate albums, although you can upload up to 100 photos at once.

And so, the first Social Media Cafe has now been inaugurated at The Northern in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Centred around the “is blogging dead?” idea expressed by Wired, the Cafe has successfully established that blogging is very much alive. More than that, a blog is no longer a diary, but should be used as one’s online base where you can display your Twitter updates, your Facebook icon, and the links to all other online services where you are present.

To catch up with everything that went on, here are a few links:

Is blogging dead? The first debate @ #smc_mcr

Social Media Cafe in Manchester – a Success!

Flickr photos

Twitter channel

The Social Media Cafe is a great and fairly informal event where you can hear expert speakers and then do a fair bit of networking and idea-sharing. If this is something that tickles your web tastebuds, then consider joining a Social Media Cafe Wiki and put yourself on the list of attendees. The date for the next SMC is 8th of December.

The very first Social Media Cafe is opening its doors in Manchester tomorrow, 11th November, 2008, at 6 pm, at The Northern in 56 Tib St. It is curious in a way to see this happening, the backdrop being the much-discussed issue of whether or not blogging has died. Since 2006, Manchester bloggers have been meeting in many places across the city, and in 2007 the meet-ups were particularly powered by the BBC Manchester Blog. With its demise in spring 2008, nothing has been happening until August when I found a video on YouTube of one of the first ever blogmeets (I wasn’t even writing any blogs then yet), and boy, did I feel nostalgic! I posted about the video on my main blog, and out of a sudden a huge interest originated. So huge in fact that I saw myself co-organising the blogmeet with Sarah Hartley of the M.E.N. All of us who went there got a tour of the newsroom and a nice chat in the pub afterwards, but ideas were thrown around, particularly that of the Social Media Cafe, and having a panel of speakers.

Well, the great news is that both these ideas have now been given the green light, and I’m looking forward to The Blogging Is Dead debate. On the surface it does look like that blogging is dead, and the bloggers’ meetings are to be changed by a Social Media Cafe. Symptomatic, you may say. Not quite so, in my opinion, if only because the original “blogging is dead” article and the subsequent reactions have all appeared in blogs. What we see instead is how communication is being reinstated, and the status it is being given. A couple of years ago the talk of the town was the “communities”: how they grow, who belongs there, how to be a part or to be expelled, etc. Now the talk has shifted to “networking” and “following”. The most amazing thing is that all this is happening in real time, you can’t stop and think: should I or should I not? It does to an extent look like either being with, or out. And because you tweet quicker than you can blog, the feeling, naturally, is that of the end of the world (of blogging).

My view – regarding the “blogging is dead” statement – is very simple. Blogging as a platform has much evolved, and will continue so. Blogging as a medium has also evolved, and the word “microblogging”, in the end, does owe a part of itself to “blogging”. Indeed, there are more people who want to blog, not least because there are people who profess the beauty of blogging (and I am one of them, undoubtedly). So, what is dying then? The purpose, surely. And here is the rub, and it is actually printed on the front page of WordPress.com: you are urged to start a blog “to express yourself”. This is true even for a business blog, for in the end a business that ventures into blogging is expressing something, be it their policy, product, or expertise. Well, what happens if someone expresses their “self” better than you? Or if the whole process of “self-expression” is too much of a labour? The beginning of a blog may be a technical question, but the blog’s sustainability rests entirely in one’s personal resources. And by that I don’t mean money or even the time you have to spare on your blogging efforts. What you know, what you remember, and how you use this, are the cornerstones of a successful blogging venture. Or, indeed, almost any venture, which is why I like quoting George Orwell’s four reasons for writing: they are totally applicable to blogging. As far as Notebooks – Los Cuadernos de Julia goes, there are over 300 posts, lots of great projects highlighted and covered, and if you follow down the sidebar you’ll find the categories of the blog. It is clear even to me that there is too much to write about yet.

More to follow after the debate.